December 09, 2020

The French-American Foundation hosted a virtual meeting of the Transatlantic Forum on Wednesday, December 9 at 6:00pm ET to discuss Kamala Harris, the first female and woman of color vice president-elect, and how her victory will shape the future of American politics. The event featured guest speaker Glynda C. Carr, President, CEO and Co-founder of Higher Heights for America, and moderator Heather Ichord, Program Manager in the Human Systems Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and Transatlantic Forum member.

Glynda C. Carr: Glynda Carr is President, CEO and Co-founder of Higher Heights for America. She is at the center of the national movement to grow Black women’s political power from the voting booth to elected office. In 2011, Glynda and Kimberly Peeler-Allen co-founded Higher Heights to address the dearth of organizing resources for politically active Black women and the lack of support for those who were considering seeking elected office. Through her leadership, the organization has developed several innovative programs and efforts that have quickly solidified its reputation as the political home and go-to resource for progressive Black women.

Heather Ichord: Heather Ichord is a Program Manager in the Human Systems Portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in Cambridge, MA, focused on developing and accelerating commercial technologies for Department of Defense entities across a variety of human systems engineering and biomedical challenges. Heather previously spent more than a decade as a logistics officer in the United States Marine Corps and joined DIU after working as a consultant at the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. She is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and completed masters degrees at Boston University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.