Keynote Speakers

Marie C. Wilson

Marie Wilson’s 30-year career as an advocate for women’s leadership is substantial. Creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work® Day, author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World, and president of the Ms. Foundation for Women for nearly two decades, Wilson founded The White House Project in 1991 to help build a more diverse and representative democracy.  

Throughout her career, Wilson has been a driving force behind an array of achievements that include the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development, the Collaborative Fund for Healthy Girls/Healthy Women, and the Ballot Box Initiative, a national straw poll that highlights top women leaders. Wilson has also authored several studies on women’s leadership in politics, the media, and culture, and she co-authored the critically acclaimed Mother Daughter Revolution. She was the first woman elected to the Des Moines City Council in 1983, and in 1995 she served as delegate to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.

Highly sought-after as a speaker on women’s political leadership and the interests of women and girls, Wilson has been a guest on most major network news programs in the United States, France, and Britain and has been featured in globally recognized newspapers and periodicals.

Wilson received the prestigious Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking in 2002 for her many philanthropic accomplishments and the Leadership for Equity and Diversity (LEAD) Award from Women & Philanthropy. Drake University, where she once served as director of women’s programs, awarded Wilson an honorary doctorate of community service, and Chatham College presented her with an honorary doctorate.

Michelle D. Bernard

President and CEO of the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) and Independent Women's Voice (IWV), Michelle D. Bernard is an MSNBC political analyst and panelist with MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and The McLaughlin Group.

She is the author of Women's Progress: How Women Are Wealthier, Healthier, and More Independent Than Ever Before anda contributing author to the National Urban League's State of Black America and Lifetime Network's Secrets of Powerful Women: Leading Change for a New Generation. Bernard is also the founder of IWF's Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative.

A sought-after speaker, Bernard has been featured in several nationally recognized newspapers and magazines and was named one of three "Fast Trackers" on Newsmax magazine's 2008 list of the nation's top opinion leaders. She has appeared on a number of network television news programs and has been a guest on several well-known national and international radio programs as well.

Before joining IWF, Bernard — an attorney who specializes in domestic and foreign policy — was a partner at Patton Boggs LLP in Washington, D.C., and served briefly with the 2000 Bush-Cheney Presidential Inaugural Committee, Inc. She holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy and political science from Howard University and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. A 2003 graduate of Leadership Maryland, Bernard sits on the Board of Directors of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence.