With the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, federal regulators are scrambling to reduce fallout throughout the U.S. financial system. To discuss, we FEATURE Sharon Poczter. Sharon is Chair of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University as well as Associate Professor. More generally, she is interested in understanding how financing affects industrial growth in emerging markets and her research follows intersecting finance, firm strategy, and development. Sharon examines how major policies (like bailouts) as well as major institutional changes (such as democratization) affect the banking sector and private sector firm innovation and performance. In her public work, she is interested in uncovering the fallacies told to the general public regarding economics, policy, and social issues, using a truly independent lens based on economics, not groupthink. Media includes: The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg, Voice of America, Fox News.

LGBTQ rights are under assault across the U.S. with West Virginia and Florida banning healthcare to transgender youth, over 32 drag perfomance ban bills across multiple states, and Iowa and Florida calling to ban same sex marriage. To discuss, we FEATURE Kierra Johnson, the Executive Director of The National LGBTQ Task Force. When announced as the next Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Kierra Johnson said, “Dignity, liberation, joy, freedom, love and resistance are just a few of the words that I associate with the National LGBTQ Task Force. As a bisexual/pansexual woman, I am no stranger to being made invisible, advised to tone down, or trained in the art of the code switch. As a queer southern mom, it is no surprise why I would be drawn to an organization that touts the tagline ‘Be You.’ In these cultural and political times, it is an act of resistance to live out loud and to lead and love with our full identities.” Kierra is on the Board of Directors for Guttmacher Institute, General Service Foundation and Groundswell Fund. Media includes: Newsweek, The New York Times, Fox News, Feministing, NPR.

Vice President Kamala Harris will be heading to Africa llater this month in order to strengthen partnerships across the continent. To discuss, we FEATURE Donna A. Patterson. Patterson is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of History, Political Science, and Philosophy at Delaware State University. She also directs the Africana Studies program. Her research has taken her to a number of countries in Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean with the bulk of her work taking place in Senegal, Ethiopia, and France. Patterson is on the editorial advisory boards of Africa Today and the World Medical and Health Policy Journal. She is an Associate Review Editor for the American Historical Review. Patterson is the editor of the Routledge Research in Health and Healing in Africa and the African Diaspora and a fellow at the Wilson Center. Media includes: Slate, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Al Jazeera, Globe and Mail, South China Morning Post, San Diego Union Tribune, ABC, CBS, PBS.

India's Supreme Court said a five-judge bench will be looking over final arguments that would allow same sex marriage to gain legal recognition. To discuss, we FEATURE Tarah Demant. Demant has over 20 years of experience in global gender issues and has advocated for human rights at the United Nations, the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, USAID, Capitol Hill, and with many foreign governments. In addition to her leadership of Amnesty International's Programs Team and Government Relations and Advocacy Team, she heads the organization’s work on women’s rights, LGBTI rights, Indigenous people's rights, and sexual and reproductive rights. Media includes: The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Time, USA Today, PRI, The Nation, CNN, BBC.

The Department of Defense’s annual sexual harassment and violence report finds that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 men indicated they experienced unwanted sexual contact – from groping to rape. To discuss, we FEATURE Antonieta Rico. Rico is Women, Peace, and Security Advisor at Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI). She is the co-author of the Combat Integration Initiative’s Handbook for military leaders on how to successfully lead gender integration in combat. Previously, she was the Director of Communications and Policy at the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), where she led their public affairs efforts. She served in the U.S. Army from October 2001 to September 2008, working as a military journalist and public affairs NCO. She has worked as Deputy News Editor at Army Times and Navy Times reporting on the Coast Guard, training cycles, gender integration and military quality of life issues. She has been published in various outlets including USA TODAY and wrote in TIME about the military's sexual assault epidemic and #MeToo. Media includes: TIME, USA Today, Task & Purpose.

Three women in Texas have been sued for wrongful death for helping a woman access abortion pills. To discuss, we FEATURE Jennifer Dalven. Dalven is Director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, where she oversees and directs the ACLU’s litigation, state advocacy, and communications work on issues affecting access to reproductive health services. That work runs the gamut from legal challenges to laws that would ban abortions and shut down women’s health centers to initiatives to stop state legislatures from passing further restrictions on access to reproductive health care to communications strategies to move public opinion and galvanize supporters. Prior to becoming Director, Jennifer was a staff lawyer for more than 10 years. In that capacity, she successfully litigated numerous reproductive rights cases around the country, including state laws denying Medicaid coverage for abortion, laws permitting health care providers to refuse to provide reproductive health services, and bans on abortion procedures. Media includes: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Reuters, NBC.

The Biden administration has given formal approval to a huge drilling project in Alaska. To discuss, we FEATURE Betsy López-Wagner, Principal at Lopez-Wager Strategies. Betsy has worked alongside attorneys, lobbyists, and coalition partners to safeguard the health of communities, protect clean air and water, fight arctic drilling, and protect the ocean’s resources. She's co-devised strategies alongside grassroots activists to ensure their power is seen, heard, and felt from regional to national and international levels by developing a culture of storytelling that elevates authentic personal narratives to emotionally connect with audiences and inspire action. Betsy's committed to supporting the growth of an inclusive conservation movement to strengthen state, national and international-level priorities to protect our environment, democracy, and above all, people—especially those on the frontlines of an increasingly warming planet, rising ocean, and climate and social injustices. Media includes: Univision, Telemundo, La Opinion.

This week is Sunshine Week, which was created by the News Leaders Association to celebrate open government, records, and laws. To discuss, we FEATURE Alicia Shepard. Shepard is an independent journalist and a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors. Previously she was a visiting media ethics professor at the University of Arkansas. She is the author of Woodward & Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate which tells the story of what happened to the pair after Watergate and how they lived the rest of their lives. She was a Times Mirror Visiting Professor at University of Texas at Austin for the 2005-2006 academic year where she taught a class she designed on Watergate and the Press. Shepard has contributed to Washingtonian and People magazines, and written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune. For nearly a decade, she wrote for American Journalism Review on such things as ethics, the newspaper industry and how journalism works - or doesn't. For that work, the National Press Club awarded her its top media criticism prize three different years.

Today is Equal Pay Day. To discuss, we FEATURE Stacy Villalobos. Stacy is the Director of Racial Economic Justice at Legal Aid at Work. She represents workers fighting discrimination before federal and state courts as well as administrative agencies. Stacy has experience litigating a wide range of employment issues, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage theft. Stacy also spearheads Legal Aid at Work's Ban the Box and Fair Chance work representing job seekers with criminal records. She is also a Dr. Beatriz Maria Solis Fellow at the Women’s Foundation of California. Stacy has been advocating for workers’ rights for over a decade, beginning during her undergraduate years as an organizer with low-wage immigrant workers on campus. Media includes: Mercury News, SF Gate, Univision, KQED.

March is Women's History Month. To commemorate, we FEATURE Emerald M. Archer. For the past decade, Archer has focused her research and advocacy efforts on issues related to gender equity in a variety of domains, from the United States Armed Forces to corporate America. In her current role as Associate Professor of Political Science at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles, she leads the University's efforts related to gender equity applied research, education and policy analysis. In 2019, she assumed the role of Executive Director of the Women’s College Coalition (WCC). Her academic writing is dedicated to exploring gender equity and systemic discrimination, stereotype threat, and women’s representation in non-traditional sectors. Media includes: Voice of America, Good Day LA, Spectrum News, NPR.