Let's Talk Impact with Gloria Feldt

In this episode of the New School's Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative podcast, in collaboration with WERULE, host Justyna Kedra interviews Gloria Felt, co-founder of Take the Lead. They discuss Gloria's early life, her career progression, and her dedication to women's rights and leadership. Gloria shares her experiences growing up in Texas, her pivotal role with Planned Parenthood, and her eventual founding of Take the Lead to advocate for gender parity. Key themes include the importance of redefining power, supporting community connections, and taking proactive steps in leadership. Gloria also highlights the upcoming Power Up conference, celebrating its 10th anniversary, which aims to unite women to learn, inspire, and drive social change. Throughout the conversation, Gloria emphasizes mentorship, the role of personal stories in leadership, and the infinite potential of collaborative power.

ABOUT GLORIA:

Gloria Feldt is a nationally acclaimed expert on women, power, and leadership with expertise that comes from frontline leadership experience, a bestselling author, and in-demand keynote speaker. Selected for Forbes 50 over 50, she is cofounder and president of Take The Lead, whose mission reflects her life’s passion: to prepare, develop, inspire, and propel women of all diversities to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025 by providing breakthrough training, mentoring and coaching role modeling, and thought leadership.  She is the bestselling author of five books. Her latest, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics and How Women Will Take The Lead, shows how we can seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of massive disruption to build back stronger with women at the center of the recovery. Through the lens of women’s stories, it delivers a fresh set of leadership tools, skills, and concepts that help all women reach their own highest intentions, purposefully creating new norms, while guiding institutions to break through the remaining barriers to gender and racial parity for everyone’s good. 

She is formerly president and CEO of the world’s largest reproductive health and advocacy organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Recognized as a Forbes 50 over 50 honoree in 2022, she was previously named by Vanity Fair one of “America’s Top 200 Women Leaders, Legends, and Trailblazers,” Glamour’s “Woman of the Year,” She Knows Media Most Inspiring Woman, Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, Women Economic Forum Circle of Light award, Texas Monthly’s Texas 20, Martin Luther King Living the Dream Award, Diversity Leadership Alliance Diversity Leader Award, and Forbes 40 Over 40.

Feldt has been widely quoted and published, including by the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Daily Beast, Forbes, Fast Company, Time, Newsweek, Huffington Post, Glamour, Elle and Ms. She has appeared (among others) on CNN, MSNBC, the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Daily Show, Cheddar, and an infinite number of podcasts as both guest and host.

Gloria is an awesome chili maker. She and her late husband Alex Barbanell share a combined family of six children and 16, grandchildren. She lives in New York City and Scottsdale, Arizona. She spends too much time on social media and invites you to connect with her there @GloriaFeldt. 

Hosted by Justyna Kedra, Founder of WERULE