Lesbians Who Tech
Image: lesbianswhotech.org
Kathy Levinson, consultant for The C Coach, uses her business experience to mentor and support entrepreneurs and emerging business professionals. In addition to her intentional support of queer women within her consulting practice, Kathy Levinson supports professional lesbians nationwide through her participation in Lesbians Who Tech.
Lesbians Who Tech is an organization of women who identify as queer women, lesbians & their allies, who work in the technology sector. The group seeks to increase the visibility of lesbians in technological settings, helping lesbians connect with each other as well as raise public awareness of the significant talent within the lesbian community.
The Lesbians Who Tech organization also seeks to connect their members to advocacy and service groups that help the LGBTQ community prosper. One way the group accomplishes this goal is through the Edie Windsor Coding Scholarship, a new scholarship that will help at least ten queer women fund an education in software coding and programming. Dev Bootcamp is on board as well, offering $100,000 in scholarships through their program, allowing more lesbians to start their career path in the tech world.
Equality California
Image: eqca.org
An established finance professional and speaker, Kathy Levinson serves as a C Coach, where she uses her experience to assist start-up companies in strategic leadership and business strategy. With a focus on female and LGBT entrepreneurs, Kathy Levinson supports numerous related organizations, such as Equality California (EQCA).
ECQA is a LGBT civil rights organization whose mission is to establish acceptance and social justice across the United States through education and advocacy.
EQCA has made headway in three distinct arenas of public education and civic engagement. California Faith for Equality, a program of EQCA’s Equality California Institute, has developed a network of leaders from various religious denominations who work together to encourage acceptance within faith groups.
In the field of criminal justice, EQCA targets the inconsistency with which LGBT people are persecuted and assaulted in comparison with other populations. In cooperation with a variety of groups, EQCA strives to combat this inequality with the goal of community-wide equal justice.
EQCA works to expand the political power of the LGBT community by encouraging the candidacy and appointment of openly LGBT individuals in local and statewide elections. The organization is in the process of developing leadership training which will help these leaders become a contributing part of the California government.
SheHeroes – Inspiring Young Girls To Excel
SheHeroes
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Kathy Levinson is a business leadership professional who holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and psychology from Stanford University and completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development. A pioneer of women’s and gay and lesbian equality, Kathy Levinson has shared her experience and expertise on numerous platforms, including the SheHeroes website.
SheHeroes is a nonprofit organization that develops content encouraging young girls to strive for success and fulfill their dreams, regardless of their background. The SheHeroes website provides empowering information about a variety of fields, most notably those in which women do not traditionally lead, such as engineering, science, sports, and politics.
In her video on the SheHeroes site, Ms. Levinson discusses prejudices she has faced during her life, from being taught it was wrong to write with her left hand, to her family being asked not to move into a certain neighborhood because they were Jewish, to being told certain jobs in the finance industry were not suitable for her because she was a woman.
Ms. Levinson’s experiences influenced her to leverage the positions of power she achieved to develop policies welcoming to women and minority groups, including pushing for health benefits for domestic partnerships. Her success in the financial services industry resulted in her early involvement in the development of the world’s first Internet trading company.
The American Leadership Forum
American Leadership Forum
Image: alfnational.org
During Kathy Levinson’s 20-year career in financial services, she served as a senior executive with several prominent investment firms and brokerages, preparing her well for her present position as a managing director of the Golden Seeds angel investment network. Also dedicated to leadership development and effective service in the public sector, Kathy Levinson is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum.
Attorney Joseph Jaworski created the American Leadership Forum in 1980 to address what he saw as a lack of leadership on a local level across the country. The Forum brings together a cross-section of educational, elected, business, religious, and minority leaders from communities throughout the United States to enhance their leadership skills, facilitate the exchange of ideas, and increase their ability to work together effectively to solve public issues.
In the early years, Jaworski traveled the country with a team of trainers, establishing local chapters in communities, teaching principles of collaboration, and taking action to make positive changes in those places. Today, rather than being coordinated through the national office, this leadership training program, or Fellows Program, is offered on a year-long basis by each chapter. The focus is on local problems and local solutions.
Graduates of the Fellows Program become senior fellows, and many chapters offer Senior Fellows Programs involving continuing education or civic action.
Wexner Heritage Program Offers Instruction in Leadership
Throughout her career as a financial services executive and executive coach, Kathy Levinson has established herself as a leader in the business, political and philanthropic sectors. Kathy Levinson serves as a senior fellow of the Wexner Foundation, a prominent national Jewish organization dedicated to improving the vision of Jewish volunteer leaders in the United States. The Wexner Foundation partners with a broad range of organizations in the Jewish community to administer the Wexner Heritage Program (WHP).
For the better part of three decades, WHP has immersed young Jewish volunteer leaders in a comprehensive two-year educational curriculum. Participants in the program learn about a wide range of topics, from Jewish history and cultural values to effective leadership skills. Each year, WHP accepts 20 volunteer leaders from each of three Jewish communities in the United States, partnering with community organizations to split the expense of education costs. Over the past 30 years, the program has educated young leaders from more than 25 communities across the country.
To learn more about the Wexner Heritage Program, visit http://www.wexhttp://www.wexnerfoundation.org/nerfoundation.org.
Cornerstones of the American Leadership Forum
Philanthropist and National Democratic Finance Committee member Kathy Levinson has been presented with many awards for her contributions to LGBT rights, as well as for her work as a leader in San Francisco’s business sector. In conjunction with her work with a number of Fortune 500 companies, Kathy Levinson was chosen as an American Leadership Fellow (ALF), completing a year-long leadership program. ALF is an organization that focuses on cultivating active, socially conscious leaders.
To develop leaders who are committed to the common good, the ALF emphasizes the promotion of certain ideals. Among these are the importance of building supportive networks of trustworthy leaders, along with a solid understanding of the importance of diversity. ALF encourages its Senior Fellow to appreciate the role of self-empowerment in the process of personal enrichment and to recognize the potential benefits of an interconnected world. Ultimately, leaders who complete the ALF program are trained to uphold these ideals and take on responsibility for inspiring others to change their communities for the better.
A Look at the American Leadership Forum
An organizational strategist with over 20 years of financial services experience, Kathy Levinson served as president and chief operating officer at the publicly held Fortune 500 online investing firm E*TRADE Financial, formerly E*TRADE Group, Inc., as well as in other executive leadership positions. In addition to her successful career portfolio, Kathy Levinson serves her community in many, diverse ways, including as a Senior Fellow of both the prestigious Wexner Heritage Program, whose mission is to inspire Jewish volunteer leaders to exercise transformative leadership in the Jewish community, as well the American Leadership Forum (ALF), which is dedicated to joining and strengthening leaders for the public good.
Founded in 1980 by Joseph Jaworski, the American Leadership Forum strengthens communities and leaders through a network of national chapters. The founder had a vision to bring together leaders who serve in the many sectors of American communities and to capitalize on their leadership talents. In the process, Mr. Jaworski envisioned leaders strengthened in their commitment to collaborate on public issues.
In its mission to promote the public good, ALF bases its programs on a series of cornerstones, including, among others, establishing trust among community leaders with diverse backgrounds and objectives and motivating leaders to take responsibility and make a difference in their respective communities and beyond.
