YWTF New York City Metro The New York Metro Chapter of the YWTF focuses on educating its membership on contemporary issues that affect younger women and using the memberships knowledge of these issues to work in our community.

In August 2005, NY-YWTF launched a two-year "younger women and political activism" campaign beginning with a survey of the 2005 mayoral candidates' records on younger women's issues and a NYC younger women's voter guide. The guide was distributed throughout NYC's five boroughs, educating women from diverse communities about local younger women's issues and candidates' stances on those issues. In 2006 for the off-year elections, NY-YWTF created a "Why Vote" guide and registered over 50 young women voters in the New York Metro area.

The New York City chapter has recently been focusing on the issue of young women and financial solvency. While many young women are entering colleges and universities in droves - indeed we now outpace young men - we are also hugely in debt by the end of it. In partnership with the Department of Labor Women's Bureau, the New York Metro Chapter has begun a series of sessions with its membership about budget planning, investing, and achieving financial solvency.

The chapter also runs a quarterly book club, focusing on books that cover issues pertinent to feminism today and young women. In the past, the chapter has hosted educational panels about issues that matter most to young women, such as work-life balance. In the Fall of 2007, the Chapter plans to host a panel about the issues with the HPV vaccine and the benefits of early vaccination.

The New York Metro Chapter of the Younger Women’s Task Force 2007 Board of Directors

Stefanie Lopez-Boy, Chapter Director

Stefanie joined the chapter in July 2005 and ran for a position on the board as a board member at large in November of that year. She subsequently became the acting chapter director in June 2006, when then-Chapter Director Claire Cole was called to co-direct the national office of the YWTF. As her day job, Stefanie is a program associate for the National Judicial Education Program at Legal Momentum, the nation's oldest women's legal advocacy organization. She is also co-founder of the REAL hot 100, a younger women's media justice project started in 2005. Stefanie's interest in women's rights was sparked in college through coursework and her paper on women's rights in Cuba was published in her school's Feminist Scholarship Review. She was born in Miami to two Cuban-born parents and raised by her fiery Cuban grandmother. She graduated in 2005 from Trinity College (Hartford, CT) with a B.A. in English literature and a double minor in French and legal studies. 

Gwynn Cassidy, Director of Policy

Gwynn is a writer and producer of various media with an emphasis on Web-based projects and a concentration on women’s issues. As a documentary filmmaker, her work focused almost exclusively on women’s rights and the welfare of children. On the Web, she continues to produce work that positively affects the lives of women and children. In March 2005, Gwynn founded Women Work the Web, a network of women’s online businesses, and their first two projects, Girls in Government and the REAL hot 100, launched five months later. While growing WWtW, Gwynn enjoys her work as a copywriter, Web producer, and strategist for a variety of clients such as Legal Momentum (formerly N.O.W. Legal Defense and Education Fund), General Motors, iVillage, and Dove. In her spare time, Gwynn volunteers as an S.A.T tutor, a Big Sister, and develops Web sites for select nonprofits.

Melannie Chard, Director of Membership and Outreach

Melannie Chard has been a member of the YWTF since April 2006 and this is her first year as director of membership and outreach. She currently works as an account manager in the appraisals department at Sotheby's Auction House and is responsible for overseeing appraisals and consignments for clients with large collections of fine and decorative art. Melannie has worked as a design consultant and multi-media coordinator for Kingsbridge Risk Solutions in London and Renee Fotouhi Fine Art in New York City. She holds a degree in broadcast journalism from Central Michigan University and studied international journalism at American Intercontinental University in London.

Sarah Covert, Director of Finance and Fundraising

Sarah Covert is a native of New Orleans. She graduated from Newcomb College, the former women's college of Tulane University, in May 2005. She was a founding member of the Younger Women's Task Force while living in Louisiana and attended the D.C. MeetUp in Spring 2005. After graduating, Sarah moved to New York to work as a recruitment fellow with Teach For America, organizing recruitment logistics and corresponding with prospective applicants from nine college campuses across the country. Since July 2006, Sarah has served as a program associate with the Ms. Foundation for Women, the country’s first national, multi-issue women’s fund, specifically working with program officers for the foundation's health, safety, youth, and Hurricane Katrina programs.

Virginia Wilber, Director of Communications

Virginia has been a member of NY-YWTF since October 2006. Currently she works for Trader Joe’s in Manhattan and plays viola in the Brooklyn Symphony. Virginia was born and raised in Iowa and graduated from Drake University (Des Moines, IA) in May 2004 with a B.A. in news/Internet journalism. Virginia was a correspondent for the state newspaper, The Des Moines Register, and served as the newspaper’s caucus clerk leading up to the 2004 Iowa Caucuses. Her undergraduate experience also included living and studying abroad in Toulouse, France and Geneva, Switzerland where she earned a second major in international relations and a minor in French. Last spring she concluded an internship with The Fellowship of Reconciliation (Nyack, NY), an international, interfaith nonprofit organization dealing with reconciliation and active nonviolence. Her internship involved contributing to FOR’s bi-monthly magazine, Fellowship, and handling public relations for the organization. She also co-founded and co-organized the “I Will Not Kill’ campaign to educate youth about conscientious objection, organized an alternative spring break for students to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, and participated in an interfaith peacebuilding delegation to Israel and Palestine.

Upcoming Events:

Rock for Young Women @ Knitting Factory
Friday, June 29th at 7pm
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY
tickets for sale at www.knittingfactory.com
$15 in advance
$20 a the door

Featuring spoken word, comedy and musical performances…Bouva, Boyskout, Tamara Fishman, Frank Hoier, and Receptor.

A benefit to support New York Metro Chapter of the Younger Women’s Task Force and GEMS March 30 – April 1