The JVS SoCal Women’s Leadership Network Presents:
Thank You to everyone who made our 11th Annual Woman To Woman Conference a success!
We at JVS SoCal and the Woman’s Leadership Network are grateful to our generous sponsors and supporters for coming out to celebrate inspirational leaders in our community.
THIS YEAR’S DISTINGUISHED HOST
Giselle Fernández
As a seven-time Emmy Award winning journalist and two-time winner of the LA Press Club’s Journalist of the Year, Giselle Fernández is known for her cutting-edge reporting in hot spots throughout the world and interviewing prominent global and local leaders.
Today, this veteran anchor is on Your Morning on Spectrum News 1, helping Southern Californians get all the information they need to start their day. She is also on the Emmy Award-winning LA Stories with Giselle Fernández, highlighting changemakers who shape lives and create an impact throughout the community.
Our Featured Speakers
Susan Burton
Susan Burton is a visionary, inspirational leader of the criminal justice reform movement, author of award-winning memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton, and founder of A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL). ANWOL’s approach to reentry is internationally recognized as an innovative model that creates welcoming and healing spaces for women to rejoin their communities after incarceration while developing as leaders to work toward liberation.
In 2018, Ms. Burton launched the SAFE (Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality) Housing Network to replicate the effective and humane reentry model. The network now includes 31 members located across the United States, Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya. It is through this work that she thrives, enjoying the progress of her foundations, all while knowing how many individual lives she has touched and changed throughout her own journey.
Jessica Sarowitz
Jessica Sarowitz, founder and Managing Partner of Stocker Street Creative as well as the founder of Miraflores Films and Executive Producer of WITH THIS LIGHT, is a social impact investor and entrepreneur. As a Latinx woman and the daughter of immigrants, she seeks out projects around the world that directly benefit people of color with much needed facilities and resources. She works in collaboration with communities in need to create transformative opportunities and experiences. Jessica created Miraflores films to bring awareness to the stories of marginalized groups and amplify the voices of inspiring women through documentary film.
She is an active philanthropist, advocating for the missions of several nonprofits including one that she co-founded, the Julian Grace Foundation, and she is a proud mother of twins.
Our Honorees
Alison Hoffman
Alison Hoffman, a native of New Jersey, is the President of Domestic Networks for STARZ and this year’s recipient of the Rosaline L. Zukerman WLN Women’s Empowerment Award. She is responsible for the company’s U.S. retail and wholesale business and oversees distribution, marketing, publicity, product development, analytics, and program planning.
Her influence at STARZ, which she joined in 2012, includes being one of the key executives responsible for launching the STARZ app and managing the direct-to-consumer business.
Previously, she served as Chief Marketing Officer, where Hoffman launched a master brand strategy, repositioning STARZ as the premium streaming content platform for women and underrepresented audiences.
Hoffman has been recognized multiple times for her influence in cable and streaming.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three sons.
Celia and Joe Ward-Wallace
Celia and Joe Ward-Wallace, founders of the South L.A. Cafe and recipients of the Women’s Leadership Network Impact Award, have been driven by their desire to empower the South Central L.A. community.
They developed the Community Center Business Model, which explores the intersection of people, place and profit in an innovative way where everyone can win. It balances for-profit and nonprofit strategic partnerships to maximize impact and build both community and generational wealth.
With 30 years of experience in business development, community organizing, and social enterprise, as well as the restaurant and hospitality industries, this couple leads SLAC Hospitality, whose mission is to create equal access and equity for local, minority, and women-owned businesses. They also created the grocery bag program through the South L.A. Market, a community grocery store that provides fresh, healthy, and affordable produce in the middle of a food desert.
Our Impact
The Women’s Leadership Network is proud to assist women experiencing career crisis and transition.
Thanks to the JVS SoCal programs we support, we are uniquely positioned to help women through this time and see them on the road to recovery.
Since its founding in 2008, the WLN has raised over $5 million dollars to provide free mentoring, career training and job placement support to over 3,500 women participating in JVS SoCal program across Los Angeles and Southern California. We are able to do this with the support of our members and sponsors of our annual Woman to Woman Conference.
Get Involved
You can help support the WLN by subscribing to our mailing list, making a donation, registering for our conference or becoming a volunteer with our women’s career development programs. Learn more.
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS
Presenting Sponsor
Terri and Jerry Kohl
Empowerment Sponsors
Susan W. Robertson
of blessed memory
Carl W. Robertson
Cara W. Robertson
Chip & Carrie Robertson
Don Levin Trust
Encouragement Sponsors
Susan and Fred
Kunik
Debbie and Rick Powell
Inspiration Sponsors
Tobey Cotsen
Don and Eileen Coskey Fracchia
Allen and Anita Kohl
Charitable Foundation
Barbara and Tom
Leanse
Carol Muchin
Harriet and Steven
Nichols
Leslie and Bobby
Spivak
Impact Sponsors
Joan and Marshall
August
Karen Kaplan Berger
Linda Brown
Nancy and Jeff
Cherry
Jane Z. Cohen
Linda Essakow and Stephen Gunther
Foundation
Deborah Kallick
Lauren and Larry
Kurzweil
Deborah and Alan
Levey
Nicole Mutchnik
Nancy and Jeff
Paul
Brooke and Micah DeKofsky
Essential Sponsors
Bonnie and Ronny
Bensimon
The Berman/Rutenberg
Family
Harriet Bernstein
Lynn Bider
Alexandra Carter
Tina Elowitt
Linda Essakow
Bonnie Fein
Lawrence P. Frank Foundation
and
Lois & Don Hoffman
Pat Gage
Eileen Goodis
Nan Goodman
Vera and Dana
Guerin
Linda and James
Hausberg
Pamela and Steve
Hirsh
Sue Hochberg
Harry and Yvonne Lenart
Charitable Foundation
Virginia Maas
Joni and Jeff
Marine
Laura Maslon
Elizabeth Naftali
Teresa Nathanson
Bob Pearman
Renee Remeny
Homewood Realty
Judy F. Rosenberg
and
Judy Flesh
Laurie Konheim and
Corrine Sands
Dr. Michelle Israel
and
Robbie Shipp
Robbi and Tom
Schiff
Trinka Stotsky Soloway
Jack Suzar
Ceci Vajna
and
Steve Solton
Marcie Zelikow
Susan Zolla
WLN Ambassadors
Adam Abramowitz
Arnon Adar
Madelyn Alfano
Sophie Alpert
Anne Barnett
Lynn Behar
Barbara and Richard
Bergman
Jamie and Joel
Berman
Joanie and Jack
Black
Rhea Coskey
Nancy Eisenstadt
Nancy Epstein
Sari Eshman
Celia Farkas
Rusty Feldman
Ann Freund
Sharon Glaser
Vicki Gold
Lynne
Gordon DeWitt
Jackie Gottlieb
Teri Greenbaum
Salli Harris
Barbara Herman
Jeanne Herman
Adrienne Horwitch
Pat Hubbard
Charlie Isaacs
Janet Wells Kahane
Terri and Michael
Kaplan
Carol and Jon
Karp
Pamela Kluft
Robin Leonard
Pearle Rae Levey
Susan Levin
Marlene Louchheim
Barbara Marcus
Jeannine Nadel
Bonnie Nash
Marylouise Oates
Vicki Reynolds Pepper
in honor of
Leslie Spivak
Ellen Sandler
Allison Segan
Annette Shapiro
Carrie Shapiro
Deborah and Tom
Shapiro
Jill and Harris
Smith
Diane Shader Smith
Andrea Sonnenberg
Susan Sugarman
Peter Tu
Sunnye Tuch
Toby Waldorf
Rosaline L. Zukerman
Donor list last updated on Nov 6, 2023.
THANK YOU TO OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Max Factor Family Foundation
Lisa See
Watch the full 2022 Conference
JVS SoCal
6505 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90048