Special thanks to Michele Raphael / Maximizing Media
Alexandra Dumas is an Account Lead at Google, where she consults with theatrical film studios to build integrated digital partnerships. As a strategic business partner, she leverages her deep understanding of emergent industry trends and Google solutions to solve customer challenges and drive digital and box office revenue for her partners. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Alexandra began her career in New York City with Macys.com, before transitioning to Google in 2014. A resident of Marina del Rey, Alexandra leads several of Google's community engagement groups and is an active board member on WiTH, C-Sweet and the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce. She is also an Angel Investor and resident advisor for KB Capital
Alissa is an Executive Coach, Gallup Certified Strengths® Coach, speaker and author of the book, "Living in Your Top 1%." She works with teams, executives, managers and entrepreneurs to help them leverage their strengths, uncover blind spots, increase team engagement levels and build partnerships to achieve their goals. Alissa holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her coach training from New York University, Results Coaching and Gallup Strengths Coaching Program.
Alissa's business background includes ten years in finance at Credit Suisse, a top-tier global investment bank; IPC, a former Goldman Sachs portfolio company serving the financial industry; Guggenheim Capital, a boutique investment management firm and five years in commercial real estate.
Alissa was an All-American tennis player at the University of California, Berkeley and competed on the Women's Professional Tennis Circuit, achieving a doubles world ranking of No. 202. She has been ranked No. 1 in the USTA National Women's Doubles in various age groups. In 2014, she represented the USA and won the ITF World Team Championships Women’s 45.
Alissa develops coaching programs and works with individuals, teams and companies to motivate people to think bigger and redefine their potential by leveraging strengths. To learn more please visit www.AlissaFinerman.com
Specialties:
- Team building seminars on Strengths Based Leadership, DISC and goal setting
- Executive 1:1 Coaching, Gallup Certified Strengths® Coach
- Regularly present Gallup Strengths® coaching/training for teams
- Leadership Development for managers and leaders
- Empowering women
- Managing conflict and growing self-awareness/EQ
- 360 assessments for managers/leaders
- Passionate about developing talent and helping managers engage their team
- Working with professional athletes and sports teams to improve performance and mindset
Alle Fister is the Principal and Founder oof Bollare Communications, a full service beauty, fashion and lifestyle communications firm with offices in London, NYC, Los Angeles and Newport Beach.
Fister began her career as an early employee at women’s online retailer, Shopbop, where she headed the brand’s communications. Ultimately, Shopbop was acquired by Amazon, and Fister launched her firm, Bollare, with Shopbop as her first client.
Today Bollare works with clients such as Barbie, Blank Denim, Charlie Holiday, Josie Maran, Innisfree, Missguided, Modcloth, and Timberland across marketing, pr and communications.
In her free time, Fister is on the Founding Team of I am a voter., a proud mother and wife, and an active yogi.
Cessna Mac is an investor at PowerPlant Ventures. Cessna leads deal sourcing and execution and serves as a board observer to support PPV portfolio companies, including Flying Embers, Your Super, and Thistle.
Cessna began her professional career as a public school teacher with Teach For America in the Bay Area before moving to New York City to become a management consultant at EY-Parthenon, a strategy consultancy, where she worked with private equity firms and corporate clients across the consumer & retail industry. Cessna transitioned into investing during business school, working as an Associate at The Raine Group. She earned her MBA from Wharton and holds an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University.
In her free time, she enjoys teaching and practicing yoga, serving as the Director of Young Alumni for the Wharton Club of SoCal, and as a Community Manager for Project Potluck, an organization dedicated to helping BIPOC individuals build successful companies and careers in the CPG industry.
Danielle Carrig is Condé Nast’s first global Chief Communications Officer. She has spent the last decade as a media and entertainment executive working for today’s largest consumer brands spanning television, streaming, film, news and publishing.
Most recently, Carrig served as VICE Media Group’s Chief Communications Officer, overseeing the company’s communications strategy across its 35 offices worldwide.
She helped lead the acquisition of Refinery29 and charted the company’s positioning as the world’s largest youth media company through its digital, television, studio production, news and creative agency offerings. She also contributed to transforming the company’s mission with major achievements in pay parity and the prioritization of diversity and inclusion efforts. Previous to that she was the Head of Creative Communications, Operations and Industry Relations at Netflix where she guided global teams to maximize exposure for the over 100 titles launched every month across scripted, unscripted, documentary and feature film content.
Carrig began her career in media as Senior Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs for Lifetime at A+E Networks, where she oversaw the communications strategy for the network, in addition to leading the company’s public affairs efforts, which received the Television Academy’s prestigious Governor’s Emmy Award. Her work building partnerships with talent, civic leaders, government officials, key members of the media and hundreds of non-profit organizations helped to make Lifetime one of the most trusted brands among women. Broad Focus, the company’s major initiative that began under Carrig’s leadership, is dedicated to increasing the numbers of women in behind-the-camera roles as directors, writers and producers. In just one year, the
network achieved gender parity in all three areas by tripling the number of women hired.
Carrig has been recognized by the Alliance for Women in Media as a “Women Who Represent” honoree and also honored by Dress for Success as their Empower Honoree for her work advocating on behalf of women. Variety named Carrig to their 2014 list of “Hollywood’s New Leaders” featuring executives under the age of 40. She was recently recognized by her alma mater, Valparaiso University, as alumnus of the year and received the Woman of Achievement Award from Century City Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles.
Prior to joining Lifetime, Carrig was Executive Director of Step Up, a national non-profit organization based in Los Angeles. There she directed the organization’s objectives of building educational programming for underserved girls while managing the organization’s three offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. In her four years as executive director, revenue increased by 600% and the organization became one of the most sought after women’s groups in the country.
Carrig holds an M.A. in women’s studies from UCLA, where she focused on the implications of U.S. foreign policy on women’s reproductive health in the developing world. Additionally, she worked in academic publishing for Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.
She earned her B.A. in political science, humanities and gender studies summa cum laude from Valparaiso University and is active with organizations working to elect women to public office including LPAC and Close the Gap CA.
DIANE HOLLAND, Global Chief Financial Officer - Wunderman Thompson
Diane Holland is Global Chief Financial Officer at Wunderman Thompson, a creative, data, and technology agency built to inspire growth for clients. As Global Chief Financial Officer, Diane leads the agency’s financial and operational management and was a key member of the leadership team that oversaw the successful merger of Wunderman and J. Walter Thompson to launch Wunderman Thompson in 2019. She is responsible for driving growth globally through M&A and commercial excellence for one of WPP’s largest agencies with more than 20,000 employees across 90 countries.
Diane has built her 20+ year career by passionately supporting people and creativity while also delivering strong strategic leadership for clients and colleagues. She excels in tackling business disruption to drive optimal performance.
Prior to her current role, she served as Global Chief Financial Officer of Wunderman, where she led the agency's financial planning, mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. Prior to that, she was the Global Chief Financial Officer of POSSIBLE, where she was instrumental in WPP's integration of multiple digital agencies to launch POSSIBLE as one unified, global digital agency in 2011. Before POSSIBLE, Diane served as the Chief Financial Officer of digital firm Schematic and played a critical role in managing Schematic's acquisition by WPP in 2007.
Previously, Diane was Director of Finance at Fox Television Stations in Los Angeles and served as an Internal Auditor and Financial Analyst at EMI Group, in New York and London respectively.
Diane is on the board of WPP AUNZ, publicly listed on the Australian stock exchange (ASX: WPP) and is a member of the Risk & Audit Committee. She also serves on the board of Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, a non-profit organization with a mission to create a healthy and sustainable food system, where she is on the finance committee. In addition, she is on the board of KK Create, a Los Angeles based start-up bringing together music, creative and brands. Previously, Diane served on the board of Step Up, a non-profit organization that mentors teen girls from under-resourced communities.
Diane’s career has allowed her to support her deep passion for the arts when she isn't cooking, practicing yoga or sailing with her husband and their dog Hawkins.
Diane M. Reichenberger is a retail and licensing professional with over 30 years of executive leadership experience. She loves her current role at Mattel as V.P. Global Consumer Products and Promotional Partnerships. Prior to joining Mattel in 2011, she co-founded Giiv.com a mobile gifting company backed by Eric Schmidt, Chairman/CEO of Google; she served as COO of Rock & Republic, CEO of Dualstar Entertainment Group (a consumer products/entertainment branded lifestyle organization founded on the successful careers of Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen), President of L.A. Gear, Inc., S.V.P. and General Manager - Women's Division of Joe Boxer, Corp. and has held key management positions in several global companies including The Gap, Inc., The North Face, Levi Strauss & Co., Mast Industries and Esprit de Corp. Diane began her career as an analyst for Hewlett-Packard in Cupertino, CA after receiving her B.A. in Business Economics from UC Santa Barbara. Diane is married and she loves to dance! Most importantly she is passionate about mentorship and supporting causes that are near and dear to her heart. In pursuit of her passion, she co-founded the Women’s Accelerator with two equally engaged colleagues. The Women’s Accelerator is a high-touch, management development program experience for women which offers a unique mentoring program, committed to developing high-potential women leaders at key advancement points in their careers. She actively supports Step Up Women’s Network, The Rescue Train and True Colors United and sits of the Board of the Women’s Leadership Council and True Colors United. She is the 2017 winner of the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Women’s Summit Philanthropist of the Year Award.
Dr. Sherry Ross, aka “Dr. Sherry”—Ob/Gyn, author, and health expert—has been a passionate advocate for women’s health for over 25 years. Her first book She-ology: The Definitive Guide to Women’s Intimate Health. Period was named one the six Most Life Changing Wellness Books of 2017 by Prevention.com and Women’s Health Magazine. Her second book, she-ology, the she-quel, Let’s Continue the Conversation recently launched in February 2020. Dr Sherry continues the conversation with Sarah Hyland and Ellen Digital Network launching Lady Parts in the Fall of 2020. Having received nearly every “Top Doctor” and “Patient’s Choice” award in the United States, Dr. Sherry was honored with The John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary Angel Award for her contributions in advancing the narrative of women’s health care.
Upon attaining her medical degree from New York Medical College, Dr. Sherry spent her Ob/Gyn residency at the University Of Southern California School Of Medicine, where, as senior medical resident, she received recognition for her teaching.
Her expertise has been featured in publications such as US News & World Report, LA Times, Marie Claire, Cosmo, Redbook, Hollywood Reporter, Teen Vogue, Glamour, HuffPost and People with TV appearances on GMA, Dr. Oz, Rachel Rey, Home & Family, Momsplaining, Inside Edition and Living Lozada.
In addition to her practice, Dr. Sherry is on the board of Planned Parenthood, Los Angeles. She also acts as spokesperson ambassador for the American Heart Association and Go Red, the association’s national movement to end heart disease and stroke in women. As such, Dr. Sherry recognized the need to address components of the stress echocardiogram test—a potentially lifesaving test for early detection of heart disease—that had traditionally skewed towards men. To that end, she was co-creator of the Heartlanta Bra, the one
Co-Founder, Mendocino Farms
Ellen Chen started in the restaurant business when she met her business partner and now husband Mario Del Pero in 2000. They were partners in Skew’s Teriyaki, one of the first Fast Casual Asian concepts. They grew Skew’s to three units in Los Angeles before selling the company. Determined to lead through empowerment and build a thriving business from just a good idea and a lot of passion, they created Mendocino Farms and opened their first unit on Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles in 2005. Since then, Mendocino Farms restaurants have opened 30+ additional locations in California and Texas. Mendocino Farms has taken investments from private equity firm L Catterton in 2012, a minority investment from Whole Foods Market 2015 and TPG in 2017. Ellencontinues to offer the restaurant group a big business perspective with an entrepreneur's passion. In 2015 Nation’s Restaurant News included her on their annual Power List, which recognizes top 50 leaders who hold power to change the restaurant industry. She sits on the Board of Directors of the California Restaurant Association, Fast Casual Industry Council, UCSD Alumni Board of Directors and in 2017 appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti to be the Entrepreneur in Residence for the city of Los Angeles.
Erica Montolfo-Bura, a native of Los Angeles, California, is a graduate of UCLA with a Bachelor's Degree in English and a Graduate Degree in Marketing from its Anderson School of Management. Initially, she worked in the private sector as a marketing executive for such companies as Merrill Lynch and Philips, but soon realized she wanted to return to her first love... writing.
In 1997, Erica left a lucrative marketing position after being accepted into the prestigious Walt Disney Studios Writers Fellowship Program. Upon completing the program, she was promptly hired as a Staff Writer on the long-running ABC series BOY MEETS WORLD. After completing three seasons on the show, she moved on to another ABC hit, MY WIFE AND KIDS, and then on to several UPN hit series', including ONE ON ONE where she served as Consulting Producer.
During this time, Erica turned her sights to developing her own show, selling to and Executive Producing pilots for CBS, UPN, Disney and HBO.
In the summer of 2006, Erica joined the staff of THE GAME for The CW network, becoming Executive Producer in the show's sixth season. In 2007, she won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for her episode “White Coats and White Lies and another in 2011 when the show won for Outstanding Comedy Series.
She then went on to create and Executive Producer her own half- hour comedy, Zoe Ever After, starring R&B star, Brandy. Currently she serves as Co-Executive Producer of CBS's hit comedy, The Neighborhood.
Erica Moore is currently the chief financial officer at goop. Formerly the VP of finance at One Kings Lane, Moore started there as the FP&A lead before advancing to the VP of finance role, where she oversaw FP&A, accounting, accounts payable, and payroll. Moore began her career as a business manager at Juicy Couture, then worked as director of finance and operations at C&C California, where she managed all finance, inventory, customer service, and logistical operations. Moore joined goop as CFO in 2016, and she oversees FP&A, accounting, accounts payable, payroll, legal, and people ops. Under Moore's leadership, goop has raised substantial venture capital, grown more than six times in revenue, and built a dynamic G&A function. Originally from Iowa, Moore graduated from Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa with a degree in accounting. Moore currently lives in West Hollywood with her cat, Bob.
Eva is a General Partner at Fika Ventures, an early stage fund investing in companies that leverage the power of
data as a core component of their business model. Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a
serial entrepreneur and founder, with a company experience portfolio including Applied Semantics (AdSense), Factual, Google, Youtube and Navigating Cancer. She is active in the non-profit sector, serving on the boards of California Community Foundation and UCLA
Technology Development Group. She was recently the EIR for the city of LA working with Mayor Eric Garcetti. Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.
Kalika Joy Nacion Yap is an American entrepreneur and inventor. She is known for inventing the Luxe Link, a fashion accessory that hangs women’s purses to keep them off the floor. Yap is the founder and CEO of an interactive design and consulting agency called Citrus Studios, based in Santa Monica, California, and The Waxing Company, a waxing salon in Honolulu. Yap is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and is host of its podcast, Wonder. Yap was named a Rising Star with the National Women Business Owners Corporation and is a trustee of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California. In 2017, Yap was honored by BMW as one of four female social entrepreneurs in Los Angeles as “Women Who Pay It 4Ward.” She was recently included in Microsoft's ebook "10 under 10" that features 10 successful entrepreneurs with less than 10 employees. She was also a featured speaker at the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2018 Women's Council & Awards.
CEO, Deutsch LA
Kim Getty is at the helm of Deutsch Los Angeles, one of the nation’s leading creative shops. As CEO, she leads a team of world-class creative thinkers who help businesses thrive. Since joining Deutsch in 2003, she’s helped build the company into what Fast Company has recognized as one of the industry’s most innovative agencies and landed Deutsch top spots on the Ad Age Agency A-List numerous times. During her tenure, Kim has driven the development of new practice areas and spearheaded breakthrough campaigns for its clients including Taco Bell, Walmart, H&R Block, Patagonia, Mattel, Georgia-Pacific, Lowe’s, Nintendo, Dr Pepper, Snapple, 7-Eleven, among others. After serving as COO and then President, Kim was named CEO of Deutsch LA in 2020.
Kim is an advocate for inclusion and diversity in the marketing industry and has spoken at leading conferences such as Cannes and Advertising Week on the role advertising plays in gender equality. She’s been a force at driving the conversation on media’s impact on gender bias and has been frequently featured in Fast Company, Adweek, Los Angeles Magazine, Ad Age, among many others, and was named to Adweek’s 2019 Trailblazer list for her work in this space. In 2018, she was honored by She Runs It as one of the top Working Mothers of the Year. Kim has made progressive parenting policies a priority, championing all parents in the workplace. She has also advocated for unlimited PTO, flexible work schedules, remote years and sabbaticals.
Committed to nurturing young talent, Kim serves on the faculty at USC’s Annenberg School and also sits on the Board of Directors for ADCOLOR, The Paley Center for Media and The Grady College at the University of Georgia. She’s passionate about creating change in our industry and has been recognized as one of the most powerful women in advertising by Business Insider, a top LA executive by the Los Angeles Business Journal and has earned the American Advertising Federation’s Mosaic Award for Industry Career Achievement. Kim is a proud mother of two daughters, a struggling surfer and an SF native turned Angeleno.
Entrepreneurial force of nature, triplet sister and mother of three, Kym Gold was raised in Malibu, California and was influenced by the endless golden sunsets and the natural beauty of her surroundings. Throughout the last 25 years, Kym’s unwavering drive and captivating style has helped to achieve multiple successes in the fashion industry. Kym Gold incepted such notable clothing labels including, True Religion Brand Jeans, Bella Dahl, Hippie Jeans, and recently Babakul. Her fashions over the years have been worn by a diverse range of individuals such as David Beckham, Tom Ford, Angelina Jolie, Donna Karan, Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gwen Stefani, Holly Robinson Peete, and Justin Timberlake. Her designs have been featured in top fashion magazines, including Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, In Style, and Rolling Stone.
Now she is bringing her disheveled sexy aesthetic to the home with the launch of a luxury line of entertaining, decor and petware called Style Union Home. The line of ceramics, lovingly designed and fancifully named by Gold herself, is handmade in Los Angeles.
Lindsey Heisser is the Philanthropy Program Manager fo Snap, Inc., a company that believes that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Heisser was the moderator for the TuesdayNights 2019 Impact Conference founders panel. Formerly she was the Director of the LA Tech Talent Pipeline at Bixel Exchange, the center for Innovation and Technology at the LA Area Chamber of Commerce. From Heisser’s prior experience as Co-Founder and Managing Director of branding and marketing agency, Tribemint, which hyper-focused on LA tech start-ups and her 10+ years in the private sector, she brings Bixel Exchange a non-traditional approach to program design and strategy, deep tech employer relationships, and an unparalleled resilience for underrepresented young people to thrive in the technology sector.
Outside of the Bixel Exchange, Heisser is an active advisor to LA-based start ups and mentors women and minority entrepreneurs. She is also a co-founder of nonprofit, We Are Enough and and contributor to the US of Women Summit both supporting the education and economic mobility for women.
Louisa Shipnuck currently serves as the Senior Vice President of FX Networks (within The Walt Disney Company) for Studio and Franchise Management. Louisa oversees the ancillary and lifecycle TV business, brand management, and international efforts for FX’s popular shows like The Americans, Fargo, American Crime Story, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Better Things and others. Her categories of oversight include international broadcast, SVOD, EST, mobile gaming, consumer products, soundtracks and more.
Having worked at the confluence of technology and media for over 20 years, Louisa has held many faceted roles including Chief Marketing Officer for Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS) and multiple leadership roles with IBM’s Media & Entertainment sector. At VDMS, Verizon’s over-the-top (OTT) entertainment service provider, Louisa was responsible for the go-to-market plans, customer and market activations, and branding efforts. Before FX and Verizon, Louisa served as both the IBM think tank leader for Media & Entertainment and the IBM Global Business Development lead for Media & Entertainment customers. Louisa’s early career began as the client director of an advertising agency and as a senior strategy consultant for studios, online content companies and broadcasters with PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting.
Louisa is actively involved in community groups with past and current Board service including: Co-Founder & Current Co-Chair Women@21CF (1600 member employee group); Current Board Member, MADRE; Emeritus Board Member, Step Up Women’s Network, following Board service 2004 – 2007; Past Board Member, Library Foundation of Los Angeles, 2016 – 2018; Past Board Member, American Civil Liberties Union, FAB (Junior) Board of Southern California, 2008 – 2009.
CEO + CO-FOUNDER
Undoubtedly her mother’s daughter, Melissa acquired Jenefer’s appetite for innovation at a young age. As a passionate entrepreneur and marketer, she started her career by creating and helming e-commerce strategy for a host of brands in the wellness sector. Before becoming OSEA’s CEO, she also launched and grew her own women’s fitness empire, expanding into European and Asian markets, which is where she developed her expertise as a master community builder and digital marketing savant. Today, her proudest accomplishment is the evolution of OSEA from small family business to a global leader in the luxury, clean skincare sphere.
Mickie Rosen has nearly three decades of strategy, operating, and board experience at the intersection of media and technology. She has built and led businesses for iconic global brands such as Yahoo, Fox, and Disney, and early stage start-ups such as Hulu and Fandango.
Mickie currently advises early to growth stage companies in digital media and e-commerce. She serves on public, private, and non-profit boards, including Nine Entertainment (ASX: NEC), Australia’s largest independent media and digital company, Ascendant Digital (NYSE: ACND), a SPAC focused on interactive entertainment and the attention economy, and TechStyle Fashion Group, a leading direct to consumer e-commerce apparel and footwear company.
Until recently, Mickie served on the board of Pandora Media (NYSE: P – acquired by SiriusXM), and was the President of Tribune Interactive, the digital arm of Tribune Publishing (NASDAQ: TPCO), and was concurrently the President of the Los Angeles Times (acquired). She also served as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, and was a co-founder and partner of a boutique strategic advisory firm, Whisper Advisors.
Mickie was the Senior Vice President of Global Media & Commerce for Yahoo, where she led Yahoo’s $1.6 billion media division worldwide. This included Yahoo’s leading properties in 20 categories reaching over 800 million unique users, including the Yahoo homepage, news, finance, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, shopping, travel, real estate, and autos.
Prior to Yahoo, she was a partner with Fuse Capital, a consumer Internet focused venture capital firm investing in early stage video, publishing, advertising technology, and e-commerce companies, and she co-founded Tecca, a mobile commerce start-up funded by Best Buy.
Mickie was also the Senior Vice President & General Manager of Entertainment for Fox Interactive Media, where she ran digital businesses such as Fox.com, Rotten Tomatoes, and MySpace Entertainment, and played a lead role in envisioning, negotiating, and launching Hulu. Earlier in her career, she was an executive with Fandango, where she helped build the movie information and ticketing company from an early stage start-up to the leader in its space (acquired by Comcast), and The Walt Disney Company in the Corporate Alliances group.
Mickie built the foundation of her career with McKinsey & Company and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Global Managing Partner & Co-founder, Quake Europe, Quake Capital CEO of Elumines, Investor, and Board Advisor priscilla@elumines.com
linkedin.com/in/priscilla-pesci-90613811
Priscilla is currently the Global Managing Partner and Co-founder of Quake Europe, Quake Capital Partners, where she oversees corporate and global ecosystem development. As the architect of the Quake 5G Global Immersive Media Accelerator, (Cologne Germany), she launched and successfully executed the first 5G b2c program in history, virtually across 6 time zones. The ecosystem was designed to offer 5 inter-program sources of funding for start-up teams, local government grants and support, paid program sponsorship from major conglomerates, and partner co-investment opportunities, culminating in the execution of the world’s first 5G b2c commercial use cases and contracts. Partners include: Deutsche Telekom, Mediengruppe RTL, NRW.invest, Deloitte, SK Gaming, FC Cologne, MobiledgeX, hu:braum, and Due Dash.
Prior to her three years with Quake and with extensive cross-cultural and global experience in over 150 countries at major motion picture studios and broadcast networks in content creation, social, digital media, television, film, and music, Priscilla's senior-level, executive posts include MGM Studios, Lionsgate Entertainment, CBS Broadcast International, and FOX Studios.
As Chief Marketing Officer of MGM Worldwide Television Group, she contributed, developed, and launched billion-dollar franchises, such as Legally Blonde, James Bond, Pink Panther, and Stargate.
As CEO of her own start-up company and Senior Franchise and Digital Media Specialist at MGM, Priscilla pioneered and packaged strategic, online ad-revenue partnerships amongst major recording labels, film studios and blue-chip brands with multiple revenue streams.
She has been credited with creating the first social networking community for a television series and franchise, while also initiating one of the first branded-achievement, integrated e-commerce systems.
A key stakeholder, investor, and founder in several successful tech / entertainment start-ups, Priscilla also packages film financing - develops, produces, licenses and distributes original film and television productions, featuring A-list celebrities, directors, and producers.
She attended Boston College and the University of San Francisco, where she designed her own major in foreign languages and comparative literature, with a minor in Philosophy and is both multicultural and multilingual.
Priscilla is a Board Member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Committee Member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Television with a Conscience, Board Advisor to The Blank Theatre, and Advisor for Public Works, Inc., a non-profit committed to the betterment of education, through research, tutoring and the education of high-risk young adults. Additionally, Priscilla, a Los Angeles resident, holds Board Advisor seats with several tech / entertainment companies, including Persosa, www.persosa.com, Powerit, www.persosa.com, Proxy42, www.proxy42.com, and Sines Music, www.sinesmusic.com.
Ronalee Zarate-Bayani joined the Los Angeles Rams as chief marketing officer in 2017. In this role, she is responsible for defining and cultivating the Rams brand, serving as a key member in shaping the experiences and value proposition of the new 300-acre Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park and creating a modern L.A. entertainment experience for the next generation of fans.
Zarate-Bayani is leading the evolution of the Rams business into a brand-centered organization with the development and roll out of new brand strategy. As CMO, she is responsible for helping the organization bring the Rams brand to life and oversees various teams within the front office, including brand experience, creative services, guest experiences and demand generation, CRM and analytics.
Over the past year, Zarate-Bayani has worked diligently across the organization to develop the Rams new brand identity and its uniforms. She has also helped shape a unique and dynamic gameday experience that leverages all of SoFi Stadium’s new technology.
Prior to joining the Rams, Zarate-Bayani was head of global integrated marketing communications and digital advancement for the Hershey Company. In that role, she focused on establishing modern marketing excellence, ensured Hershey’s portfolio of brands had compelling consumer experiences, and built enhanced digital capabilities.
Prior to Hershey, Zarate-Bayani worked in multiple leadership roles at Visa Inc. with an emphasis on leveraging consumer insights and digital experiences to create effective consumer marketing campaigns. While there, she formed a new internal marketing consulting group that embedded cultural and social insights into brand strategies and led the development of digital-first, new product launches. Zarate-Bayani cultivated her zeal for brand building through various marketing roles with Taco Bell that started in brand marketing, then brand communications and then culminated in leading the digital team.
Zarate-Bayani is passionate about building brands, especially through modern digital experiences and has over 15 years of marketing experience across a variety of industries. Throughout her career, she has focused on growing brands and cultivating winning teams both as an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur in global companies around the world, including Japan, South Africa and the Philippines.
Zarate-Bayani holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Irvine.
As a native of Southern California, Ronalee is excited to be back home in Los Angeles with her husband, Michael and three children.
Jamia Wilson is a feminist activist, writer, and speaker. As director of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York and the former VP of programs at the Women’s Media Center, Jamia has been a leading voice on women’s rights issues for over a decade. Her work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, the Today Show, CNN, Elle, BBC, Rookie, Refinery 29, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and The Washington Post. She is the author of Young, Gifted, and Black, the introduction and oral history in Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World, Step Into Your Power: 23 Lessons on How to Live Your Best Life, ABC's of AOC, and the co-author of Roadmap for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Advocacy, and Activism for All. Learn more at www.jamiawilson.com
I launched Moore Ventures to invest in businesses that are taking on the world’s largest environmental challenges and creating an impact.
I am an impact investor, social entrepreneur, author and frequent speaker at leading global technology conferences. With over 15 years as a start-up leader (two exits) and Fortune 500 experience, I have combined my passion and experience in health & sustainability, female empowerment, tech & digital media. My work has been widely recognized by Digital LA (Top 50 Digital Women in 2015), the Green Business Bureau and the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Hall of Fame.
After selling the successful green e-commerce site LovingEco to John Paul Dejoria in 2012, I co-founded TuesdayNights, an invite-only networking organization of female executives and entrepreneurs to help move women forward in an impactful way. Our growing list of event sponsors includes Deloitte, Google, Lifetime and Silicon Valley Bank, TriNet and UBS.
I serve on the board of the non-profit organization a Sense of Home which was awarded CNN Hero of the Year. I am an advisor to LOVE GOODLY, a natural lifestyle subscription service.
I published my first book 'How to Raise Money: The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding' available on Amazon. I graduated from UCLA with a BA in psychology.
Ms. Lassoff is passionate about making a difference both as a social entrepreneur and by supporting startups, women, causes and entrepreneurs. Lassoff was selected as Los Angeles Business Journal Women's Summit Finalist in 2017 and named one of top 50 tech women in Los Angeles by Digital LA. As a frequent speaker at conferences on topics such as social good, entrepreneurs and women's leadership, she has moderated panels for Silicon Beach Fest and TuesdayNights and spoken on panels for IAB's Annual Leadership Meeting's Women in Leadership breakfast; Swell Investing; Women, Wine and Wisdom and TriNet's annual conference.
As an experienced entrepreneur, Ms. Lassoff co-founded two startups including LOVE GOODLY, a fast-growing cruelty free beauty and wellness subscription box backed by leading Los Angeles angel investor Allen DeBevoise and Quake Capital, that was acquired in May, 2020 by NOVICA, and LovingEco, an eco fashion/beauty flash sales that was acquired a year after launch by a company backed by John Paul DeJoria. With over 17 years of marketing experience, I was the VP Marketing at FirstLook, an idealab!, Kleiner Perkins backed startup as well as Director of Marketing at Virgin Interactive and MGM Interactive. Five years ago I co-founded a popular invite-only women's networking group, TuesdayNights, with sponsors that include Google, Silicon Valley Bank, TriNet, Manatt, Deloitte and Lifetime A+E and top female speakers such as the CEO of Tradesy, Cofounder of One Kings Lane, Partner at Greycroft, GM of Fika Ventures, CEO of Enplug, CEO and Founder of Tala, and the Cofounder of True Religion Jeans. She holds a Bachelor's degree is in Economics and International Relations from Stanford University and has taken extensive coursework at UCLA. Ms. Lassoff is active in various organizations including Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs of Southern California, Team Parkinson, Tremble Clefs of Arizona and a Mentor for Pledge LA and The Riordan Program’s College to Career program.
Wolf Johannsen left the killing business years ago. Settled into the sleepy Southern town of Ft. Charles, Alabama, the Swedish national runs his international consulting business remotely, traveling to Europe only as business dictates. Life is good. In a serious relationship with Allison Parker, a beautiful widow and mother of two, Wolf allows himself to hope that a normal life can still be his. But, Wolf has forgotten one important thing, something he was warned about when he entered the covert life, and something he was reminded about when he left the Agency. No one ever really retires from wet work.
Through a combination of conceptual and intuitive operations, Alexandra Grant transforms texts into patterns of color, shape and form, giving them new life. Her collaborations with Michael Joyce, the renowned hyperfiction writer, and the use of the writings of theorist, novelist and academic Hélène Cixous inspired Grant to create The Ladder Quartet, a series of four large-scale paintings that can be aptly described as "wordscapes" or "landscapes of language." These paintings, along with new work, are presented here, along with essays by LA MOCA curator Alma Ruiz and Hélène Cixous.
Alexandra Grant received a MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco in 2000. She had a solo exhibition at Gallery 16:1 in Santa Monica in 2004 and has been in numerous group shows across the country. Her exhibition in L.A. MOCA's Focus series is the first major museum showing of her work.
IF YOU KNEW YOU WOULD SUCCEED AT ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO . . . WHAT WOULD YOU DO?Regardless of where you are in your life, LIVING IN YOUR TOP 1% will give you the framework you need to turn your vision into a reality. In this empowering and thought-provoking book, Alissa Finerman shares the most powerful ingredients for success and translates them into nine simple and easy-to-implement rituals. Combining research from the best thinkers in the field with a collection of compelling stories, Alissa has created a comprehensive guide to reaching your true potential. The book helps to assess where you currently are in your life, identify the areas that you would like to excel in, and develop your own personal roadmap to get there. This includes identifying your core priorities, breaking down the process of pursuing meaningful goals, and teaching you how to overcome obstacles along the way. The book is divided into three sections: Assess, Create, and Implement. Each section includes three rituals that will inspire you to create the reality you want. The nine rituals will challenge you to think differently, take action, and get RESULTS. LIVING IN YOUR TOP 1% is a practical and motivational “how-to” guide that can make an immediate impact in your life. The author has done extensive research in many self-help areas across the board to be able to provide you with a well-rounded framework available in one book. Ultimately, the "laws of success" do not change. The only thing that changes is how we practice them. The quest starts by asking yourself, “What does my top 1% look like?” and the best way to find out is by reading this book.You are closer than you think!
In the same series as her bestselling title Visionary Women, published by Assouline in 2015, author Angella Nazarian continues to chart the lives of inspiring and groundbreaking personalities, this time with a focus on couples. Doing a deep-dive into the stories of fifteen couples who motivate one another, work together, and change lives as a team, Nazarian explores the various forms a couple can take, and how differently they can operate, from living on separate continents to being artistic collaborators. Ranging from the iconic Parisian couple that is Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, to the mysterious Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe, Creative Couples is an insightful journey into the most intimate moments in the relationships of legendary painters, filmmakers, philosophers, and even the Queen. Each text takes into account the history of both halves of the pair, how they impact each other s work, and what makes them stronger together. As the book traverses historical milestones and cultural change, be it in France, Chile, or Japan, it consistently returns to the importance of strong duos and how two people and their individual talents merging can be incredibly powerful. Nazarian tells fifteen timeless tales with impeccable attention to detail, and manages to weave singular lifestyles, from that of Lou Reed to Prince Philip s, with the thread of the inimitable bond between two human beings.
The mission of Matzah Ball Books is to foster love for and pride in Yiddish in the next generation of children. Consistent with an upsurge of endeavors to preserve Yiddish culture, Matzah Ball Books was created to give young readers an affinity for the fun and funny of Yiddishisms. Written in English, each Matzah Ball book is named for a character with a Yiddish word that describes a central attribute of his or her personality. For example, Shmutzy Girl is always dirty and Kvetchy Boy is always complaining. In each book, the protagonist learns a lesson connected with his or her namesake trait (e.g. Shmutzy Girl learns to accept herself shmutz and all, and Kvetchy Boy learns when to complain and when not to do so.) These fun and lively picture books put the joy and color of Yiddish into a form young people adore - and will make any bubbe or zaide kvell (proud). In this gift set, the gang's all here! Plus the newly released Bubbe & Zaide book, featuring their very special bond with Shmutzy Girl, Noshy Boy, Shluffy Girl, Klutzy Boy and Kvetchy Boy. And the Matzah Ball Books Hanukkah book! Read them all and enjoy!
An initiation signals a beginning: a door opens and you step through
Amanda Yates Garcia's mother initiated her into the goddess-worshipping practice of witchcraft when she was thirteen years old, but Amanda's true life as a witch only began when she underwent a series of spontaneous initiations of her own.
Descending into the underworlds of poverty, sex work and misogyny, Initiated describes Amanda's journey to return to her body, harness her natural power, and finally reclaim her witchcraft to create the magical world she envisioned.
Peppered with mythology, tales of the goddesses and magical women throughout history, Initiated stands squarely at the intersection of witchcraft and feminism. Amanda shows that practising magic is about more than spells and potions; magic is nothing less than claiming power for oneself and taking back our planet in the name of Love.
Initiated is both memoir and manifesto, calling the magical people of the world to take up their wands, be brave, and create the enchanted world they long to live in.
'Godesses, ecstasies, fairy tales: Initiated is full of my favourite things, told with savage grace. This book will change your life.' FRANCESCA LIA BLOCK
A debut novel in the vein of Liane Moriarty and Tom Perrotta, about dark secrets brought to life after the mysterious death of a handsome and charismatic trainer to the elite women in Santa Monica.
On the western edge of Los Angeles is the gorgeous beachside city of Santa Monica, where the sun-kissed, wealthy residents seem to inhabit real-life California dreams. When movie-star-handsome heartthrob fitness coach Zack Doheny, is found dead on the floor of his gym, the tragedy shocks the elite community, especially those who’d spent many hours each week exercising with the charismatic trainer.
As the narrative flashes back to the months leading up to Zack’s death, it quickly becomes clear that things in this coastal paradise are not as glittering as they seem. Lettie – Zack’s secret half-sister and an undocumented housekeeper for the toned, entitled women of Santa Monica – holds her brother responsible for a horrific family accident, and desperately needs his money to prevent her deportation. Regina, type-A exercise addict and entrepreneur, will do anything to get out of debt and to claim Zack for herself. And Mel – a New York City transplant who finds herself forty pounds heavier and far more cynical than the lithe women of Santa Monica – discovers an electric attraction to Zack that threatens to disrupt his bond with Regina and upend Mel’s own marriage. As these residents of Santa Monica begin to crack under the stress of their secrets, one question hangs above it all: what really happened to Zack Doheny?
As addictively suspenseful as it is sharply observed, hilarious, and compassionate, Santa Monica is the rare novel that captures readers with propulsive storytelling alongside emotional urgency, irresistible characters, ambitious themes, and a vivid sense of place.
How do you use ‘taraddidle’ in a sentence? Is it possible to make a Gin Ricky that’s also a metaphor for the American Dream? How can you tell your Faulkner from your Franzen if you haven’t actually read either?
Allow me, the @GuyInYourMFA, to expound on the most important (aka white male) writers of western literature. You’ve probably seen me around, observing the masses, or defying the wind by hand-rolling a cigarette outside a local, fair-trade coffeeshop. I’ve actually read Infinite Jest 9 1/2 times. Care to discuss?
From Shakespeare's greatest mystery (how could a working-class man without access to an MFA program be so prolific?) to the true meaning of Kafkaesque (you know you've made it when you have an adjective named for you), the pages herewith are at once profound and practical. Use my ingenious Venn diagram to test your knowledge of which Jonathan—Franzen, Lethem, or Safran Foer—hates Twitter and lives in Brooklyn. (Trick question: all 3!) Sneer at chick-lit and drink Mojitos like Hemingway (not like middle-aged divorcées!).
So instead of politely nodding along next time you make an acquaintance at a housewarming party in Brooklyn, you can roll up your sleeves and get to work schooling them in character arcs and the experimental form of your next great American novel. Dazzle your friends with how well you understand post-modernism. You’ll be at a literary event asking a question “that’s really more of a comment” in no time.
#4 Most Life-Changing Wellness Book of 2017
As seen in Women's Health and on The Rachael Ray Show!
She-ology shines a light on the vagina, answering our most embarrassing questions with the goal of healthier and happier vaginas for women of all ages.
Many women still suffer a long-ingrained dissociation with their own vaginas and a misunderstanding of what goes on “down there.” With expertise and a dose of humor, leading ob-gyn, educator and women’s health advocate Dr. Sherry Ross addresses every urgent, confounding, culturally taboo or embarrassing question women have about vaginas, with the goal of healthier, happier lives for all.
She-ology describes the state of the vagina at every age and stage of a woman’s life. From first periods to postpartum to menopause, from the serious to the celebratory to the surprising, this book will make you feel a part of the vagina dialogue.
Dr. Sherry is equal parts your best girlfriend, confidant and skilled practitioner with over 25 years’ experience in gynecology and obstetrics. With the help of many famous contributors she answers your questions and concerns such as:
• Where the heck is my G-spot?
• Since the vagina is self-cleaning, do I even need soap?
• Can I get HPV if I don’t have actual intercourse?
• Is it too late, at 45, to have an orgasm?
• How can I be depressed after giving birth if I’ve always wanted a baby?
• Is there such a thing as a perfect vagina?
• I enjoy swinging or S & M, does that make me a pervert?
• What does safe sex even mean?
• What could possibly go wrong down there, and what do I do about it?
Dr. Sherry’s goal is that of healthier and happier women through a revolution of vagina information. This book will help you form, mend or strengthen your relationship with that most commanding and complex of female organs—the vagina.
Includes contributions from:
Reese Witherspoon
Brooke Shields
Christina Applegate
Jane Seymour
LisaGay Hamilton
Katherine McPhee
Ashley Benson
Meredith Baxter
…and many more.
She-quel continues where She-ology left off by opening up the conversation about sensitive women’s health issues.
With She-ology—Dr. Sherry Ross’s bestselling book about the questions, answers, and misunderstandings that women have about their vaginas—the proverbial floodgates were opened. After hearing from countless women across the country—from all ages and stages of life—Dr. Sherry realized the necessity to address the topics not covered in her first book. With the same compassion, expertise, and humor she used to answer some of the most probing questions about the care and maintenance of the vagina, Dr. Sherry continues her dialogue to further her vagina revolution…a revolution that’s essential for women in embracing their sexuality, identity, and sense of selves.
A Seventeen Magazine Best Book of the Year
“A winsome, hilarious tale about losing the map and finding a better way to a happy ending. I loved it!” —#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner
Seventeen-year-old Nora Holmes is an artist, a painter from the moment she could hold a brush. She inherited the skill from her grandfather, Robert, who's always nurtured Nora's talent and encouraged her to follow her passion. Still, Nora is shocked and elated when Robert offers her a gift: an all-expenses-paid summer trip to Europe to immerse herself in the craft and to study history's most famous artists. The only catch? Nora has to create an original piece of artwork at every stop and send it back to her grandfather. It's a no-brainer: Nora is in!
Unfortunately, Nora's mother, Alice, is less than thrilled about the trip. She worries about what the future holds for her young, idealistic daughter—and her opinions haven't gone unnoticed. Nora couldn't feel more unsupported by her mother, and in the weeks leading up to the trip, the women are as disconnected as they've ever been. But seconds after saying goodbye to Alice at the airport terminal, Nora hears a voice call out: "Wait! Stop! I'm coming with you!"
And . . . they’re off.
13 Little Blue Envelopes meets Gilmore Girls in this fun, funny, and bittersweet summer adventure from Observer writer and the hilarious voice behind @GuyInYourMFA, Dana Schwartz.
A hilarious, quirky, and unflinchingly honest memoir about one young woman's terrible and life-changing decisions while hoping (and sometimes failing) to find herself, in the style of Never Have I Ever and Adulting.
Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the terrible decisions she made in her early twenties through the internet's favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, CHOOSE YOUR OWN DISASTER is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of "you can be anything you want!" is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be. Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she's a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best.
A poetic and visually breathtaking look at what happens inside your body when you breathe
What happens when you breathe? In this beautiful book, breath—the very air, stardust, the grand molecules of the universe—blossoms in the upside-down tree in your rising chest, animating and enlivening you. And when you breathe out, you send your song out into the world.
After being diagnosed with cancer when she was 32, Elissa Goodman explored holistic alternatives and combined them with traditional treatments and was able to beat the disease. Her husband wasn’t as fortunate; he succumbed to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when he was only 45 after a regimen of doctor-prescribed chemotherapy and two bone marrow transplants. Her personal experience led her to realize the many ways in which nutrition and lifestyle affect our ability to deal with health challenges. In Cancer Hacks, Goodman has put together a comprehensive plan designed to offer some common-sense, natural and holistic advice to deal with the fear and uncertainty so many people face when confronted by this terrible disease. The various “hacks” described in the book are intended to help those dealing with cancer, or those whose loved ones may be facing the battle. Her suggestions are practical and easily incorporated into day-to-day living. Also included is a 7-day cleanse regimen for those looking to reset their bodies and refocus their energies on a fuller and healthier lifestyle.
"... contains plenty of valuable, adaptable life lessons to help readers through tricky situations... a template for achieving personal and career goals."
Publishers Weekly
Can you win life's battles without losing yourself?
Life is full of trials, and sometimes you need a warrior spirit to overcome them. Award-winning attorney Heather Hansen has spent over twenty years fighting on the battlefields of the courts―but even in her fiercest clashes, she's remained true to herself and her principles. She shares her journey to becoming an Elegant Warrior, and imparts the wisdom she's learned from her decades on the bar.
Armed with the tools and techniques she's honed in the courtroom, Hansen makes the case that anyone can become an Elegant Warrior: someone who fights adversity with grace and compassion, and battles without losing respect for themselves and their adversaries.
Using real-life case studies and personal stories from the fast-paced courtroom arena, Hansen teaches you how to triumph over your own struggles. From overcoming the Curse of Knowledge to discovering the Power of How, you'll learn how to tap into your own personal strengths to face whatever challenges come your way.
We all have to go to war at times. Sometimes the combat zone is your home; sometimes it's the office. And sometimes, it's your inner world. As an Elegant Warrior, you'll be armed with the confidence, wisdom and skills to enter the fray and remain true to yourself.
Do you really know what makes you unique? And how to work it? Own it? Bring it? Well lucky for you, we do. And we have the playbook to show you exactly how to thrive in business, life, and relationships.
Take the Brand Boss personality test to reveal your specific archetype and how this acumen applies to your life, your relationships, your career and your company. Are you a Catalyst, Coach or Crusader? Optimist or a Woo-er? Maven or Mastermind? Poet or a Prodigy? Just like there are 12 Astrological Signs, we share the 12 Personality Archetypes and then help you drill down to unlock yours. We’ll also introduce you to female entrepreneurs who embody each particular archetype—an “InfluenceHER”—to personally share their kick-ass success stories and inspire you to unleash your talents, brains, and vision to confidently strike out on your own.
Little Brand Book offers support, tools and lessons to help women succeed in business and to create abundance for yourself, your family, your company, your employees and your customers.
“Every page of this novel is a point of no return; once you’ve read Karolina Waclawiak's Life Events, you will never see life, death, grief, and healing the same way.”―Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives
One of BuzzFeed's Most Anticipated Books of 2020 and one of The Millions Most Anticipated Books of the First Half of 2020
A woman at a crossroads learns the only way to reclaim her life is to help others die
Karolina Waclawiak’s breakout novel, Life Events, follows Evelyn, who, at thirty-seven, is on the verge of divorce and anxiously dreading the death of everyone she loves. She combats her existential crisis by avoiding her husband and aimlessly driving along the freeways of California looking for an escape―one that eventually comes when she discovers a collective of “exit guides.” Evelyn enrolls in their training course, where she learns to provide companionship and a final exit for terminally ill patients seeking a conscious departure.
She meets Daphne, a dying woman still full of life; Lawrence, an aging porn king; and Daniel, who seems too young to die and whom Evelyn falls for, despite knowing better, not to mention the exit guide code. Each client opens something new in Evelyn, allowing her a chance to access her own grief and confront the self-destructive ways she suppresses her pain. When Evelyn travels through the Southwest to an afterlife convention to further her death education, she must finally face her complicated relationship with her alcoholic father and reconcile her life choices.
Sensitively observed and darkly funny, Life Events is a moving, enlivening story of the human condition: the doldrums of loneliness, the consuming regret of past mistakes, and the thrill, finally, of finding meaning―and love―where you least expect it.
The cofounder of True Religion Brand Jeans, Kym Gold uses her story to serve up a firm dose of life and career lessons that helped her build a multimillion-dollar fashion brand from the ground up.
Kym Gold’s mantra, “never settle for a no; always look for a yes,” is what led her to co-create True Religion Brand Jeans, a major retail clothing company that sold for close to a billion dollars in 2013. In Gold Standard, Kym finally gives her side of the story of how the once fledgling jeans company that nobody wanted, went on to become a giant revolutionizing player in the fashion industry.
As a woman in the boys’ club world of the fickle fashion business, Kym armed herself and became one of True Religion’s majority shareholders and their lead female clothing designer. On Valentine’s Day in 2007, she was served divorce papers by her then husband and had her company ripped from under her—all within an hour. Since then, she has reestablished her place in the industry and catapulted herself into the coveted 1 percent of the richest Americans.
In Gold Standard, Kym’s savvy business and fashion branding experience of thirty years gives a behind-the-scenes look into the always changing fashion industry. It also mixes in her compelling personal journey, including her marriage to Mark Burnett before he became TV's biggest mega producer, a compassionate view for women of the pressures of balancing a career, finances, and family. Kym motivates readers to throw the gold gloves on and put up a fight.
The Situation - A Radical Journey Thru Sisterhood is an intimate portrayal of two sisters, Carolyn and Lila, whose lives are deeply intertwined over forty years.
"The official FDNY response time to 9/11 was ?five seconds. ?Five seconds. That’s how long it took for FDNY, for NYPD, for Port Authority, EMS to respond to an urgent need from the public. ?Five seconds. Hundreds died in an instant. Thousands more poured in to continue to fight for their brothers and sisters.
The breathing problems started almost immediately and they were told they weren’t sick, they were crazy. And then, as the illnesses got worse, and things became more apparent, “?W?ell?,? okay, you’re sick?,? but it’s not from the pile.” And then when the science became irrefutable, “?O?kay, it’s the pile, but this is a New York issue. I don’t know if we have the money.”And I’m sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic. But I’m angry, and you should be too, and they’re all angry as well and they have every justification to be that way...Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity: time. It’s the one thing they’re running out of."
- Jon Stewart's testimony before Congress
Jon Stewart's testimony before Congress reminded America - in scathing terms - of their responsibility to 9/11 first responders, but the effects of that day spread to nearby residents as well. Carolyn Glasoe Bailey owned an art gallery in lower Manhattan, and years later in Los Angeles, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Her doctors told her it was mostly likely due to her proximity to Ground Zero. When Jon Stewart took to CSPAN, it moved Lila Glasoe Francese, her sister, to finally release the book she wrote about Carolyn's journey.
When Carolyn is diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer, Lila is unaware of the complexity of the diagnosis and unprepared for the devastating path to come. When she was told she had cancer, Carolyn opted into treatment, even knowing it might change her personality. At that time, Lila went to search for a book to help her understand what her sister was going through and what her family should expect. She couldn’t find anything to support her. So she wrote the book she needed at the time to support others in their own journey.
The Situation takes readers on an emotional and intense journey that explores the lifelong bond between siblings and the aching loss of deep relationship. Like When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, it deals intimately with the choices terminal patients face, and the effect of those choices on those who love them.
How did we get from an age of dignified nightly news broadcasts on three national networks to the age of 24-hour channels and constantly breaking news? The answer—thanks to Ted Turner and an oddball cast of cable television visionaries, big league rejects, and nonunion newbies—can be found in the basement of an abandoned country club in Atlanta. Because it was there, in the summer of 1980, that this motley crew somehow, against all odds, launched CNN.
Lisa Napoli’s Up All Night is an entertaining inside look at the founding of the upstart network that set out to change the way news was delivered and consumed. Mixing media history, a business adventure story, and great characters, Up All Night tells the story of a network that succeeded beyond even the wildest imaginings of its charismatic and uncontrollable founder, and paved the way for the world we live in today.
“Dark, seductive . . . Noirish and sexy, this provocative novel explores what it’s like to be a woman on the edge.” —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
“[A] crispy biscotti of a novel . . . You’ll feel indecent reading it in public.” —Molly Young, Vulture
A trip to Italy reignites a woman’s desires to disastrous effect in this dark ode to womanhood, death, and sex
To cool-headed, fastidious Pricilla Messing, Italy will be an escape, a brief glimpse of freedom from a life that's starting to feel like one long decline.
Rescued from the bedside of her difficult mother, forty-something Cilla finds herself called away to Rome to keep an eye on her wayward teenage niece, Hannah. But after years of caregiving, babysitting is the last thing Cilla wants to do. Instead she throws herself into Hannah's youthful, heedless world—drinking, dancing, smoking—relishing the heady atmosphere of the Italian summer. After years of feeling used up and overlooked, Cilla feels like she's coming back to life. But being so close to Hannah brings up complicated memories, making Cilla restless and increasingly reckless, and a dangerous flirtation with a teenage boy soon threatens to send her into a tailspin.
With the sharp-edged insight of Ottessa Moshfegh and the taut seduction of Patricia Highsmith, The Worst Kind of Want is a dark exploration of the inherent dangers of being a woman. In her unsettling follow-up to Catalina, Liska Jacobs again delivers hypnotic literary noir about a woman whose unruly desires and troubled past push her to the brink of disaster.
A magnetic, provocative debut novel chronicling a young woman’s downward spiral following the end of an affair
Elsa Fisher is headed for rock bottom. At least, that’s her plan. She has just been fired from MoMA on the heels of an affair with her married boss, and she retreats to Los Angeles to blow her severance package on whatever it takes to numb the pain. Her abandoned crew of college friends (childhood friend Charlotte and her wayward husband, Jared; and Elsa’s ex-husband, Robby) receive her with open arms, and, thinking she’s on vacation, a plan to celebrate their reunion on a booze-soaked sailing trip to Catalina Island.
But Elsa doesn’t want to celebrate. She is lost, lonely, and full of rage, and only wants to sink as low as the drugs and alcohol will take her. On Catalina, her determined unraveling and recklessness expose painful memories and dark desires, putting everyone in the group at risk.
With the creeping menace of Patricia Highsmith and the bender-chic of Bret Easton Ellis, Liska Jacobs brings you inside the mind of an angry, reckless young woman hell-bent on destruction―every page taut with the knowledge that Elsa’s path does not lead to a happy place. Catalina is a compulsive, deliciously dark exploration of beauty, love, and friendship, and the sometimes toxic desires that drive us.
The Outsiders meets Mad Max: Fury Road in this fast-paced dystopian novel about sisterhood and the cruel choices people are forced to make in order to survive.
At night, Las Mal Criadas own these streets.
Sixteen-year-old Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throwdowns and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but Nalah quickly grows weary of her questionable lifestyle. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega Towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city's benevolent founder and cross the border in a search of the mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders. Led by a reluctant guide, Nalah battles crews and her own doubts but the closer she gets to her goal the more she loses sight of everything--and everyone--she cares about.
Nalah must choose whether or not she's willing to do the unspeakable to get what she wants. Can she discover that home is not where you live but whom you chose to protect before she loses the family she's created for good?
"Expertly blends reality and fantasy to explore what's behind love and loss, what it takes to heal." - Randy Ribay, author of National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing
Acclaimed author Lilliam Rivera blends a touch of magical realism into a timely story about cultural identity, overcoming trauma, and the power of first love.
Eury comes to the Bronx as a girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything in Hurricane Maria--and by an evil spirit, Ato. She fully expects the tragedy that befell her and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up with her in New York. Yet, for a time, she can almost set this fear aside, because there's this boy . . .
Pheus is a golden-voiced, bachata-singing charmer, ready to spend the summer on the beach with his friends, serenading his on-again, off-again flame. That changes when he meets Eury. All he wants is to put a smile on her face and fight off her demons. But some dangers are too powerful for even the strongest love, and as the world threatens to tear them apart, Eury and Pheus must fight for each other and their lives.
Featuring contemporary Afro-Latinx characters, this retelling of the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice is perfect for fans of Ibi Zoboi's Pride and Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper.
Tree is a novel about a tree written from a unique point of view: the chief narrator is a tree. Tree uses magical realism as a key to access the interrelated emotional realities of the many species that share one pristine valley in Topanga, California. Grass, birds, other trees and animals come to life on the pages, while one 19th century Mexican woman and one 20th century school boy, hearts opened by grief and loneliness, come to know one California live oak whose 229 years span the evolution of four human civilizations, Chumash, Spanish/Mexican, Yankee and new money Hollywood, which each leave their mark upon the landscape and upon Tree. The author's obsessive botanical, scientific and historical research give substance to a world that feels both as real as last weekend's dust on hiking boots and as mind altering as a fully fledged mystical experience. Take a journey into the heart of the woods where every plant shines Tree will change how you see nature.
Now a major motion picture, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, and Michael Cera—the true story of "Hollywood’s poker princess" who gambled everything, won big, then lost it all.
When Molly Bloom was a little girl in a small Colorado town, she dreamed of a life without rules and limits, a life where she didn’t have to measure up to anyone or anything—where she could become whatever she wanted.
She ultimately got more than she could have ever bargained for.
In Molly’s Game, she takes you through her adventures running an exclusive high-stakes private poker game catering to such clients as Hollywood royalty like Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck, athletes, billionaires, politicians, and financial titans. With rich detail, Molly describes a world of glamour, privilege, and secrecy in which she made millions, lived the high life, and fearlessly took on the Russian and Italian mobs—until she met the one adversary she could not outsmart: the United States government.
It’s the story of how a determined woman gained—and then lost—her place at the table, and of everything she learned about poker, love, and life in the process.
Newly married and established in her career as an award-winning newspaper journalist, Maggie Downs quits her job, sells her belongings, and embarks on the solo trip of a lifetime: Her mother’s.
As a child, Maggie Downs often doubted that she would ever possess the courage to visit the destinations her mother dreamed of one day seeing. “You are braver than you think,” her mother always insisted. That statement would guide her as, over the course of one year, Downs backpacked through seventeen countries―visiting all the places her mother, struck with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, could not visit herself―encountering some of the world’s most striking locales while confronting the slow loss of her mother. Interweaving travelogue with family memories, Braver Than You Think takes the reader hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, white-water rafting on the Nile, volunteering at a monkey sanctuary in Bolivia, praying at an ashram in India, and fleeing the Arab Spring in Egypt.
By embarking on an international journey, Downs learned to make every moment count―traveling around the globe and home again, losing a parent while discovering the world. Perfect for fans of adventure memoirs like Wild and Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, Braver Than You Think explores grief and loss with tenderness, clarity, and humor, and offers a truly incredible roadmap to coping with the unimaginable.
Named a New York Times Best Book of the Year, 2016
For a runaway slave in the 1840s south, life on the run can be just as dangerous as life under a sadistic Massa. That's what fifteen-year-old Naomi learns after she escapes the brutal confines of life on an Alabama plantation and takes refuge in a Georgia brothel run by a gun-toting Jewish madam named Cynthia. Amidst a revolving door of gamblers and prostitutes, Naomi falls into a love affair with a smooth-talking white man named Jeremy.
The product of their union is Josey, whose white skin and blond hair mark her as different from the others on the plantation. Having been taken in as an infant by a free slave named Charles, Josey has never known her mother, who was murdered at her birth. Josey soon becomes caught in the tide of history when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reaches her and a day of supposed freedom turns into one of unfathomable violence that will define Josey―and her lost mother― for years to come.
Grace is a sweeping, intergenerational saga featuring a group of outcast women during one of the most compelling eras in American history. It is a universal story of freedom, love, and motherhood, told in a dazzling and original voice set against a rich and transporting historical backdrop.
Leveling up in life isn’t easy. Despite working harder, constantly striving, and always doing more, it can seem as if you’re trapped by fear and uncertainty, unable to make progress toward your dreams. But no matter how lost you feel, no matter how painful failure may be, breaking barriers isn’t beyond your reach. Anyone can unlock incredible potential within themselves. And Nikki Barua can show you how. After overcoming her own heartbreaking challenges, Nikki found her purpose and passion in helping others turn their dreams into reality. In Beyond Barriers, she presents an actionable guide to fully embracing your capacity to excel. In three simple steps—finding clarity, harnessing courage, and sustaining conviction—you’ll learn how to think big, be bold, and take action. By using this framework to develop goals, strategies, and habits, you’ll stop feeling stagnated and start understanding the limitless potential you possess.
What happens to all of the letters that kids send to Santa Claus through the U.S. Mail? In Detroit, Michigan, many of them end up in the hands of Chris Archer, a postal worker who spends his free time designing computer games and uses the children’s wish lists to help detect trends in the toy market. No harm done until Chris’s brother, Nick Archer, the religiously obsessed, dishonorably discharged fighter pilot and victim of childhood abuse, discovers them and finds out who’s really been naughty and who’s been nice. Possessed of a messiah complex, Nick turns into a charming and athletic serial killer leaving a trail of devastation in two cities, Detroit and Sarasota, connected only by the commercial route he now flies for Delta. It takes a team of oddballs to bring Nick down. On the Detroit side, there are the co-ed partners and wise-cracking lovers, Jaq McSween and David Maxwell, accompanied by their dog, Recon. On the Sarasota side, there is the Argentinian with the taste for American hot dogs, Abel Mendoza, and his partner who goes simply by Rabbit on account of his ability to hide in a crowd, create his own burrow, and investigate unnoticed. There is the lovely nurse, Rita Rose, who has been damaged by a mendacious lover before and is now caught in Nick Archer’s web in more ways than one, and her fearless higher-up the reserved yet incisive Medical Examiner, Dr. Towers. Two teams of odd-ball detectives discover the truth, but can they outmaneuver Nick's obsessive military trained mind and stop him in time before he kills again and someone they love dies?
On Thanksgiving morning, 2003, my twenty-two year old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. My life, which until then had been fairly smooth and predictable, fell apart. Though a clinical psychologist, I was unprepared for the upheaval. How was I to survive the pain? Out of the ashes—that's how I think about my journey. From such a dark and dismal space, I wrote my way back to a place of peace and light. Words about grief and loss and chaos evolved into a memoir that melds together my daughter's writings; memories about our life; my path in dealing with Rebecca's death; and the wisdom of theologians, authors, and philosophers. On the Wings of Dragonflies is a story of resilience, love, and forgiveness. It is a story of survival. None of us are impervious to loss. The opportunity to heal brings with it the responsibility to share that growth with others. My hope is that those who have endured the loss of a loved one will find strength and courage from my experience.
Three women. Three voices. Three lives touched by a man who was every bit as elusive in life as he appears to be in death. Olivia Rosen is saddened to discover that her dear friend, Jason Carlisle, has taken his own life. But when Olivia and her parents attend the church service, they learn that Jason was not who he said he was. When his widow informs them that there is no trace of Jason with Social Security or the Marines, it appears that there never was a Jason Carlisle. So who was this man who for years had been such an integral part of Olivia’s family? Ina Gottlieb, Olivia’s mother, knows more about Jason’s turbulent past than do others in the family. The secrets she holds might explain the unusual circumstances surrounding his life and death. But does Ina know enough to completely understand Jason’s true identity? Catherine, Jason’s deceased mother, may be the only person to fully comprehend the burdens and secrets of her son’s life. But from the Other Side, is there anything she can do to change the course of his life? Or is she merely a spectator, an observer of this chilling drama? These women’s lives are intertwined, weaving together a unique understanding of the man known as Jason Carlisle. Suspense novel? Character-driven story? Without a Word is both those things and more.
Young, naive, Samantha Armstrong, can never go back to her pampered life style after being brutally raped by Greg Maston, the accountant for her father’s law firm and close family friend.
Fearing she would taint her family’s reputation and disappoint her parents, she chooses not to report the sexual assault. After she trusts Skyler Marks to help her, he takes advantage of her fragile state of mind when she tries to move forward without him to heal and forget her pain.
Skyler Marks, the young bright attorney in her father’s law firm, blackmails and stalks her. Too scared to trust again, and in turmoil, she doesn’t tell anyone the truth. Instead, Samantha searches for a way to be free of Skyler and her past.
Desperate for a new start, she attends college out of state. But when she returns home for a visit, her rapist is brutally murdered in her father’s law office, and Samantha is arrested for murder. Will the man she meets in college trust her enough to teach her what trust and love are and can she accept him before Skyler ruins her life forever? Will Samantha trust anyone again, find her voice, and be free of Skyler, or, will she be found guilty of murder and spend a life behind bars?
Black Indian, searing and raw, is Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Alice Walker's The Color Purple meets Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony--only, this isn't fiction. Beautifully rendered and rippling with family dysfunction, secrets, deaths, drunks, and old resentments, Shonda Buchanan's memoir is an inspiring story that explores her family's legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just society's ostracization but the consequences of this dual inheritance. Buchanan was raised as a Black woman, who grew up hearing cherished stories of her multi-racial heritage, while simultaneously suffering from everything she (and the rest of her family) didn't know. Tracing the arduous migration of Mixed Bloods, or Free People of Color, from the Southeast to the Midwest, Buchanan tells the story of her Michigan tribe -- a comedic yet manically depressed family of fierce women, who were everything from caretakers and cornbread makers to poets and witches, and men who were either ignored, protected, imprisoned, or maimed -- and how their lives collided over love, failure, fights, and prayer despite a stacked deck of challenges, including addiction and abuse. Ultimately, Buchanan's nomadic people endured a collective identity crisis after years of constantly straddling two, then three, races. The physical, spiritual, and emotional displacement of American Indians who met and married Mixed or Black slaves and indentured servants at America's early crossroads is where this powerful journey begins. Black Indian doesn't have answers, nor does it aim to represent every American's multi-ethnic experience. Instead, it digs as far down into this one family's history as it can go sometimes, with a bit of discomfort. But every family has its own truth, and Buchanan's search for hers will resonate in anyone who has wondered "maybe there's more than what I'm being told."
Thriving After Trauma addresses readers who have experience trauma or loss due to a variety of experience – whether accident, abuse, or injury. Shari Botwin shows readers, through personal stories, how many who have experienced the worst kinds of trauma have managed to move on and thrive beyond their experiences.
Often, those who live through trauma come away with feelings of shame, guilt, anger, and despair. These are common, even normal, responses in the immediate aftermath. Left unaddressed, though, those feelings may develop into substance abuse problems, eating disorders, depression, or anxiety. Learning how to move on, to pick up and live life again, takes effort and guidance. Botwin guides readers through the stories of others who have gone on to live fulfilling, happy lives, and provides tips and tools for healing and moving on.
Letting go of the shame, guilt, anger and fear associated with tragic events is crucial to reclaiming a full life. Strategies such as, journaling, mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral restructuring, and healthy relationships to aid in recovery are explored and explained, so readers can adopt those strategies that work best for them.
It is not the trauma itself that results in so many people developing self-destructive tendencies and life threatening illnesses. It is the lack of having a way to digest and make sense of the trauma-related feelings that can lead one to mental illness, disconnection, and in some cases, even death. Readers will learn how to live with the trauma versus how to get over the trauma, so they can move forward healthfully and mindfully.
In the New York Times bestseller that the Washington Post called “Lean In for misfits,” Sophia Amoruso shares how she went from dumpster diving to founding one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world.
Amoruso spent her teens hitchhiking, committing petty theft, and scrounging in dumpsters for leftover bagels. By age twenty-two she had dropped out of school, and was broke, directionless, and checking IDs in the lobby of an art school—a job she’d taken for the health insurance. It was in that lobby that Sophia decided to start selling vintage clothes on eBay.
Flash forward to today, and she’s the founder of Nasty Gal and the founder and CEO of Girlboss. Sophia was never a typical CEO, or a typical anything, and she’s written #GIRLBOSS for other girls like her: outsiders (and insiders) seeking a unique path to success, even when that path is windy as all hell and lined with naysayers.
#GIRLBOSS proves that being successful isn’t about where you went to college or how popular you were in high school. It’s about trusting your instincts and following your gut; knowing which rules to follow and which to break; when to button up and when to let your freak flag fly.
“A witty and cleverly told account . . . It’s this kind of honest advice, plus the humorous ups and downs of her rise in online retail, that make the book so appealing.” —Los Angeles Times
“Amoruso teaches the innovative and entrepreneurial among us to play to our strengths, learn from our mistakes, and know when to break a few of the traditional rules.” —Vanity Fair
“#GIRLBOSS is more than a book . . . #GIRLBOSS is a movement.” —Lena Dunham
"Race, gender, sexism. These are just some of the issues played out, tackled and beaten down in this book about love and family and the right to marry. It's a raw look behind the curtains of several members of one family fighting to marry the person they love."
-- Retha Hill, former VP of BET Television, executive director of Digital Innovation and Entrepreneur Lab at Cronkite School of Journalism
"Couples get married every day in the United States, but some have to work harder than others for the right to do so. Rarer still is when two such couples exist in the same family, a generation apart. This fascinating memoir tells the story of interracial and same-sex couples who refused to take no for an answer."
-- Sharon and Mary Bishop-Baldwin, Oklahoma marriage-equality case plaintiffs and authors of "Becoming Brave: Winning Marriage Equality in Oklahoma and Finding Our Voice"
Gold digger, Nigger lover. Whore! Those were the names shouted at Iris by military brass in 1961 when she stood before them and asked to marry the man she loved. Ray and Iris Green were repeatedly told no by Ray's US Air Force superiors. They were denied not just because she was English and he was American - but also because she was white and he was black. The young couple refused to take no for an answer and eventually married.
The Marriage Battle: A Family Tradition is a story about American culture as told through one family by Ray and Iris's daughter, Sue.
Like her parents, Sue fought for the right to marry the person she loved. And almost 50 years to the day of the Loving decision which struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the US, The Defense of Marriage Act was repealed. Same-sex marriage was finally legal and Sue married her love and now wife, Robin.
A comic exploration of a year in the life of an “imaginatively twisted and fearless” (Los Angeles Times) best-selling author.
Ah, 55. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement…Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized 25-year-old’s life in an 85-year-old’s malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat―all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women.
The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman, with a front lawn that’s more like a rectangle of compacted dirt and mice that greet her as she makes her morning coffee. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon “well” drinks how they got here.
Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters’ college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. By day’s end, we just might need a box of chardonnay and a Roomba to clean up the mess.
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WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
“[A] suspense-filled page-turner.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer
"A touching portrait of two families bound together by a split-second decision.” —Attica Locke, Edgar-Award winning author of Bluebird, Bluebird
A Best Book of the Year
Wall Street Journal / Chicago Tribune / Buzzfeed / South Florida Sun-Sentinel / Book Riot / LitHub / BOLO Books
A powerful and taut novel about racial tensions in Los Angeles, following two families—one Korean-American, one African-American—grappling with the effects of a decades-old crime
In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it’s been since the unrest of the early 1990s. But Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. Grace is sheltered and largely oblivious, living in the Valley with her Korean-immigrant parents, working long hours at the family pharmacy. She’s distraught that her sister hasn’t spoken to their mother in two years, for reasons beyond Grace’s understanding. Shawn has already had enough of politics and protest after an act of violence shattered his family years ago. He just wants to be left alone to enjoy his quiet life in Palmdale.
But when another shocking crime hits LA, both the Park and Matthews families are forced to face down their history while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence.
