Vote411, a service of the 
About Gloria Feldt and Speaking Up
Email this pageI believe passionately in the power of your voice and mine to make a real difference in our world—and in our own lives. I believe passionately in the power of our voices to make change both personal and political. I believe pasionately in Speaking Up!
You can view a brief video of my media and speech clips here. Downloadable bio is here.
About Gloria
Gloria Feldt is a powerful public speaker and writer on leadership, politics, women’s lives, health, and media through her books, keynote speeches, media commentary, and right here at www.gloriafeldt.com.
Author and Commentator
Gloria's newest book, in collaboration with actress Kathleen Turner, is Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles, was published by Springboard, February 14, 2008. Her two previous books are The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women's Rights and How to Fight Back and Behind Every Choice Is a Story. She has contributed chapters to numerous other books on women, politics, health, and leadership as well.
Her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, ELLE, and MS magazines among many others, and on-line in Alternet, Salon, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, WIMNsVoices, Women’s e-News, ilfpost, Women’s Voices for Change, and RH Reality Check. Gloria has appeared as both a newsmaker and a commentator on most major national radio and television news and public affairs programs, and is a SheSource expert.
Credit: Maryanne Russell Photography
Keynote Speaker
Gloria is a much sought-after speaker for corporate groups seeking inspiration and practical leadership skills, women's organizations, universities, and civic groups. She speaks from deep knowledge and personal experience on the frontlines of leadership, politics, women's lives, health, and media. She’s currently touring campuses with an intergenerational panel of women called “Women, Girls, and Ladies”. Each speech is customized to meet the needs of the occasion and the audience.
Leader
People Magazine called this former teen mom who became the CEO and movement leader of the world's largest reproductive and sexual health care provider and advocacy organization "the voice of experience". Gloria exemplifies leadership on the frontlines of challenge and change. She brought phenomenal growth to the Planned Parenthood affiliates she led in West Texas and Arizona, then served as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1996-2005. She was a founder of the Planned Parenthood Leadership Institute.
Her colleagues call her a “practical visionary”; Fast Company magazine lauded the inclusive way she led the organization to adopt a bold new Vision for 2025. By the time she left, the organization’s total combined affiliate and national organization annual revenues approached one billion. Her call to "fight forward" scored insurance coverage for contraceptives and accessible emergency contraception. She initiated the Prevention First Act and reintroduction of a new, improved Freedom of Choice Act. She understands politics from the fround up and served as president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which she grew into the largest nonpartisan pro-choice action fund and Political Action Committee.
Honors and Civic Activities
Among her honors, Vanity Fair magazine named Gloria one of America's "top 200 women legends, leaders, and trailblazers". Glamour magazine honored her as Woman of the Year. She was one of Women's e-News' 2007 "21 Leaders for the 21st Century". Texas Monthly, naming her to its "Texas Twenty"--she hails originally from Temple TX--described her as "part den mother, part businesswoman, part Mae West". In Arizona, she was named Women of Achievement by Mujer, Junior League, and Soroptomist, and the city of Phoenix awarded her its Martin Luther King Living the Dream Award.
Gloria is a fellow of the International Leadership Forum. She serves on the Women's Media Center board of directors, on the board of the Jewish Women’s Archive, and advisory boards of Our Bodies, Ourselves and of Hygeia PCP.
Personal and Family
Gloria has a unique understanding of the confluence of the personal and the political in American culture. A confluence of the personal and the political propelled her own story too. As a young wife and mother from small-town Texas, she raised three children while attending college. She taught Head Start and was active in the civil rights movement and interfaith activities. There, she realized women's civil rights, equality, and social justice depend on having the human right to determine their own reproductive destiny.
Her life's passion for social justice, especially for women, became her life's work. That's why today, she's delighted to share her expertise and experiences in her writing, speeches, and media commentary. She has a special passion for encouraging young people through the media to participate in the political process on behalf of their own rights and health.
She and her husband, Alex Barbanell, have a combined family of six children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They live in New York and Arizona.
Inundated with Grandsons!