Thursday, April 18, 2024
The Plaza Hotel 770 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10019
11:30 AM Reception | 12:00 PM Luncheon
Keynote Speaker Jennifer Egan Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
Corporate Honoree PURE Insurance
Emcee Cindy Hsu CBS2 News Anchor & Reporter
About the Event Each year, more than 400 of New York City’s most accomplished and engaged leaders gather to attend the Women Mean Business Luncheon, which supports the Coalition’s First Step Job Training Program. The event features program graduates sharing their moving stories and experiences. Past events have also featured guest speakers including Eve Ensler, Arianna Huffington, Hillary Clinton, Christine Quinn, Anna Quindlen, Ashley Graham, Darlene Love, Adenah Bayoh, Dari Alexander, and Alicia Graf Mack.
First Step gives homeless and low-income women the skills and confidence needed to achieve financial independence. Our innovative 14-week curriculum offers computer and job skills training, an internship with a major corporation or nonprofit organization, mentoring, job placement assistance and extensive post-graduate support.
First Step Advisory Board
Cindy Arnold, Chair Yvette Arsenec-Weir Vanessa Barnett Christy Burke Marisol DeLeon Austin Fremont Sara Fusco Barbara Kolsun Deborah Krulewitch Natalie Lederman Susan Lerner Natsayi Mawere Rachel Noel Ruth Pryor Wendy Samuel Joan Sapinsley Jane Singer
Donate
Benefactors Jennifer and Peter Wallace Ruth Pryor
Patrons The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. Friends of Deborah Krulewitch and Jane Singer
Advocates Kramer Levin Joan M. Sapinsley and Richard H. Lewis
Partners American International Group Arnold NY Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C. Fundamental Advisors LP Deborah Krulewitch PURE Insurance
Sustainers Abigail Canfield Susan and Scott Douglass Austin Fremont Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. – Eta Nu Sigma Brooklyn Alumnae Chapter The Weir Family Foundation, Inc.
Supporters Vanessa Barnett Clutter Therapy, LLC Diane M. Coffey Deloitte Eimear Fischer Susan C. Lerner Nardello & Co. Marcia Lynn Sells Steve Madden, Ltd. Sullivan & Worcester LLP Eileen Vahey Martha and Alex Wallau Giulia and Marc Weisman
Friends Karla Arria-Devoe Vincent and Shelly Fremont Rudolph Landin Joann Lang Diane Vecchiarello Myraida Vega
Jennifer Egan is a journalist and fiction writer. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her new novel, The Candy House, a companion to A Visit From the Goon Squad, was named one of the New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2022 and one of President Obama’s favorite reads of the year. As a journalist, she has written about homelessness, self injury, fashion models, Catholic seminarians, and an array of other topics. She recently completed a term as President of PEN America and is currently Artist-in-Residence in the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
Cindy Hsu is an Emmy Award-winning anchor and reporter who has been at CBS New York since 1993. Her passion is sharing stories about children, seniors, education, adoption, animals and mental health awareness.
Cindy has earned Emmy Awards for stories including “Smuggled from China,” exposing the horrific plights of Chinese refugees trying to make it to America. Her most poignant story, was the two-part series “Bringing Rosie Home.” Through home videos, she brought viewers to China as she adopted her daughter Rosie as a single mother. The series won the New York AP Broadcasters Award for Best Feature and was nominated for an Emmy.
She has worked as a journalist throughout the country, including Richmond, Virginia, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Steubenville, Ohio.
She spends much for her off-duty time in community work and is open about her struggle with depression, hoping to break down the stigma surrounding mental health. She has worked with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and is strongly involved in the Asian-American community. Some of her past and present philanthropic affiliations include: The Asian Professional Exchange (APEX) which is a big brother/big sister program. Cindy and her little sister have been together for more than two decades. She’s also worked with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Humane Society of New York, The Children’s Miracle Network and the Museum of Chinese in America.
Cindy served as President of the New York Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, and paddled for years on a championship Dragon Boating team called Women in Canoe.
Cindy’s parents immigrated from China. Her father was a Coast Guard pilot, so the family moved every two to four years. Cindy was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and graduated from Virginia Tech. She lives in New York City with her daughter Rosie and their rescue dog Lilo.
Jennifer Egan photo credit: Pieter M. Van Hattem
