Women Mean Business Luncheon 2025

Maya Wiley Esq.
President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Keynote Speaker

Maya Wiley is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. A nationally respected civil rights attorney, Wiley has been a litigator at the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc., and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In 2014, she became the first Black woman to be Counsel to a New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, where she worked to protect and expand civil rights, Minority and Women-Owned Business contracts and broadband access. Wiley became the Henry Cohen Professor of Public and Urban Policy at the Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment where she founded the Digital Equity Laboratory and also served as the Senior Vice President for Social Justice at the New School University. She has served on the New York City Automated Decisions Systems Task Force and the Atlantic Council Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web. She has received numerous awards, including being named one of the World’s 100 Most Influential Leaders in Digital Government by Apolitical. Wiley has been a public voice for rights, justice, and democracy, through written opinion editorials and as a former legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.

Kristine Johsnon
CBS New York Anchor 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Emcee

Kristine Johnson currently anchors the 5 p.m. & 11 p.m. news at the CBS owned and operated station in New York City. She joined CBS New York in the fall of 2006. Since then, she has been the recipient of several Emmy awards.

Kristine has navigated her viewers through numerous breaking news events. Including, Hurricane Sandy, the Newtown school massacre, the Boston marathon bombings and two separate papal visits to the Big Apple. She also anchors weekly on the network’s digital streaming platform, is a fill-in anchor for “CBS Mornings” and has filed reports for “CBS Sunday Morning.”

In 1994, Kristine began her career at WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island. She was hired as a part-time assignment editor. Over the next 10 years she transitioned through several production positions to her ultimate goal of reporting. Kristine left Providence for New York City in 2004. She was hired by MSNBC and anchored daytime coverage.

Kristine is honored to represent CBS News New York at various events around the Tri-State Area. She’s worked closely with the greater New York chapters of the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure, March of Dimes, The Brain Tumor Foundation and the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Run.

Kristine lives with her family in Northern New Jersey. She completed two NYC marathons and credits yoga for keeping her “balanced.”

Lou and Helen Lowenstein
Philanthropic Honorees in Memoriam