Rebecca Haile, co-founder and executive director of the U.S.-based non-profit organization Ethiopia Education Initiatives, Inc., has been elected as Board Chair of EMILY’s List, one of the largest women associations in the United States. (Photo: Rebecca Haile speaking at The Haile-Manas Academy Groundbreaking Ceremony & Luncheon in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia on December 30th, 2018/Tadias File)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Updated: December 19th, 2020
New York (TADIAS) – EMILY’s List, America’s largest resource for women in politics that helps to elect Democratic female candidates into public office, has elected Ethiopian American entrepreneur and philanthropist Rebecca Haile as its new Board Chair.
“After a second consecutive record-breaking cycle, EMILY’s List announced several leadership changes today, including EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock stepping down in spring 2021 after 11 years in charge,” the organization said in a press release. “In addition, EMILY’s List Founder and Board Chair Ellen Malcolm is becoming the Chair Emerita and EMILY’s List board member Rebecca Haile was elected Board Chair. EMILY’s List’s board also voted to form a search committee and move to the next steps in finding a new president.”
The press release added: “This change in leadership comes as EMILY’s List is at its strongest position yet, following two record cycles and the incredible growth of Democratic women running for office.”
In the past decade “EMILY’s List has raised more than $460 million for the organization and our candidates and spent $160 million in independent expenditures” while endorsing “more than 1,800 women, elected nearly 1,000 women up and down the ballot, and trained more than 14,000 women.”
The organization notes that EMILY’s List’s new Board Chair Rebecca Haile is an entrepreneur in business and philanthropy. “She is the co-founder and executive director of Ethiopia Education Initiatives, Inc., that seeks to provide world-class educational opportunities for talented Ethiopian students and has already started its first school in central Ethiopia. Rebecca is also a Senior Advisor at Foros, an independent strategic and M&A advisory boutique firm she helped establish in 2009. Rebecca is a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She is the author of Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia, a memoir of her return to Ethiopia after her family’s forced exile following the 1974 revolution and 25 years in the United States. Rebecca is a board member of the Brearley School, an independent K-12 girls’ school in New York City and a former Trustee of Freedom House, a human rights organization.”
In a statement Rebecca Haile said: “I look forward to working with the staff, the board, and our next president to change the face of American politics for generations to come.”
According to the announcement:
“With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY’s List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country’s first woman as vice president, 157 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40 percent of the candidates EMILY’s List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY’s List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.”
“I’m so glad Rebecca will be the new Chair because she has the skills, commitment, and vision to guide us through this next transition. I’m eager to stay on the board and assist her in any way possible,” said Ellen Malcolm, EMILY’s List’s founder and Chair Emerita.
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Related:
Spotlight: The Haile-Manas Academy, A New World Class School in Ethiopia
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