Women At The Helm 2013
President and CEO, GLAAD
Media virtuoso Sarah Kate Ellis is the brains behind some of our national media brands’ biggest success stories—and she’ll use her wide-ranging experience in her new role, as president and CEO of GLAAD. Her direction and ideas have energized outlets including Real Simple, Vogue, House & Garden, InStyle and New York, and she’s also using those skills to empower our community. As a cochair of OUT at Time, Inc., this outspoken advocate and brilliant communications strategist led programming to spotlight the diversity of the LGBT community and worked to educate the organization’s straight allies on LGBT issues. Throughout her career, she has earned seven MIN awards for marketing innovation, two President’s Awards, and MIN’s Sales Executive Team of the Year award in 2012, and recently served as Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Martini Media. You might also recognize Ellis from the memoir she co-authored with her wife Kristen Ellis-Henderson in 2011, Times Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made, an autobiography about their simultaneous pregnancies and road to motherhood. What’s she up to now? Let’s just say the board of directors of GLAAD didn’t have to look far to find the perfect candidate to serve as their new leader: Ellis will step into the role in January, in GLAAD’s NYC office. Ellis says she’s excited to further cultivate GLAAD’s work in the media and share stories from our community: “I look forward to creating a world where LGBT people and our families have the freedom to joyously—and openly—live a life they love!”
Today, business owners incorporate their beliefs in fairness and equality into their work. Nonprofit directors combine their passion for social justice with managerial prowess. Meet the new wave of out leaders who talk the talk and walk the walk.
NADIA MUNOZ
Owner, Munoz Law PC/Emblem IP
Intellectual property attorney Nadia Munoz launched her private practice to prove that law doesn’t need to be stuffy, boring or cost-prohibitive. Plus, she’s better able to tackle cases aligned with her primary interests: startups, minority/ women entrepreneurs and the tech industry. Though her law career began in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, her hometown, Munoz found a home in Manhattan. And her business is taking off. The practice is founded on the belief that passion and inspiration aren’t products of a miraculous, metaphorical lighting bolt. Instead, they’re fostered by serious intellectual effort and a carefully laid out game plan. Munoz cites the strong women in her life, especially her teachers, mother, grandmother and partner Martha as continuous sources of inspiration. They instilled in her a sense of courage, drive and dedication—traits abundantly clear in her approach to helping clients protect and enact their ideas. Munoz’s undeniable knack for transforming concepts into solid action plans with measurable results has clients taking notice. “When you’re doing something because you want to—not because it’s trendy, not because you think you should—whether you succeed or fail is irrelevant,” she says. “By staying true to your values and goals, you’ll learn powerful personal lessons from every experience, and will be able to wake up in the morning motivated to keep trying.”
