Media

Media

Contact:

Sylvia Paull
[email protected]
510-527-0450
510-388-8932 (cell)

ENGAGE HER ANNOUNCES FIRST MULTICULTURAL WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
Conference Opens a New Dialog Among All Women To Create Next Generation of Leaders

March 10, 2009 (Berkeley, CA) – Engage Her, Inc. – a non-profit organization focused on activating the voices of all women, particularly those from African American, Asian American Pacific Islander, Latino and other cultural communities – is hosting the first Multicultural Women’s Leadership Conference at the University of California, Berkeley, from April 25 to 26. More than 400 women from diverse communities across the U.S. have been invited to participate in workshops organized by their peers to find ways to create leaders for what in California is already the “New Majority” and will become the New Majority for the rest of the nation by 2024.

Mable F. Yee, Engage Her founder, said the April conference will kick off what is becoming a new women’s movement. It is only fitting then, that the two-day event will be capped by “The Four Legends of Feminism:” Gloria Steinem, Dolores Huerta, Aileen Hernandez, and Yuri Kochiyama, in conversation with two future women leaders at the Scottish Rite Temple in Oakland, on April 26. This event is open to the public and tickets will be available at www.engageher.org on March 10, 2009.

The conference will feature national women leaders from all generations and all cutures, including Gloria Steinem, co-founder of the Womens Media Center and Ms. Foundation; Dolores Huerta, cofounder of the Farm Workers Union and the Dolores Huerta Foundation; Aileen Hernandez, former president of NOW, and cofounder of Black Women Stirring the Waters; Helen Zia, author, activist and board co-chair for the Womens Media Center; Maria Teresa Petersen, executive director of VotoLatino.org; Marie Wilson, founder of The White House Project; Lesley Pinckney, general manager of Essence.com; Joan Blades, cofounder of Moveon.org and Momsrising.org; and Arlene Blum, founder of the Green Science Policy Institute, pioneering women’s expedition leader, and author.

Conference co-sponsors include the California Women’s Legislative Caucus, the California Commission on the Status of Women, Women’s Media Center, The White House Project, Votolatino.org, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, NAACP, Momsrising.org, The National Council for Research on Women, the Green Science Policy Institute, Emerge California, and many more. Lead sponsorship for Engage Her’s conference includes the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.

Engage Her was founded in 2008 by CEO Yee, an entrepreneur, activist, and film producer, with thirty years in the technology industry, where she specialized in companies that market to women. She is the co-producer of the documentary, “Engage Her: Getting minority women to lead and vote.” This film interviews minority women and chronicles the reasons why a significant percentage of them do not lead and vote.

“While multicultural women are the New Majority’ in California, men continue to dominate decision-making roles in the three key institutions that influence our nation: corporations, government, and media,” Yee said. She continued, “We need to create and fill a national pipeline of qualified and competent multicultural women to assume the mantle of leadership.”

Lesley Pinckney, of Essence.com, commented, “This conference starts a much-needed dialogue that has the ability to rapidly transform our entire society leveraging technology instead of one woman at a time — which as we all know was the way it’s worked since the beginning.”

The Engage Her conference is attracting and training a new generation of multicultural women leaders. One of the participants selected as a “conference team leader,” stated on her application: “When I first found out that Engage Her was hosting such a revolutionary conference for minority women, my heart lit up with joy. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Riverside, I selected my major of Political Science- International Relations for the simple fact that I wanted to inspire other women like myself to go and change the world.”

About Engage Her
Engage Her was co-founded in 2008 by Mable F. Yee and Mina Wilson to activate and educate multicultural women and communities across a broad spectrum of social, political, and educational issues leveraging the newest media and technologies. Wilson is an educational consultant for the healthcare industry, high-tech companies, and colleges and a community activist. She has spent the past twenty years engaged in the business of educating people and developing educational initiatives utilizing information technology. She is the president of the NAACP branch in El Cerrito, CA.

For more information about Engage Her and the conference, see hthttp://www.engageher.org/.

NOVEMBER 20, 2008
The Women’s Media Center
The Progressive Women’s Voices program, Change The Conversation video

OCTOBER 30, 2008
Oakland North
New project urging more women of color to vote

OCTOBER 25, 2008
Feministing
Mable Yee: Who isn’t votiing?

OCTOBER 23, 2008
L.A. Watts Times, pg. 8
Women of Color Mobilize to Get Out the Vote

OCTOBER 22, 2008
East Bay Express
Engaging Women of Color – Entrepreneur’s latest startup aims to address why minority women don’t vote

OCTOBER 14, 2008 (Berkeley, CA)
Engage Her Announces Get-Out-the-Vote-Giveaway to All Public Libraries
Publicly Acclaimed Documentary Motivates Minorities To Engage in Political Actions

Engage Her, a 48-minute documentary produced to inspire women minorities to lead and vote, will be released for free to all public libraries in the United States, announced Mable Yee, cofounder and president of Engage Her, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and activating women leaders among the minority communities in this country. The film was produced by Yee and Victoria Ponce, who also directed the feature, and includes interviews with prominent minority women leaders such as Dolores Huerta, Aileen Hernandez, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and Janis Hirohama, League of Women Voters California President, to discover why nearly 70 percent of Asian Americans and Latinas, and 40 percent of African American women filed to vote in the 2004 election. A trailer of the film is available at www.engageher.org, and a Mandarin version is also available upon request.

Yee says the organization was born out of the need to bring a voice to the more than 30 million minority women who are invisible in the media and lack adequate representation in our government. “These are the women whose children and families are most impacted by our education, health, and work policies, and yet our issues and concerns are not addressed. It’s as if we don’t exist.”

“Starting with this film, and later with massive online campaigns to address issues that concern our constituents, we will use Engage Her as a platform to educate and activate women, minorities and communities to step up and influence our nation’s policies. Without our involvement, we lack a real democracy and our issues continue to be ignored,” Yee adds. The film is available to libraries who email the organization at [email protected] with contact information and the name of their library. In return, Engage Her requests information about when the film will be publicly screened so that it can post the event to its web site.

Engage Her is partnering with scores of national and regional minority, women and leadership organizations, including Votolatino.org, Colorofchange.org, Mobilize Immigrant Voters, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Momsrising.org, League of Women Voters, The White House Project, Womens Media Center and Democracy for America. Engage Her plans to develop initiatives with partners on the issues of health, education, jobs, and the environment.

By bringing minority women’s voices to the table, Engage Her hopes to achieve political representation and hold elected officials accountable for their actions. The nonprofit organization plans to harness the speed, scale, and reach of the Internet to rapidly engage members and leverage its members to demand change.

“We’ve had enough of candidates coming every four years to solicit our vote, and then disappearing until the next election without addressing the real issues that exist within our communities” says Mina Wilson, Vice President.

Engage Her, Inc., was founded in November, 2007 to activate and educate minorities, women and communities across a broad spectrum of social and political i ssues. Cofounder Mable Yee is an entrepreneur, activist, and film producer, with thirty years in the technology industry, where she specialized in companies that market to women. Mina Wilson, cofounder of Engage Her, is an educational consultant for the healthcare industry, high-tech companies, colleges and a community activist. Wilson has spent the past twenty years engaged in the business of educating people and developing educational initiatives utilizing information technology. Engage Her film director Maria Victoria Ponce is a graduate of the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. The majority of her work is in documentary filmmaking and exploring fiction narratives.

OCTOBER 14, 2008 (Berkeley, CA)
Engage Her Announces Broadcast of Documentary in Mandarin
Publicly Acclaimed Documentary Motivates Women & Minorities to Take Political Action

October 14, 2008 (Berkeley, CA) – “Engage Her: Getting Minority Women to Lead and Vote”, a 48-minute documentary produced to inspire women minorities to participate in the political process, will be broadcast on the Dialogue 360 show in Mandarin. Jay Stone Shih is the producer and news anchor of this highly regarded program. The half-hour news show is carried on cable to millions of Mandarin-speaking viewers. The documentary will be broadcast in two segments, on October 16, and October 17, 2008 from 10:30-11:00 p.m. It is broadcast on Channel 38 or Comcast Channel 21 in Northern California.

Mable F. Yee, CEO & co-founder of the social action start-up EngageHer.org , hailed the broadcast as an historic outreach to the huge population of Chinese-speaking voters. The Chinese is the largest single community in the national Asian American Pacific Islander population. The film, co-produced by Yee and Director Maria Victoria Ponce, interviews leading minority women, including Germaine Wong, Chairperson of Chinese for Affirmative Action; Janis Hirohama, League of Women Voters California President; Lillian Galedo, Executive Director of Filipinos for Affirmative Action; Dr. Gwendolyn Mok, Associate Professor at San Jose State University; Margaret Ouye, Internment camp detainee; Congresswoman Barbara Lee; social activist Dolores Huerta and non-voters. The film shares their personal stories and explores the complex reasons why nearly 70 percent of Asian Americans and Latinas, and 40 percent of African American women, failed to vote in the 2004 elections. The movie trailer is available at www.engageher.org.

Getting the 30+ million minority women in the U.S. engaged in voting and leadership spurred Yee and Mina Wilson, a community activist and education consultant, to form EngageHer.org.

Yee says the organization was born out of the need to bring a voice to minority women, who are invisible in the media and lack adequate representation in our government, “These are the women whose children and families are most impacted by our inadequate education, health, and work policies, and yet our issues and concerns are not addressed. It’s as if we don’t exist.”

“We will use Engage Her as a platform to educate and activate women, minorities and communities to step up and influence our nation’s policies. Without our involvement, we lack a real democracy and our issues continue to be ignored,” Yee adds. “By creating a film that shows women discussing the cultural, social and political barriers that prevent or influence their voting behavior, is crucial to accelerating the process of engaging this huge block of voters and future leaders. To have our film translated with Chinese subtitles allows us to engage this population of voters in their own language so that they can better understand the reasons and need to participate in the voting and political process.”

In addition to the documentary, Engage Her is partnering with scores of national and regional minority, women and leadership organizations, including Mobilize Immigrant Voters, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Votolatino.org, Colorofchange.org, Momsrising.org, League of Women Voters, The White House Project, Women’s Media Center, Democracy for America and more. They will be collaborating to develop new initiatives to address their key issues of concern: Education, Health, the Economy, the Environment and Social Justice.

By bringing minority women’s voices to the table, EngageHer.org plans to achieve political representation and hold elected officials accountable for their actions. The nonprofit organization is harnessing the speed, scale, and reach of the Internet to rapidly engage members and leverage its members to demand change.

Engage Her, Inc., was founded in November, 2007 to activate and educate minorities, women and communities across a broad spectrum of social and political issues. Cofounder & CEO Mable F. Yee is an entrepreneur, activist, and film producer. She has spent 30 years in the technology industry and has cofounded three start up companies with specialization in markets focused on women’s needs. Mina Wilson, cofounder of Engage Her, is an educational consultant for the healthcare industry, high-tech companies, colleges and a community activist. Wilson has spent the past twenty years engaged in the business of educating people and developing educational initiatives utilizing information technology. Engage Her film director Maria Victoria Ponce is a graduate of the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. The majority of her work is in documentary filmmaking and exploring narratives.

OCTOBER 9, 2008 (Berkeley, CA)
Interview with Mable Yee, founder of EngageHer.org
Mable Yee interviewed on KPFA’s “Living Room”
(interview starts about 15:20 into the show.)

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
“INVISIBLE NO MORE”
ENGAGE HER AIMS TO ACTIVATE 30 MILLION UNHEARD VOICES
Online Organization Launches National Digital Campaign

Getting the 30+ million minority women in the U.S. engaged in voting and leadership is the goal of a new social start up, Engage Her, Inc. (www.engageher.org). Cofounded by Internet entrepreneur and social activist Mable Yee and Mina Wilson, a community activist and education consultant, Engage Her will leverage the power of the Internet to activate and educate women, minorities and communities around five key issues: Education, Health, the Economy, the Environment and Social Justice.

Beginning on Sept. 10, a new documentary called “Engage Her: Getting Minority Women To Lead and Vote,” directed by Maria Victoria Ponce and produced by Yee and Ponce, will be viewed at community theaters and house parties throughout the country. The film interviews leading minority women, including Congresswoman Barbara Lee, social activist Dolores Huerta, League of Women Voters California President, Janis Hirohama, and non-voters to explore the complex reasons why nearly 70 percent of Asian Americans and Latinas, and 40 percent of African American women, failed to vote in the 2004 elections. The movie trailer is available at www.engageher.org Translations of the film into different languages are under development.

Yee, co-founder and CEO, says the organization was born out of the need to bring a voice to the more than 30 million minority women who are invisible in the media and lack adequate representation in our government. “These are the women whose children and families are most impacted by our education, health, and work policies, and yet our issues and concerns are not addressed. It’s as if we don’t exist.”

In addition to the documentary, Engage Her is partnering with scores of national and regional minority, women and leadership organizations, including Votolatino.org, Colorofchange.org, Mobilize Immigrant Voters, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Momsrising.org, League of Women Voters, The White House Project, Womens Media Center and Democracy for America. Engage Her plans to develop initiatives with partners on the five key issues mentioned above.

Engage Her, Inc., was founded in November, 2007 to activate and educate minorities, women and communities across a broad spectrum of social and political issues. Cofounder Mable Yee is an entrepreneur, activist, and film producer, with thirty years in the technology industry, where she specialized in companies that market to women. Mina Wilson, cofounder of Engage Her, is an educational consultant for the healthcare industry, high-tech companies, colleges and a community activist. Wilson has spent the past twenty years engaged in the business of educating people and developing educational initiatives utilizing information technology. Engage Her film director Maria Victoria Ponce is a graduate of the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. The majority of her work is in documentary filmmaking and exploring fiction narratives.

MARCH 20, 2008
Nichi Bei Times Weekly
Working to Engage Minority Women to Vote

For media inquiries, please contact:
Mable Yee
[email protected]
510.918.3700

Sylvia Paull
[email protected]
510.388.8932