Gender-based abuse and violence—at home, in the workplace, online, and in other public and private spaces—has a deep impact on the economic security and financial prosperity of women and their families. As federal resources to support survivors are shrinking within and outside the U.S., many organizations that support them are struggling to continue their work. Today, more than ever, sharing survivors’ stories is important to galvanizing and informing public and philanthropic support of solutions.
Watch our latest national dialogue, Why Gender-Based Violence Is an Economic Issue, to learn more and consider how storytelling can lift up both challenges and solutions. Women in the Economy founder Heather McCulloch led the discussion with guests Sonya Passi, founder and CEO of FreeFrom; Ana López Van Balen, Vice President of Futures Without Violence; and Céline Apollon, filmmaker and John Lewis Fulbright Scholar.
The Women in the Economy Dialogues, hosted by the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, is a podcast-style webinar series featuring in-depth discussions with authors, journalists, filmmakers, and other thought leaders about how to redesign our economy so women can strive, thrive, and fully contribute to their family’s financial security and our nation’s economic growth.
*Note: Women in the Economy uses a definition of “women” that is inclusive of cis-, transgender, and nonbinary people; and we welcome all LGBTQIA+ people in our research and convenings. Our definition of “working women” includes women who are providing care without compensation.
Speakers
Céline Apollon, Filmmaker and John Lewis Fulbright Scholar
Céline Apollon is a researcher, designer, and filmmaker with a life’s calling to support the healing journeys of survivors of gender-based violence. Her technical background is in community-driven urban design and research to advance gender-equity within the built environment. Currently she is based in Congo Brazzaville as a John Lewis Fulbright Scholar researching ways of co-creating safe spaces with survivors. She also consults on projects in women’s safety and economic security at the World Bank and the Aspen Institute. Behind the scenes, she is galvanizing a multidisciplinary and Pan-African movement called “CONSOLATION” with shelter organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa by leveraging participatory research, innovative financing, and survivor-directed storytelling to innovate safe spaces that enable survivors to heal and thrive in place.
Ana López Van Balen, Vice President, Futures Without Violence
Ana Lόpez van Balen is the Vice President of Economic Security and Opportunity at Futures Without Violence, whose mission is to drive culture, policy, and systems change to achieve a thriving and equitable world for women, children, and all people. Her work includes overseeing the national resource center Workplaces Responds, which offers free resources, training, and technical assistance to employers, workers, and advocates to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual harassment and violence, and stalking impacting the workplace. She has over twenty years of executive experience working alongside community stakeholders at the local and national level supporting businesses and local jurisdictions in addressing the systemic structures that impact the social and economic needs of vulnerable families and individuals. Ms. Van Balen comes to this work with a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Social Work and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University in Human & Organizational Development with a concentration in Community Development and Social Policy. She has a Certificate in Public Management from George Washington University’s Council of Governments Institute for Regional Excellence. She is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Daily Record’s Maryland’s Top 100 Women, a Center for Progressive Leadership Executive Fellow, a Washingtonian of the Year, and Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation Exponent Award winner.
Sonya Passi, Founder and CEO FreeFrom
Sonya Passi is the founder of FreeFrom, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping survivors of gender-based violence achieve economic justice and long-term financial stability. Through her work, she’s helped disperse over $1.8MM in emergency cash grants to survivors across the US and Puerto Rico, supported 1,800+ survivors in saving nearly $1MM via FreeFrom’s national Savings Match Program, and successfully advocated for legislation and corporate policy that has created new financial protections for more than 5.3 million survivors in the US. These efforts, coupled with the founding of the Family Violence Appellate Project, the first and only organization in California to provide pro bono appellate legal services to survivors of intimate partner violence, and the creation of Gifted by FreeFrom, a survivor-centered social enterprise, have solidified her reputation as a next-generation thought leader. In addition to her advocacy work, Sonya is the co-founder and CEO of CHANI — the tech and media startup behind the eponymous viral astrology app for self-discovery, mindfulness, and healing with over 2.5 million readers and a 50% growth rate for subscribers and revenue year over year.
Heather McCulloch, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
Heather McCulloch is a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and a national thought leader on gender economic equity. She founded and leads Women in the Economy (WE), a national initiative focused on engaging and convening thought leaders from across sectors to build an economy that works for women* and she is supporting the Aspen FSP Future of Wealth portfolio.
Heather has more than two decades of experience working as an advocate and thought leader focused on closing the gender and racial wealth gaps and building an equitable economy. Prior to joining Aspen, she founded and led Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap (CWWG), a multiracial/ethnic, cross-sector network of leaders working together to advance gender economic equity in the U.S. She is the principal and founder of Asset Building Strategies, a national consulting firm focused on building the financial security of low-wealth families and communities; and she was a founding staff member of the national nonprofit PolicyLink.
Her insights have been covered in major news publications, including CNN Business, Fast Company, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, NPR Marketplace, Slate, and USA Today. She earned an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.