Julianna Margulies and Connie Britton Honor the Voices of the Year

By Amanda Lederman

At #BlogHer, it is our mission to recognize and support diverse female content creators, influencers, and social advocates. Every year, we honor the Voices of the Year (#VOTY) who deserve to be heard, seen, read and shared. Next week at #BlogHer19, we are humbled to recognize five stand-out women, Alexandra Posen, J Marcelle Lashley Kaboré, Joanne Ramos, Tara Greer and Monica Ramirez, for the impact their life’s work is making on society. Their stories have made us think, feel, and aspire us to find our own greatness from within.

Connie Britton will be awarding Alexandra Posen with the Art as Impact Award. Alexandra is the co-founder and visual artist and designer behind Resistance by Design, a company that creates thoughtfully designed products that aim to amplify, empower and support women. Alexandra is a passionate advocate for women’s rights, human rights, LGBTQ rights, black lives, immigrants, science, and so many other front-facing topics. Resistance by Design was created for women to be able to wear their values with pride. This year, they will be collaborating with NARAL on launching a FOR FREEDOM scarf. This new design celebrates the brave and diverse efforts made by leaders, activists and everyday people to build a country where women are equal partners in society.

Reshma Gopaldas will be awarding J Marcelle Lashley Kaboré (our community #VOTY) with the Trailblazer Award. J Marcelle Lashley Kaboré is an immigrant, advocate, global socialpreneur, Emmy nominated producer, and curator of #TheGlobalGoddessExperience by Girls With Knowledge, Inc. Her goal is to provide an empowerment platform and incubator space to cultivate young activists, entrepreneurs, and the world’s next global leaders. She has produced experiential marketing events for the largest brands in pop culture, and has curated interactive education platforms of empowerment for society’s most marginalized, making her an experiential maven.

Alysia Reiner will be awarding Tara Geer with the Impact Award. Tara will be recognized for her work with Action Potluck, which offers help to families separated that have been separated or anyone needing asylum. Action Potluck/Sanctuary Neighborhoods is a coalition of grassroots activists in collaboration with local Houses of Worship to support families and keep diverse communities whole.

Julianna Margulies will be awarding Joanne Ramos with the Storyteller Award. The Farm, her debut novel, is a national bestseller and has been longlisted for the Center of Fiction’s 2019 First Novel Prize. Joanne channels her Phillipinne roots in the novel’s main character, Jane, who takes a job at Golden Oaks, a secluded, country club in Hudson Valley, NY where mostly foreign women are bearing children for elite clients who are not able to get pregnant or who choose not to. The Farm was named a most anticipated book by over twenty outlets, including O Magazine, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and more.

Diane Guerrero will be awarding Monica Ramirez with the Changemaker Award. Monica comes from a farmworker family, and her passion for her rural Latinx culture and family is the driving force behind her life’s work as an advocate, grassroots organizer, social entrepreneur and attorney fighting to eliminate gender-based violence and secure gender equity. For more than two decades, she has fought for the civil and human rights for all. As board president of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, she penned the “Dear Sisters” letter published by TIME on behalf of farmworker women, and most recently she joined America Ferrera, Eva Longoria, Diane Guerrero and more than 150 other Latinx leaders in entertainment and industry in an open letter of support to the community following the El Paso shooting. She is a believer that the world can be a place of peace if we all come together in love.

Please join us in congratulating our honorees, who will be presented their awards throughout #BlogHer19 Creators Summit on September 18th and 19th.

Meet Our VOTY Presenters

Connie Britton is a four-time Emmy nominated actress who continually receives accolades for her work in television and film. She is best known for her Emmy® award-nominated roles starring Friday Night Lights and Nashville, which also earned her a Golden Globe® nomination. She received another Emmy® Award nomination for her role in the first installment of American Horror Story. Connie most recently starred in and executive produced Bravo’s new scripted series, Dirty John, based on the true story of a successful business woman and mother who fell for a charismatic con-man. In addition, she has starred in Ryan Murphy’s 9-1-1 and in the Golden Globe® nominated, SMILF. Additional television credits include: American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, Spin City, 24, and The West Wing. Her film credits include Professor Marston & the Wonder Woman, Beatriz at Dinner, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, This Is Where I Leave You, The To-Do List, Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, American Ultra and The Brothers McMullen, where she made her feature film debut.

Alysia Reiner the award winning actress and producer (“Fig” on ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK) joined HBO’s THE DEUCE for season 2&3, & all 3 seasons of FX’s BETTER THINGS. Her motherhood dark-comedic feature EGG, which she produced & stars in w/ Christina Hendricks & Anna Camp was released in January, 100% fresh on rotten tomatoes & is on iTunes, Amazon & VOD Now. Additionally, Alysia produced & starred in EQUITY, bought/distributed by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance 2016. Alysia loves working as a change maker for women, is an ambassador for the Geena Davis Institute for Gender Equality, a member of TIMES UP, recently received a MUSE “MADE IN NY” AWARD from The Mayor’s office & New York Women in Film & Television, & is passionately committed to protecting the environment (livariclothing.com!)

Diane Guerrero is an actress, author and activist who is well known for starring as “Maritza Ramos” on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, for which she received three Screen Actors Guild awards. Additionally she currently stars as “Crazy Jane” in DC Comic’s Doom Patrol and received a 2019 Imagen Award nomination for “Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.” Her other credits include playing “Lina” on The CW’s Jane the Virgin. Sofia in the CBS comedy series Superior Donuts and she can be heard as the voice of “Jessica Cruz/Green Lantern” in Warner Bros. animated film, Justice League vs. The Fatal Five. In 2015, Guerrero was named a White House Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization. She is an outspoken advocate for commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform and has worked with Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan Latino civic engagement organization to promote citizenship and voter registration. Additionally, that year she was named as one of Variety’s “10 Latino’s to Watch.” Guerrero is also an acclaimed author and her memoir titled, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, was released by Henry Holt publishing in 2016. She released her second book, My Family Divided, in 2018.

Julianna Margulies is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award winner who has achieved success in television, theatre, and film. Most recently, Margulies starred in National Geographic’s limited series “The Hot Zone,” based on the best-selling book written by Richard Preston.

Margulies starred and produced the CBS hit show The Good Wife as Alicia Florrick, a role that won her two Emmy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Critics Choice Award. The series ran for seven seasons.

Other TV credits include her multi-episode guest role in HBO’s The Sopranos, The Grid, a mini-series from TNT and the BBC (Golden Globe nomination), and TNT’s original mini-series The Mists of Avalon (Golden Globe nomination), opposite Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen. Margulies also starred as one of the original members of the groundbreaking show ER, for which she received both an Emmy Award and four SAG Awards as nurse Carol Hathaway.

Other TV credits include her multi-episode guest role in HBO’s The Sopranos, The Grid, a mini-series from TNT and the BBC (Golden Globe nomination), and TNT’s original mini-series The Mists of Avalon (Golden Globe nomination), opposite Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen. Margulies also starred as one of the original members of the groundbreaking show ER, for which she received both an Emmy Award and four SAG Awards as nurse Carol Hathaway.

On stage, Margulies made her Broadway debut in 2006 starring in Festen directed by Rufus Norris. Margulies completed a successful run in Jon Robin Baitz’s Ten Unknowns at Lincoln Center for which she won the Lucille Lortel Award. Other theater credits include: The Vagina Monologues, both Off-Broadway and the Los Angeles premiere, and Intrigue with Faye off- Broadway.

She has personally been involved in Project ALS since its inception and Erin’s Law. She is a long-standing board member of the New York City-based theater company MCC, a company dedicated to giving the American.

Meet Our VOTY Recipients

Alexandra Posen is the co-founder and artist behind Resistance by Design, a company that creates politically opinionated and thoughtfully designed products that aim to amplify, empower and support women. This year Resistance by Design has been thrilled to collaborate with NARAL on launching the FOR FREEDOM scarf—an elegant new design that celebrates the brave and diverse efforts made by leaders, activists and everyday people to build a country where women are equal partners in society. Prior to founding Resistance by Design in 2018, Alexandra co-founded Zac Posen (her brother’s eponymous fashion company) where as Creative Director she worked to establish the label as a global brand. As a visual artist, Posen’s multi-media work has been shown and collected internationally.

J Marcelle Lashley Kaboré has produced Experiential Marketing Events for the largest brands in pop culture, and has curated Interactive Education platforms of empowerment for society’s most marginalized, making her an Experiential Maven. As a 5x NY Emmy®️Nominated Producer, highly decorated Events Marketing Guru and Global “Socialpreneur” she defies boundaries and eradicates labels by maximizing her skillset to support her purpose-driven life and passion-fueled endeavors. She is the Founder & CEO of Girls With Knowledge, Inc. a 501C3 whose goal is to provide an empowerment platform and incubator space to cultivate young activists, entrepreneurs, and the world’s next global leaders.

Tara Geer Before election day of 2016, Tara Geer spent most of her time drawing. Her work is in the collections of many museums including the Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum, the Parrish, the NY Historical Society, and the Canadian Museum in Toronto. She’s had solo drawing shows in LA and in NY, and exhibited almost continuously for a decade. There are 2 books about her work; Carrying Silence: The Drawings of Tara Geer; and New York Studio Conversations. She teaches drawing at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is funded by the National Science Foundation to study drawing. Her art website is tarageer.com. Her grassroots group is launching a website this week: sanctuaryneighborhoods.nyc.

Joanne Ramos was born in the Philippines and moved to Wisconsin when she was six. She graduated with a B.A. from Princeton University. After working in investment banking and private-equity investing for several years, she became a staff writer at The Economist. She currently serves on the board of The Moth and lives in New York City with her family. The Farm, her debut novel, is a national bestseller and has been longlisted for the Center of Fiction’s 2019 First Novel Prize.

Monica Ramirez is a long-time advocate, organizer, social entrepreneur and attorney fighting to eliminate gender-based violence and secure gender equity. For over two decades, she has fought for the civil and human rights of women, children, workers, Latinos/as and immigrants. In 2003, Mónica created the first legal project in the United States dedicated to addressing gender discrimination against farmworker women, which she scaled to create Esperanza: The Immigrant Women’s Legal Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition to founding Justice for Migrant Women, Mónica co-founded Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. She has been awarded numerous awards for her work, including Harvard Kennedy School’s inaugural Gender Equity Changemaker Award, the Feminist Majority’s Global Women’s Rights Award, and Forbes Mexico included her on its 2018 list of 100 Powerful Women, among other distinctions.