Who We AreWomen's Media Group is a New York City-based nonprofit association of women who have achieved prominence in the many fields of media. Our members—drawn primarily from print and digital book, magazine, and newspaper publishing; film and television; and online and other digital media—meet to collaborate with, learn from, inform, and support one another. The organization is also dedicated to mentoring young women interested in pursuing media careers. |
Upcoming Events
Free for WMG members; $15 for non-members (Zoom) Maintaining financial wellness in today's turbulent economy can feel like an impossible job. The task is even more arduous for women, with 2025 studies placing the global gender pay gap around 20%. Though that divide is closing, its existence means there is still work to be done to ensure equal pay for equal work. Join Women's Media Group for a timely discussion about the relationship between gender, race, and pay equity. We will be joined by a panel of industry leaders to explore the real challenges women face—and the strategies that actually work to get the compensation we deserve. Meet the speakers:
Sophia Reynoso is a seasoned advertising professional with over 20 years of experience leading multi-channel marketing campaigns and producing award-winning work for a variety of top-tier brands, clients, and categories. Throughout her career, Sophia has served as Director of Advertising for the Americas at Louis Vuitton and led multidisciplinary teams at globally renowned agencies including Mediacom (WPP), Translation, and Havas. Sophia actively serves as an executive advisor at Until There Are Nine, a career intelligence platform that provides strategic guidance to women in an effort to close the pay and promotion gender gap. Sophia is a passionate advocate for empowering professionals to accelerate their career growth.
Meet the moderator:
Francesca Donner is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Persistent, a women-run, independent media organization. Founded in 2024,The Persistent covers the world—from politics to money to culture to health—through its twice-weekly newsletter, as well as events, conversation, and community. Francesca is the former gender director at The New York Times and a founding member of its Gender Initiative. She was also editor of In Her Words, a newsletter and column which drew an audience of around 300,000. Prior to The New York Times, Francesca served as a deputy editor at The Wall Street Journal, where she focused on business and leadership. She was also an executive editor at Quartz, a leading business publication, and she was a founding editor of Forbes’ ForbesWoman initiative.
Refunds available up to 48 hours before the event. No refunds for cancellations made within 48 hours of the event.
Wednesday, May 6, 6-8 p.m. ET WMG members only, $30; WMG Scholars $15 To be held in a private apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Address to be shared with program registration confirmation. Space is limited.
Meet the speakers:
Refunds available up to 48 hours before the event. No refunds for cancellations made within 48 hours of the event.
WMG members only; FREE (Zoom) Join WMG Co-President Jane Wesman to welcome incoming Co-President Jacqueline Cripps and celebrate the WMG Board at our Virtual Member Social! This is a community-building celebration for all Women’s Media Group members. It's a chance to pause, connect, and invest in your professional community. We’ll begin with a warm welcome from WMG’s leadership, then move into facilitated breakout sessions where you’ll introduce yourself, highlight a current goal or challenge, and meet peers whose skills or interests might align with yours. Afterwards, we’ll bring everyone back together for a wrap-up where we’ll share resources, upcoming WMG programs, and ways to stay engaged—whether you’re seeking a mentor, offering support, or exploring a new idea. The result? A stronger connection to WMG’s thriving network and fresh momentum for your next act in media.
WMG Co-Presidents Jacqueline Cripps (left) and Jane Wesman (right) are hosting this virtual social. Email us at info@womensmediagroup.org with any questions.
Thursday, May 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. ET Penguin Random House, 1745 Broadway (between 55th & 56th Streets), Cerf-Lane Room, NYC $20 for WMG members and partner organizations; $25 for non-members; $10 for active Scholars Many authors and publishing insiders know this shortcut to a big book deal: publish a standout essay in a major outlet like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, or New York Magazine. It’s far easier to write and publish a brilliant three-page piece than a 300-page book. And that single article, whether fiction or nonfiction, can attract literary agents and editors to you, saving years of searching and rejection and fast-tracking your path to a deal. Meet the speakers:
Brooklynite Miya (Mee-ya) Lee is the editor of Modern Love projects at The New York Times, where she evaluates and edits submissions to Modern Love and Tiny Love Stories. She is involved in all other aspects of the franchise, from podcast to television. She’s co-editor of Tiny Love Stories: True Tales of Love in 100 Words or Less from Artisan Press. Before joining the Times, Miya interned at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Art21, and The Delacorte Review at the Columbia Journalism School.
Kate McKean is a literary agent at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency in Brooklyn. She earned her MA in Fiction Writing at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Electric Literature, and Catapult, and her book, Write Through It: An Insider's Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life, was published by Simon Element. Next month, Sourcebooks will publish her picture book, Pay Attention to Me. She writes the Agents & Books newsletter at agentsandbooks.com. Kate lives in Brooklyn with her husband, kid, and many books.
Meet the moderator:
Refunds available up to 48 hours before the event. No refunds for cancellations made within 48 hours of the event.
Free for WMG members; $15 for non-members (Zoom) Come hear a power panel of master storytellers at this unforgettable event for AANHPI Heritage Month. Their voices deserve to be amplified all year long, but May is the month where we lift the AANHPI community even higher! These award-winning authors, screenwriters, playwrights, performers, teachers, founders, and journalists will talk about their work and how they came to share their stories with the world. This group of fabulous trailblazers has taken the time to consistently amplify marginalized voices throughout their careers, serving as role models for how to uplift others. Their courage, strength, and creativity will inspire you to claim your voice and harness your narrative power to tell your story. Meet the speakers:
Elaine Hsieh Chou is a Taiwanese American author and screenwriter from California. Her debut novel, Disorientation, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice Book, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award finalist, and Thurber Prize finalist. A former Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow at New York University, her Pushcart Award–winning short fiction appears in Guernica, Black Warrior Review, Tin House Online, Ploughshares, and The Atlantic, while her essays appear in The Cut and Vanity Fair. Elaine is a Fred R. Brown Literary Award recipient, a Sundance Episodic Lab Fellow, and a Gotham Series Creator to Watch. Her work has been supported by the Harry Ransom Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Hedgebrook’s Writers-in-Residence Program.
In 2025, Hali Lee was named to the inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list in recognition of her work building collective giving. In 2021, she was named to Forbes’ 50 Over 50: Impact in recognition of her work as a founder of the Donors of Color Network, Philanthropy Together, and the Asian Women Giving Circle. Today, she leads a boutique consulting practice, Radiant Strategies, and is a frequent public speaker who has made appearances at more than fifty conferences and events in the last year. Her work has been covered by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Good Housekeeping. Her first book, The Big We, was published by Sweet July/Zando in 2025. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, a big love of a dog, and rooftop honey bees.
Beth Nguyen is the author of the memoirs Owner of a Lonely Heart and Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, as well as the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Book Award, and her work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TIME, and Best American Essays. Beth is a professor and director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Meet the moderator:
Vicky Nguyen is an anchor and correspondent for NBC News and TODAY, as well as author of Boat Baby: A Memoir. Her reporting gives consumers valuable information for how to live healthier, wealthier, and safer lives. Vicky’s dynamic storytelling has led to impactful changes at the local and national level and resulted in numerous awards, including a National Emmy, the Gerald Loeb Award for Business and Financial Journalism, and the duPont Columbia Award for Broadcast Journalism. She graduated as valedictorian from the University of San Francisco. Vicky is based in New York, and when she’s not working she enjoys spending time with her husband, their three daughters, and tiny dog Moose.
Refunds available up to 48 hours before the event. No refunds for cancellations made within 48 hours of the event. |
Tuesday
Gayle Feldman has written for Publishers Weekly for forty years, including as a senior staff editor. Since 1999, as U.S. correspondent for The Bookseller, she has analyzed the American book business for U.K. readers, and she has contributed features and reviews on books and culture to The New York Times, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications. She is the author of You Don't Have to Be Your Mother and Best and Worst of Times. She received a Public Scholars award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Madeline Mcintosh is co-founder, CEO, and publisher of Authors Equity, an independent publishing company reshaping the relationship between authors and publishers. Known as a digital publishing pioneer, she has played a key role in the strategic evolution of e-commerce, audiobooks, and ebooks. A former CEO of Penguin Random House U.S., Madeline is known for her commitment to nurturing creative talent during the age of Al. She is 
Tuesday, May 12, 6-7 p.m. ET
Judy Batalion, originally from Montreal, studied at Harvard, then moved to London to purse a PhD in Art History. She’s written for The Washington Post, Vogue, Salon, and The New York Times, where an essay launched her debut memoir, White Walls: A Memoir of Motherhood, Daughterhood and the Mess in Between. Her second book, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos, was a New York Times bestseller and won a Jewish Book Award. Her debut novel, The Last Woman of Warsaw, is just out from Dutton. Judy lives in New York with her husband and three kids.
Tiffanie Drayton, originally from Trinidad, is a writer, ghostwriter, mom of two in New Jersey, and a divorce coach who helps women navigate life transitions with clarity and power. She is the author of Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream
Danielle Perez was an executive editor at Penguin Random House, where she worked at Berkley, Bantam, and Dutton. She has more than 20 years' experience acquiring and editing fiction and nonfiction by many New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors, including Deanna Raybourn, Simone St. James, Fiona Barton, Patti Callahan Henry, Rita Mae Brown, Jordan Belfort, James Van Praagh, and Susan Shapiro. Danielle is now a freelance editor in Manhattan, where she lives with her husband and their dog.
Susan Shapiro is the bestselling author/coauthor of books her family hates, like The Bosnia List, Lighting Up, and Five Men Who Broke My Heart (from PRH), which was recently optioned for a movie. She writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Salon, Newsweek, The Cut, Wired, Oprah Daily, and The New Yorker. She lives with her husband in Greenwich Village and has taught writing at NYU, The New School, and Columbia University’s MFA program, using her practical guides, Byline Bible and Book Bible, to help students of all ages publish. Follow Susan on Instagram 
Tuesday, May 19, 6-7 p.m. ET
Susan Lieu is a Vietnamese American author, playwright, and performer. A daughter of nail salon workers, she took her award-winning autobiographical solo show, 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother, on a sold-out national tour with accolades from the Los Angeles Times and American Theatre. Her debut memoir, The Manicurist’s Daughter, was a Best Book of the Year from NPR and the Smithsonian and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and Goodreads Choice Awards. Recognized as one of Seattle’s “Most Influential People,” Susan is a graduate of Harvard and Yale and the co-founder of Socola Chocolatier, an award-winning artisanal chocolate company with Vietnamese-inspired flavors. Susan lives with her husband and son in Seattle, where they enjoy mushroom hunting, croissants, and big family gatherings.
