Smart Women, Smart Power

On this episode, host Kathleen McInnis spoke with Pavlina Pavlova, a #ShareTheMicInCyber Fellow at New America and Cybercrime Expert at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Pavlina shares insights from her recent research on the weaponization of data, highlighting how data breaches and cyberattacks have a gendered dimension, especially throughout the healthcare system.

Nina Jankowicz knows what it’s like to be attacked for defending the truth, and she is now on a mission to increase the cost of lies that undermine our democracy. On this episode, Dr. Kathleen McInnis dives into Nina’s past, from leaving government, suing Fox News, and ultimately using the sum of her experiences to inspire the creation of the American Sunlight Project.

In this episode, Dr. Kathleen McInnis is joined by Dr. Janine Davidson, who currently serves as president of Metropolitan State University of Denver and the chair of the Defense Policy Board. The pair discusses Dr. Davidson’s years of navigating the bureaucracy within the Pentagon and the lessons she has taken with her to higher education.

On October 15, Smart Women, Smart Power celebrated its tenth anniversary! The celebration kicked off with a discussion with HON Kathleen H. Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense, who sat down with Beverly Kirk, Director of Washington Programs at Syracuse University. The pair discussed her approach to the world’s simultaneous challenges, including the Russia-Ukraine crisis and China - plus she takes a lot of questions from the audience.

Dr. Kathleen McInnis sat down with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for a conversation on her new memoir, where she reflects on her time in Congress. Additionally, the pair discusses the current and future U.S. landscape, including what the U.S. should be doing to counter China’s aggressive authoritarian expansionism and more.

Mellody Hobson, co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments — created Ariel Alternatives, the first private equity subsidiary of the 40-year-old investment firm, alongside its current CEO Les Brun. On this Smart Women, Smart Power episode, Mellody joins Dr. Kathleen McInnis for a discussion on how she strives to close the racial wealth gap and create a better public understanding of financial literacy. This episode is made possible through general support to Smart Women, Smart Power.

In 2020, Laura Modi launched Bobbie, the first U.S.-based manufactured organic formula company. Laura joins Dr. Kathleen McInnis and Lauren Bedula, the Managing Director at Beacon Global Strategies, for a discussion on how her company was defined during a national infant formula shortage, including what she learned about the infant formula industry, and how symbolic it is to everything broken in our society for parents.

Why should the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) care about gender? What are women, and women’s networks, doing to advance democracy – and how should a military alliance think about the strategic utility of programs like Women, Peace and Security? And what does this mean for the NATO Summit? Irene Fellin, the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security, joins Dr. Kathleen McInnis, Senior Fellow, International Security Program and Director, Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative, to discuss what’s on her mind as NATO celebrates its 75th year and heads into the Washington Summit.