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Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. Frequently we spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Katie Orenstein who founded the OpEd Project in 2008,, a high-impact social venture dedicated to radically increasing women’s voices in media, Katie writes and speaks frequently about the intersection of fact and fiction in media and how that shapes our ideas about politics, culture and history. She is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of major papers and consults with the United Nations.

Alarmed by the lack of women published on the OpEd pages of the largest newspapers, Katie set out to build a movement to change the world’s conversation. She has done that through a variety of channels from one-on-one mentor/mentee pairings of veteran journalists with experts who want to publish, to day-long training programs that teach women from business, academia, and government how to make their ideas and voices heard.

1. What was a pivotal moment of reinvention for you?

When  I started my organization, The OpEd Project.

2. Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

I have so many mentors its hard to pick just one. Shifra Bronznick is someone who is on my mind a lot – she has made a big difference for me.

3. What is your biggest goal right now?

To empower the people around me to run our organization as if I was gone.  Not that I’m going anywhere today, but one day.

4. What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

As late as possible.  I’m a night owl.  After I get up, I sometimes go for a run, and sometimes take a meeting (by phone) on my run.  Or I’ll do that while walking.  Much better than sitting at a desk.

5. How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

I unplug by running.  Or sometimes by turning on music and going nuts, in my socks.  Every day, sometimes multiple times a day.  Every now and then I do it in front of my staff.

9. What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

The challenge I’m most proud of would be my boo or launching my organization. It’s a toss up.

9)  What cause do I most want to advance?

Well, my organization’s. Our mission is to ensure that our public discourse, and our democracy, includes the fullest possible range of human voices, including women’s voices.   Other causes that are close to me: adult literacy.  Haitian democracy.

12. What song can’t you get out of your head?

Here’s Wishing You the Bluest Skies, by the Kinks.

13. What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

“Change your story.”  I got that from a mentor who made me realize I had an old, lousy story on auto-play, running through my head in the background, that didn’t serve me.  The story you tell is the beginning and the end.

15. Who on the list of prior Honorees would you like to meet?

Well, all of them, actually – again, or for the first time. I miss you!

Check out Katie Orenstein’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. Frequently we spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Nancy Spector a curator at the Guggenheim since 1989. Nancy Spector works closely with the Director to define the museum’s global strategy and oversee the creative programming for the institution and its affiliates around the world. She has organized exhibitions on conceptual photography, Felix Gonzalez Torres, Matthew Barney’s Cremaster cycle, Richard Prince, Louise Bourgeois, Marina Abramovic, Tino Sehgal, and Maurizio Cattelan. She was Adjunct Curator of the 1997 Venice Biennale and co-organizer of the first Berlin Biennial in 1998. She is a recipient of the Peter Norton Family Foundation Curators Award, five International Art Critics Association Awards and a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award for her work on Youtube Play, a Biennial of Creative Video.

1)  What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you? 

I have been on a curatorial track since graduate school, landing a job at the Guggenheim after an internship there.  Reinventing myself and my goals within the same career has been constant by staying abreast of and responding to the new and radicalizing our contemporary programming.  As Chief Curator I can now pave the way for other, younger curators to do the same and more.

2)  Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor? 

The artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) who taught me that you can best disrupt from within by using the very tools most people consider traditional.

3) What is your biggest goal right now?

To expand the notion of an art museum from a repository of unique, aesthetic objects to a dynamic, multi-disciplinary and catalytic environment that can effect real social change.

4)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

5:00 a.m. in order to have some quiet time before I get my daughters ready for school.  I try to go on a long bike ride every morning before work.

5) How did you feel on your 30th birthday? What were you doing at that time?

I felt totally relieved to be leaving my 20s and excited about what lay ahead.  I had just begun working on my first exhibitions at the Guggenheim.

6) How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

I go for bike rides or swims as often as possible.  On vacation I love reading fiction well into the night when everyone else is asleep.

7) What’s the best networking contact you’ve made? How did you make it?

I just recently attended an amazing retreat on leadership and vision hosted by Spark Camp that was filled with talented people from all kinds of disciplines.  The genius behind the format was that we all left friends and eager to help one another in our respective fields.

8) What cause do you most want to advance?

Rights for girls around the world, particularly in developing nations. My daughter is a Teen Advisor for Girl Up, a UN Foundation group that has become my cause as well.

9)  What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Live within your means so that you can make major changes at any time.

10)  Who on the list of 2013 Honorees would you like to meet?

Anne-Marie Slaughter, because I, too, struggle with and fight for work/life/family balance and think it is a feminist issue that must be addressed at the legislative level.

Check out Nancy Spector’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. Frequently we spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Meredith Kopit Levien who is responsible for the generation of all advertising revenue from The Times’s multiplatform products and services and for leadership of the global advertising sales team. Before joining The Times, she was the chief revenue officer at Forbes Media, where she led the North American and European revenue operations for Forbes.com, the Forbes Magazine Group and Forbes Conferences.

She is part of a leadership team shifting the way The New York Times makes money from advertising: In addition to selling standard display ads, it’s working with advertisers to create bespoke ad campaigns and produce content. Her job might be one of the most high-stakes in the media business right now.

1)  What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

There were two separate and distinct pivotal moments: The first was not being the obvious choice for a much-sought top job more than half a dozen years ago (they were right at the time), and the second was becoming a mother.

2)  Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

I’ve only worked a handful of places in 21 years, and have been lucky enough to have only worked directly for great people. My last boss, the CEO of Forbes, was a mentor, coach and friend, and also a genuine sponsor. He taught me the value of being human and warm while still holding people to an incredibly high standard.

3)  What is your biggest goal right now?

To create an environment in which people can do extraordinary, game-changing work that they love creating, and to be part of a team that helps the world’s best journalism brand grow, prosper and fulfill its mission to society for the long haul.  And to raise a happy child.

4)  How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job? 

It was through an on-campus interview at the University of Virginia, which led to multiple different jobs over a decade and half of my career so far, all working for the same chairman/owner. In other words, I lucked into it all! (Thanks David Bradley.)

5)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning? 

Later than I should. Drink a venti iced coffee. Read The Times on my phone.  Race.

6)  How did you feel on your 30th birthday? What were you doing at that time?

Terribly confused. I took a mini sabbatical, went on outward bound, ended a 9-year relationship and fell in love with work.

7) How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?  

Hanging with my son, reading great literature, seeing movies.  I don’t do these things often enough.

8)  What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?  

Building a team of people who want to keep working together.

9)  What was the last business book you read?

I never read business books. But I’ve learned a heck of a lot about business and life from reading great literature.

10)  What cause do you most want to advance?

Lifting more people from poverty to help them come into better circumstances.  I feel that some of The Times’s reporting coming out of hard-to-reach places and situations helps build awareness for some of these issues.

Check out Meredith Kopit Levin’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. Frequently we spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with June Sugiyama the director of the Vodafone Americas Foundation. Sugiyama has been in the Foundation’s leadership role for the past 12 years. In that role, she developed various community support and partnership strategies. Most recently, she led the Foundation’s transition to support technology related programs, a strategy to better align with Vodafone’s expertise in technology and innovation.

1)  What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

Attending the first convening of our company’s foundations and all of a sudden realizing that I had a lot to offer.

2)  Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

Dianne Yamashiro-Omi – Commissioner, California Commission on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs; previously at The California Endowment.

3)  What is your biggest goal right now?

To create a centralized “dating site” for mobile solutions providers, seekers and funders to find each other.

4)  How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

I go to the beach close to where my family members are in Monterey or Hawaii; not as often as I like though.

6)  What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

Creating our Foundation’s Wireless Innovation Project competition.

7)  What was the last business book you read?

Linchpin by Seth Grodin.

8)  What cause do you most want to advance?

More women in technology, and it’ll have to start when they’re girls.

9)  What song can’t you get out of your head?

“So What” performed by Miles Davis.

12) What is your secret indulgence?

Watching basketball, football, soccer and rugby (in that order) all day long.

13)  Which of the Forty over 40 honorees would you like to meet?

Kelly Hoey and Deborah Jackson because they are both supporting women in mobile.

Check out June Sugiyama’s full 40 Over 40 profile here.

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. Frequently we spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Ellen Galinsky the President and Co-Founder of Families and Work Institute (FWI) helped establish the field of work and family life during the time she was at Bank Street College of Education, where she was on the faculty for 25 years. Her more than 100 books and reports include the best-selling Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ask The Children, and the now classic The Six Stages of Parenthood. She has published over 300 articles in journals, books and magazines.

1) What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

I have always considered my work a research adventure—whereas others climb mountains or sail the seas, I pursue questions that center on our changing lives at work, at home, and in our communities. Answering one question always leads to a new question, often in uncharted lands. So by its very nature and because we strive to be ahead of the curve, my work has always called for reinvention. The question of “what keeps the fire burning in children’s eyes” led me from child development research into cognitive science and neuroscience. The question of “how people manage their lives on and off the jobs” led me from family studies into research on the work environment, to gender and generational studies.

2) Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

As much as anyone, my mother Leora Osgood May, was my mentor—both because of the way she lived and what she said. As a widow, she took over the family business to support us. In another era and in other circumstances, she would have worked in the art field, but life constrained her.  She founds many ways to work in the arts in addition to her job— helping to start a museum, serving as a curator for shows, and writing reviews for the local paper. When she retired at 77, she delved into the arts even more deeply.

From my mother, I learned:

• Live intentionally. Don’t wait until an illness or difficult circumstances force your choices. Have the choices you make everyday matter to you.
• Work on purpose. Find work that you love —both work that is paid for and work that is not. In my case, it is the Families and Work Institute, the organization I co-founded 25 years ago and photography.
• Fear means go. Although running a business in a man’s world was difficult, mother always managed to go on that buying trip, negotiate that work situation.
• Put your family first. Mother always did and I hope I have too.
• Keep asking question, keep learning. My mother lived to learn and learned to live.

3) What is your biggest goal right now?

I am beginning working on a book on adult executive function skills—in order to help adults work on purpose, be more engaged at work, and find and create work environments that support them. I feel like a student, surrounded by articles and books to read, including many researchers whose names I don’t yet know. In addition, finding time to learn all of this new material so I can make sense of it—while I am running an organization and being the grandmother to an incredible 16 month-old—feels extremely daunting and exhilarating.

4) How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job?

When I entered the child study field as a student at Vassar College, it was a relatively new field.  My professors at Vassar—Joe Stone, Joe Church, and Henrietta Smith—were so busy learning from their own studies and from the other leaders in this emerging field that they involved us, the students, in helping to address their questions and to frame our own inquiries. This ranged from the series of films they created, to the studies they conducted, to the research questions they asked us to pose. In my case, my senior thesis involved teen’s views of their parents. I spent time during my senior year pursuing where I wanted to go next. I knew I wanted to be in a place and surround by people with the same passion for child development as I had. As part of my search, I went to a conference run by Bank Street College of Education. From my first moment at the conference, I knew that was where I wanted to be—that even if I had to take waitress job and volunteer at Bank Street, I would  be there. Through Vassar, I secured an interview to be an assistant teacher in their School for Children. I got all dressed up in my one suit, a Chanel knock-off, took the train down from Poughkeepsie to New York City and went to the interview.

Then I heard nothing. Nothing—for days, for weeks. I finally asked Joe Stone from Vassar to try to find out what was going on. He told me that I had the job. The reason they hired me, he said, was because I got down on the floor with the kids in my dress-up clothes. So based on my professor’s word (no letter of hire, no contract), I moved to New York City after college and showed up at Bank Street. I stayed at Bank Street for 25 years—so that was my second, third, and fourth job, so to speak. I moved from being a teacher into creating materials about how children learn and how teacher teach best. From there, I moved into the research division at Bank Street. And from there, I co-founded the Families and Work Institute.

5) What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

Now that I am working on a new book, I get up early but stay in bed and read, write myself notes, and think. I am moving to a schedule where I will try to safeguard this early time in the morning and start my job work day at 10 or 11 a couple of day a week.

6) How did you feel on your 30th birthday? What were you doing at that time? 

When I turned 30, I was the mother of a three year old. In a few weeks, I would find out that I was pregnant with our second child, who died soon after birth. But on my actual birthday, it was a time of hope and we had a great party.

7) How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

I unplug with photography. It is like my work because it is an adventure, a journey.  I am photographing Route 66, creating outside-in images that ask: What is real and what is symbolic? What is inside and what is outside in this depiction of life on this iconic road that is an emblem of American expansion westward?  Photography is quite unlike my other work in that it is more instantaneous.  I see a photograph and though I may work for some time to capture this vision through my camera, it is hours, not week, months or years. It is also a solo, not a team sport, as the rest of my work is. The photograph is all mine—no meetings to plan it, no teams to review it. So it is a wonderful change of pace for me. I photograph my grandson often but my Route 66 journey is our planned summer vacation.

8) What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

I am most proud of having the courage to write The Six Stages of Parenthood. Not only was I formulating a theory of adult growth in parenting, I was taking on some of the child and adult research establishment of the time. It can feel very brave to write what you think in the quiet of your office but quite another to imagine some of the people you admire—but disagree with—reading what you have written. I am similarly proud of having the courage to write Mind in the Making. I was using other’s research to construct a theory of life skills. I felt quite anxious that these child development/neuroscience researchers whom I admire (and don’t disagree with) wouldn’t like how I presented their studies in constructing this theory.

9) What was the last business book you read? 

I recently read Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for the third time. His probing of flow—“the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter, the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it”— is deeply inspiring to me.

 10) What cause do you most want to advance?

Keeping the fire for learning burning brightly in the eyes of all children.

 11) What song can’t you get out of your head? 

A few weeks ago, Families and Work Institute, the organization I co-founded and where I serve as president, celebrated our 25^th Anniversary. As I thought about that milestone, the classic song, Maria, from the Sound of Music, kept coming to mind, especially the verse:

How do you find the word that means …Maria

In my case, I kept thinking of how could I find a word that means Families and Work Institute. How can I describe it? I also kept thinking of the verse:

How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

It was a moonbeam 25 years ago—an elusive dream that Dana Friedman, co-founder of the Institute and I—dared to imagine, believing that we could create an organization to address the monumental changes in our workplaces, our communities and our families.  I have followed that moonbeam ever since. In Maria, there was another verse that kept coming to mind:

How do you keep a wave upon the sand?

We have spent these years seeking those waves, as they swell, as they begin to crest, before they hit the sand. We want to be ahead of those waves so that we have data as the need for the “facts” emerges.

12) What is your secret indulgence? 

Making ice cream.

 13) Who on the list of 2013 Honorees would you like to meet?

I just went through the list. I would like to meet all whom I don’t already know. I am imagining a wonderful convening, with enough time to really talk!

Check out Ellen Galinsky’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!