Mohegan Chief appointed to Ms. Foundation for Women board

NEW YORK – The Ms. Foundation for Women today announced the addition of five new members to its board of directors. Jenna Bussman-Wise, Lynn Malerba, Simone Sneed, Gail Wasserman and Tom Watson have been appointed to serve four-year terms.

“We welcome our diverse group of new board members, who all bring a wealth of professional experience and personal commitment to gender equality,” said Ms. Foundation for Women President and CEO Teresa C. Younger. “We are excited to have our new members aboard and look forward to their contributions to the Ms. Foundation.”

All of the new board members are leaders in both business and nonprofit organizations.

Jenna Bussman-Wise is vice president, Alternative Investments, Equity and External Mandates of AIG investments. She is the senior member of a five-person team responsible for a $4 billion portfolio of hedge fund investments and overseeing $10 billion in assets on behalf of the firm’s insurance subsidiaries.

Lynn Malerba is chief of the Mohegan Tribe. She became the 18th chief – and first woman chief – of the Mohegan Tribe in August 2010. She is chair of the Tribal Self-Governance Advisory Committee of the federal Indian Health Service and one of fourteen tribal leaders serving on the Justice Department’s Tribal Nations Leadership Council. She is a member of the board of directors of the Center for National Policy.

Simone Sneed is chief relationship officer of Dream Corps. She is a strategist and social entrepreneur building the capacity of women and girls and the institutions that empower them to discover and leverage their full potential. She is also the Founder and CEO of Catching Brilliance, a social enterprise dedicated to creating a world where women and girls can thrive.

Gail Wasserman is senior vice president, Public Affairs, of American Express. In this role she helps promote its products and services, manage the company’s reputation with stakeholders and serve as an advocate for the customers it serves. An active member of the communities in which she lives, Gail has helped staff a domestic violence hotline and taught English to Russian and Arabic-speaking immigrants in Brooklyn.

Tom Watson is president and founder of CauseWired. He is a journalist, author and consultant who has worked at the confluence of media technology and social change for two decades. Tom’s client work focuses on education, social services, progressive causes and the pursuit of social justice. He is a member of the Board of Directors of BronxWorks, the largest nonprofit settlement house in the Bronx, New York.

– For more than 40 years, the Ms. Foundation for Women has secured women’s rights and freedoms with a special commitment to building the power of low-income, immigrant and women of color. The foundation invests funds, time, expertise and training in trailblazing organizations nationwide.