Welcome to the 2020 Seneca Falls Revisited Conference

Gale A. Brewer is the 27th Borough President of Manhattan.

Since she took office in 2014, she has successfully passed legislation to reform the deed restriction process, add ‘caregivers’ to the city’s anti-discrimination law, remove criminal history questions from initial employment applications (the “Fair Chance Act”), and enforce requirements for street numbers on buildings in Manhattan (to aid emergency workers). She has also spearheaded community planning initiatives at the South Street Seaport, in East Midtown, and in other neighborhoods to address development and zoning issues.

In 2018, Brewer served as Chair of the Large Cities Council of the National League of Cities, and has been named a member of their 2019 Human Development federal advocacy committee, which advocates NLC policy positions on issues involving social services, children and learning, poverty and income support, employment and workforce development, equal opportunity, Social Security and seniors, individuals with disabilities, public health care, mental health parity, and immigration reform.

Brewer previously served on the City Council for 12 years, serving as the founding chair of the Technology Committee and leading the Government Operations Committee. There, the Council passed her legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave for most hourly employees, requiring all City data be published online, and protecting domestic workers from abusive practices. 

Prior to that, she served as Chief of Staff to Council Member Ruth Messinger, NYC Deputy Public Advocate, Director of the city’s Federal Office, and Executive Director of the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women.

Brewer has an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and did her undergraduate work at Columbia University and Bennington College.

Kenneth descends from two of the most influential names in American history: he is the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. His mother, Nettie Washington Douglass, is the daughter of Nettie Hancock Washington (granddaughter of Booker T. Washington), and Dr. Frederick Douglass III (great-grandson of Frederick Douglass). Ken’s life until the year 2007 could be described as distinguished yet decisively disengaged from his lineage until Providence called. Ken continues his family’s legacy of anti-slavery and educational work as co-founder and president of the Atlanta-based nonprofit Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI). His career and life path are driven by a clear focus on FDFI’s mission“[t]o Advance Freedom through Knowledge and Strategic Action.” He could not have predicted that one day he would so fully embrace and be defined by the characteristics that so closely defined his famous ancestors.

Born in Bern, Switzerland, Manuela Roosevelt has dual Swiss and Spanish citizenship, and speaks English, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and French fluently. She has lived in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

In 1987, she started Labyrinth Publishing AG, a Swiss-based book packaging company that became one of the primary book creation houses in Europe. In 1992, the company moved its headquarters to London, where it acquired other small publishing companies under the umbrella of the Labyrinth Group Plc. Manuela Roosevelt became editorial director for the group, running both adult trade as well as a children’s division. In 1998, she moved to the United States, where she formed a small book creation house called Book Laboratory that was responsible for illustration and publication of such multi-million-copy best sellers as The Illustrated Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell (translated into 31 languages).

In April 2012, Manuela Roosevelt and three founding partners launched Springwood Media, a producer of leading-edge interactive digital academic learning environments for undergraduate and graduate courses.

In addition to serving on Omega's board of directors, Manuela Roosevelt currently serves as chair of the board of the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership, and is on the advisory board of Sanghata Global.