Meet the "Girls" Behind Girls 360
Our co-founders are inspired by the amazing, often untold stories of other women, and they are passionate about all things “Girl.”
Anne Ream, Co-Founder and CCG (Chief Creative Girl)
Anne Ream is a writer and creative director whose essays and opinion pieces on issues effecting women and girls have appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and other publications. A former Senior Vice President at Leo Burnett USA, Anne’s unique private-public sector background has shaped her belief that the media plays a pivotal role in shaping how we see girls (and how girls see themselves).
A past finalist for the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Documentary Prize for her writing, Anne is the founder of The Voices and Faces Project, a national documentary initiative created to capture the unique stories of women and girls, and a Co-Chair of Counterquo, a new media project that seeks to challenge and change the way the world responds to violence against women.
Anne was recently named one of People Magazine’s “Heroes Among Us” and in 2006 she was recognized as one of “Chicago’s Top 40” by The Chicago Tribune in an article that cited her as an “opinion shaper and trendsetter” helping to “make the city great” while doing work that had national reach and impact. In July of 2008 Soroptimist International, a non-governmental organization at the United Nations, presented Anne with its “2008 Making a Difference for Women Award.” A longstanding advocate for women who has served on several non-profit boards, Anne is also the recipient of the Susan Estrich Courage Award and the End Violence Against Women International Visionary Award.
Of Girl360, which started as an idea jotted on a cocktail napkin during a long lunch with co-founder Randi Shafton, Anne says “This is not a company. It’s a cause. We are ‘discoverists’ finding the stories of amazing women and girls and bringing them to the attention of a new generation. Encountering role models who have done world-changing work and suddenly, often surprisingly, catching a glimmer of ourselves in their stories can be the first step in finding our own power.”
To hear Anne Ream's public radio interview on music, social movements and representations of women in the media, click here.
Randi Shafton, Co-Founder and COG (Chief Operating Girl)
From Boston to the Bay Area, Randi Shafton is a political advocate and non-profit professional with over two decades of experience championing issues and initiatives that have a deep impact on the health, well-being and happiness of women and girls. After graduating from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Randi spent the first part of her career working on public policy issues in Sacramento, CA and Washington, DC, where she focused on health-care, environmental and educational issues.
Randi also worked extensively on AIDS-related policy and legislation, advocating for patient’s rights and a more humane response to what was in the eighties a “new” health care crisis. Her work on these and other social justice issues served as a reminder that the unique and too-often unmet needs of women and girls must be considered as we develop broad-based public policy solutions. “You can’t work on the issues I have worked on without coming to better understand women and girls and the ways that the world sometimes fails to support them,” notes Randi.
In the private sector, Randi worked as a lobbyist and community relations manager, with a special focus on addressing the needs of at risk families and youth. As a consultant to the non-profit and foundation communities, she has driven strategic and program development, aided in the creation and expansion of boards, and developed new ways to connect organizations in need with women in positions of power.
Her greatest passion, however, is raising her twin girls, Ellie and Zoey, and her four year old son Jake. “I want my daughters and all young girls to learn about bold and accomplished women. I want my son to grow up admiring such women – and yes, learning from and emulating them. All of our children should know that there are girls and women who dream and succeed with a cape and boots just like Spiderman. Daring and verve are not just for boys!”
To meet the rest of our Girl360 team, click here
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