1. Willa Shalit was born on 1955 and is an American social entrepreneur and strategic advisor.
29 Facts About Willa Shalit
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Willa Shalit's name comes from the American author Willa Cather.
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Willa Shalit's father shielded the family from the public eye.
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Willa Shalit's brother, Dr Peter Shalit is an internal medicine physician and the author of Living Well: The Gay Man's Essential Health Guide.
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Willa Shalit graduated from Saint Ann's School in 1974.
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Willa Shalit created life casts for Muhammad Ali, Bill Gates, Clint Eastwood, Sting, civil rights leader Rosa Parks, choreographer Alvin Ailey, Isaac Stern, sculptor Louise Nevelson, prima ballerina Natalia Makarova and the 14th Dalai Lama.
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In 1986, Willa Shalit collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and Gilbert Moses to design masks and costumes for Morrison's play Dreaming Emmett, directed by Mr Moses.
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Willa Shalit was artist-in-residence at the College of Santa Fe from 1989 to 1994.
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In 1998, Willa Shalit's exhibit "Incarcerated Women: A View From the Inside Out" was featured at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC.
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In 1985, Willa Shalit produced James Lecesne's play One Man Band off-Broadway.
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Willa Shalit was the producer of the first anti-violence benefit performance of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues with Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Calista Flockhart, Lily Tomlin and others.
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Willa Shalit produced a 1997 reading of Eve Ensler's Necessary Targets at the Helen Hayes Theater Broadway starring Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, and Cherry Jones and the landmark V-Day 2001 performance in Madison Square Garden featuring Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah, Glenn Close, Claire Danes and many others.
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Willa Shalit continued to produce the play in February 1998 in New York City, and during a second reading of the play at Kennedy Center for then First Lady Hillary Clinton starring Natalie Portman and Jena Malone.
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From 1999 to 2003 Willa Shalit produced the play during the off-Broadway run at New York City's Westside Theater and later served as executive producer of the 2002 HBO film of the show.
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Willa Shalit was an executive producer of Until the Violence Stops, a documentary film about V-Day's 2002 activities.
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Willa Shalit co-produced the 2002 off-Broadway run of Ensler's Necessary Targets, produced Carol Kaplan's play Jocasta Rising at the Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town, South Africa in 2004, and was an associate producer of the 2004 Broadway revival of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom starring Whoopi Goldberg.
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In 2005, along with Yoko Ono, Willa Shalit edited the HarperCollins book Memories of John Lennon; it features intimate glimpses from those who knew John, including Pete Townshend, Sir Elton John, and David Geffen, and artists who followed him such as Bono, Alicia Keys and Carlos Santana.
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Willa Shalit edited Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female, a collection of essays and reminiscences by notable women including Meryl Streep, Maya Angelou, and America Ferrera, that was published by Hyperion in April 2006.
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Willa Shalit organized a trip to Haiti where Macy's leaders, joined by Martha Stewart and Rachel Roy, met with local artisans.
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In 2011, Willa Shalit co-founded the communications firm Road to Market, ltd where she develops global branding strategies and continues to work with social justice missions and worldwide movements.
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Willa Shalit co-founded an online platform for women designers called Maiden Nation.
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Willa Shalit is the co-founder and digital director of Let's Win.
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Willa Shalit serves as President of the Board for Indigenous Ways, an advocacy organization based in New Mexico.
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Willa Shalit was a member of the Board of Trustees at the College of Santa Fe from 1990 to 1995.
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Willa Shalit co-founded V-Day with Ensler and served as its first executive director.
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Willa Shalit served as a special advisor to the United Nations Development Fund for Women and The United Nations Ethical Fashion Initiative.
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In 2007, Willa Shalit joined the Board of Directors of the Hadassah Foundation.
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Willa Shalit currently serves on the Board of the Israeli Palestinian Peace organization, American Friends of the Parents Circle, and on the Advisory Board of Feminist.
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In 2014, Willa Shalit was one of the first sponsors of Women and Men as Allies, an initiative founded by Feminist.