The second panelist is Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, a former prosecutor who became a household name earlier this year for her riveting presentation of video evidence as one of the House managers of President Trump’s post January 6 impeachment trial.

A lawyer, news junkie and mother of five who cooks to chill, Plaskett is a community development activist by vocation and avocation who, before her 2014 election, was the general counsel for the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority, which is charged with the economic development of the U.S. territory.

Raised in Brooklyn public housing by working class parents, she spent her childhood vacations in the Virgin Islands, where both her parents were born. Her lifelong commitment to public service, she says, was awakened while at boarding school by the biblical verse "to whom much is given; much is required."

A Republican who served in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration, she switched parties in 2008 because, she says, she felt Democrats were more receptive to “new ideas.” In the House, where she is a non-voting member, she is the first delegate from a U.S. territory and only the fourth African-American woman to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Katty Kay, the veteran BBC correspondent who brought British refinement to the coverage of bare-knuckled American politics, is our third luminary. 

An outspoken advocate for women in the workplace, the peripatetic Kay has reported from around the world but is best known as a pillar of the Washington media establishment.

The daughter of a British diplomat who was posted across the Mid-East, Kay began her career as an economist before switching to journalism. A frequent contributor to a host of American public affairs shows, she has presented myriad BBC programs, including “World News America,” and has anchored the network’s coverage of two presidential elections. 

A director of the International Women’s Media Foundation, which is charged with marshalling the power of female journalists, Kay teamed up with Claire Shipman, senior national correspondent for ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” on two best-selling books designed to empower and inspire working women – “Womenomics” and “The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know.”

Kay ended her 30-year BBC career this May to become the executive producer of OZY Media and is the co-host with OZY Media founder, Carlos Watson, of the podcast, When Katty Met Carlos.

Our final panelist is Sophia Nelson, a lawyer, political commentator and the best-selling author of several books, including the “The Woman Code: Powerful Keys to Unlock Your Life,” a political manifesto for women masquerading as a self-help book.

Updated this spring to reflect the profound economic and societal shifts provoked by the global pandemic, which has disproportionally penalized women, it is nothing less than an effort to draw a map for navigating life's challenges and of interacting positively with other women.

The book is her second attempt to rewrite cultural perceptions. Inspired in part by what she calls “open season on accomplished black women”, Nelson ten years ago published “Black Woman Redefined,” a groundbreaking study of and guide for college-educated, career-driven black women.

A student of economics and political science, Nelson became a Republican activist in 1988 after hearing Jack Kemp during that year’s primaries. She served as legal counsel to New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in The Garden State and was the GOP counsel for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

A frequent television commentator, she ultimately decided to become a journalist and author and now is a political independent.