Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership to Honor Five with Inaugural Torch Lighter Awards 

In a speech to the National Press Club in 2013, Gloria Steinem said, “People often ask me if I’m ‘passing the torch.’ I explain that I’m keeping my torch, thank you very much—and I’m using it to light the torches of others.”

Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine and a voice for women whom the New York Times called “a symbol of modern American feminism,” is the inspiration for Rutgers University Institute for Women’s Leadership creating the 2024 Torch Lighter Awards.

An awards dinner at the Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick on September 25—which also will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the institute’s Leadership Scholars Certificate Program—will honor the following:

• Priscilla Sims Brown, president and CEO, Amalgamated Bank, who demonstrates an unwavering commitment to social responsibility which is shaping the future of the financial industry. She was named one of the Most Powerful Women in Banking in 2023 by American Banker
• Abigail E. Disney, an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, philanthropist, and activist who has worked with organizations supporting peacebuilding, gender justice, and systemic cultural change. Her most recent film, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales (2022), which she directed and produced with Kathleen Hughes, examines America’s dysfunctional and unequal economy.
• Jeannine Frisby LaRue, executive vice president of strategy and business development, Moxie, and senior vice president, The Zita Group. Her groundbreaking career includes championing women and children’s issues and significant chapters at Rutgers University as vice president of public affairs and in government as deputy chief of staff for former New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine.
• Pat Mitchell, a trailblazing force in media and advocacy. As an award-winning journalist, producer and media executive and currently as co-founder and managing partner of Connected Women Leaders and Project Dandelion, and co-founder and editorial director of TEDWomen, she connects, elevates and amplifies women’s ideas and leadership for transformative change. Breaking barriers as the first woman to lead PBS and CNN Productions, she advanced opportunities for other women.
• Alanah Odoms, civil rights attorney and executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. She became the first Black woman to lead the organization in its 68-year history, expanding it  from a team of two to 20 to address critical civil rights and liberties challenges.

“We are thrilled to celebrate these amazing honorees with the first presentation of the Torch Lighter Awards,” says Rebecca Mark, director of the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership and a professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers–New Brunswick. “This is much more than an awards dinner—it is a call to action to empower and lift up the next generation of leaders.”

Subha V. Barry, chair of the institute’s advisory board who is CEO of Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media), says the Torch Lighter Awards will elevate the excellent work being done by the university’s Institute for Women’s Leadership, which began forming at Rutgers in the late ‘80s. 

“The institute has made remarkable strides in lighting the torches of many leaders in all disciplines and fields,” Barry says. “I’m delighted that in addition to these wonderful and inspiring awardees, we also will celebrate a quarter century of the institute’s Leadership Scholars Certificate Program, which has educated hundreds of women leaders and will continue that critical mission long into the future.”

The five honorees and the Leadership Scholarship Certificate Program will be celebrated from 6–9 p.m. Wednesday, September 25, at the Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton St., New Brunswick, NJ, 08901. (Plans are for the event to be held every two years.)

For tickets and sponsorship opportunities for the Torch Lighter Awards, please visit rutgersfoundation.org/torchlighterawards.