who is Sally Kohn?

short bio

Sally Kohn is a nationally recognized television commentator, writer and executive presence coach working with top executives and political leaders.  

A frequent guest on CNN and MSNBC — and, once upon a time, Fox News — Sally's first book THE OPPOSITE OF HATE was published in April 2018.  She is on the Board of Contributors for USA Today and a contributing editor to Afar magazine. Sally is also a TED Curator and her three hit TED Talks have been viewed more than 6 million times. She is also a popular keynote speaker at business conferences and on college campuses talking about how to end political division and save democracy by cultivating connection and belonging.

And Sally consults as a top public speaking coach and media trainer, working with C-suite executives, nonprofit leaders, celebrities, and everyone in between on speechwriting, prep and public appearances.
 

but who is she, really?

longer bio

Before joining the media, Sally was Senior Campaign Strategist with the Center for Community Change, a 45-year-old hub of grassroots organizations nationwide. Sally served as co-director of ideas and innovation for the Center, helping lead the pioneering Campaign for Community Values, producing a nationally televised Presidential candidate forum in 2008, developing a new media organizing project on health care reform in rural communities and spearheading several other initiatives.

Before that, Sally held a program fellowship at the Ford Foundation, helping to manage more than $15 million in annual grants to social justice organizations nationwide. She was also strategic advisor to the Social Justice Infrastructure Funders, a private network of 25 top program staff from some of the nation’s most prominent foundations, working to identify a shared strategy and coordinate grantmaking.  Before that, Sally served as Executive Director of the Third Wave Foundation, the leading young women’s organization in the country.  She was also a distinguished Vaid Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, where she published a groundbreaking guidebook for organizing campaigns to win domestic partnership benefits.  Sally also worked as a consultant with the Urban Justice Center, publishing a report on the experiences of gay youth in the New York juvenile justice system.

Sally received a joint degree in law and public administration from New York University and was a Root Tilden public service scholar at the New York University School of Law.  She received her undergraduate degree from George Washington University in D.C.  Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Sally now resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her partner Sarah Hansen and their daughter Willa.

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