Ellen Goodman | Pulitzer Prize Winning Columnist, Author of Seven Books, Co-Founder of The Conversation Project

Ellen Goodman

Pulitzer Prize Winning Columnist, Author of Seven Books, Co-Founder of The Conversation Project

Ellen Goodman
Biography

As a trailblazer and powerful voice for women, she has spent most of her life chronicling social change and its impact on American life. A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, she was one of the first women to open up the op-ed pages to women's voices and became, according to Media Watch, the most widely syndicated progressive columnist in the country.Ellen began her career as a researcher for Newsweek magazine in the days when only men wrote for the newsweekly. After two yeas, she became a reporter for the Detroit Free Press and then The Boston Globe where she began writing her column. The column was syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. She wrote her twice-weekly column until 2010 appearing in over 400 newspapers.Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary:In 1980 She won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary. She has written seven books including the New York Times best seller with Patricia O'Brien, "You Know Just What I Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women's Lives." Ellen also won many other honors, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.President's Award by the National Women's Political Caucus:She was honored with the President's Award by the National Women's Political Caucus and was also presented the American Woman Award by the Women's Research & Education Institute.Ernie Pyle Award for Lifetime Achievement:In 2008, she won the Ernie Pyle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Society of Newspaper columnists.The Conversation Project:In 2010, Ellen co-founded The Conversation Project, a public engagement campaign and a movement, that works to change the way people talk about, and prepare for their end-of-life care. As a social entrepreneur she was also awarded as an Ashoka Fellow and a Prime Mover for her work solving social problems.Ellen also serves on the board of Encore, a movement to transform the narrative around aging and encourage elders to use their passions, skills and decades of experience to make a difference in our communities and the world.A cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, Goodman returned to Harvard as a Nieman Fellow, where she studied the dynamics of social change, and again as a Shorenstein Fellow.Ellen has a daughter, stepdaughter, two grandchildren and lives with her husband, Robert Levey in Boston.
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The Function of Media in a Free Society
Is the Personal (Too) Political?

A veteran journalist, Ellen takes us from a time when the press sheilded the private lives of an FDR and a JFK to the time when the personal has become public with a vengeance. What do we make of cable TV food fights and scandals of the day? Ellen argues for the importance of balancing and deepening the media.

Women and Friendship

Ellen and Patricia O'Brien, authors of the New York Times Best Seller "I Know Just What you Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women's Lives" have treated audiences to a lively discussion on the importance of this under-rated relationship in women's lives. As a duet, they show as well as describe this connection.

Women and Health

Women play many roles in the evolving story of health care in America. They are family caregivers, the intermediaries between children and doctors, husbands and doctors. They make the most of the family decisions about medical care. At the same time, women are patients and research subjects, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
In the past decades we've seen enormous change in all these areas. We've seen women becoming half the medical students. We've seen nurses struggling to gain more respect for their roles. At the same time, we've seen women as patients coping with the research on hormones. The magic pill that was supposed to keep them young forever now appears to be a danger more than a help.
All of this fits into the pattern of social change that Ellen Goodman has expertly tracked.

Women and Social Change
A Progress Report

Ellen offers a witty and insightful "progress" report from the turbulent front lines of social change. From the myth of Supermom thru the myth of Superwoman, from the halls of Congress to the privacy of the bedroom, she talks about changing American values and analyzes what's happening with men, women and families in today's society.

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