Events & Resources

ATHENAPowerLink® Baltimore Women in Business Speaker Series: Women in Media Panel

Tuesday, November 10, 8:30–10:30 a.m.

Towson University presents the ATHENAPowerLink® Baltimore Women in Business Speaker Series, hosted by the StarTUp at the Armory and powered by PNC. This engaging panel features accomplished female leaders from across the media industry. Gain valuable insights, hear inspiring stories and engage in a meaningful conversation about leadership and impact.

Erica L. Green is a White House Correspondent for The New York Times. Before joining the White House team in 2023, she was an award-winning education reporter for 13 years, six of them at The Times covering the U.S. Department of Education under the first term of President Donald J. Trump. Green joined The Times in March 2017 from The Baltimore Sun, her hometown paper, where she covered the Baltimore City Public School System. She was part of the team named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, and the riots that resulted. She co-authored a book about the riots, “Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City.” She is also the co-author of the book “MIRACLE CHILDREN: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises.”

Audrey Cooper is the editorial director of the Venetoulis Institute, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization devoted to saving local news. In this role she oversees the editorial strategy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and also serves as Editor in Chief of The Baltimore Banner.

At a time when local newsrooms have been gutted or closed across the country, Audrey has earned a national reputation for transforming legacy outlets into financially resilient, multiplatform news organizations rooted in public-service journalism.

Before joining The Banner, Audrey served as Senior Vice President of News at New York Public Radio. There, she integrated the WNYC radio operation and the digital-native site Gothamist, transforming them into a unified journalism powerhouse. Under her leadership, the newsroom was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for the first time, and it also won the prestigious Alfred I. duPont–Columbia Award for investigative reporting.

Prior to that, Audrey spent most of her career at the San Francisco Chronicle, starting as an assistant city editor and ultimately becoming the youngest woman ever named Editor in Chief of a major American newspaper. As top editor, she helped lead a financial turnaround and a sweeping digital reinvention, positioning The Chronicle as a national leader in reader-focused journalism. The newsroom earned repeated honors as California’s best newspaper and won nearly every major national reporting award under her leadership. She is especially proud of founding the SF Homeless Project, a groundbreaking collaborative reporting model that has since been replicated in newsrooms around the world.

Audrey lives in Baltimore with her husband, teenage son, and their exceptionally lazy dog. She grew up in the Kansas City area and still maintains very righteous opinions about what counts as passable barbecue sauce.

Dr. Frances “Toni” Murphy Draper believes journalism is an enduring act of stewardship—preserving history, amplifying underrepresented voices, and strengthening communities through truth. As CEO and Publisher of AFRO News, the nation’s longest-running Black-owned family newspaper, she is the fourth-generation steward of a legacy founded in 1892 by her great-grandfather, John H. Murphy Sr. Under her leadership, AFRO has expanded its digital reach, forged innovative community partnerships, developed new platforms to connect journalism with audiences, and continued advancing its historic mission of serving Black communities.

A Baltimore native, Dr. Draper served more than two decades as founding pastor of a South Baltimore congregation. She holds degrees from Morgan State University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Baltimore, Loyola University Maryland, and United Theological Seminary. She is the author of Prayer and Pen and the forthcoming 50 Tips from 50 Years of Wedded Grace (2027). Her leadership has earned numerous honors, including an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Johns Hopkins University. Her work remains focused on preserving history, advancing opportunity, inspiring hope, and strengthening institutions.

Susan Gerardo Dunn is the founder, owner, and CEO of Baltimore Fishbowl, an award-winning independent local news site she launched in 2011. Over the past 15 years, Baltimore Fishbowl has grown into a trusted source of news, culture and community coverage in the Baltimore region and has earned more than 125 awards from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association.

Dunn began her career in Baltimore as an education reporter for the Towson Times and later freelanced for Baltimore Magazine and The Baltimore Sun. She also served as director of communications for Advocates for Children and Youth and previously founded PaperDoll, a Baltimore-based magazine for women.
Dunn is a graduate of Pomona College, where she currently serves on its Board of Trustees. She also serves on the boards of the Walters Art Museum, the Baltimore Community Foundation, and the Thomas Wilson Foundation.

Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on all things ATHENAPowerLink® Baltimore.

PAST EVENTS

Panelists

  • Janet Currie, president, greater Maryland, Bank of America
  • Jen Dardis, chief financial officer and treasurer, T. Rowe Price Group
  • Aileen Eskildsen, chief executive officer and managing partner, Ellin & Tucker
  • Laura Gamble, regional president greater Maryland and territory executive for the northeast, PNC Bank

ATHENAPowerLink® Baltimore Information Session

RESOURCES

The following resources may be of interest for networking and professional development opportunities.

C200

A powerful community of the most successful women in business, representing companies with more than $1.2 trillion in combined revenue and employing more than 2.5 million people.

Dr. Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute

A principal destination for comprehensive and results-driven leadership development opportunities for individuals and organizations, including the TU Professional Leadership Program for Women.

Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs

We connect the small business community to greater economic opportunities, while implementing and monitoring small, minority, women, and veteran procurement programs across 70 state agencies.

IFundWomen + Maryland

A crowdfunding ecosystem designed to help women-led startups, small businesses, nonprofits, side hustles, and passion projects of Maryland raise funds to launch and grow.

Mayor’s Office of Minority & Women-Owned Business Development

The City of Baltimore’s primary advocate for small, local, minority, and women-owned companies including prime contractors, subcontractors, and joint venture partners.

National Association of Women Business Owners

The unified voice of over 10 million women-owned businesses in the United States representing the fastest-growing segment of the economy.

StarTUp at the Armory

TU’s front door for start-ups, small businesses, as well as our region’s largest corporations. This vibrant public space includes free, co-working space.

Women’s Funding Network

A global alliance that works to develop strategies, mobilize resources, and raise awareness to combat systemic gender and racial inequality at the community level, forging a better quality of life for all.

Women Presidents Organization

The WPO is a non-profit membership organization for women leaders of privately held, multi-million dollar companies.