Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Part playwright, part speechwriter, and part sleuth, I needed to understand why American suffragist and women’s rights champion Alice Paul (1885 – 1977) ever agreed to climb a dangerous roof in Glasgow, Scotland to protest for suffrage. (Even Paul herself expressed late-life surprise at the idea that she'd climbed a roof.) It’s clear from history – reporting and Paul's own words – that it was risky. But she leapt into the construction zone of Glasgow's new Mitchell Library anyway - after midnight on August 20, 1909 - further dared to climb construction huts (by plank), then hid on a roof of the former St. Andrew's Halls, just hours after arriving in Glasgow as a traveling agitator for Britain's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Caught before she could interrupt an important speech, she made front-page news anyway. Mastering key WSPU tactics - escalating and elevating debate, prioritizing action over words, and leveraging the power of surprise and uncertainty - later helped Paul ignite and lead America’s successful national suffrage fight. I commissioned Glasgow model maker Franki Finch to produce architectural/study models of the 1909 site, featuring Paul standing in the “space between.” The former St. Andrew’s Halls (1877 – 2006) and the original Mitchell Library under construction are fabricated in 1:175 scale. One model resides in Glasgow's much-expanded Mitchell Library; the other at the Alice Paul Institute in Mt. Laurel Township, NJ. My quote from "Suffragette's rooftop protest remembered," Glasgow Times, September 8th, 2022: “The world knows Alice’s serious side: too often jailed, hunger striking or force-fed, founder of the National Woman’s Party and World Woman’s Party, who helped win women’s voting rights, wrote the US Equal Rights Amendment, and challenged the United Nations to foster equality for all. I wanted to know Alice inside a construction site, the night she discovered the trailblazer she’d become.” In a prior life, I was a speechwriter for top Bay Area executives and a VP and Manager of Employee Communications for a San Francisco bank. I began my P.R. career in Washington, D.C. doing special events for the Smithsonian's then-Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History). I graduated from Vassar College in 1972 with a B.A. in Sociology. A resident of Philadelphia since 2018, I'm an Associate Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, a Library Company of Philadelphia shareholder, a supporter of New Jersey's Alice Paul Institute, and a Sustainer in The Junior League of Philadelphia.
Co-produced Holland Taylor’s 2013 Broadway hit, "ANN"" (the story of Texas governor Ann Richards) at Sonoma Arts Live in Sonoma, CA. The five-day benefit run starred veteran Hollywood actress Libby Villari. The play's author Holland Taylor, wrote this announcement to be read before each show: "I am so happy that such smart impassioned people are presenting my play. It gives me confidence that the deeply human story will be well told, a story as redolent as a country ballad, of a woman who has never spoken for the common good more profoundly than right now. She is a woman for all seasons, whose persona calls to us all, men and women, dogs and cats, to lift ourselves and all around us, to higher ground..." "ANN" was nominated for a San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award for Best Solo Production in 2017.
Initiated and launched plans for two multimedia staged readings of "Take What Is Yours," to be held during a historic Suffrage Centennial Celebration, March 1 - 3, 2013, in Washington, DC. Planned as benefits for the National Women's History Museum, the staged readings were postponed. Additionally, provided significant PR consulting and services to the National Women's History Museum and its key coalition partners in preparation for Suffrage Centennial Celebration weekend.
Clients included Apple Computer, Levi Strauss, McKesson Corporation, Boehringer Mannheim, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and the former Pacific Telesis and former Healthcare Forum. Pro bono work for the American Cancer Society (CA Division) and others.
“You have a wonderful ability to tackle very complex matters in an orderly and thoughtful way." — Lee Smith, President, Levi Strauss International. Provided speechwriting services and additional consulting services in advance of Smith's speech on AIDS in the workplace -- presented at the Harvard School of Graduate Business Administration. Speechwriter for top Bay Area executives and others, including: - Frank V. Cahouet, CEO, and David Brooks, Vice Chairman of Crocker National Bank; - Lee Smith, President, Levi Strauss International; - Donna Goya, Personnel Director, Apple Computer; - Sam Ginn, CEO, the former Pacific Telesis; - Charles A. Norris, President, McKesson's Bottled Water Division; - James Ho, San Francisco's Deputy Mayor for Business; - Kathryn Johnson, President/CEO and Board members of the former Healthcare Forum; and more. Selected Comments: "Afterwards, Dr. Spock told me it was the best introduction he'd ever had." — Cathe Keyes, Assistant Administrator of Nursing at Seattle Children's Hospital, charged with introducing Dr. Benjamin Spock at a national Children's Health Conference. "Thanks to you [Rebecca], my speech...was a success. You took a difficult and politically charged subject and made it meaningful to both the audience and myself." — Doug Taylor, Wells Fargo Bank pension fund manager, after his speech before the Congressional Black Caucus. "Your inspiration and your talents often made the difference. Our Board members never sounded more eloquent than they did when presenting the speeches which you pioneered..." — Kathryn Johnson, President/CEO of the former Healthcare Forum.