News — AmpersandWomen

When Maggie Feldman-Piltch graduated from college and began working in national security, she was surrounded by former generals who were at least 40 years her senior and (surprise!) all male

AmpersandWomen NatSecGirlSquad WomenAtWork

When Maggie Feldman-Piltch graduated from college and began working in national security, she was surrounded by former generals who were at least 40 years her senior and (surprise!) all male

She loved working in this field, but she was dismayed by how few women leaders she saw at the top. Maggie decided to change that, and while in grad school at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, she began building #NatSecGirlSquad, a social impact consulting company and professional development organization that builds diversity in national security in defense. Below, we chatted with her about her unorthodox upbringing, her signature purple hair, and her “personal board of advisors.” Want more M.M.? Sign up for our newsletter. NO ONE CAN BELIEVE THIS, BUT IT’S 100% TRUE: There are 10 children in my family. My two...

Read more →


No one knows the trials of finding postpartum workwear quite like Liz Tenety and Jill Koziol, the co-founders of Motherly, a lifestyle brand for modern moms

AmpersandWomen WomenAtWork

No one knows the trials of finding postpartum workwear quite like Liz Tenety and Jill Koziol, the co-founders of Motherly, a lifestyle brand for modern moms

That’s why M.M.LaFleur chose to partner with them for our first capsule collection for new mothers making the transition back to work. Here, Jill (Motherly’s CEO) and Liz (Motherly’s chief digital officer) talk about parenthood, style, and starting the business they needed themselves. You decided to create Motherly because your generation of moms had needs that weren’t being met. What are those needs? Liz: Before we started Motherly, we saw that so much online content for parents was being generated by message boards, which certainly did not provide expert-driven information. I wasn’t going to rely on conflicting opinions to solve...

Read more →


Tiffany Shlain made a name for herself as the founder of the Webby Awards—now known as “the Oscars of the web”—in 1996, when the internet was still considered a potential fad (it’s now safe to say she hitched her cart to the right horse)

AmpersandWomen WomenAtWork

Tiffany Shlain made a name for herself as the founder of the Webby Awards—now known as “the Oscars of the web”—in 1996, when the internet was still considered a potential fad (it’s now safe to say she hitched her cart to the right horse)

She is also a documentary filmmaker and, after selling the Webbys in 2006, returned to her roots in video full time. Since then, she has created an Emmy-nominated web series, a feature film that premiered at Sundance, and a number of global initiatives that marry her filmmaking chops with her knowledge of how the internet can mobilize people around the world for social change. Which is why her latest project—a book called 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week—might seem surprising. But Shlain and her family have been observing a weekly break from screens for ten years now,...

Read more →