Amy Siskind
Amy Siskind (born December 16, 1965) is an American activist and writer. She is the author of The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year (2018) and organizer of the We the People March.
Amy Siskind | |
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Siskind in April 2018 | |
Born | Marblehead, Massachusetts U.S. | December 16, 1965
Occupation | Activist, author |
Alma mater | Cornell University NYU Stern School of Business |
Subjects | Politics, women's rights |
Notable work | The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year (2018) |
Years active | 2008–present |
Children | 2 |
Website | |
amysiskind |
Early life and education
Siskind was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, to Jewish parents, Bernard Siskind and Selma Lipsky Siskind, and is the youngest of five siblings.[1][2][3] She attended Marblehead High School, graduating in 1984.[4] She received a BA in Economics from Cornell University in 1987,[5] and an MBA in Finance and International Business from the NYU Stern School of Business in 1992.[6]
Career
Early career
As a Wall Street executive, Siskind was a pioneer and expert in the distressed debt trading market. She became the first female Managing Director at Wasserstein Perella & Co. in 1996, at the age of 31, and later ran trading departments at Morgan Stanley and Imperial Capital, where she was also a partner.[7][8] Siskind worked 20 years on Wall Street before retiring in 2006.[9]
The New Agenda and political activism
Siskind was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 United States presidential election cycle, having previously supported Clinton's re-election bid to the United States Senate, and having taken her daughter to meet Clinton at an event in 2006.[10] Siskind has drawn criticism from liberals for voting for John McCain over Barack Obama.[11]
In August 2008, Siskind co-founded The New Agenda in her living room with 30 Hillary Clinton supporters who alleged sexism and misogyny were at play during the 2008 election.[12][13] The New Agenda is a non-profit organization "dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home".[13] As of August 2019 she is president of the organization.[14][15] It focuses on issues that affect the success of women, including pay discrimination, sexual assault and sexual harassment.[9]
Siskind was reported to be one of the earliest supporters of the Me Too movement, sparked by a tweet from Alyssa Milano on October 15, 2017, for which Siskind tweeted her own support within the first hundred minutes.[16]
In October 2018, in the days following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Siskind posted on Facebook that she was organizing an anti-hate vigil in her Westchester County community. After a local newspaper ran a story about it, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and his family, who lived in the nearby community of Larchmont, New York, appeared at the Siskind's door without invitation or forewarning; she called the police.[17]
The List
In November 2016, Siskind started keeping a weekly list of not-normal events of the Trump administration, and posting the lists on social media.[9][18] Siskind indicated that she did not intend to merely recite normal political disputes, but to catalogue "things that are uncharacteristic of our democracy".[18] In September 2017, she was named in Politico's 2017 "Politico 50".[18] In March 2018 she compiled the first year of weekly lists and published them as The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump's First Year. In June 2018, Siskind started The Weekly List podcast to accompany the lists;[19] writing in Forbes in July 2018, Jo Piazza listed this as one of the "Podcasts Created by Women You Need to Be Listening To Right Now".[20] In July 2017, the United States Library of Congress began archiving her weekly reports.[18] Siskind acknowledged in an interview the following year that a downside of taking such a highly public stance is that "I can tweet things that are inarticulate and be attacked for months and get death threats".[21]
In 2018, The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump's First Year was called one of the best books of 2018 by Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post.[22] Her podcast was also recognized by Marie Claire in 2019.[23] Siskind also organized the 2019 We the People March, a national march advertised as an event to remind elected officials that they work for the American people.[24] The march took place on September 21, 2019 in Washington D.C. with others in various cities across the United States.[24]
Personal life
Siskind lives in Westchester County, New York with her two children.[19][7][25] She is openly lesbian.[26]
References
- "Obituary of Bernard Siskind". The Marblehead Reporter. December 29, 2012.
- "Marblehead native Amy Siskind has turned her online Trump 'List' into a book - Itemlive". April 17, 2018.
- "Letter to the Editor: Happy with Tribute". jewishjournal.org.
- "Marblehead High School Virtual Yearbook".
- "What I Learned from What I Wish I Knew at 22". eship.dyson.cornell.edu.
- "To The Contrary Panelists". www.pbs.org. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- "About Amy". The Weekly List. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- University, Office of Web Communications, Cornell. "What I Wish I Knew at 22". Cornell. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- Sullivan, Margaret (June 25, 2017). "Perspective: Trump won, and Amy Siskind started a list of changes. Now it's a sensation". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- Silberstein, Judy (June 8, 2006). "Senator Clinton Reviews Mamaroneck 3rd Grader's Report". Larchmont Gazette.
- Sales, Ben (August 16, 2018). "Amy Siskind has been called a face of the anti-Trump resistance. Liberal critics claim she is an impostor". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- "It's No Longer Just About Hillary". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- "About Us - The New Agenda".
- Fine, Melanie (February 7, 2019). "The Incredible Symbolism Of That Sea Of White At The State Of The Union". Forbes.
- "2017 Board of Directors and Officers". The New Agenda. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
- France, Lisa Respers (October 15, 2017). "#MeToo: Social media flooded with personal stories of assault". CNN.
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- Weill, Kelly (13 November 2018) "Gavin McInnes Whines His Fellow Rich Neighbors Don’t Like Him" The Daily Beast
- Rom, Gabriel (29 October 2018) "Amy Siskind warns that far-right leader Gavin McInnes lives here" The Journal News
- Campbell, Andy (4 January 2019) "Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes Can Get Back To Antifa After He Battles His Neighbors" HuffPost
- Doughtery, Owen (4 January 2019) "Proud Boys founder asked neighbors to take down anti-hate signs: report" The Hill
- Sommer, Will (4 January 2019) "Gavin McInnes Writes Letters to Neighbors to Take Down Anti-Hate Signs" The Daily Beast
- Campbell, Andy (8 January 2019)"Gavin McInnes’ Wife Threatens Neighbors Over ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ Signs" HuffPost
- "#37 Amy Siskind - POLITICO 50 2017". Politico. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- "Mamaroneck's Siskind Continues Documenting The Trump Era". Larchmont-Mamaroneck, NY Patch. July 9, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- Piazza, Jo (July 18, 2018). "Podcasts Created by Women You Need to Be Listening To Right Now". Forbes. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
- Lungariello, Mark (October 1, 2018). "Author Amy Siskind brings her list on Donald Trump to Eastchester". Rockland/Westchester Journal News.
- Lozada, Carlos (March 16, 2018). "Review: Think you remember every outrage of the Trump presidency so far? A new book will test you". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- Jones, Alexis (May 22, 2019). "The 15 Podcasts by Women That Need to Be on Your Playlist". Marie Claire.
- Fuller, Bonnie (October 4, 2019). "We the People March Organizer AmySiskind On Why It's Needed: The TrumpRegime Must Be Accountable". Hollywood Life. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
- "Amy Siskind -". aroomofherownfoundation.org.
- Times, Windy City. "With 'The List,' Amy Siskind documents democracy's downfall". Windy City Times.
External links
External media | |
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Audio | |
Make America “Normal” Again, WAMU | |
Amy Siskind Chronicles Trump's First Year, "U-God" on the Wu-Tang Clan, Can We Fix Our Bail System?, WNYC | |
Video | |
Video: Amy Siskind of Mamaroneck, author of "The List" speaking at Barnes & Noble in Manhattan, Seth Harrison, Lohud |