President | Women’s Media Center

Julie Burton is President of the Women’s Media Center, a feminist organization co-founded by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem that works to make women visible and powerful in media.

As President of WMC, Burton leads its advocacy, online and on-air journalism, research, and leadership initiatives to empower women as equal players in media and society. She is widely quoted as an activist and leader in media and speaks on women’s representation issues at forums in the U.S. and globally.

She established the WMC Media Lab and is the creator of a wide array of WMC’s signature reports and research programs including the widely-referenced Women’s Media Center Status of Women in US Media report. She is also co-executive producer of the award-winning Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan podcast and syndicated radio program, and she oversees WMC’s online and on-air journalism channels, including WMC Features, WMC Women Under Siege, WMC FBomb, WMC Speech Project, as well as WMC SheSource, WMC Progressive Women’s Voices, and the Women’s Media Awards — an annual celebration of champions for women in media.

For more than a decade, Burton was on the frontlines of the women’s movement as the youngest CEO of a national pro-choice political action committee, Voters For Choice. She was the Founding Executive Director of Choice USA (now called URGE — Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity), and she has worked to advance opportunities for women at leading advocacy organizations, including People For the American Way, Project Kid Smart, and the National Women’s Law Center.

Throughout her career, she has gained public and media visibility, built grassroots enthusiasm and raised money for movements for social change by involving artists in high-profile events. She organized a series of high-profile Concerts for Choice featuring volunteer performances by major artists like Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, Keb’Mo’, Melissa Etheridge, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Indigo Girls, Phish, and others. Later, she produced a CD with Sony Music — Mary Had A Little Amp — featuring songs by Madonna, Maroon 5, Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., Graham Nash and others to raise visibility for preschool education. And for the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, she established a full-service G-20 Media Center for the environmental community and created a climate change event for international diplomats and environmental leaders at the Andy Warhol Museum with the producer of New Orleans Jazz Fest and featuring artists impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

Early in her career, she was a recipient of the Women’s Information Network’s “Young Woman of Achievement Award” and was named “A Rising Star” by Campaigns and Elections Magazine. She is the recipient of a Wikimedia Distinguished Service Award and has been named one of Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century.

A former Commissioner on the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, she has served on the Advisory Board of Women@Paley at the Paley Center for Media, the Feministing Advisory Council, the National Advisory Committee of the Institute For Women’s Policy Research Status of Women in the States, the Women’s Leadership Board of the Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program, the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center on the Advancement of Women in Communication, the Newseum Power Shift Advisory Board, The National Abortion Federation Board, and is a Trustee of the Stewart R. Mott Foundation.

Follow Julie on Twitter @JulieBurtonWMC