In this episode, we chat with Gwyn Lurie, who shows us how life can look when we understand that funding work that builds women and girls lifts us all! *Note: episode was recorded prior to the 2024 elections.*

Gwyn Lurie began her career as a Journalist for ABC News in New York, serving as Special Assistant to News President, Roone Arledge, as an off-air reporter and an associate Producer. In 1987 she produced the award-winning documentary “Voices From the Attic” about her family’s years in hiding during the holocaust. She spent six months in Managua, Nicaragua as a reporter. Gwyn worked as an executive for 20th Century Fox and later for Interscope Entertainment’s feature film division; she then worked as a screenwriter for two decades writing such projects as the 2016 feature film “Nine Lives” starring Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Garner; and co-writing/adapted Oliver Sacks’ “The Last Hippie”, which became “The Music Never Stopped” starring JK Simmonds (Sundance opening selection, 2010). She adapted Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “The BFG.” Gwyn has written for almost every major motion picture studio.

Gwyn became a full-time Santa Barbara resident in 2009 along with her husband, Les Firestein, and two daughters, Sydney and Noa. She
completed two terms as an elected member of the MUS School Board, serving as President for five years; Gwyn chaired the SB County Child
Safety Net Task Force. She co-founded the Program for Resilient Communities after the 1/9 debris flow. She co-chaired Santa Barbara’s
Human Rights Watch Committee. Gwyn received her BA from UCLA where she was elected Student Body President; she’s a Truman Scholar and attended graduate school at Oxford University at Balliol College as a Newton Tatum Scholar, after becoming a finalist for the Rhodes
Scholarship. In 2019 Gwyn raised capital through local investors to purchase the Montecito Journal and founded the Montecito Journal Media
Group, for which she currently serves as CEO and Executive Editor. Gwyn co-founded The Giving List Santa Barbara, The Giving List Los Angeles, The Giving List Bay Area, and most recently The Giving List Women, a national publication that promotes intersectional feminist philanthropy.

Learn more about Gwyn's work at givinglistwomen.com.