Shaun Robinson
President and Founder
Shaun Robinson has always had a passion for empowering girls and young women and her creation of the S.H.A.U.N. Foundation for Girls is the next chapter in that commitment. Her career in front of the camera as an anchor, reporter and talk show host has given her a platform to reach millions.
As a graduate of the all-girls school, Spelman College in Atlanta, she learned the value of a strong sisterhood among women and how, when united, it could be a powerful force for change. For her first book, Exactly As I Am: Celebrated Women Share Candid Advice With Today’s Girls On What It Takes To Believe In Yourself, Shaun held task force groups of teen girls around the country to discuss what they felt were the most pressing problems facing girls. These messages from girls led Shaun to create the online movement, “One Girl, One Voice: A Million Ways to Make a Difference” where girls were encouraged to share their stories of volunteering and how they helped the lives of others. Shaun also wrote, produced and directed the video, “10 Rules for Girls with Strong Self-Esteem” and created and directed the video, “Why I Bully You” which was performed by teen poets in Los Angeles and examined reasons why girls bully each other.
Shaun served on the national board of Girls Inc. and currently sits on the Advisory Board of the United Nations Foundation’s adolescent.adolescent girl campaign, Girl Up. A tireless champion for young women girls, Shaun is a frequent keynote speaker on female empowerment.
Lisa Gilford
Secretary
Lisa Gilford is a leading complex civil litigator and a partner in the Los Angeles office of the AMLAW 10 firm Sidley Austin LLP. Prior to joining Sidley, Lisa was a partner with the law firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Alston & Bird, where she co-chaired the Products Liability practice. Over the span of her legal career, Lisa has represented clients in a wide variety of industries, including emerging technology; life sciences; telecommunications; automotive, industrial and chemical manufacturing; aerospace; sports; and higher education. Her pro bono representations include representing civic and arts foundations and individuals in civil rights, immigration, housing, veterans’ affairs and disability benefits cases and impact litigation.
Lisa’s numerous accolades include being named by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of its “Top 100 Lawyers” (2015–2020), “Top Women Lawyers” (2013–2019) and “Top Women Litigators” in California (2013–2018). The Los Angeles Business Journal named her to the “L.A. 500” (2019, 2020), as one of the city’s “Most Influential Women Attorneys” (2018–2020) and among the “Most Influential Minority Lawyers” (2019). The John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles recognized Lisa as a Law Firm Partner Honoree at their 2019 Honoring Excellence in the Legal Profession awards. She was also recognized as the “Consumer Litigation Lawyer of 2018” by the Century City Bar Association and has been included in The Best Lawyers in America (2018–2021). Lisa received the J. Michael Brown Award from DuPont in 2008 for her personal commitment to diversity, recruiting and mentoring in the legal profession.
Lisa serves on the Boards of Directors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; the racial equity organization Core Change Collective; and the Los Angeles Music Center, the premiere cultural and artistic institution which oversees Grand Park, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Disney Concert Hall and other major arts venues in the city. Recently, Lisa was selected to serve a three-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, where she assists the Central District of California judiciary plan educational conferences and programs on the administration of civil justice within the District.
Lisa is dedicated to causes advancing the status of women and girls, and is a former President and current Emeritus Board Member of the National Association of Women Lawyers; former member of the Boards of the California Women’s Law Center and StepUp Women’s Network; a lifetime member of Women Lawyers of Los Angeles and Black Women Lawyers bar organizations; and legal counsel to the S.H.A.U.N. Foundation for Women and Girls and the Debbie Allen Dance Academy.
Lisa earned an LL.M. from Georgetown University (1995); a J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law (1993); and received a B.A. from Furman University (1990). Lisa was a Truman Scholar, previously taught at The Georgetown University Law Center and was a graduate fellow and public service lawyer with Georgetown’s Institute for Public Representation, working in the area of civil rights and environmental justice. She frequently lectures on California tort, consumer protection, unfair competition and privacy law, legal ethics, best practices for outside counsel, and professional development for women and diverse lawyers.
Lisa lives in Los Angeles with her family, husband Andrew and children Isabel and Evan.
Ivy Walker
Treasurer
Ivy Walker is CEO of Helios Digital Learning, a firm that creates award-winning content used by ethics and compliance programs at Fortune 500 companies and CEO of Purpose Workforce Solutions, a staffing firm that specializes in connecting the aspirations of disconnected youth to job opportunities.
In addition to her entrepreneurial endeavors, she is an award-winning director and executive producer of documentary films. Her projects include serving as Executive Producer of “All the Queen’s Horses”, a film that held the top spots on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play for multiple weeks, and “Blind Spots”, a short-form documentary for which she won three Telly Awards, including the People’s Choice Telly.
Ivy’s background includes Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial experience in both for- profit and not-for-profit/social venture settings. Prior to Helios Digital and Purpose, her professional roles included serving as President of a venture-backed health gamification start-up, CEO of a social venture that brought diagnostic medical imaging technology to low-resource countries, and Managing Director at a boutique private equity firm.
Ivy holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received Kellogg’s Alumni Entrepreneur Supporter of the Year Award and the Anti-Defamation League’s Rising Star Award in 2011 and 2009, respectively. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, an appointed member of the board that oversees the Chicago Public Library System, and a member of the boards of Gateway Foundation, Bottom Line and Forest Capital Management.
J. Simone Jones
Simone Jones is an environmental associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin LLP. Her specialties include complex environmental litigation and internal investigations, particularly in the automotive, chemical, and refining sectors. Her recent cases include defending original equipment manufacturers and senior executives in matters involving auxiliary emission control devices, fuel economy and onboard diagnostics before federal courts, EPA, CARB, DOJ, the FBI, the SEC and other agencies. Simone also advises and defends companies in emerging contaminant matters involving PFAS and other substances. As one of the leaders of Sidley’s Environmental Justice (“EJ”) group, Simone advises and defends leading companies on EJ and other social justice issues.
Simone also has extensive experience in complex class action defense, white collar criminal defense and internal and government investigations, as well as general commercial litigation. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in various jurisdictions and in all stages of litigation, including initiating complaints, developing litigation strategy, briefing dispositive motions, taking and defending depositions, working with expert witnesses, managing discovery and assisting with appeals.
Simone earned her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she served as the editor of the Seventh Circuit Review Honors Journal. Simone earned her Master of Public Health from Tulane University and her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Arkansas.
Simone was recognized by Super Lawyers as an Illinois Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2014–2018.
