OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Nicole Vorrasi Bates
Founder and Executive Director of Shattering Glass
Nicole Vorrasi Bates has spent her life advocating for gender equality. From the first time she was told she could not play organized baseball with the boys, and then throughout her career, Nicole has had first-hand experiences with gender discrimination, gender bias and unequal pay.
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Recognizing the disparate toll the pandemic has taken on women, and the minimal progress made towards gender equality in the past two decades, Nicole founded Shattering Glass, on March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day. Its mission is to effectuate much-needed changes to ensure our daughters, granddaughters and their daughters will not be held down by gender discrimination.
Nicole is a licensed attorney. Prior to founding Shattering Glass, she practiced corporate transactional tax law, a male-dominated field, for more than two decades and was a commercial litigator prior to that. Throughout her legal career she has participated in countless mergers and acquisitions, ranging into the billions of dollars, primarily representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies. She also runs a growing real estate development company with her husband.
In addition to fighting for women’s rights, Nicole is dedicated to youth sports and advocating for children. She has coached, volunteered for, and served in leadership of youth sports for eight years and currently sits on the Boards of Directors of Washington, DC Little League and the Positive Coaching Alliance, MidAtlantic Region.
Nicole, a graduate of Hobart and William Smith College (BA), Catholic University Columbus School of Law (JD) and Georgetown University (LLM in Taxation), lives in Washington, DC with her husband, and young son and daughter. In her free time, Nicole loves nothing more than coaching. She recently managed her son’s Little League All-Star team, which came two wins away from making it to the Little League World Series, and coached her daughter’s elementary school basketball team.
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Johnisha M. Levi
Senior Grant Writer at Elevate
Johnisha Levi enthusiastically brings her varied experiences working on behalf of nonprofits to Shattering Glass, where she looks forward to advocating for gender equality and equity. As a law student, she worked on behalf of criminal defense advocacy nonprofits seeking postconviction relief for clients sentenced to death. As a practicing attorney at a top 50 law firm in Washington DC, she devoted hundreds of hours to pro bono legal work to a host of nonprofit causes.
After leaving the practice of law, she became a nonprofit professional. She managed a community-based culinary nutrition program active in 10 major cities that focused on the health of individuals of African descent. In addition to forging vital new community partnerships, and conducting trainings for new community leaders, she also wrote and piloted a 100-page children’s version of the six-week culturally relevant curriculum. As the Development Manager for The Nashville Food Project (TNFP), she sought out supportive funding for programs focused on alleviating food insecurity and creating a more just and sustainable food system. At TNFP, she also committed herself to making the organization more reflective of the communities it serves. Largely due to her efforts, a new standing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee composed of Board members and staff will be launched in 2021 to work strategically on these issues.
She currently works as a Senior Grant Writer at Elevate in Washington, DC, where she provides support to nonprofit leaders to build smart, sustainable grant programs that produce powerful social change.
Johnisha is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B.), New York University School of Law (J.D.), and Johnson & Wales University (A.A.S.). She has published articles on Yes! Media and is a recipe tester for Leite’s Culinaria. A proud native Washingtonian, she is currently at work on a memoir exploring her unique family history focused on pre-gentrification DC. She lives in East Nashville with her husband Jon.
Neil Rothstein, Esq.
Securities and Class Action Attorney
Mr. Rothstein is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University (B.A. 1986) and the Beasley School of Law at Temple University (J.D. 1989). During law school, Neil earned summer associateships at two major nationally known law firms and later became an attorney at one of them. After law school, he accepted a position at a boutique law firm where he gained his actual trial experience on a diverse range of cases including commercial litigation, civil rights, trusts & estates, contract law and all phases of litigation, including appellate work.
Neil has spent over 25 years in all aspects of class action litigation including securities, shareholder derivative litigation, antitrust, ERISA and consumer actions. He was counsel for the lead plaintiff in the class action securities lawsuit against Halliburton.
Jean M. Sweeney, Esq.
Corporate and Transportation Law Attorney
Jean M. Sweeney graduated in the 3rd class of women from the College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in English Literature, Dean’s List, and received her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law. She worked in Wall Street for 15 years as counsel to Mutual Funds and Investment Advisers, before joining Maloof & Browne LLC.
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Jean has played a leading role in the charitable efforts of “Feed My Starving Children,” which, from her town of Darien, Connecticut, has bought meals to more than one million starving third-world children in the last three years. She serves on the Board of the League of Women Voters in Darien.
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Ms. Sweeney’s practice areas include both international transportation law and corporate law.
Eileen Murphy, MD
Senior Advisor
Eileen Murphy is an obstetrician-gynecologist and lifelong activist.
Her career as an OB-GYN generalist spanned group private practice, federally qualified community health centers, and a last decade as an OB Hospitalist, all the while teaching medical students at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine since 1988. Eileen is currently volunteering at CommunityHealth, a health clinic serving people without essential health care. As a health care provider, social determinants, patient education and inclusion guide care.
Eileen has been advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment since 1972. In her spare time, she is a docent at the Field Museum, a volunteer at Nourishing Hope, a chef with Lasagna Love and an Exhibit Host at the Chicago Architecture Center.