Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, non-profit, civic and business leader – is best known nationally for her passion at the intersect of women’s leadership and social justice.
The second longest serving CEO of the first national organization to financially support women when they run for office, Washington D.C.’s bi-partisan Women’s Campaign Fund and She Should Run, Bennett is now honored to be the Chief Strategic Officer and Senior Vice-President of Legal Momentum, the nation’s first and foremost advocate of women’s and girl’s legal rights, founding and ongoing champions of the culturally transformative “Violence Against Women Act” and “Title IX”. Charged with ensuring Legal Momentum’s half a century of impact is showcased leading up to it’s 50th Anniversary and beyond, she is honored to work with its acclaimed CEO, staff and Board of Directors in charting the course of its next fifty years of Litigation, Education, Advocacy and Defense.
Consistent is Bennett’s success in raising funds and awareness for causes she believes in coupled with strategic, data informed approaches that stand the test of time. The co-founder of The Freedom Memorial, the only in the world commemorating both Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King – Bennett strives to “be the change you want to see in the world.”
Her nationally renowned initiative Name It. Change It. fighting political sexism against women - was born out of Bennett’s 2008 run for U.S. Congress where she was one of the most endorsed challengers in the nation, with an historic number of votes and money raised. A small business owner and past Fortune 500 nationally ranked executive - Bennett’s former political career began when she was recruited by Republican and Democratic leaders to run for Mayor of Allentown in 2001 where she lost by 46 votes to a 20 year political incumbent. Leading the top performing swing region in the country in the 2004 Kerry Bush faceoff, and chairing her region’s political party to its first-ever sweeps, Bennett’s leadership is always marked by exceptional results.
Recently, during her final bid for elected office, Bennett volunteered her time to create the signature annual statewide event The Great PA Music and Arts Celebration as the Inaugural Volunteer CEO of the PA Music Preservation Society. Featuring 60 musical performances, three-day estimated attendance of 10,000 plus innovative economic development programs linked to history and the arts, she continues as a volunteer focused on the preservation of her region’s unique “Blumme” Hex Signs.
Transcending being sexually trafficked in her youth, Bennett now is in demand as a national expert and media voice – from Bangladesh to Brussels, from FOX News to PBS, with awards ranging from 2017 Outstanding Community Service Award from the African-American Improved Benevolent Protective Order Elks of the World to serving as a Keynote Panelist for the European Union’s 2013 CEE Network for Gender Issues Conference to being honored as Women ENews Top 21 Women in the Nation in 2012.
On the personal front, her family continues two decades restoring one of her region’s most notable home’s the 1914 Italianate Palladian Historic Benner Mansion, formerly boarded up, foreclosed and abandoned in what was once her city’s second highest crime neighborhood – transforming it into Allentown’s first and still only bed and breakfast. Now her family have reclaimed and live in the abandoned 1914 Arts and Crafts mansion next door, The Parsonage, while also restoring the 1920's Adirondack Great Camp Style vacation home that they created The Beaverkill Family Trust to preserve, in her family now five generations.
