Donna Norton is a founding member of MomsRising and serves as MomsRising’s Executive VP and Chief Advancement & Strategy Officer, helping to develop and drive the strategic direction of MomsRising’s agenda.  Norton is an innovator and strategic manager with more than 20 years of experience working on women’s rights and gender equality on a variety of policy challenges.  Since 2006, she has led numerous winning campaigns at MomsRising, including the national healthcare campaign and the national early learning campaign. Prior to joining MomsRising, Norton was Senior Counsel for the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings, managing the Center’s National Science Foundation funded project to advance women in science, technology, engineering and math. She also directed the National Workplace Resource Center on Domestic Violence for Futures Without Violence and was the Executive Director of the Southern Alameda County Domestic Violence Law Project. Norton has also worked in international development, serving as the Rule of Law Program Officer at U.S. Agency for International Development in Moscow, Russia in 1994-95, conducting research on dowry related violence at the Indian Law Institute, and speaking at numerous conferences and events in Russia while her husband served as U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012-2014.  

Norton holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in public policy and public administration from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University. 

Best advice from a child?

"Nothing is stressful unless you make it stressful."