About Us — Ellen Browning Scripps Statue Fund

Myriam Miedzian & Gary Ferdman

Co-Founders of the Ellen Browning Scripps Statue Fund

Myriam Miedzian

Myriam Miedzian is Co-Founder of Monumental Women created with the goal of bringing the first statue to represent real women to New York City’s Central Park.

In their March 2013 Huffington Post blog , Time to “Remember the Ladies” — in Central Park, Miedzian and Ferdman pointed out that the park had 23 statues honoring men, but not one honoring a woman! They identified a highly diverse group of women as worthy, or more worthy, than many of the men, to be honored. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were among them; the final statue includes them as well as Sojourner Truth.

Miedzian holds a Columbia University PhD in Philosophy, and has taught at Barnard College and Rutgers University. She writes on contemporary social, political, and cultural issues in newspapers and magazines including The San Diego Union Tribune and The Baltimore Sun. She is the author of three books: Generations, Boys Will Be Boys, and He Walked Through Walls.

myriam standing in museum next to replica of monumental women statue

This picture was taken at the New York State Museum in Albany which has a replica, 1/3rds the size, of the Central Park Statue.

Gary Ferdman

Gary Ferdman is co-founder of Monumental Women. He retired from Common Cause after ten years as National Director of Major Gifts and now serves on the California Common Cause Board.

He was Executive Director of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities/TrueMajority, which he founded with Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s, working to reduce wasteful Pentagon spending and move those resources to social needs. His career in not-for-profits spans four decades. It includes Business Executives for National Security, where he championed converting unneeded military bases to civilian use.

He has served on the boards of The Shalom Center, The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Peace Action, and Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents, which he co-founded. He publishes blogs and op-eds, often with Dr. Miedzian.

Mr. Ferdman curated an exhibit about Marc Chagall in High Falls, NY, where the artist lived from 1946 to 1948 and advised the Jewish Museum on their major Chagall exhibit. Now residing in La Jolla, he encouraged suffrage centennial celebrations, using a presentation on local women’s history and helped San Diego-based Bodhi Tree Concerts create a Songs for Woman Suffrage program.

Mr. Ferdman holds a degree in Sociology from the University of Rhode Island. Trained as a grassroots organizer, he earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work in Community Organization from Rutgers University. He has a professional certificate in finance from New York University’s School of Business.