Marily Mondejar

Marily Mondejar is president of Filipina Women’s Network, the nonprofit association for women of Philippine ancestry living in the U.S. Under her leadership, the fledgling organization grew from 50 members in 2002, operating ad hoc since 1996 to over 4,800 list members today. She spearheaded two significant Filipina empowerment campaigns: “Save A Filipina: Filipinas Against Violence” – to raise funds and awareness of the domestic violence problem in the Filipino community in collaboration with V-Day, the publication of the V-Diaries, the anti-violence resource guide, and “Filipinas Who Could Be President” – to build the Filipina community’s pipeline of qualified leaders increasing the odds that some will rise to the president position in all sectors.

She serves on nonprofit boards including the City of San Francisco’s Justice and Courage Oversight Committee which was created in response to the murder of Claire Joyce Tempongko, a Filipina woman. The Committee is tasked with implementing the San Francisco’s systemwide response to domestic violence.

Marily was born in the Philippines and immigrated to America in 1981. Her interest in social justice and politics was influenced by her father, a newspaper publisher, and her brother’s advocacy to eradicate exploitation of farmers by wealthy landowners. She actively participated in student demonstrations to repeal antiquated Spanish laws and to oust President Ferdinand Marcos who ruled the Philippines under martial law for more than 20 years.

Marily is executive director of the Institute for Image Management, an organization development and career coaching practice. She advises executives on leadership and career derailment issues, consults on corporate image strategies, merger implications, scenario planning, and maximizing performance, through work with executive teams, large-scale change, alliance-building, and inter-cultural communications.

After raising two sons as a single mom, she returned to school and earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organization development and leadership from New College of California. She continues her doctoral studies in organizational psychology at Alliant International University. She has received recognition for community service and was nominated for the Philippine Presidential Award.