Liz Abzug

Founder and executive director, Bella Abzug Leadership Institute

Liz Abzug, the founder and executive director of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute, has led a distinguished career as a national public affairs and strategic consultant, professor, lawyer, and former political candidate. She is the daughter of the late Congressmember Bella Abzug, who worked with Ed Koch in 1974 to propose the earliest version of the Equality Act.

Liz’s work has spanned across many fields, including politics, economics and urban development, and human rights. In 1995, she formed her own national public affairs and management-consulting firm to provide services in the areas of strategic and business planning, public affairs, management and political and health care consulting, marketing, public relations, and lobbying. 

Liz has served in a number of senior level positions in government. Under former Governor Mario Cuomo, Liz was New York State’s chief lobbyist in Washington for the state’s economic development agencies. Prior to that, she served as the vice president of operations of the Empire State Development Corporation and was deputy commissioner of operations for the state’s Division of Human Rights. She helped lead the successful effort to amend the state’s Human Rights law to ban discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

Liz has been involved in numerous other not-for-profit organizations and served on small corporate boards, such as the New York State Commission on Domestic Violence, the Governor’s Gay Rights Task Force, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Liz serves as a senior adjunct professor of Urban Studies and Women and Leadership at Barnard College/Columbia University, where she teaches classes pertaining to cities, urban economic development, and women’s leadership. She is also a public speaker at colleges, universities, conferences, and conventions throughout the United States.