Nell Merlino
Creator, Take Our Daughters to Work Day and Founder & President
Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence
Nell Merlino is a catalyst and activists for the advancement of women and girls. She mobilized more than 25 million people to recognize girls’ value, voice and potential with the creation of Take Our Daughters to Work Day in 1993.
In 2000, Nell launched Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, the first online micro lender. Senator Hillary Clinton joined Nell in 2006 to launch the Make Mine a Million $ Business program to help women grow micro businesses to million dollar enterprises.
Nell served as a Pathways Envoy for the U.S. State Department 2009-2011 promoting women’s entrepreneurship across Central America and served on the development committee for the historic Walmart Women’s Economic Empowerment program. She served on the North American Jury for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards 2010 – 2017.
An expert on business growth and the value and visibility of girls, Nell has provided commentary on every major news outlet including CNN, Bloomberg, Fox News, The Today Show, NBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and The New York Times. Her media appearances, quotes and stories have generated over 3 billion female focused media mentions.
Nell is currently working on the sequel to Take Our Daughters to Work Day called www.BornWorthy.org Her new initiative prepares our digital daughters parents and community for full and total equality with a 21st Century Rite of Passage for Girls.
She is the author of “Stepping Out of Line: Lessons for Women Who Want it Their Way in Life, in Love, and at Work” available on Amazon, and “Cracking the Glass Ceiling and Raising the Roof” in MIT Innovations Journal, Winter/Spring 2013
