Leadership: Innovating into New Spaces
After serving as the Food & Wine Editor in Chief for over two decades, tastemaker DANA COWIN ventured into new media territory – launching a wildly successful podcast, Speaking Broadly, which inspired a visionary zine. Drawing on her breadth of experiences, Dana offers keen insights and informative strategies for embracing innovative leadership.
Moderation for Fireside Chats & Panels That Make an Impact
Innovator and tastemaker DANA COWIN is a skillful moderator and interviewer for events of all kinds. Known for her visionary podcast Speaking Broadly, Cowin inspires impactful conversations through her thoughtful moderation at the intersection of creativity, sustainability, food, and more.
Overcoming Illness Through Community and Resilience
Tastemaker and trend spotter DANA COWIN dealt with the news of her Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis by throwing parties. In this way, she created an opportunity for her friends and family to come together and share in her experience, building a strong sense of community that supported her healing journey. In this compelling talk, Dana speaks to the ways we can show up for one another, the importance of community, and how we can form community through everyday interactions.
Lessons of Leadership
In this engaging program, tastemaker DANA COWIN shares entertaining stories about leadership from the kitchen and from her time with Star Chef. Though many of us begin our career and leadership journeys focused on ourselves, and everything we need to do to get ahead, Dana takes the counterview point, asking: How can you be a leader and mentor at any stage of your career? Dana offers insights about the "Art of Mentorship," how reciprocal mentoring can be, and how to identify peoples' strengths and encourage them.
Dana Cowin is a tastemaker and innovator in media, food and entrepreneurship. Her work spans advising creatives, founders and non-profits as well as creating editorial through podcasts, social, video, zines and books.
An award-winning influencer in the food world, she is a sought-after speaker on topics from trendspotting to lifestyle and motivation, leadership and branding. And of course, good food! Cowin was the keynote speaker for the Bacardi Spirit Forward first national tour; a frequent judge on Top Chef and Beat Bobby Flay, presenter at TedXManhattan on food waste; interviewed experts at SXSW and Fast Company Innovation Festival, among many others.
Through her brand consulting work, Cowin advises growing companies on storytelling, food, pr and marketing. She has lent her expertise to businesses as diverse as fast casual restaurants like Taim Mediterranean Kitchen and Dig Food Group (where she was Chief Brand Advisor from 2017 to 2020), Neiman Marcus and the Trust for Governors Island. She is also an investor and advisor to startups in the culinary space.
Cowin is host of Speaking Broadly, a podcast that features visionary women at the intersection of creativity, sustainability and food. Cowin has been invited to record Speaking Broadly across the country and around the world--from Japan to Montana to Portland, OR. Inspired by the singular experiences of Speaking Broadly guests, Cowin selected more than dozen women to write their own stories in Speaking Broadly's first zine, published spring 2022. The zine is now in its second printing. In 2014, Cowin published a highly-acclaimed cookbook, Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen: Learning to Cook with 65 Great Chefs and over 100 Delicious Recipes.
For 21 years, from 1995 to 2016, Cowin was the Editor in Chief of Food & Wine magazine. She transformed Food & Wine into a must-read lifestyle publication and digital outlet for anyone who wanted to track culinary trends, up-and-coming chefs, news about travel destinations, entertaining, wine and spirits. Cowin oversaw every aspect of the editorial, including books, website, social.
Cowin has a longstanding commitment to supporting opportunities for economic growth through culinary training. She's on the board of Food Education Fund and Hot Bread Kitchen, as well as the Food Council of City Harvest.