What I Believe
NOTES FROM the district
Notes on DC's economy, mission-driven business, and what it takes to build things that work.
Stop Asking Permission: A Good Girls’ Guide to Doing Good
DC's rule-following women did everything right, and it isn't working. From Tracy Flick to the 1888 matchgirls, a case for good trouble and building together.
Caring for our Steel Magnolias
DC isn't known as a creative powerhouse — but that may be part of our power, just as Dolly was never seen as the economic leader she actually was. I spent much of my career building in the creative field with women-owned factories, centering the women in supply chains at home and around the world, and I've seen firsthand what honoring women's economic agency does for an economy.
DC, we need to find our Dollys — and build them a stage.
The good news: it's already happening. We just need to see it for the powerhouse it is. We have NMWA. The Anacostia Arts Center opens in February. And this very week — as the world mourns Dolly — the first FEMME Art Fair is running in downtown DC, centering women artists from across the country, with 100% of sales going to the artists themselves and the Guerrilla Girls on the walls. Their tagline says everything: Not a movement. A market correction. Women artists are 70% of the talent and receive 3.3% of the money — a pattern I saw firsthand in my own career in sustainable fashion, an industry where women are the workers and the consumers, yet men and extractive practices sit at the top. That's not a culture problem. That's an economic development opportunity hiding in plain sight.
DC's Next Economy Is Already Here — It's Us
In May, I wrote about a friend who left DC — a family this city should have fought to keep, priced out not by rent but by the absence of the right job. That piece was about what DC should build: the industries that match our values, the neighborhoods that match our lives, the once-in-a-generation opportunity sitting in plain sight.
This piece is about something I've become even more convinced of since: who builds it. Because the answer isn't a corporation we recruit or an industry we import. The answer is already here. It's us.
DC Has a Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity. Here's How We Build It.
DC has advantages no other city can replicate: proximity to global institutions, national power, and world-class universities and healthcare. We are a city of highly educated, hardworking problem-solvers with experience tackling major challenges.
Fresh Talk at the national museum of women in the arts: Women Reclaiming Agency
In partnership with the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), Rebecca Ballard— principal of Ballard Advisory—served as program partner and moderator for Fresh Talk: Agency in Fashion.
Rebecca led a compelling conversation with Tracy Reese, acclaimed designer and founder of Hope for Flowers, and Katrina Orsini, fashion historian and curator at George Washington University. Together, they explored how women are reclaiming agency in the global fashion industry through sustainability, entrepreneurship, and creative leadership.
Drawing on her background in law, policy, and ethical fashion, Rebecca continues to highlight how responsibility and artistry can intersect to create a more equitable and innovative future for fashion.
Rethinking Tariffs: A Progressive Case for Ethical Trade
In an era of climate crisis and global exploitation, progressive tariff policy can be a powerful tool to promote ethical production, labor rights, and environmental sustainability. By aligning trade with our values, the U.S. can level the economic playing field while driving systemic change at home and abroad.
A HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE AMERICAN GARMENT INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPACT ON LABOR MOVEMENTS IN THE U.S.
In our latest installment of We Can Do This! Sally Greenberg, CEO of National Consumers League, sits down with Rebecca Ballard to discuss the fashion and garment industry.
Sally and Rebecca, an experienced and leading authority on sustainable fashion and founder of the consulting firm Ballard Advisory, discuss the incredible linkage connecting the garment industry’s history with the work of NCL specifically with respect to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the early 1900s, women’s and workers’ rights movements in the U.S., and child labor exploitation.
Rebecca, a former Labor and Employment Attorney with the U.S. Department of Commerce and owner of the sustainable fashion line Maven Women, recently penned a guest blog for NCL titled “The FABRIC Act will address garment industry workplace concerns.”
Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit RESPONSE
Missed the Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit? Check out this summary from conference chair Rebecca Ballard.
Interview with Rebecca Ballard, Chair of the Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit
Get to know the Chair of the Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit, Rebecca Ballard, as we explore the impact partnerships between the private, public and social sectors can have on accelerating the transition and how Rebecca’s own work incorporates cross-sector collaboration. Rebecca shares some of the common pitfalls businesses face when building their sustainability strategies and discusses her insights into the challenges and opportunities with supply chain traceability.
Congressional Briefing Sheds Light on Crucial Fashion Industry Topics and Opportunities Amid New York Fashion Week’s Kickoff
As the fashion industry's major players gear up for the kickoff of this season's New York Fashion Week, sustainable and ethical fashion leaders have turned their attention away from the runway and onto pressing policy challenges facing the fashion industry.
On Thursday, September 7, at noon EST, the American Circular Textiles (ACT) group, PoliticallyinFashion, Rebecca Ballard Advisory, Transparentem, and TS Designs hosted a first of its kind congressional briefing to educate staffers on critical issues facing the fashion industry and share potential solutions.