Gail Furman (1946 – 2019) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

and political donor. Furman was president of the Furman Foundation, Inc. The foundation is a major donor to the

Tides Center Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund based in the United States that manages over $1.4 billion in assets. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976 by Drummond Pike. Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizat ...

and the

Media Matters for America Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a non-profit left-leaning watchdog journalism organization. It was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Research Center. It seeks to ...

, a left-leaning center for journalism founded by author

David Brock David Brock is an American liberal political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. He has been described by ''Time'' as "one of the most influential operatives in the Democratic Par ...

.Jewish Daily Forward: "Wesley Clark Jumps in With Kosher-Style Kickoff - Whirlwind Week Sees General Angling for Dean’s Voters, Dollars" By E.J. Kessler
September 26, 2003

Early life and education

Furman was born in 1946 to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, the daughter of Martha and David Gorman. Her mother was a performer who used the stage name Marny Frances. She graduated from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and held a PhD in psychology from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Career

Furman worked as a psychologist at the

Fieldston School The Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also known more simply as Fieldston or Ethical Culture, is a private pre-K through twelfth grade coeducational school in New York City with two campuses, in Manhattan and in the Bronx. The school is ...

and the

Dalton School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located in ...

from 1973 until 1990. In December 2003, Furman attended a gathering in New York City organized by Erica Payne in order to watch a screening of

Democracy Alliance The Democracy Alliance is a network of progressive megadonors who coordinate their political donations to groups that the Alliance has endorsed. Since its founding in 2005, the Democracy Alliance has given more than $1 billion to liberal organiz ...

founder Rob Stein's PowerPoint presentation, ''The Conservative Message Machine Money Matrix''. After the presentation, Furman agreed in front of the group to donate more than $25,000 to fund Stein to conduct a research project to determine "what kind of groups the Left needed to fund." At the second meeting of the

in October 2005, Furman "demanded to know why the alliance wasn't creating a 'nerve center' that could book progressives on TV news shows." Furman along with

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

and other Democracy Alliance members John R. Hunting; Paul Rudd (co-founder of Adaptive Analytics);

Pat Stryker Patricia A. Stryker (born April 6, 1956) is an American billionaire businessperson, philanthropist, and political activist. Stryker is the granddaughter of Homer Stryker, founder of Stryker Corporation, a medical technology company. Since the ea ...

; Nicholas Hanauer; ex-Clinton administration official Rob Stein;

Drummond Pike Drummond MacGavin Pike (born October 11, 1948) is an American philanthropist and Progressivism in the United States, progressive political activist. He founded the Tides Foundation in 1976 and served as its president until 2010. He currently serve ...

; real estate developer Robert Bowditch;

Pioneer Hybrid International Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a subsidiary of Corteva, is a U.S.-based producer of seeds for agriculture. It is a major producer of genetically modified crops with insect and herbicide resistance. History In 1926, farm journal editor an ...

-heir and congressional candidate Scott Wallace;

Susie Tompkins Buell Susie Tompkins Buell (née Russell; born 1943) is an American entrepreneur, businesswoman and a donor to progressive causes. Tompkins Buell co-founded the Esprit clothing and The North Face brand with her first husband, Doug Tompkins whom she met ...

; real estate developer Albert Dwoskin; and

Taco Bell Taco Bell Corp. is an American multinational chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired ...

-heir Rob McKay, funded the

Secretary of State Project Formed in the fall of 2006 by Becky Bond, Michael Kieschnick and James Rucker,

, an American non-profit, 527 political action committee focused on electing reform-minded progressive Secretaries of State in battleground states, who typically oversee the election process. The Alliance was critical in getting California Secretary of State

Debra Bowen Debra Lynn Bowen (born October 27, 1955) is an American attorney and politician who served as the Secretary of State of California from 2007 to 2015. Previously, she was a member of the California State Legislature from 1992 to 2006. In March 20 ...

and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie re-elected.

Personal life

She was married to real estate developer

Jay Furman Jay Furman (July 15, 1942 – January 4, 2015) was an American developer and owner of real estate located in thirty-nine U.S. states and Puerto Rico. He had significant interests in more than 150 shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and in ...

; they had two children:

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's chief economic advisor

Jason Furman Jason Furman (born August 18, 1970) is an American economist and professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. On June 10, 2013, Fur ...

and federal judge

Jesse Furman Jesse Matthew Furman (born 1972) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Early life and education Furman is the son of psychologist Gail (née Gorman) and real estate devel ...

. They later divorced.

External links

Federal campaign contributions

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furman, Gail Living people American child psychologists 20th-century American Jews University of Michigan alumni 1946 births 21st-century American Jews