Kate Shindle | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Two former Miss America winners want women to take over the top positions with the Miss American Organization.

After the pageant’s CEO Sam Haskell resigned after inappropriate emails he wrote about former contestants, past winners Kate Shindle and Gretchen Carlson have released a statement for a much needed call to action for the program.

“While it is reassuring that some of the perpetrators of the abuses within the Miss America Organization have resigned, this by no means fulfills the need for a thorough housecleaning of the Board of Directors,” Kate and Gretchen started her statement.

The ladies continued: “We will continue to demand the resignations of every individual who either participated in the abuse of women or stood by and was complicit by failing to conduct proper due diligence, as legally required by their fiduciary obligations. In addition, we expect that no new board members will be appointed until every implicated board member has resigned.”

“As evidenced by the thousands of voices – of contestants, former titleholders, local, state and national volunteers – being raised in support of our goals, this Board of Directors has lost the trust of the country,” Kate continued. “For the good of the organization, they must step away. The women of Miss America are determined to take back our program. This is not over yet.”

Read their statement in full inside…More Here! »

A new report from Huffington Post‘s Yashar Ali is revealing the shocking way that Miss America Organization CEO Sam Haskell allegedly talks about the former winners of the pageant, including actress Kate Shindle.

Emails that were exposed in the new report show that Sam thought it was funny when one of his colleagues wrote “It should have been Kate Shindle” while writing about the death of former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley.

Shindle won the pageant in 1998 and went on to become a successful theatre actress with starring roles in Legally Blonde, Cabaret, and Fun Home. She currently is the president of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union the represents stage actors and stage managers.

“I almost don’t have the words to respond to Yashar Ali‘s revelations about the current leadership of the Miss America Organization,” Kate wrote in a statement released on Twitter, in which she called for the full Board of Directors to resign.

“Today, I read that a member of the production team wished I were dead, and that Executive Chairman and CEO Sam Haskell laughed about it. I read that the Board of Directors conspired to change the rules of the competition specifically to destroy another Miss America’s business. I read that that same board passed around photos to email each other degrading comments about a Miss America’s body,” she added. “It makes me physically ill.”

You can read the full statement below.