Vice-president for Student Affairs Sara Axelson welcomes participants to Friday night’s Women’s Leadership Conference, “Find your VOICE,” which encourages young leaders to find their voices.
The University of Wyoming Women’s Center and the Student Leadership and Community Engagement office hosted the 2012 Women’s Leadership Conference on Friday and Saturday.
The conference began Friday night with the Women of Distinction Dinner, where a woman from each college at the University of Wyoming was honored. Those who were honored were Donna M. Brown, Johnna Nunez, Tracey Owens Patton, Dona Playton, Terri Rittenburg, Amy Spiker and Elena Oggero.
Following the dinner, the film “The Invisible War” was shown. “The Invisible War” is a documentary directed by Oscar and Emmy-nominated director Kirby Dick that showcases women who have been raped in the military.
“It talks about how you’re almost more likely to be raped in the military than to be killed in combat if you’re a woman,” said Dakota Metzger, who was a member of the organization committee for the conference.
Saturday, keynote speaker Elaine Penn addressed attendees. Penn is a performer, speaker and trainer who has been featured on television and radio. She also has produced five award-winning documentaries.
After Penn’s speech, 12 workshops were offered in three different blocks. The workshops included Speaking With Confidence, Mindfulness and Yoga, Work-Life Balance, Reshaping the Gender Box: Finding Confidence as a Female Leader, and the Men Against Violence and Creative Women panels.
The theme for this year’s conference was VOICE: Value, Opportunity, Involvement, Confidence and Energy.
“All of our workshops were based on finding these things within yourself. One of our goals was to give campus women the tools for leadership,” Metzger said. “I think it’s a good message to have and to get out into the community. And I think it helps people understand women’s issues.”
The conference was planned by a group of students, including Metzger, Kate Guerrieri, Haylee Hunsaker, Kira Cheshier, Tamara Kitic, Ashlee Oslund, Kourtnie Rodgers, Jaynee Hanson, Kim Sanchez and Lindsey Haines.
“This year’s conference was almost entirely student-run, and it was more student-run than it has ever been before,” Metzger said.
There also was a staff- and faculty-led committee, which consisted of Dolores Cardona, Kate Steiner, Bonnie Zare, Helen Alatorre, Jenifer Lindberg, Erin Olsen, Danee Hunzie and Wendy Perkins.
To prepare for UW’s conference, the planning committee went to Washington, D.C., for the National Conference for Collegiate Women Student Leaders, which was similar to the conference that was held at UW.
“We took what we learned and loved in D.C. and brought it back here to share with people on campus,” Metzger said.
In addition to the Women’s Center and SLCE, conference sponsors included the UW Police Department, the College of Health Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Education, Multicultural Affairs, the Copy Center, and Brown and Gold.
Photos: Elizabeth Holder
