Previous Speakers
As you can see from the following list, the Iowa Women's Leadership Conferece has brought world-class speakers to Eastern Iowa.
Keynote Speakers
Ann Bancroft
Polar Explorer
Ann Bancroft is one of the world’s preeminent polar explorers. Ann and Norwegian polar explorer Liv Arnesen in 2001 become the first women in history to sail and ski across Antarctica’s landmass. In 1993, she led the American Women’s Expedition to the South Pole, earning the distinction of being the first woman in history to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles.
Diana Nyad
World Class Athlete, Speaker and Writer
Diana Nyad holds the record for the longest swim in history for both men and women, which she earned in 1979 with a 102.5-mile swim. Today, she is a columnist on “All Things Considered,” and is the sports business reporter for the award-winning show “Marketplace,” both on National Public Radio.
Marjorie Scardino
CEO, Pearson
Marjorie Scardino is chief executive of Pearson, the international education and media business made up of Pearson Education, Penguin and the Financial Times Group. Until January 1997, she was chief executive of The Economist Group, of which Pearson owns 50 percent, and, prior to 1985, she was a partner in a Savannah, Georgia law firm.
Plenary and Breakout Speakers
Dr. Rohini Anand
Global Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President, Sodexho Inc.
Dr. Rohini Anand is senior vice president and global chief diversity officer for Sodexho, a food and facilities management services company with $20 billion in annual revenue. Rohini is responsible for the strategic direction, implementation and alignment of Sodexho’s integrated global diversity initiatives including sustainable development and corporate citizenship strategies. Rohini has been responsible for designing and developing the organization’s workforce diversity strategy, launching sustained culture change initiatives, developing and implementing a comprehensive learning strategy and developing and implementing a diversity scorecard that links managers’ diversity achievement with their annual compensation.
Gladis Benavides
Founder and President, Benavides Enterprises, Inc.
Gladis Benavides is founder and president of Benavides Enterprises Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin. She has more than 30 years of experience assisting individuals and groups to enhance interpersonal relationships and successfully bridge cultural differences while meeting individual and collective challenges. Gladis has an established reputation among professionals in fields such as workforce development, strategic planning, labor, community relations, customer services and marketing. She has been widely recognized and has received multiple awards at the local, state and regional levels, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Award Hispanic Woman of the Year.
Nancy Bocskor
President, The Nancy Bocskor Company
Nancy Bocskor helps individuals and organizations raise money and win campaigns. She is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management where she teaches both an online and a “live” fundraising course. In 1990, Nancy started The Nancy Bocskor Company, a political consulting firm specializing in training for officeholders, candidates and campaign workers, and fundraising for Members of Congress. Nancy is a Vice President of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, where she chairs the school’s Curriculum Committee. She is also on the boards for Running Start and Food for Thought.
Dianne Dillon Ridgely
Chair, Plains Justice
Dianne Dillon-Ridgley is chair of Plains Justice, an public interest environmental law center working for environmental justice and sustainable communities in the Northern Plains region of the U.S. Dianne, a graduate of Howard University in philosophy, has spent her life working in numerous public and private capacities on social, political and environmental issues. She is a state-certified mediator in Iowa specializing in agricultural mediation and public policy negotiation. She is on the boards of River Network in the US, the Center for International Environmental Law, Interface Inc, Green Mountain Energy and Natural Step-US. Dianne is a former trustee of the Wallace Global Fund.
Kathleen Dore
President, Television & Radio CanWest MediaWorks Inc.
Kathleen Dore is president of broadcasting at Canwest Media. She joined the company in 2004, in charge of Canadian television and was named to her current position after the acquisition of Alliance Atlantis. She is responsible for the company’s Canadian broadcast assets, including Global Television, E! Network; and 21 specialty cable channels. She is on the board of the Canadian Film Centre and the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business Advisory Board.
Carol Evans
President and CEO, Working Mother Media
Carol Evans founded Working Mother Media in 2001 by acquiring Working Mother magazine, Work Life Congress and the National Association for Female Executives with MCG Capital. In 1986, she launched the Working Mother 100 Best Companies, which became an important benchmark for women in corporate America. Working Mother Media acquired Diversity Best Practices and Best Practices in Corporate Communications in 2006, making Working Mother Media the largest multimedia company in the country focused on diversity and the advancement of women. Her award-winning book, This is How We Do It: The Working Mothers’ Manifesto, was published in 2006.
Stacey Hanke
President, 1st Impression Consulting Inc.
Stacey Hanke is author of the book Yes You Can! Everything You Need From A To Z To Influence Others To Take Action. Her book provides practical and immediate skills and techniques that can change the way you communicate forever. Her area of expertise lies in offering practical skills and techniques that build confidence and credibility into leadership, client relationships and our personal lives. She does this by helping individuals change their communication behavior to maximize performance, improve results and build relationships to win business.
Erica Jong
Novelist, Poet and Essayist
Erica Jong is a novelist, poet and essayist. From her 1973 blockbuster novel, Fear of Flying, to several worldwide bestsellers, her adventurous explorations of female emotion and empowerment have been credited with unlocking a new female spirit. Her most recent novel, Sappho’s Leap, tells the story of Sappho, the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, whose life is largely a mystery. Erica is a board member of the Woodhull Institute, dedicated to creating strong women leaders. She has taught literature and writing at universities nationwide and was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature.
Donna Katen-Bahensky
President and CEO, University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics
Donna Katen-Bahensky is president and chief executive officer at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. Donna leads the 529-bed tertiary care center, which consists of University Hospital, the American Family Children’s Hospital, an NCI designated cancer center, and Level 1 trauma and burn centers. Donna has served on the board of the University HealthSystem Consortium and the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She serves as chairwoman of the American Heart Association’s Midwest Affiliate Board of Directors and as a board member for multiple community non-profit organizations.
Jo Miller
CEO, Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc.
Jo Miller is CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc., which helps women break into leadership in industries that have been traditionally considered “a man’s world,” such as technology, finance and energy. Jo facilitates leadership development programs for women’s initiatives in Fortune 1,000 companies, including Oracle Women in Leadership, Nortel Women’s Business Council, the Women at Intel Network Conference, UBS Women’s Leadership Conference, and many more. She was named one of Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s 40 people to watch under the age of 40 in 2006, and one of Silicon Valley’s Women of Influence in 2008.
Janice Reals Ellig
Co-CEO, Chadick Ellig
Janice Reals Ellig is co-CEO of Chadick Ellig, an executive search firm in New York City. With over 20 years of experience as a senior-level corporate executive, Janice has worked extensively with CEOs and boards of directors on talent management and succession planning. Janice has co-authored two books: Driving The Career Highway, 20 Road Signs You Can’t Afford To Miss and What Every Successful Woman Knows: 12 Breakthrough Strategies to Get the Power and Ignite Your Career. She serves as chair of the YMCA Board of Greater New York and on the board of the University of Iowa Foundation.
Donna Rae Smith
Founder and CEO, Bright Side, Inc.
Donna Rae Smith is the founder and CEO of Bright Side, Inc., a globally recognized behavior and culture change company. Bright Side customizes personal, team, and organizational leader development workshops and processes designed to rapidly accelerate the execution of change. A barrier-shattering change-leader herself, Donna has pioneered a highly sought after approach for preparing people, teams and entire organizations to thrive in an ever-evolving business world.
Mary Stier
Founder, Mary Stier Connects
Prior to founding Mary Stier Connects, Stier enjoyed a 25-year career as one of the top executives of Gannett Company, Inc., a Fortune 500 media company. As one of the youngest publishers in Gannett’s history, Stier served as President and Publisher of The Des Moines Register as well as Senior Group President for Gannett’s Midwest and SunCoast Newspaper Groups. Ultimately, she was responsible for $1 billion in revenue, 26 daily newspapers, 350 non-daily publications, 27 websites and more than 7,400 employees. Stier currently serves on the boards of the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, the Iowa Initiative for Untended Pregnancies and on the Honorary Advisory Council for the Women’s Media Center in New York City.
Tammy Thayer
President, Center for Advanced Studies in Business, University of Wisconsin
Tammy Thayer is president of the Center for Advanced Studies in Business, a non-profit group affiliated with the Wisconsin School of Business. She is responsible for custom programs, which involve building partnerships between public and private organizations and executive education to help develop organizational effectiveness and global competitiveness, and the $25 million Executive Education Center. Tammy has been active in UNICON, and serves on the membership committee. She holds a MBA from Boston University and a bachelor’s in sociology from University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Adrian Wing
Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Bessie Dutton Murray Professor, University of Iowa College of Law
Adrien Wing is the Bessie Dutton Murray Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Associate Dean for Faculty Development as well as the director of the summer abroad program in Arcachon, France. Author of more than 100 publications, Wing is the editor of Critical Race Feminism — A Reader and Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader. Her scholarship has focused on race and gender discrimination, including topics such as the impact of Hurricane Katrina, gangs, mothering, affirmative action, the war on terrorism, and polygamy in Black America.
Eileen Wixted
Principal, Wixted Pope Nora Thompson & Associates
Eileen Wixted is a strategic communications veteran with core competencies in the nuclear and health care industries. As a strategist and communication trainer, she has helped clients navigate brand damaging issues as well as prepared clients to face hostile media and government investigations. Medical errors, the nursing shortage and health care business practices are major issues facing the health care industry. Eileen works closely with clients developing strategies to manage the myriad of issues that emerge on a weekly basis. Eileen uses the same business-driven approach while assisting professionals working in manufacturing, finance, education and non-profit organizations. Layoffs, sensitive personnel issues and threats to market share are the types of issues for which Eileen’s clients seek counsel. Prior to WPNT, Eileen spent more than a decade as a broadcast journalist and is the recipient of an Emmy Award. Eileen is a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in mass communications.
Naomi Wolf
American Author, Political Consultant and Public Intellectual
Naomi Wolf is a feminist, social critic, and political activist who encourages people to take charge of their lives, voice their concerns and enact change. Her international bestseller, The Beauty Myth, challenged the cosmetics industry and the marketing of unrealistic standards of beauty, launching a new wave of feminism in the early 1990s. Naomi’s latest book, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, shows how events of the last six years parallel steps taken in the early years of the 20th century’s worst dictatorships. She is co-founder of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, an organization that teaches young women how to become leaders and co-founder of The American Freedom Campaign, a non-partisan citizens’ alliance formed to reverse the abuse of executive power and restore checks and balances.
Marian Wright Edelman
President and Founder, The Children’s Defense Fund
Marian Wright Edelman is president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, a non-profit child advocacy organization that works to ensure a level playing field for all children. Marian is a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School. She began her career in the mid-60s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. Marian served on the board of trustees of Spelman College and was the first woman elected as a member of the Yale University Corp. She serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, the Association to Benefit Children, and City Lights School.