Fall 2019 Conference
Friday, November 8, 20198:30am – 4:30pm
Saint Mary’s College of California
Moraga, California
Mark your calendars and start making plans for this important event for women leaders at northern California institutions of higher education. This one day conference provides an opportunity to explore your power, reinforce your purpose, and create progress for women in leadership roles.
Registration includes continental breakfast, lunch, and afternoon reception. Registration is CLOSED.
For more information contact:
Evette Castillo Clark (ecc4@stmarys-ca.edu) or Camille Johnson (camille.johnson@sjsu.edu)
Keynote Speaker
President Judy K. Sakaki,
Sonoma State University
Schedule of Events
Friday, November 8, 2019
Registration and Socializing
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Soda Center Reception Area and Moraga
Welcome and Overview of the Day
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Moraga Room
Brenda Johnson
Dean of Student Support Services, Berkeley City College, & Chair, ACE Women’s Network – Northern California
James Donahue
President Saint Mary’s College
Keynote Speaker: President Judy Sakaki, Sonoma State University
9:10 AM – 10:00 AM
Moraga Room
Judy Sakaki
President Sonoma State University
Breakout Session 1
10:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Leadership in the Academy
Claeys Lounge
Reaching a position of leadership in higher education requires more than just subject matter expertise in your chosen field. Leadership requires a combination of talents including the ability to navigate organizational politics with grace; the capacity to influence up, down and across the institution; the desire to both manage and initiate change, and a passion for creating an environment where students, faculty and staff can all thrive. In this panel discussion, you will hear from women who have exercised these skills and more to break through the glass ceiling in higher education and blaze a trail for future women leaders.
Siri Brown
Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Student Services, Peralta Community College District
Prudence L. Carter
Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley
Elizabeth B. Davis
Professor and Dean, School of Economics and Business Administration, Saint Mary’s College
Personal Leadership 101: Growing On Purpose
Orinda Room
American author, John Maxwell said: “Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who don’t. When an individual starts to separate themselves from the pack, it’s always due to personal growth.” In today’s society, many are desperately trying to lead others without possessing the ability to lead themselves. Before you can grow anyone, you must first grow yourself. When you understand that your team can only be as successful as you are effective, personally equipping yourself becomes of utmost importance. In this engaging and interactive session, you will gain new and important insights into winning through purposeful personal growth and development to reach your full potential – personally and professionally.
Ola Popoola
Director, Data Infrastructure, Reporting & Analytics, UC Office of the President, & Founder, Divine Strategies for Living
Enhancing Your Cultural Competence: Tools for Navigating Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
Lafayette Room
Even the most well-meaning of us have unconscious bias. This workshop will focus on developing awareness of our biases and learning practical solutions to prevent them from negatively impacting the workplace. Using videos, interactive exercises, and discussion, we will examine how our unconscious attitudes can undermine our relationships at work. Workshop participants will explore ways to respond to instances of bias and discuss practical steps to move beyond assumptions to maximize the effectiveness of a diverse workplace.
Amy Levine
Principal and Founder at The Essential Steps Coaching
Lunch and Presidential Panel
11:45 AM – 1:30 PM
Moraga Room
Ching Hua Wang
Samuel Merritt University
Lara Tiedens
Scripps College
Mary Papazian
San Jose State University
Thuy Thi Nguyen
Foothill College
Breakout Session 2
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Finding the Power to Create Change
Lafayette Room
Great leaders don’t just manage change; they develop a vision and a strategy to promote change to advance their organizations. But change can be difficult and in universities resistance to change can be high, especially when relying on positional authority. In fact, one Harvard Business School study said that 80% of all change initiatives fail. How then can you find your power to become a transformational leader from any position on campus, able to initiate and maintain lasting change in the face of resistance? How can you identify and capitalize on the power you currently possess to effectively catalyze progress? In this panel discussion, these change agents share tips, strategies and lessons learned about how to effectively foster institutional progress with or without positional authority.
Melissa Abad
Research Associate, Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab
Gloria Partida
Mayor Pro Tempore of City of Davis & Faculty Emerita, UC Davis
Cely Smart
Chief of Staff for President Robert S. Nelsen, Sacramento State University
Creating a Career Portfolio for Your Next Step
Orinda Room
Moving into administrative and leadership roles requires a career portfolio that showcases your skills, competence, and achievements in a way that catches the attention of search committees and executive search firms. This session will help you craft a resume and career portfolio to prepare you for the next great opportunity.
Ellen Heffernan
President of Spelman Johnson Executive Search Firm
Authenticity: Discovering Your Professional Strengths
Claeys Lounge
Building a professional identity starts by going inward to uncover your strengths. When you understand these strengths, then you can begin to act from a place of authenticity and can craft a powerful professional identity that is true to who you are at your core. This seminar will instruct you how to best access and analyze your qualifications, so that you can successfully market yourself to potential employers. This will include an exercise on highlighting accomplishments, which can then become examples and stories included in your CV.
Josefina Castillo Baltodano
Founder and Executive Director, Executive Leadership Academy, UC Berkeley Center for Higher Education
Snack and Coffee
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM
Moraga Room
Breakout Session 3
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM
Inclusive Leadership: Helping Others Find Their Power
Lafayette Room
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” This African proverb sums up what great leaders know; that if you want to truly advance the institution, you must be willing to engage stakeholders at all levels in order to spur creativity and innovation. Inclusive leaders actively engage in relational thinking, embracing diversity of thought and experience and creating opportunities to help empower others to step up and create change. In this dialogue you will discover ways you can become a more inclusive leader, regardless of role, by encouraging others to find their power, amplify their voices and make an impact. Learn how you can be an advocate, so you can go far, together.
Diana Tate Vermeire
Vice President, Inclusive Excellence, and Diversity Officer at Sacramento State University
Cynthia Pickett
Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Equity and Inclusion, and Director of Self and Social Identity Lab, UC Davis
Cultivating Mentors & Sponsors
Orinda Room
Research on the best strategies to advance the careers of women in any field consistently show that beyond subject matter expertise, the ability to cultivate mentors and sponsors is the #1 factor that distinguishes those who advance, from those who don’t. But how does one identify a mentor and/or a sponsor, and what is the difference between the two? In this session, you will learn the difference between these two types of career advocates, how they can help propel your career forward, do’s and don’ts during the cultivation process and how to create a strategy to begin building your own personal “board of advisors.”
Dania Matos
Associate Chancellor & Chief Diversity Officer, UC Merced
Yesenia Curiel
Director, Campus Advocacy, Resources and Education (CARE), UC Merced
Negotiations: Asking For What You Are Worth…and Getting It
Claeys Lounge
It is well documented that while women can be outstanding advocates for others, they often shrink from asking for what they want for themselves with respect to salary and promotions. The research shows that the consequences are dire – women can lose up to $1 million in lifetime earnings by not negotiating salary at the beginning of their careers. Yet old habits die hard. In this interactive session, you will learn very effective strategies for moving you out of your comfort zone, kicking those habits to the curb and becoming adept at asking for what you want and deserve.
Jessica Notini
Lecturer, Stanford University School of Law
Reception and Closing Toast
4:30 PM
Moraga and Lafayette and Patio