International Council for Small Business (ICSB) Conference on Women in Education speech 
March 8, 2022

Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for the opportunity to be part of this amazing event. As you can imagine, the role of women in education is incredibly important to me. It’s something I’ve thought about, taught, and worked to advance throughout my career.

I’m especially honored to be speaking to you all on International Women’s Day. This is a day set aside around the word to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. And so I’d like to begin today by dedicating my remarks to the women of Ukraine.

These courageous women are engaged in active resistance, leading humanitarian aid efforts, keeping their families safe, and raising their voices on media channels to make sure the world knows exactly what they are facing. They embody the indomitable spirit of all women that we celebrate today and that our world needs, now more than ever.

I mentioned courage. This is a quality that women have shown throughout history, often in the face of imminent danger and apparently insurmountable odds. In Ukraine today, and Afghanistan and other parts of our world wracked by conflict, women are fighting back against oppression, against invasion, and against the violent desecration of their culture and way of life. We have done this in response to war and aggression for centuries, responding with courage that overcomes fear.

Courage is also one of the fundamental qualities of Colorado State University, so much so that we are currently embarked on what we’re calling Courageous Strategic Transformation.

This new vision for our institution is nothing like traditional strategic planning, and I believe that the things that distinguish it are consistent with many of the qualities of female leadership. The plan was created through many months of intensive collaboration across our university community. That means that we sought input from 30,000 people, including students, faculty, and staff. And instead of declaring inclusive excellence one value and one goal amongst many, we assert inclusive excellence as a foundation of our future, something we aspire to together, hold ourselves individually and collectively accountable for, and seek to weave into all our work.

I am both proud and excited to be leading the Courageous Strategic Transformation of Colorado State University. I’m also excited to talk to you all about it today, in the context of this conference. I know that our goals today include recognizing women leaders’ impact on the next generation and imagining our lives, businesses, and the world in new ways through the lens of women’s achievements.

So I’d like to tell you the stories of several women who have had a profound positive impact, in my own life, at CSU, and on our world. Women’s stories have so often been buried or lost throughout history, a fact we must work together to correct. I also believe that our stories can be the best way to connect, to inspire, and to build towards the future.

The first woman whose story I want to share today is Mary Ontiveros, who was a member of the CSU community for an incredible 51 years. She came to CSU as a first-generation Latina undergraduate in 1969 and immediately became active in student government. Mary went on to hold a number of leadership roles at CSU, but she will be remembered most significantly as our founding Vice President for Diversity. She was asked to create this role, and the office that would support it, during a time of crisis on campus, and she literally built this crucial unit from nothing. She also created scholarship funds for first-generation students and our Multicultural Faculty and Staff Network. Mary developed a Diversity Blueprint that called on every academic college at CSU to create a role in their unit for a faculty or staff member entirely focused on DEIJ. And she was instrumental in the creation of the Principles of Community that we aspire to in all our interactions with one another at CSU.

Mary retired in 2020, and she passed away several weeks ago. Our community has mourned her and celebrated her, and we will continue to do so.

I wanted to share Mary’s story with you all today because her story reminds us that extraordinary women are nothing new, and they are committed to their work for the long haul. Mary was committed to her work, which evolved as our world changed, for 51 years. For the students who are joining us today, that’s likely more than twice as long as some of you have been alive!

The other thing that I hope Mary’s story demonstrates is that women build their work to last. All of the things that Mary created at CSU, from the scholarships to the programs focused on inclusive excellence, are not only still around, they are active engines for positive change.

Mary’s story leads us naturally to the story of Dr. Lumina Albert, who is a member of the current generation of leaders at CSU. Lumina is an associate professor of management in our College of Business and is an award-winning teacher and a researcher with a robust publication record. But these achievements are not what make Lumina’s story relevant today. You see, in addition to her work as a faculty member, Lumina is also an internationally respected activist and advocate for the ending of human trafficking. She has organized a symposium on this horrific practice—which many people would like to believe no longer occurs—and serves on the Board of Directors of New Horizons House, an international organization providing holistic restoration for survivors of human trafficking and sexual abuse.

And just this past year, in the midst of the pandemic, Lumina launched an extraordinary new initiative at CSU, the Center for Ethics and Human Rights. This interdisciplinary Center “aims to transform individuals and communities through strategic partnerships and collaborative programs that inspire ethical leadership and protect and promote human rights and dignity worldwide.”

I share Lumina’s story because I’m so proud to be able to support her work, and because I know that it will resonate with all of you. I also find her story uniquely pertinent to the goals of the International Council of Small Business because in many ways, Lumina exemplifies a successful, driven female entrepreneur. She employs the skills and tools of a savvy entrepreneur in her humanitarian work, whether she is organizing a conference that has seen increased attendance even through a shift to a virtual format during COVID or founding a Center focused on holistically educating our next generation of ethical leaders. Her story should remind us that women entrepreneurs are a force to be reckoned with—and to be supported.

From Mary Ontiveros to Lumina Albert we see the continuity of women across generations exhibiting tremendous courage to make a positive impact on our world. And of course, the next generation to come is our students, who will be the leaders of tomorrow.

So I’d like to tell you the story of Savanah Overturf. Savannah has autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy. She was nonverbal until she was four years old.

Now, as a CSU student, Savannah is pursuing a major in communication studies with a minor in creative writing. Last fall, she was crowned National Miss Amazing, in a pageant that highlights women and girls with unique abilities and teaches leadership and advocacy skills. Savannah’s own description of this event is even more eloquent. She says that Miss Amazing is “about creating social change and changing the way people look at those with unique abilities. It gives us a unique platform to create a change we want to see in the world.”

Savannah’s story to-date is humbling, because as she herself shares, she has overcome both internal and external hurdles—including cruel bullying and discrimination—to achieve all that she has. But her story going forward is deeply exciting. It’s exciting for Savannah personally because she has overcome challenges to achieve some wonderful things. It’s also exciting for our world, because in Savannah we see a young woman who is changing the entire way we think about disability advocacy.

Savannah is building her own model of advocacy and activism, using her own struggles and her own triumphs as the building blocks, seeking out the skills she needs through her education, and sharing her story publicly. I anticipate that this a model we will see grow more prevalent and more powerful in the years to come, as this generation of young women find their voices and their platforms.

As I was looking at my own calendar in preparation for joining you all, I noted that today is not only International Women’s Day, it is also the date of CSU’s annual Gather conference. This event is hosted by Women in Philanthropy at CSU, an organization that celebrates and provides programming for our female donors. I love the way that the mission of Women in Philanthropy aligns with the mission of this conference. As their website proudly declares, “We never doubt that women can change the world—because we already have.”

I’ll be attending the Gather event later today, and I want to tell you a little bit about who else will be joining us there. Our keynote speaker will be CSU alum and six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken-Rouen. Amy is another woman who has achieved singular excellence, in her case as an Olympian. She has also experienced excruciating challenges. An ATV accident in 2014 left her paralyzed from the waist down. What makes Amy even more extraordinary is that following her accident, she achieved singular excellence once again, this time as an advocate for people with spinal injuries who do not have access to the resources she did.

Later today at Gather, we’ll also be hearing from Dr. Nicole Erhart, the director of the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging at CSU. Nicole is a brilliant scientist and an exceptional leader. She is also a tireless advocate for older members of our communities. Not only is her research focused on healthy aging, Nicole herself is committed to ensuring that older individuals are respected, valued, welcomed, and supported. She recently sought an Age-Friendly University designation for CSU, which affirms our commitment “to learn about emerging age-friendly efforts and to contribute to an educational movement of social, personal, and economic benefit to students of all ages and institutions of higher education alike.”

The stories of Amy Van Dyken-Rouen and Nicole Erhart inspire me, as I hope they inspire all of you. But part of my reason for sharing their stories is to point out that these two women have been invited to speak to a group of women who are deeply committed to both generosity and leadership. So what we’ll experience today at Gather will be not just some wonderful speakers, but the power of storytelling by, from, and for women to make change happen.

And of course, that’s my hope in telling these stories to all of you. So I’d like to finish by telling you the story of one more woman. This one is more personal.

You see, just a few weeks ago, I lost my mother, Bessie McConnell. Bessie was an extraordinary woman, and while of course I have a daughter’s bias, I think that even a brief sketch of her life story bears this out. She was born in 1926, one of 10 children of Greek immigrants. She was iron-willed, committed to escaping the poverty that defined her childhood and left home after high school to become a nurse. After nurse’s training she enlisted in the army and became a lieutenant in the army nurse corps. While stationed in Germany, she met my dad, with whom she had a 70-year love story.

We all have women who have shaped our lives just as my mother profoundly shaped mine. And we sometimes hesitate to share their stories. We may worry that their stories will fall flat or feel insignificant. Or we may worry that in sharing stories with emotional weight, we will lose credibility as professionals and leaders.

But what I have experienced today in sharing stories of some incredible women—just a few of the incredible women of CSU—has been exhilarating. I feel honored to have the stories to offer to all of you. I offer them to you as gifts because I am confident that they will inspire you to approach your own journeys with courage.

I also want to come back to the theme of Courageous Strategic Transformation with which I began. I emphasized the commitment to being courageous that drives all of us at CSU. As I wrap up, I want to call out our use of the term “transformation” to describe our goals. We’re not “planning.” Planning is a process. Planning is not action—it’s the step you take before you act. Transformation, on the other hand, signals not just action but change: significant, visible, and even extraordinary change. And it signals permanent change, change that lasts.

That’s what we’re committed to through the Courageous Strategic Transformation of CSU, and I know it’s what we will achieve. I invite all of you to read about our Courageous Strategic Transformation vision and our goals on our website, and to check back periodically to see what we’ve achieved.

I also invite you all to pursue transformation in your own lives and to ask yourselves how you—as women, as leaders, and as women leaders—can effect transformation in our world.

The world needs us, and I am so excited for what we all have to offer.