Martina Bretous/News Director
In their second annual national conference, the Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication will encourage women to strive for positions of leadership.
“We decided what we wanted to do a national conference every year that would bring together women who were thought leaders around the countries, who were really dealing with this issue, had experience with the issue who could help our students…,” said Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, executive director for Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for Advancement of Women in Communication.
The conference will feature keynote speaker, Anne Vasquez, Pulitzer-winning editor who currently serves as the chief digital officer for Tronc, an American publishing company. Vasquez, whom Kopenhaver described as an wonderful speaker, will share her experience in breaking the glass ceiling in her industry and the obstacles she faced.
“We wanted someone with a very high profile and Anne fit that profile,” said Kopenhaver. “She was the perfect speaker to come back and talk to our students. And as a bonus, she’s one of our alumn[a].”
Several female leaders including Rochelle Oliver, a staff editor from the New York Times and Mindy Marques, executive director and vice president for news at the Miami Herald, will also be part of panel discussions at the conference.
“I wanted to look at diversity … [For the conference,] you’ve got a really nice mix of people with really great experience so that’s what I looked for when getting the panel together: people who could bring a diverse viewpoint to our audience,” said Kopenhaver.
The conference came from the realization that women only constitute a small percentage of leaders in the communication industry, Kopenhaver says. Across the industry —print journalism, broadcast journalism, magazines, public relations and advertising— only a small percentage of women are in leadership positions, she says, with the highest percentage in public relations where women hold over 50 percent of leadership positions.
In spring of 2016, the center conducted a nationwide survey, with both men and women, to identify the obstacles and hurdles they face in the industry. They found that many women felt they weren’t given a fair trial when applying for leadership positions while others felt unsure of their abilities and were afraid to even apply. They also found there weren’t enough professional development opportunities to prepare women for leadership roles.
“My philosophy is jump in, take a chance. That’s the only way you’re ever going to get ahead,” Kopenhaver said. “We found that a lot of young women are afraid to take that chance, they’re afraid to put themselves out there to try new things or to try to go for positions of leadership.”
The survey results were revealed at last year’s inaugural conference and will be done every two years, using the current results as a benchmark.
One of the panel discussions at the conference, called “The Active Voice: Amplifying Teen Girls” focuses on nurturing young women and their interest in the communication field.
“… We think starting early is really important, with encouraging young women to know that they can do it. That they can be just as successful and that this is a great area for them to go into – the field of journalism and media,” said Kopenhaver. “…The younger you start with people, the more likely it is that the people who are really bright will go into this field, particularly young women, to pursue this as a career.
In addition to gaining the encouragement and confidence needed to pursue a career in this field, Kopenhaver says it’s a great opportunity to see everything the communication industry has to offer.
“[Students will get] to know what an exciting career communication is, it’s certainly not dull,” she said. “There’s always something changing, always something going on … To put a product out that’s going to show people that you can tell them information that’s important to them is really vital.”
Kopenhaver encourages all students to attend the conference and take the opportunity to learn from women who have been in the industry.
“I think by them [students] coming, no matter what they’re going to pursue as a career, they’re going to learn about leadership at this conference,” said Kopenhaver. “Not just women, even though that’s the title of the conference, they’re going to learn how to become leaders, how to get ahead in their careers … and to hear from women who are very, very smart and who have done great things for our country.”
The event will take place on Thursday, April 20 at the Wolfe University Center Ballrooms from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It will also be livestreamed on scj.fiu.edu.
Image retrieved from Creative Commons.
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