For almost a year, seniors Risha Ranjan and Sloan Duvall, along with other KO students and faculty, have been planning something big: the second Annual KO Power of Women Forum. At the time when they were initially planning the event, it was intended to be an in-person panel featuring KO moms and female alumni—turning the 2018 Power of Women Forum into an annual occurrence—but the coronavirus pandemic, unfortunately, caused it to be canceled. Risha and Sloan, along with help from Advisor Jayne Rotter, were quick to adapt and settled on Thursday, Nov. 8 as the date for a virtual seminar, with the same aim as the in-person forum, to take place.
“We hope to connect KO moms and female alumni with current female KO students [through the seminar] to have important conversations about being women in the workplace and the trials and tribulations associated with our gender,” Risha said. “We hope to inspire students, and we are also working on a mentorship program to connect more alumni and students one-on-one.”
Sloan echoed Risha’s remarks, emphasizing the exchange of information that occurs at the forum. “The November forum strives to create an open and meaningful dialogue amongst impressive KO Women alumni and students,” she said. “By sharing stories of success and female empowerment, we hope to empower students and potentially help them find what they are passionate about.”
Risha and Sloan have enlisted the help of some impressive panelists for the event. The first is Erica Marrero ’01, who is a Foreign Service Officer at the United States Department of State. She specializes in Public Diplomacy to promote U.S. interests abroad. Most recently, she served in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which provides foreign policy direction in the areas of international security, military operations, and defense trade. She speaks Spanish, French, and some Hindi, and she is currently learning Turkish for her next assignment.
Next is Nicole Wetsman ’12, a reporter at The Verge covering health and health technology. Her work has also appeared in Popular Science, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Slate, and other publications. She has a master’s degree from the Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts in neuroscience from Bowdoin College. She is based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Ngozi Taffe P’20’22 is the Assistant Vice President for Global Affairs and a researcher at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on factors that enable persistence among minority groups. Previously, she spent 18 years of her career working for United Technologies Corporation and Computer Sciences Corporation. Currently, she is developing initiatives with global institutes on behalf of UConn. She is also working to complete her doctorate.
Julia Flaherty Boland ’82 is a real estate professional at The Corcoran Group with 19 years in residential sales and marketing in New York City. She currently leads the Boland Team at The Corcoran Group and is a member of the elite Multi-Million Dollar Club, which is an honors society that was created to recognize realtors who achieved impressive sales during any one year. She also has experience in international finance and in the fashion industry.
According to Sloan, one of the benefits of having the event virtually is that it will be easier for more people to attend and learn from the wonderful featured panelists. “It will be the same format as an in-person event, but since it is via Zoom, we will be able to include even more participants than we would have been able to if it were in-person,” Sloan said. “We are expecting a lot of KO alums from around the world to zoom in, as well as a lot of women outside of our community.”
Elaborating on future plans for the KO Power of Women initiative, Risha mentioned that beyond just an annual event, the Power of Women team will establish a mentorship program to develop professional relationships between KO moms and female alumni with KO female students.
Additionally, an engaged group of Power of Women student leaders, including senior Maddie Thiessen and juniors Emma Levinbook, Olivia Reynolds, and Katharine Doar, are launching a newsletter, which is open to any females in the KO community interested in writing about issues that affect women on campus and beyond.
“It’s been so fun working with the Power of Women team so far this year,” Emma said. “There are so many things we are working on as a group, but I am definitely most excited for the newsletter. This is the first year a newsletter is being published, and I think it will be a great opportunity for us to extend our reach beyond the KO community and to get female voices heard.” Risha said she agreed the newsletter is a big part of their upcoming initiatives. “We hope to continue to empower and educate all different types of women in our community,” she said. “The newsletter is one of the ways we hope to continue to spread awareness throughout the school year.”
While Risha, Sloan, and the rest of the KO Power of Women Board are disappointed that they aren’t able to hold an in-person event, they are glad that they are able to have the panel online. “There is always a silver lining,” Risha said, “and we are hoping that with the online structure, women in other areas of the KO community will still be able to attend and enjoy all the hard work we are putting into this event.”
