125 Years of Women at Brown Conference

Registration has reached capacity.
The 125 Years of Women at Brown Conference has reached capacity. If you are interested in attending, please join our waitlist and we will contact you if space becomes available.

Conference Program

Friday, May 5 | Saturday, May 6

Friday, May 5

7:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Registration - Maddock Alumni Center

Brown’s beautifully restored Maddock Alumni Center serves as the hospitality center for the Conference. Pick up your Conference materials here when you arrive on campus. The Center will be open throughout the weekend.

8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Opening Breakfast

Featuring broadcast journalist Perri Peltz ’82, P’19 with Jill T. Furman ’90, Theatrical Producer, Jill Furman Productions, Inc.

9:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Conference Offerings

Offering 1 | From Brown Women to Business Women: GPS or Random Walk?

The definition of "success" in business is different for every woman who is building a career on her own terms. Hear women at various points in their professional lives discuss their successes, their failures, and the lessons they have learned along their individual paths.

Sarah Francois-Poncet ’80, P’10 (Moderator), Senior Vice-President, Global General Counsel
Lisa M. Caputo ’86, Executive Vice President, Marketing & Communications, The Travelers Companies
Karen M. Hoguet ’78, Chief Financial Officer, Macy’s
Sophie Purdom ’16, Associate Consultant, Bain & Company
More panelists to be announced!

Offering 2 | Women for a Change: Brown Women in Grant Making and Beyond

Brown women are at the top rungs of major grant makers. How do they approach the world of social good in their professional lives, and what advice do they offer as women think about their own giving?

Dana Zucker ’90, P’21 (Moderator), Executive Director, The Gray Foundation
Suzanne Immerman ’94, Principal, KIR Consulting & former Director Strategic Partnerships, US Department of Education
Stacy Palmer ’82, Editor, Chronicle of Philanthropy
Caitlin Heising ’12, Vice Chair, Heising-Simons Foundation

Offering 3 | Tour: Explore the Brown Campus

11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Conference Offerings

Offering 1 | What’s New at Brown in Educational Innovation

Hear from the Dean of the College and members of her team about how Brown is working to ensure continued excellence in our model of undergraduate education, specifically in the area of Educational Innovation.

Dean Maud Mandel, Ph.D. ADE’06 hon.
Besenia Rodriguez ’00, Senior Associate Dean of the College for Curriculum
Carol Cohen ’83, Senior Associate Dean of the College for Class Advising/Health and Personal Issues
Maitrayee Bhattacharyya ’91, Senior Associate Dean of the College for Diversity and Inclusion

Offering 2 | Work and Life: How Working Women Manage Demands on Their Time in a 24/7 World

There are never enough hours in the day for work, family, and self. Women discuss the priorities they have chosen and how they have (or have not) found their way to a mindful life.

Pamela F. Lenehan ’74 AM’74, P’03, P’06 (Moderator) Board Director, Monotype, Civitas Solutions, American Superconductor
Marcia Walley Blenko ’83, Advisory Partner, Bain & Company
Alexandra Fidler Metzl ’04, Shareholder, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
Chandra Reddy Metzler ’95, Managing Partner, CM Squared
Peige Katz ’91, CEO and Co-founder, Bexchange LLC

Offering 3 | Social Enterprise: Brown Women Using Innovative and Entrepreneurial Approaches to Effect Social Change

Brown women have always been at the forefront of addressing societal problems by reconceiving the status quo and, more importantly, by converting their great ideas into reality. We are proud to have many alumnae leading organizations implementing social innovation, either through public policy, community organizing or non-profit work, to for-profit enterprise. This panel is comprised of women who are taking a unique approach to creating a more sustainable and just world. They will speak about the skills, knowledge, and relationships which have helped them develop and implement innovative and thoughtful approaches to social change.

Diana Wells ’88 (Moderator), President, Ashoka
Holly Gordon ’93, Chairman, The Nantucket Project Academy
Aleta Margolis ’89, P’20, President, Center for Inspired Teaching
Linh Tran ’15, Co-founder, XOI Juice
Miriam Altman ’08, Co-founder and CEO, Kinvolved

12:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Conference Luncheon

Featuring Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen Ph.D. ’67 LLD’98 hon.

2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Conference Offerings

Offering 1 | Changing Faces and Facing Change: Diversifying Higher Education in America

How are diversity and inclusion faring on our campuses today, 40 years after the Lamphere case forced institutional changes at Brown and heralded a new era? Are our educational institutions keeping up with the social and intellectual diversity of the global economy? What work remains?
*Sponsored by the Pembroke Center

Tanya Hernandez ’86, P’20 (Moderator) Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
Christine Grant ’84, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Special Initiatives, College of Engineering, North Carolina State University
Joelle Murchison ’95, Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, UCONN
Hannelore Rodriguez-Farrar ’87, AM’90 PHD’09, Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning, Dominican University of California
Susan P. Sturm ’76, Professor, Law and Social Responsibility, Columbia Law School

Offering 2 | Influence: Arts & Media

How are women influencing media? What roles do women play in today’s content, on both sides of the camera, stage, and canvas? From leading creators and artists, you’ll hear from some of Brown most prestigious women in the arts for a discussion about the impact women have in America’s most talked-about film, theater, tv, and digital media productions.

Lauren Zalaznick ’84, P’17, P’19 (Moderator) The LZ Sunday Paper
Liz Garbus ’92, Director, Moxie Firecracker
Liviya B. Kraemer ’10, Producer, HBO
Aunjanue L. Ellis ’93, Actress and Producer
Christine Vachon ’83, Film Producer, Killer Films

Offering 3 | Tour: Brown’s Public Art

Offering 4 | Exhibit Tour: The Lamphere Case - The Sex Discrimination Lawsuit that Changed Brown

4:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.

"Attend a Class" with Brown Faculty

Please register for one of these TED Talk-style class offerings featuring our lead faculty presenters each accompanied by three other University professors.

Offering 1: Class anchored by Terrie Fox Wetle, MS, Ph.D. ADE’02 hon., Dean, School of Public Health and Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice with Hilary Levey Friedman, Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies; and Tayhas Palmore, Professor of Engineering and Chemistry
Offering 2: Class anchored by Wendy Schiller Ph.D. ADE’02 hon., Professor of Political Science, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Chair of Political Science with Anna Aizer, Ph.D. ADE’11 hon., Associate Professor of Economics; and Phyllis Dennery, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics; and Kym Moore, Associate Professor, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
Offering 3: Class anchored by Barbara Tannenbaum, Ph.D. P’10, Senior Lecturer in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies with Wang Lu, Assistant Professor of Music; and Kali Thomas, Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice

5:30 p.m.

The Brown Get Down!

Join Conference attendees on the Main Green for a community flash mob! An instructional video will be sent to all registered attendees.

6:00 p.m.

Community Service Project

Conference attendees will gather in Sayles Hall to assemble 500 safe birth kits for Saving Mothers. Founded by Dr. Tara Shirazian ’99, MD’03, Saving Mothers is an organization dedicated to eradicating maternal deaths and birth-related complications in the developing world. Women are encouraged to write notes in Swahili to be enclosed in the boxes, along with hats knitted by women in the Brown community. The assembled kits will be immediately shipped to Kenya just in time for Mother’s Day, and will ensure a safe delivery for mom and baby.

6:30 p.m.

Conference Dinner

Featuring fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg P’91, P’92 and a performance by singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter ’81 DMUS’96 hon.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Registration - Maddock Alumni Center

8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Conference Breakfast

Featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage ’86 DFA’11 hon., P’20

9:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Conference Offerings

Offering 1 | The Value of Gender Diversity in STEM Fields

Studies suggest that many factors contribute to the attitudes and achievements of women in mathematics and science. Panelists discuss the influences that led them to a STEM career and, as women in their chosen fields, their unique perspectives on gender diversity in the workplace.

Sangeeta Bhatia, M.D. Ph.D. ’90 (Moderator) Director, Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies, MIT
Tejal Desai ’94, Professor in Physiology, Division of Bioengineering, University of California, San Francisco; Head of the Therapeutic Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory
Andrea Razzaghi ’82, Deputy Director of Astrophysics, NASA
Mya Roberson ’16, Epidemiology MSPH-PhD Student, UNC-Chapel Hill
Deirdre Hanford ’83, Executive Vice President and Co-GM, Synopsys

Offering 2 | Write Through This: Authors in the New Normal

Lisa R. Birnbach ’78, P’20 (Moderator), Author, The Official Preppy Handbook
Bess Kalb ’10, Writer, Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Amy Sohn ’95, Author, Run Catch Kiss
More panelists to be announced!

Offering 3 | Ventures in Entrepreneurship

Marcia J. Hooper ’77, P’09, P’11 (Moderator), Venture Capitalist
Cheryl M. Houser ’83, P’13, P’19, Founder and CEO, Creative Breed
Heidi Messer-Martin ’92, Co-founder and Chair, Collective[i]
Lorine Pendleton, Esq. ’91, Angel Investor and Investment Partner, Portfolia Fund

11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Conference Offerings

Offering 1 | Perfecting Your Pitch: Brown Young Entrepreneurship Showcase

Brown young entrepreneurs give their "elevator pitch" to a panel of entrepreneurial alumnae who will ask questions and give advice. Young entrepreneurs can ask the audience for three things they need including advice, introductions, and capital.

Theresia Gouw ’90 (Moderator) Co-founder, Aspect Ventures
Cheryl M. Houser ’83, P’13, P’16, Founder and CEO, Creative Breed
Heidi Messer Martin ’92, Co-founder and Chair, Collective[i]
Marcia J. Hooper ’77, P’09, P’11, Venture Capitalist
Lorine Pendleton, Esq. ’91, US Director of Business Development, Dentons LLP

Offering 2 | Celebrating Brown’s Female Athletes

Please join us for a celebration of Brown’s female athletes and a screening of The Drive to Win: 40 Years of Brown’s Women’s Crew.

Allison Galer ’11, Sports and Entertainment Agent, Disrupt the Game
Jo Hannafin ’77, P’12, Attending Orthopaedic Surgeon, The Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical & President, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
Lori Rubinson ’86, Sports Talk Radio Host, WFAN
More panelists to be announced!

Offering 3 | Tour: Explore the Brown Campus

12:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Conference Luncheon

Featuring New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan ’80, P’15 and Governor of Rhode Island Gina Raimondo

2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.

Closing Reception

Closing reception featuring President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards ’80 LHD’10 hon. and commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Women’s Launch Pad

4:30 p.m.

Work it Out with ((305)) Fitness!

An opportunity for alumnae and mentees to gather for an upbeat ending to the day’s activities. This Miami-inspired, endorphin-packed class is the ultimate antidote to daily worries dragging you down. With a unique method that combines aerobic and anaerobic training, high intensity sprints, cardio endurance, and muscular toning, these classes push you past your limits and constantly challenge new muscle groups so you never plateau.

Space is limited.