15th Annual HIGHER Ground Women\u27s Leadership Conference Booklet

The practice of leadership is most often understood within the context of relationships inside organizations and institutions. The boundaries that dictated our lives months before have all but dissolved, prompting the need to reconsider our definition of leadership, where it takes place, and who controls it. Circumstances and opportunities have required women to readjust their expectations and what is expected of them. While the past 18-months took a physical, emotional, social, and political toll on many families, it has also provided a moment for reflection, resignation, recovery, and reimagination of what our lives could be beyond this moment. It has forced a shift in our notion of leadership and allowed us to reconsider our roles and worth at home and work. Opportunities have emerged from an uncertain environment for leaders to reflect on how we capitalize on the leadershifts that have transpired over the last year to pivot forward

Leadership with Grace

A remarkable lady of incredible talent and vision, Dr. Grace Edmondson Harris had a unique experience with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). A native of rural Halifax County in southern Virginia, she was denied admission to graduate study at VCU (then Richmond Professional Institute), a large public university in Richmond, Virginia. Ironically, later in 1967, Dr. Harris became the first African American female faculty member in the School of Social Work at VCU and ascended the ranks to become Dean of the School of Social Work, Provost, and Acting President prior to her retirement in 1999. Although Dr. Harris has strong ties to the African American community, to situate her contributions to VCU solely in terms of a segregation to integration narrative misses the mark. It fails to capture her success in leading the School of Social Work and her clear vision in her capacity as provost and in developing VCU\u27s First Strategic Plan. She continues to share her leadership talents through the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, which was established at VCU in her honor upon her retirement. Most recently, in 2008, an academic building on VCU\u27s campus was named Grace E. Harris Hall. Through a series of interviews with Dr. Harris, as well with as current and former administrators and faculty at VCU, we offer a description and analysis of Dr. Harris\u27 leadership style spanning her 40 year tenure at Virginia Commonwealth University. It is a style that we (and others) find to be uniquely effective, people centered, and decisive

16th Annual HIGHER Ground Women\u27s Leadership Conference

Seizing Tomorrow, Today, challenges participants to develop a practice of Prospective Reflection- a deliberate practice of strategic foresight to aid in facing the challenges and opportunities that exist beyond us. Prospective reflection is unique because it forces us to capitalize on this time of era-defining moments and to imagine what is possible. Today\u27s conference will aid you in translating your values into actions, your dreams into reality, and your hopes into happens. Delivered through a high-impact combination of short, narrative-driven lectures, interactive panels, and individualized strategic reflection activities, the day will culminate in an action plan for moving your leadership forward. By the end of the program, participants will have the strategies and tools to identify the values, dreams, hopes, and actions that will strategically influence tomorrow\u27s outcomes; set future-focused intentions about their personal and professional lives; take control of their own \u27big picture\u27 regarding professional development and career advancement