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By Educational Foundation Chair Diana Bernstein

dianatbernstein@yahoo.com

Text Box: Each year, college women gather in Washington, D.C. for the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. With 500 students expected, this conference provides a transformative experience for attendees, where students discover and enhance leadership skills, build relationships, network for the future, and meet national experts and workplace leaders. The AAUW and NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education are co-sponsors of the June 4-6 conference at the University of Maryland, College Park. For over 125 years, AAUW has focused on the promotion of women and girls through education and advocacy. With a network of 100,000 members 1,300 branches and 550 college and university members, AAUW has the capacity to affect and sustain a more promising future and a powerful voice for women and girls. NASPA with more than 11,000 members at 1,400 campuses, and representing 29 countries, is the largest professional association for student affairs administrators, faculty and graduate students. NASPA members are committed to serving college students by embracing the core

Text Box: values of diversity, learning, integrity, service, fellowship and the spirit of inquiry. The keynote speakers for this year’s conference are Naomi Tutu and Ritu Sharma. Tutu is the third child of Archbishop Desmond and Nomalizo Leah Tutu. She started her public speaking as a college student at Berea College in Kentucky in the 1970s when she was invited to speak at churches, community groups, and colleges and universities about her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa. Since that time, she has become a much sought-after speaker and has led Truth and Reconciliation Workshops for groups dealing with conflict. Together with Rose Bator, she presents a workshop titled Building Bridges that deals with issues of race and racism. Tutu and Bator also lead women’s retreats through their organization, Sister Sojourner. They are writing a book provisionally titled I Don’t Think of You as Black: Honest Conversations on Race and Racism. Ritu Sharma is the co-founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide. In 1995, at age 26, Ritu led a coalition of more than 100 organizations to influence the United

Text Box: Nations Summit on Social Development. She also served on the official U.S. delegation to the summit throughout its negotiations and later on the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly Session on Women, also known as "Beijing Plus Five." In 2001, Ritu worked closely with Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD), and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) to craft the GAINS for Women and Girls Act, the most comprehensive legislation on global women's issues ever introduced into the U.S. Congress. In 2007, Women Thrive took the section of the GAINS Act on violence against women and girls and expanded it into the International Violence Against Women Act. Ritu holds a bachelor's degree in international economics from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a master's of public health from the Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of An Introduction to Advocacy: A Training Guide and serves on the Board of Directors of Inter Action and the Center for U.S. Global Engagement.