Women and Leadership

By Erika Westbrook
A “Women and Leadership” event will take place at WVUP on April 26. The half-day event will feature prominent female executives who will share inspiring stories of their accomplishments, and how they aspired to achieve their top-level positions in leadership.

Speakers scheduled for the event include West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland, the first woman to be elected to West Virginia’s executive branch and the 28th Secretary of State.

Rabbi Helen Bar-Yaacov of the Congregation B’nai Israel in Charleston, is the first full-time woman rabbi in West Virginia. She holds dual citizenship in both Israel and Australia. She immigrated to Israel in 1970, living on a Kibbutz for two years before making Jerusalem her permanent home. She was ordained in New York, where she earned a master’s in Hebrew Literature at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion.

Also scheduled to speak is Vivian Conly, president of Carnegie Hall Foundation in Lewisburg, Kathryn S. Decker, vice-president of Patient Care Services, Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital, and Lt. Mary A. Pfeifer, post commander of the Marietta Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

Marie Foster Gnage, president of WVU at Parkersburg, will also be speaking. Dr. Gnage is the first woman president at WVUP, and the first African-American female to be appointed president of a college or university in West Virginia. Prior to her presidency in 2004, she served as Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Raritan Valley Community College in North Branch, NJ.

The symposium will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m., followed by the program at 9 a.m., in Rooms 2536-38. It is free and open to the public. Advanced registration is required for the symposium, and may be accomplished by visiting the college’s website, or by calling Joe Badgley, executive dean of academic affairs, at 424-8242.