Women Leaders in West Virginia

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 Betty Ireland, Rabbi Helen Bar-Yaacov, Vivian Conly, Kathryn S. Decker, Lt. Mary A. Pfeifer, and Dr. Marie Foster Gnage.

West Virginia's 28th Secretary of State Betty Ireland (left) is the first woman to be elected to West Virginia’s executive branch.

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

Vivian Conly (left) is president of the Carnegie Hall Foundation in Lewisburg. Kathryn S. Decker is vice president of Patient Care Services at Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital. Lt. Mary A. Pfeifer is post commander of the Marietta Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

Dr. Marie Foster Gnage, president of West Virginia University at Parkersburg (below), is the first woman president of WVUP, and the first African-American woman 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.