Breakout Sessions

Growing Sessions

Sifting through the Dross to Find the Golden Professional Development Opportunities
Presenter: Wendy Billock, Ph.D.
This workshop will focus on prioritizing professional opportunities when there are many, ﬁnding opportunities when they are scarce, and creating opportunities when there are none. Small investments can have a large impact over time. Without making time for professional growth, a career can stagnate. We all know that we should be investing in our future, but which opportunities are actually good investments? Professional development needs are different during early, middle, and late career.

Mindful Body: Reasons Why Physiological Self-care is Critical for Working Women to Succeed
Presenters: Janet Bonome, DrPH and Nicole Fannin
This session will share 4 reasons why physiological self-care is critical for working women to succeed. Of all the tips for working moms and women, at the top of the list has to be taking care of yourself. Join us for 4 reasons why self-care is critical for working women to succeed. We will be ending the with a mindful body session to calm our minds and open our hearts for a successful conference and year ahead.

Speaking of Growth
Presenter: CLS Ferguson, Ph.D.
This session is a public speaking workshop focused on reducing speech anxiety and increasing confidence. As leaders, we will be called upon to speak perhaps frequently. In this workshop, we will strengthen our public speaking skills to enhance our leadership skills. This session will include overcoming speech anxiety in both body and mind, and the four Ps of public speaking.

A Strengths-Based University
Presenter: Wendy Flint, Ph.D.
Students, staff, faculty, administrator, coaches and their teams, participate in the Gallup Strengths assessment at George Fox University. In this workshop you will discover how Strengths identification improves student confidence, encourages potential, builds teams, and increases productivity. Learn how to implement a campus-wide strengths initiative at an affordable cost.

Lead for Life: The Impact of Developmental Psychology and Emotional Intelligence on our Leadership
Presenter: Andrea Gurney, Ph.D.
Understanding our developmental journey and cultivating emotional intelligence is the focus of this workshop as we seek to grow in effectiveness and authenticity in all of our roles and relationships. Self-awareness is the stating point for becoming an eﬀective leader, parent, colleague, spouse and friend. In this workshop, we will examine the developmental tasks that adults face through the framework of Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory, explore emotional intelligence (EQ) and it's impact on leadership, and discuss ways we can cultivate EQ in both our personal and professional lives.

The Gospel and The Enneagram: Finding Your Center in Leading Others
Presenter: Pamela Havey Lau
The Enneagram gives insight into ourselves and others. The Gospel of Christ is what transforms us into His image; the Enneagram as a tool can help us know when we and others are living from our false selves, the good, the bad, our shadow sides and our light sides. In this session, we will discover new ways to lead those we are to keep accountable based on the nine mirrors of the Enneagram. Also included is a description of how to "lead" each unique number. Combined with interactive questions and exercises, by the time the session is over, participants will be more knowledgeable about this tool and encouraged in their own transformation.

It is helpful but not mandatory for participants to know their Enneagram number. You may take the RHETI test here: https://tests.enneagraminstitute.com/orders/create before the session.

Solving Relational Conflicts: A Look at How Marriage Research May Help Us Solve Conflicts Outside of the Home
Presenter: Elisa Shepard, Ph.D.
Perhaps one of the most necessary skills we can learn is how to solve conflicts. In this presentation, we will discuss how marriage research can help us solve conflicts in an effort to enhance our personal and professional lives.

Resilience Sessions

How to Build Resilience in First Generation College Students on College Campuses
Presenter: Lauren Bournique, M.A.
According to Redford and Hoyer of the National Center for Educational Statistics (2017), "Only about half of First Generation students complete a bachelor's degree." This session focuses on first generation students' specific needs, how to build resilience, what resources are necessary for retention, and best practices for college campuses.

Building Resilience: Understanding and Naming Gender Bias Barriers for Women
Presenter: Leanne Dzubinski, Ph.D.
Women leaders face frequent instances of gender bias which create barriers to growth and resilience. This session presents a six-factor model of gender barriers to enable change toward healthier workspaces. Despite much attention to issues of gender bias, no studies to date have attempted to create and validate a mechanism for quantitatively capturing women's lived experiences with the wide range of gender bias barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to create a validated instrument which can be used to assess the degree to which gender bias aﬀects women leaders in a range of industries.

Burnout and Work-Family Relationships
Presenters: Yvonne Thai, Ph.D. and Thomas Frederick, Ph.D.
The presentation seeks to examine the issue of burnout in the workplace and its effects on self and relationships. The presenters will address the burnout literature as well as practical ways to cope with burnout through the use of prayer techniques.

Today, I Choose Dignity!
Presenters: Amanda Lebrecht and Shree Carter
Two higher education colleagues will discuss their journeys in leadership and share lessons learned in this primarily male-dominated system. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect and share their experiences. Questions for discussion: What are some barriers you have encountered that have hindered your personal inﬂuence in leadership? What leadership characteristics have you encountered concerning the male and female leaders you have worked with? Where does dignity ﬁt in?

Others Sessions

Women and Men: Can We Be Friends? Mentors? Advocates?
Presenters: Greg Bowden, Ph.D., Vicki Bowden, DNSc, Jenn Guignard, Ed.D. and Cammy Purper , Ph.D.
This session will examine the challenges and benefits of a variety of professional relationships between women and men. Friendship vs. mentorship vs. sponsorship will be defined, with practical ways to consider how to build and sustain these relationships.

Leadership at Every Level: Informal Leadership and the Impact You Can Have
Presenter: Julie Browning, Ph.D.
Many qualified women chose not to enter into formal leadership roles to balance work and life responsibilities. Others choose to step back out of leadership to find balance again. Regardless of their title or position, women are leaders who can have a significant impact on the trajectory of the institution through mentoring, institutional knowledge, and their female vision. The purpose of this session is to encourage women to identify their particular style of leadership and exercise it within their sphere of influence to have a positive impact on the people with whom they come into contact. This session will also prepare women to recognize the challenges and pitfalls that informal leadership may bring as well as explore best practices for ways to manage them.

The Truth About Talent
Presenter: Dirk Davis, Ed.D.
A discussion about how to build a dynamic workforce, realizing potential, and helping leaders and followers succeed. How do we keep the best employees, and be the best manager? How do we recruit, hire, retrain and nurture the cream of the crop? How do we build a workplace that attracts and keeps the best? What are the principles associated with developing talent for the future? How do we become exceptional managers and develop people who get results? None of these questions may be answered in 45 minutes, but it should be a good conversation.

Leadership Across Generations
Presenter: Chip Espinoza, Ph.D.
A monumental changing of the guard is currently taking place in organizations due to demographic metabolism. One of the largest birth cohorts or generations in history (Baby Boomer) is in—or close to—retirement, thus giving way. Gen X and Millennials are all in and the first wave of Gen Z is about to hit. Generational rapport is critical to retention, knowledge transfer and productivity. Understanding the theoretical framework for generational constructs is critical to overcoming the natural tension that exists when there is difference. The session will inspire attendees to challenge their own personal perceptions, organizational bias and equip them to better lead and follow.

Getting Rid of Bad Habits: Do You Have Any?
Presenter: Judson Lim
The nuances of Women in Leadership are REAL! In this session, we will look into the testimony and experiences of professionals who have experienced advancement, promotion and support as women. Questions to consider: How can we tangibly support women in leadership? What are the habits we have that inﬂuence our support of one another? What are the nuances of women in leadership? Do we have bad habits? Where do they come from?

Transformational Mentoring
Presenter: Jennifer Graffius, D.Min.
Mentoring changes us. Over and over again, research points to the transformational power of having a good mentor. How do we find good mentors? How can we be better mentors? What are the characteristics of a good mentor? In this session, we will explore what to look for in the mentors in our lives and how we can be better mentors to others.

Cultivating Pearls: Start a unique creative mentorship journey for girls and women on your campus
Presenters: Irene Neller, Christina DiMari and Carol Troesh
Mentoring—spiritual formation, discipleship, identifying professional calling and purpose! Take your dream, your vision, gather others around you, grow your reach on campus and watch lives be transformed. Hear Christina’s personal story of neglect and absence of a female role in her life, and how a Christian college equipped her to change the lives of thousands of girls. This session will teach creative methods on how to start mentoring groups for girls 8-88 years of age as they seek purpose and calling. Session Learning Outcomes: To create mentoring programs for females on campus, cultivating networks and support for a community that advances girls and leaders of girls.

Wonder Sessions

Leading as a Woman of Reputable Standing
Presenter: Enid Bozic
By taking a deep dive into the life of Huldah, the Prophetess, we will explore how a woman of obscurity was given the greenlight to encourage a King. In this session, you will learn about the life and times of Huldah, the Prophetess (2 Chronicles 34:22–28). She is only referenced in a few lines of Scripture, yet has held a signiﬁcant position in both Judaic and Christian theological discourse as a woman of profound impact. We will explore how women were viewed as separate, but equals, and highly respected in traditional Judaism. It is out of this context that women like Huldah were able to inﬂuence men of power. We hope you will be able to apply a few leadership takeaways from her life to your own life and profession.

Transform Your Writing with the Secrets of Authors
Presenter: Diana Ha
Do you wish you were compelling on the page, that readers would pull up a seat once they've sampled your offering? Perhaps you like the sound of fresh insights on the art of writing. Would you like to learn the secrets of authors, bring their practices into your work? Schools teach you many things to help make you readable and interesting on paper, but you also need to know what good writing is not. Come learn the dead giveaways of a writer who is trying too hard and simple techniques that can transform your page. We will rehearse grammar to see it is more than prescription and can, in fact, enable thinking. Find out which part of speech bears the greatest impact in writing. This workshop will equip you to use language more consciously and confidently in support of your academic and professional endeavors. We will consider the privilege and power of communication, its many purposes, and gain a clearer vision, both personally and as educators, for why it is we read and write.

A Compass for Compassion
Presenter: Tatiana Hoapili
The power of compassion is boundless. How do you build a compass of compassion? This will be an interactive workshop that provides a brave space in which learning, reflection, and group discussion will take place. We will be discussing topics including: Intersectionality, The Tip of the Iceberg, Power, Privilege, Gender Equity, Gender Equality, Allyship, and Compassion. As women and men in higher education, we have the opportunity to engage in life-long learning for our professional development and spiritual growth.

Breakout Session II

Growing Sessions

Networking: Building Relationships That Matter

Presenter: Joy Karavedas, Ed.D.
Research shows that successful leaders maintain a broad network of relationships that influence and impact their leadership. This session will explore the diﬀerent types of relationships needed for eﬀective leadership and provide participants with tools to build strong internal, external, and strategic relationships. Using the social context associated with networking, this session will also cover the necessity for building communities of practice and the personal mindset that supports development of strong connections.

Mothers in Leadership: Taking Our Children Out From Under the Desk
Presenter: Kristin Mauldin, Ph.D.
I was inspired to create this session by all of the amazing women I have met who feel that they need to hide their parental responsibilities from their supervisors at work and/or are struggling to balance both roles. We tend to apologize for taking time to be with our children, having to care for sick kids, and not being able to pull the long nights for our organizations that some of our colleagues and coworkers are able to pull. In this session I will talk about perceptions of and by working (out of the home) moms, how to advocate for ourselves, some life hacks on juggling the two roles, and how being a mother contributes to us being even better leaders. We will spend some time discussing our priorities, rethinking how we organize our time, and sharing our experiences. Let's have an honest and open conversation here so that we can support and lift each other up!

Go and GROW: Starting an AWIL Campus Chapter
Presenter: Dana Pautsch and Aubree Flickeman
With the aim of localizing the Advancing Women in Leadership vision, this session outlines how to create and launch AWIL focused chapters at CCCU schools across the nation. It is our aim to see Advancing Women In Leadership grow across the nation, and become a visible program on every CCCU campus.

Evaluating our Classrooms and Instructional Approach
Presenter: Wendeth J. Rauf
What are we doing to make our classrooms equitable? It is important our classrooms balance upholding high academic standards while also providing an atmosphere for students to experience equitable learning. Participants will hear and discuss issues related to our classrooms including accessibility, race and culture, socioeconomics, and academic standing/abilities. Participants will leave with practical solutions we can implement to create a successful learning experience for all students.

Barriers & Breakthroughs: Women in Higher Education
Presenter: Liz Robertson and Kelly Sullenberger
Female executives in higher education embody many of the transformational leadership traits needed at this time, yet they continue to be underrepresented at the most senior levels. This presentation was born out of a grounded theory research study which interviewed fifeen female executives representing ten institutions with a position of director level or higher. Data was collected, coded, and analyzed. Our results concluded the significance of transformational leadership styles and emotional intelligence that female executives both self-identify and see as an advantage to their work. Our research identified three constructive pathways for institutions to advance women in leadership: commitment to mentorship and sponsorship, intentional structural and cultural change, and purposeful recruitment and retention. This study also identified the need for further research in the ways in which women advance or hinder each other's professional development as well as the lenses by which other underrepresented groups identify.

Resilience Sessions

Personal Resiliency Contributes to Post-Crisis Leadership Effectiveness
Presenter: Jamie Brownlee-Turgeon, Ph.D.
Have you ever experienced a crisis as a leader, department level or institution-wide, and were responsible for managing the crisis and gefng back to business as usual? This session will focus on the competency of personal resiliency and its role in post-crisis leadership. Building upon the research by Dr. Paul Turgeon, resiliency is a key competency in eﬀective post-crisis leaders. Jim Collins coins the phrase, never waste a good crisis, and the research supports that resiliency is necessary for an organization to emerge stronger and becer than before the crisis event. This session will discuss the role of resiliency post-crisis, and 6 attributes that contribute to the competency. Resiliency is necessary for an organization to emerge stronger and better post-crisis.

The Bamboo Ceiling: Asian American Women Faculty in Higher Education
Presenter: Eunice Hong, Ph.D.
Six Asian-American women faculty were interviewed to understand their experiences of race in Southern California. Three major categories emerged from the pilot study: peripheral experiences, relationships, and work environment. Though much has been written on racial identity development, Asian American experiences of race, and even coping strategies of Asian American individuals experiencing race, not much has been written on Asian American women faculty's experiences of race at private institutions in Southern California. This pilot study's central research question was: What are Asian American women experiences of race at private institutions in Southern California?

Failing Phenomenally
Presenter: Lysa Liggins, Ed.D.
Failure is not an option, it's a part of life-then comes GROWTH. We also know that failure is a part of our success especially if you learn from your failures. GROW and stop letting them stifle you. This workshop offers a candid look at how to FAIL phenomenally. Learn how failure evokes resilience and perseverance, equipping you for a PHENOMENAL outcome.

Growing Resilience with Mindfulness Practices
Presenter: Kerry Moore
Mindfulness builds resilience, fosters gratitude, protects against overwhelm, and allows us to become more fully aware of God's creation and His presence with us. We will explore several specific mindfulness techniques.

I Am In a Leadership Position, Now What?
Presenter: Elizabeth Morris, Ph.D.
Are you new to leadership? Understanding your own beliefs and biases can be a first step in developing a foundation of successful leadership. Come and hear how the principles of developing as a teacher can be applied to your own growth and development as a leader.

Gratitude as a Christian Pracice of Resilience
Presenters: Maura Page and La Shonda Coleman
Gratitude and praise are essentials of the Christian faith that support personal and professional resilience. Hear from two seasoned professionals about the simplicity and power of gratitude and leave with practical take aways that support resilience. Participants at this session will learn about gratitude as a Christian discipline that supports presonal and professional resilience. They will leave with practical take aways related to understanding the intersection of resilience and gratitude.

Others Sessions

Age Ain't Nothing But a Number
Presenters: Katrina Frye and Randa Hinton
Research shows that the retirement age is drastically increasing and younger generations are increasingly disrupting the workforce. These ﬁndings prove that it has never been more crucial to be able to lead a multi-generational workplace. Personal experience has shown Katrina and Randa that in order to lead a multi-generational workplace well, you must show up to work as your whole self, no matter your age.

Got Grit? Lessons in Embracing Discomfort to Advance Your Leaders, Your Followers, and Yourself
Presenter: Christy Mathews, Ed.S.
Angela Duckworth deﬁnes grit as a combination of passion and perseverance. Elisabeth Elliott advises to "do the next thing" when times are tough. Brene Brown is famously quoted as saying, "He or she who has the greatest capacity for discomfort rises the fastest". Regardless of the speciﬁc term used--grit, perseverance, resilience, or dogged determinedness--this practice of leaning in and embracing discomfort and diﬃculty is an essential tool for a leader, her leaders, and her team. A practical look at the necessity of grit for female leaders and the value it brings to the higher education workplace.

Cultivating Pearls: Start a unique creative mentorship journey for girls and women on your campus
Presenters: Irene Neller, Christina DiMari and Carol Troesh
Mentoring—spiritual formation, discipleship, identifying professional calling and purpose! Take your dream, your vision, gather others around you, grow your reach on campus and watch lives be transformed. Hear Christina’s personal story of neglect and absence of a female role in her life, and how a Christian college equipped her to change the lives of thousands of girls. This session will teach creative methods on how to start mentoring groups for girls 8-88 years of age as they seek purpose and calling. Session Learning Outcomes: To create mentoring programs for females on campus, cultivating networks and support for a community that advances girls and leaders of girls.

Faculty Perceptions of Workplace Equality
Presenters: Elizabeth Powell, Psy.D. and Stephanie D'Auria-Brooker. Ph.D.

This presentation will examine a process designed to learn about perceptions of equality between male and female faculty members at Vanguard University. Initial feedback indicates differences in the areas of work-life balance, workload, and perception of departmental and institutional support.

The Challenge of Intersectionality in Women's Leadership Development, and the Inclusive Organization Solution
Presenters: Ludmila Praslova, Ph.D., Andrew Stenhouse, Ed.D., Amanda Lebrecht and Karen Nishie

We present a theoretical foundation and research support for an extended model of women's leadership advancement. It facilitates understanding of the intersectionality of gender and other relevant variables (class, ethnicity, marital status, immigrant status, etc.) for a more comprehensive understanding of leadership advancement and potential hidden obstacles. Moreover, we discuss interactions of gender and other individual characteristics with aspects of organizational cultures and provide recommendations for building inclusive organizational contexts. Participants will learn to apply newly developed tools for assessing inclusion in organizations and identifying specific areas for improvement.

Wonder Sessions

Leading from a Place of Wonder, Conviction, and Calling in the Workplace: The Integration of Faith in One's Leadership Practice
Presenter: Lori Lacy, Psy.D.
This presentation will help participants gain insight into ways one's faith informs one's leadership practice. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore their values, worldview, convictions and callings, with the goal of ﬁnding a renewed sense of meaning and purpose amidst their work and leadership roles. Participants will walk away with practical tools to implement in their lives to further their experience of the wonder of God's presence and will have the opportunity to practice these exercises during the presentation.

Purpose and Positivity in Leadership
Presenters: Amy Miller, DrPH and Stefani Plummer
Women in leadership often report being pulled in many directions with little time to care for themselves. This is an interactive presentation to look at practical ways we can invest in our own self-care. We will explore the relationship between self-care and Biblical leadership and how we can apply those to our own lives. We will review research that shows the beneﬁt of self-care and the eﬀect of positivity. We will identify internal and external barriers that prevent us from being successful in these areas. Most importantly, we will make the case that holistic self-care leads to increased positivity and more eﬀective leadership.

The Worth and Work of a Woman: Being God's Woman in a Man's World
Presenter: Helen Mitchell
Exploring biblical truth on the role, value and worth of women. Should they be in the marketplace? Is motherhood a greater calling? Helping Christian women navigate culture, gender and leadership differences. This session will explore why work matters, why it is a part of God's plan, and what is a woman's unique contribution. Years of research on gender experiences in the workplace make the case from scripture that men and women were designed to co-labor together. Jesus was counter cultural toward women, and the idea that women are helpers will be put into context. Looking to women of inﬂuence in scripture, we will draw out the one common factor to their leadership and impact.

Free to Heal: Faith-Based Practices of Recovery for Sexual and Domestic Abuse
Presenter: Ally Moder, Ph.D.
One-third of women in the US experience sexual or domestic abuse from a male partner in their lifetime, and the Church is no exception to this. Indeed, research demonstrates that the majority of Christian female survivors seek counsel first and only from clergy, and that their pastoral responses are widely unhelpful, often due to a lack of training. This session will combine robust research in the fields of pastoral theology, neuro/psychology, and trauma theory towards the goal of equipping clergy and other faith-based practioners with robust knowledge and praxis for working with survivors of #MeToo. A particular focus will be on research-based Christian spiritual practices that enable survivors to heal and recover from trauma.

Breakout Session III

Growing Sessions

Leading the Way: Implementing Inclusive Hiring Practices
Presenter: Laura Igram
As college students become more diverse, we must hire employees who reflect campus demographics and can serve students well. This session will cover concepts important to inclusive hiring, including unconscious bias, equity, and fit. The presenter will also share positive outcomes of implementing these efforts across Student Development at Biola. Finally, attendees will receive concrete resources and tips to increase inclusion in their hiring efforts.

Marketing Me: Creatively Competing for Dream Goals and Opportunities
Presenter: Andrea Scott, Ph.D.
Become acquainted with a proven marketing tool that has been used to for more than 12 years to help people align their lives & careers with their dreams & skills. If organizations and companies invest so much time and money to market themselves, it begs the question why individuals invest so little (if any) time developing their own personal marketing plan and brand. Dr. Scott will share her proven Marketing Me tool that she has developed and used over the last twelve years to help people align their lives and careers with their dreams and skills.

Breath to Movement: Gentle Stretch
Presenter: Ariana Smeragliuolo
We've all found ourselves hunched over the keyboard, with stress and strain ﬁzzling. Do you ﬁnd yourself holding your breath, or with a neck stiﬀ from scrunching your shoulders into your ears? Would just enjoy taking a moment to breathe with easy movements and learn a few tricks to unwind when the pressure is on? This breakout session is a chance to calm your mind while practicing movement that increases flexibility and soothes sore muscles.

Purpose and Priorities: Saying Yes to Things that Matter (to You)
Presenter: Erin Smith, Ph.D.
This session is for individuals feeling busy without movement or lacking purpose in their professional life. Inspired by psychological research, this session's activities promote reflection on habits that create meaningful action. The aim of this session is to equip participants with the thought patterns to create personally meaningful action, not just busyness. This session would be ideal for individuals who would describe themselves as spinning (and dropping) "too many plates" or for individuals with a general sense that they lack clarity of purpose for their professional life.

Grit Growth via Normalizing Nurturing Narratives
Presenter: Mary Ann Stahovich, MHP, PA-C
Sharing lessons from our program, nurturing narratives have provided a tool for success in the
Physician Assistant education. The PA profession is a selective one, with an arduous, condensed graduate education.In our CBU PA Studies program, nurturing narratives have provided meaningful tools from the pre PA applicant stage, interview process and for successful completion of the program and beyond. This extensive pipeline offers a potential model for other programs as a demonstration of grit growth for success.

Getting the Dreaded Buy In: Winning the Magazine Redesign War
Presenter: Melanie Vogel
Vanguard's Director of Advancement Communications shares the peaks and pitfalls of reimagining a university magazine (with a small team and budget) worthy of a standing ovation from the Board of Trustees. What do you do when your boss tells you to redesign a magazine, but your boss's boss says there's nothing wrong with the current one and it's now your job to convince all the powers that be that a redesign will solve *all* their problems? You ﬁght the good ﬁght and come up a strategy, concept, design and team to make it happen.

Resilience Sessions

An Emotional Approach to Conflict Resolution
Presenter: Debbie Steele, Ph.D., LMFT, RN
Come and explore the important role emotions play in our most important relationships. When these relationships turn sideways, a focus on our emotoonal experiences can guide us to repair and healing. God created us for connection. Our emotions serve as the motivator to attain and maintain important relationships in our lives, especially with family and friends. Focusing on what is happening emotionally when we are triggered is the key to resolving conﬂict and getting back to closeness and intimacy. This session will provide a 7-step model to repair relationships based on an understanding of how God has created us as emotional-spiritual children.

Practicing Self Care when Balancing Work and Family Life
Presenters: Yvonne Thai, Ph.D., Grigorian Routon, M.S., LMFT, Elisa Shepard, Ph.D., Laura Freeman, Psy.D., and Susan Purrington, Psy.D.
This presentation seeks to address the stressors associated with balancing work and family. The panelists will discuss practical techniques on self care to improve psychological well being: (1) Recognize and identify individual stressors associated with balancing work and family life. (2) Explore practical techniques/approaches to self-care. (3) Develop practical techniques/approaches to self-care. (4) Recognize barriers to implementing self-care techniques and identify potential solutions.

The Importance and Process of Developing Resilience in Student Leaders Through Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities
Presenters: Natalie Winter, Ed.D., Ellen Kaminski, MPA, Rebecca Guerrero and Laura Acosta
This session will discuss how faculty and staff can help the next generation of women leaders develop resilience and to share their stories of resilience in such a way that they are acknowledged and valued. How do we, as faculty and staﬀ, help these individuals not only develop resilience, but to share their stories of resilience in such a way that they are acknowledged and valued? What are practical methods that we can employ to teach students to overcome obstacles, and to use these deﬁning endeavors to launch them into opportunities for inﬂuence and impact? Led by both faculty members and a staﬀ member from CBU's Career Center, this session will examine both curricular and co-curricular approaches to address this issue.

Christian Women in Science and Technology
Presenter: Effat Zeidan, Ph.D.
Medical research at the nanoscale has been advancing at an incredible rate in the last decade or so. This has led to the introduction of many advancements that continue to provide more effective diagnostic and treatment technologies in the medical field. This process of research development goes alongside an intense and perseverant one that the researcher experiences. When taking a closer look at the unplanned failures and delicacy of trouble shooting in research, one has to significantly acknowledge the scientist who continues to persevere and doesn't detour from the ultimate goal of serving his/her community. An aspect of my work that I lived through during my research years has led me to discuss this topic. Faith is what leads the Christian female scientist to overcome many unforeseen problems and roadblocks along the way. It is one's belief in a higher purpose that formulates the scientific success in many aspects of research; one of which is the ultimate goal of being a better human. Failure was the first step of introducing a cutting-edge diagnostic tool to the medical community; but it was faith that brought success to the entire process of scientific discovery. Hence, the significant outcome of our conducted experiments was the result of faith and science complementing each other in a researcher's life.

Others Sessions

Stepping into Leadership: Who Will Be Ready?
Presenter: Beth Groves, D.P.A.
Leaders are found at all levels in an organization. What can be done to prepare for the next step and who is being developed to step up when opportunities arise? This presentation builds on leadership and organizational change concepts used to create strategic succession plans that focus on leadership development. As organizations change, the traditional career ladder is often disrupted. This brings a need to identify and nourish potential leaders and provide mentoring and practical professional development for key individuals within an organization.

How to Communicate the Ways of Jesus in the Private Sector
Presenter: Kelly Soifer
In pursuing our desire to serve as kingdom-minded leaders in the 21st-century, it has become crucial to learn how to go outside the walls of church and traditional ministry and bring gospel values into the marketplace. After pursuing seminary education, vocational ministry and a career in higher education for 35 years, I am now finding myself being invited into corporate settings to teach and train up leadership development in a wide variety of contexts and have been challenged to develop new avenues for connecting with others through these conversations, which are often deep and spiritual. In turn, I am encountering God in wondrously new ways! In this workshop I plan to share my experiences and hopefully set up others to be able to do this as well.

Disordered Personalities: Mitigating Conflict with Emotional Intelligence
Presenter: Andrew Stenhouse, Ed.D.
The dissonance between our identity and reputation can create immense internal stress, leading to misunderstanding, frustration, and burnout. This intrapersonal conﬂict often bleeds into our work relations. Critical to mitigating personal and organizational conﬂict is the development and integration of emotional intelligence. This integrative workshop will explore the dimensions of personality and how they can create organizational friction and ultimately sabotage careers. The ﬁve elements of emotional intelligence will be presented as foundational for managing emotional reactivity.

Women and Men as Allies: Advocacy for Gender Equity
Presenter: Carrie Stockton, Ph.D., Norlan Hernandez, M.A.
This session will provide an understanding of the benefits of and barriers to positive working relationships (e.g., mentoring, supervision, collegiality) across gender, address some of the complexities of these relationships across gender, encourage men and women to value and pursue gender equity, and recommend good practices for healthy relationships. Adendees will be encouraged to value and pursue gender equity in workplace relationships and leadership development. Implications for practice based on this context will be considered, particularly the importance of participation by women and men in gender-equity initiatives and healthy workplace relationships.

Contributions to the Public Good: Exploring the Types, Challenges, and Successes of University-Community Partnership Efforts
Presenter: Beth Claassen Thrush, Ph.D.
This session will provide an opportunity for sharing and discussion for those faculty, staff, and students involved in community-engaged learning, research, and work with a diverse group of stakeholders. This session will include a brief overview of some current highlights of the University-Community Partnership literature and a few national best practices. I will also oﬀer a few recent personal experiences through the strategic planning process—looking ahead at how UCR can contribute to the public good over the next 10-20 years.

Wonder Sessions

Women in the Mission of the Church: Opportunities and Obstacles of Ministry throughout Christian History
Presenter: Leanne Dzubinski, Ph.D.
This session offers a birds-eye view of women's contributions, despite obstacles, to the building of the global church across two millennia. Their faithfulness models resilience for us all. Understanding how women have contributed to the spread of the Christian faith helps Christians develop a fuller picture and a fuller understanding of God's ways of working in the world. Understanding obstacles women overcame as they obeyed God's call models faithfulness and resilience for women today. All Christians may be encouraged in their own ministry by hearing the stories of faithful women who have preceded us in the life of faith.

He Will Make Straight Your Paths: Navigating the Pathway to Executive Leadership Roles in Higher Education
Presenter: Pete C. Menjares, Ph.D.
A panel of diverse women leaders will speak on the importance of trusting in God to navigate the straight, jagged, and surprising pathways to executive leadership position in higher education. Proverbs 3:5-6.

A Pedagogy of Jesus
Presenter: Terrelle Sales, Ed.D.
By critically examining the themes of social awareness/critical consciousness, authentic human moments through dialogue, and teaching as an act of unconditional love, we can engage with Jesus through His pedagogy. Within the New Testament accounts, we peer into the classroom of the Great Teacher and encounter a picture of uncondi4onal love expressed through a human moment shared between Jesus and the world He was sent to save. Hegemonic societal constructs are acknowledged, discussed, and critically engaged by the carpenter from Nazareth and His students with purpose and intentionality to help illustrate an eternal lesson on love that permeates the soul, creating the spiritual and educational conditions essential for transformational change to occur.

Sisters in Strength: Evaluating Agency Among Women in Two Low-Income Congregations in South Los Angeles
Presenters: Isaac Voss, Ph.D. and Lane Valley
The purpose of this presentation is to evaluate the stories of female congregants in two lowincome communities in south Los Angeles, through the lens of a particular sociological theory of agency. A central question is: From their perspective, what are the signiﬁcant constraints and causes of change for female congregants in this secng over a ﬁve-year period?

Marred Leadership
Presenter: Kayla Zuniga
How freedom from shame liberates, unifies and strengthens leaders within the workplace, maximizing the God-given talents for the sake of growing the Kingdom of God. Shame is an active component in dismantling human connection which in turn leads to the destruction of unity. Ridding oneself of this bondage is key in order to conﬁdently step into roles at work, ministry, and daily life. This breakout session will discuss the pervasive nature of shame, identify its roots and oﬀer steps in liberating oneself from its grip for the sake of growing as a community.