I went back to school this week, life learning is a wise investment of our time. Boise State and the Andrus Center hosted the 13th Annual Women and Leadership Conference. Five impressive female keynote speakers provided career insights, coaching, mentorship, encouragement and inspiration to 500 attendees. The attendee’s are mainly women but there are men attending to better understand the issues their employee’s face and possible strategies to strengthen commitments. I am going to share some of the aha moments from my perspective.
Rashmi Airan is a first-generation Indian American. She tells a compelling story about chasing excellence and achieving it. Graduating with honors from Columbia Law she built a thriving legal and business career which we extended to the real estate and finance world. She made the mistake of trusting her partners only to find she was implicated in a criminal conspiracy. The trail resulted in a one year and one day federal prison sentence which she felt was likely the end of the life she had built for her young family. Imagine her surprise when she found her family, friends, clients, and community stood behind her. Rashmi discovered life is a struggle, by facing it and accepting it she was able to overcome. Her indictment became a positive as she refocused. She reminded us to “be where your feet are”. How many of us think we can multi task—not likely—be present. Rashmi is a motivational speaker and life coach.
Maria Gonzalez Cardenas is a noted Author, Education advocate, Community activist, and small business entrepreneur. Maria has played a significant role in the empowerment of Idaho’s Latinx community. Maria grew up in a close knit migrant worker family. She worked the fields with her parents from an early age in Texas and continued when they moved to Idaho through her high school years. Her degree in Arts and Elementary Education with a Bilingual/Multicultural emphasis and an MBA earned her a leadership position as an instructor at BSU’s College Assistance Migrant Program. She has been active in initiatives that uplift Latino Voices including the Latino Voter Education project. Her 92 year old father has never missed a vote, in spite of the poll tax in Texas in his early years designed to disenfranchise Blacks, Latino’s, and working class poor. Not until l964 did the 24th Amendment abolish the use of Poll taxes in Federal elections and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which outlaws the practice nationwide. Maria’s father will tell you, voting gives you a voice. Did you know 14% of Idaho’s population are Latinx while only 1 serves as an elected official at the State Capital’s 105 members.
Maria encouraged us to Stand Up for what is right. What is the cost of staying silent? It is our job to assure that “liberty and justice for all” is a “hallowed not a hollow ideal” in our country. Maria has a sense of humor, she ran for office 4 times and has a perfect record. I had a few strikes against me; ‘ I am a woman, Latinx, progressive and Religious. I would vote for her in a Pocatello minute.
Heather Meuleman is the Development Director at the Peregrine Fund. Heather is a graduate in Community Development from Portland State University. She grew up in Idaho and her degree in Urban Studies and Planning and commitment to nonprofits led her join the fund in 2017. The fund has a global reach and supports many raptors in recovery or protection. The Fund was founded in l970 to save the Peregrine from the endangered species list and accomplished that goal in 1999. Since then the work is global and has focused on Harpee eagles in Panama, Ridgeway hawks in Puerto Rico. California Condors, Vulchers in Africa and many others. Their work has made an amazing difference. DDT was a source of so much destruction to our bird and other populations, the work to eliminate its use eliminated one of the perils to our ecosystem.
Heather highlighted the many woman who lead these various specialty areas and reminded us that the Fund has helped nearly 200 students with work experience and scholarships to reach their advanced degrees. Why are women good leaders? They are willing/able to collaborate and communicate. No partisan iinteraction can open issues to ‘shrink blind spots’ making success more likely. BSU has the one and only Raptor Studies MBA thanks to Tom Cade and Governor Andrus.
The Peregrine is the fastest animal on earth. Normal flight speed can reach 100 miles per hour and in a hunting dive up to 250 MPH. The picture shows a Peregine next to a Monarch butterfly. The bird is an apex hunter, the amazing migrating butterfly is protected by its orange color and its exclusive diet of milkweed which makes them poisonous. Two amazing creatures.
There were multiple break out session speakers that expanded the knowledge base of our attendees on various current topics. I will tell you in a later message about our two other Keynote speakers. Mary Peltola a Native Yup’ik Alaskan and Mary Bicknell is a leadership coach.
Mary cautioned us to trust our selves, too many times we ask everyone what they would do and end up doing nothing or some less personal solution. You wouldn’t ask for advice for oral hygiene from a toothless dentist. More currently don’t take medical advice from the Orange Wanker or his wacked out Secretary of Health.
Sorry, a bit of a run on, hope you heard something that will motivate you to “Stand Up” for our freedom. Mike
Toothless Dentist
