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Advocate of Women's Leadership
To Speak on Tuesday, March 25
Posted March 24, 2003
HOLLAND -- Marie Wilson, president of the Ms. Foundation for Women and The White House Project, will present "Why Women Matter: The Path to Leadership" on Tuesday, March 25, at 11 a.m. in the Maas Center conference room.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
An advocate of women's issues for more than 30 years, Wilson became president
of the Ms. Foundation in 1984, raising millions of dollars for programs and organizations
serving women and girls, including the Ms. Foundation's $16 million endowment fund. She
co-founded The White House Project in 1998 to change the political climate to get more women
elected to office, including the presidency. In 1999, she founded the Women's Leadership
Fund, a public education initiative dedicated to changing perceptions about and biases against
women's leadership ability.
Her other accomplishments include co-creating the successful public education
campaign, "Take Our Daughters to Work Day," and co-authoring the critically acclaimed
"Mother Daughter Revolution" (1993, Bantam Books). She was the first woman elected to the
Des Moines City Council, as a member at large in 1983. She served as an official government
delegate to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in
1995.
For her many accomplishments in the field of philanthropy, Wilson was
awarded the Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking in 2002. She also received
the Leadership for Equity and Diversity (LEAD) Award from Women & Philanthropy, and was
awarded an honorary Doctorate of Community Service from Drake University, where she once
served as director of women's programs. She was named one of "New Woman" magazine's
"People of the Year" in 1993.
She is a frequent speaker on college campuses. She has also spoken on
women's political leadership in several news outlets, including "Good Morning America," the
"New York Times," National Public Radio, the "Wall Street Journal," CBS Evening News, Agence
France-Presse, the BBC, "USA Today" and the "Christian Science Monitor."
Her address is sponsored by the Women's Studies Program at Hope, the West
Michigan Women's Studies Council and the Nokomis Foundation.
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