Top Executive, Entrepreneur and Elected Official to Headline 4th Annual Women of Color Empowerment Conference
National Leadership Conference set for Saturday, September 13, 2014 in South Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (July 10, 2014) – Los Angeles corporate media legend Paula Williams Madison, Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards, and Chicago author and activist Maggie Anderson have been announced as keynote speakers for the 4th Annual Women of Color Empower Conference (WOCEC) taking place on Saturday, September 13, 2014 at the Bahia Mar Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The trio will join more than 20 accomplished presenters from business, government, nonprofit and the professions speaking on the 2014 conference theme, “When Women Succeed, America Succeeds.”
“Each year we are committed to providing the dynamic women leaders who attend the conference with inspiring keynote speakers and top tier experts on our breakout panels,” said WOCEC Founder and Chair Burnadette Norris-Weeks, Esq. “Our goal is to educate and motivate accomplished, influential women decision makers to more effectively lead their organizations and to seek new leadership challenges, ultimately for the benefit of our entire nation,” Norris-Weeks added.
Paula Williams Madison spent 22 years as a top media executive, including seven years as general manager of KNBC-TV in Los Angeles before being promoted to executive vice president of NBC Universal in 2007. Madison retired in 2011 to grow her family-owned Williams Group Holdings LLC, which now has significant ownership and investments in The Africa Channel, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, and various real estate, consumer, financial and trading businesses. She has been named one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise magazine, and to the “Power 100” lists of both The Hollywood Reporter and Ebony magazine.
Congresswoman Donna Edwards became the first African-American woman to represent Maryland after winning a special election to Congress in June 2008. She began her first full term in the 111th Congress in 2009. One of six children raised in a military family, Edwards worked on the Spacelab project at Goddard Space Flight Center before deciding to attend law school with an eye toward law in the public interest. She used her training to co-found the National Network to End Domestic Violence and received national recognition as a leader in the successful fight to pass the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. In Congress, Edwards currently serves on the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She also is an Executive Committee member of the Human Rights Commission and is co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Women’s Caucus.
A first-generation Cuban-American, activist, speaker and author Margarita “Maggie” Anderson is the founder of The NEW Empowerment Experiment (EE) and MaggiesList.com. Anderson exploded on the national media scene during her family’s experiment, living exclusively off Black businesses, professionals and products for an entire year. Their experience was documented in a landmark study by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business and is chronicled in Anderson’s 2012 book, “Our Black Year.” A resident of suburban Chicago, Maggie Anderson has become one of the nation’s most prominent faces of the conscious consumerism movement, appearing on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS Newshour and CBS Morning News among many others.
The daylong Women of Color Empowerment Conference has sold out in each of its first three years. This year’s 4th annual conference is planned by committee of community volunteers serving under the direction of the conference’s three co-founding women’s organizations: The Links, Incorporated (North Broward County, FL Chapter); Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated (Broward County Alumnae Chapter); and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (Zeta Rho Omega Chapter).
See the WOCEC website for additional information, registration and sponsorship opportunities. http://www.southfloridawomenofcolor.com.
For more information, contact: Burnadette Norris-Weeks Kathy Eggleston 401 North Avenue of the Arts Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311 (954) 522-2290