Women Leaders in College Sports Announces Keynotes for Women Leaders X: Brené Brown, Carla Harris, Muffet McGraw and Robin Roberts
PRESS RELEASE
August 17, 2020
Contact:
Meg Dowd
Women Leaders in College Sports
[email protected]
816.389.8209
Kansas City, Mo. – Women Leaders in College Sports (Women Leaders) announced today that five-time #1
New York Times bestselling author, researcher and professor,
Brené Brown, will complete the Women Leaders X keynote speaker lineup.
Women Leaders X, the organization’s first ever all-virtual national convention, will take place October 11-12, 2020.
Brown joins the program of previously announced speakers,
Robin Roberts,
Carla Harris and
Coach Muffet McGraw, serving as the closing keynote to Women Leaders in College Sports’ virtual leadership event.
Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Foundation – Brené Brown Endowed Chair at The Graduate College of Social Work. Brené is also a visiting professor in management at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of five #1
New York Times bestsellers:
The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and her latest book,
Dare to Lead, which is the culmination of a seven-year study on courage and leadership.
Brené hosts the
Unlocking Us podcast, and her TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 45 million views. She is also the first researcher to have a filmed lecture on Netflix.
The Call to Courage special debuted on the streaming service on April 19, 2019.
"Women Leaders could not be more excited to offer our community this unparalleled and world-class virtual leadership experience.” says Patti Phillips, CEO of Women Leaders. “Robin, Carla, Muffet and Brené will each provide a level of inspiration and insight to our audience that will fuel their leadership potential like never before! This is a can’t miss event!”
Registration for Women Leaders X will close October 9, 2020. Base Level Access is free to all current Women Leaders in College Sports members, however, registration is required to secure access to the virtual event. For non-members, Women Leaders X registration fee includes a one-year
Women Leaders membership.
Additional announcements regarding Women Leaders line-up of industry speakers, special guests and X features, will continue to be unveiled to the Women Leaders community at a later date.
For more information on the Women Leaders X keynote speakers and programming agenda,
go here.
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About Women Leaders X Keynote Speakers
Brené Brown: Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Foundation – Brené Brown Endowed Chair at The Graduate College of Social Work. Brené is also a visiting professor in management at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of five #1
New York Times bestsellers:
The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and her latest book,
Dare to Lead, which is the culmination of a seven-year study on courage and leadership.
Brené hosts the
Unlocking Us podcast, and her TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 45 million views. She is also the first researcher to have a filmed lecture on Netflix.
The Call to Courage special debuted on the streaming service on April 19, 2019.
Brené lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, Steve. They have two children, Ellen and Charlie.
Carla Harris: Carla Harris is a Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She is responsible for increasing client connectivity and penetration to enhance revenue generation across the firm. She formerly headed the Emerging Manager Platform, the equity capital markets effort for the consumer and retail industries and was responsible for Equity Private Placements. In her 30 year career, Ms. Harris has had extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. In August 2013, Carla Harris was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council.
For more than a decade, Ms. Harris was a senior member of the equity syndicate desk and executed such transactions as initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi Automotive, and the $3.2 Billion common stock transaction for Immunex Corporation, one of the largest biotechnology common stock transactions in U.S. history. Ms. Harris was named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, Fortune’s Most Influential List, U. S. Bankers Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance (2009, 2010, 2011), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2017), and “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street”, and to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of the Power 100 and “15 Corporate Women at the Top” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004” by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum and in 2011 by the Yale Black Men’s Forum.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Carla received an MBA, Second Year Honors from Harvard Business School and an AB in economics from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude. Carla has also received Honorary Doctorates of Laws, Humanities and Business from Marymount Manhattan College, Bloomfield College, Jacksonville University, Simmons College, the College of New Rochelle, St. Thomas Aquinas College and Fisk University, Wake Forest University and Felician University respectively. Carla Harris is actively involved in her community and heartily believes that “we are blessed so that we can be a blessing to someone else.”
She is the past Chair of the Board of the Morgan Stanley Foundation and of The Executive Leadership Council, and sits on the boards of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), A Better Chance, Inc, and St. Vincent’s Hospitals, and is an active member of the St. Charles Gospelites of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and the Mark Howell Singers. She is a member of the board of overseers of Harvard University and of the board of directors of the Walmart Corporation. Ms. Harris was co-chair of the National Social Action Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. She has been named to the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2015) and has received the Bert King Award from the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association, the 2005 Women’s Professional Achievement Award from Harvard University, the Pierre Toussaint Medallion from the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, the Women of Power Award given by the National Urban League, the Women of Influence Award from The Links, Incorporated and many other awards. In her other life, Carla is a singer who has sold out concerts at the Apollo Theatre, and released her third gospel CD “Unceasing Praise” (2011) , her second CD, a gospel album titled, “Joy Is Waiting”, was featured on BET Nightly News while her first CD entitled, “Carla’s First Christmas”, was a bestseller on Amazon.com in New York and in record stores, and was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in his “American Dream” segment. She has performed 5 sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall. Carla is also the author of the books, Strategize to Win (2014) and of Expect to Win (2009) (Hudson Press).
Muffet McGraw: For 33 seasons, which included two national championships, Muffet McGraw patrolled the sidelines as the Karen & Kevin Keyes Family Notre Dame women’s basketball head coach. McGraw hoisted the NCAA national championship trophy in both 2001 and 2018 - becoming the sixth different women’s basketball head coach to win multiple NCAA titles.
McGraw was the 13th female coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. She had previously been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
Her legendary career included an impressive 936 career wins (ranks sixth all-time among Division I coaches), including 848 at Notre Dame. During the 2018-19 season, McGraw became the fourth-fastest coach to reach the 900-win milestone.
Coach McGraw led the Irish to seven NCAA title game appearances (2001, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019), including six in her last decade of coaching. Meanwhile, her nine Final Four appearances rank as the fifth most all-time. All-in-all, McGraw’s teams have qualified for 26 NCAA Tournaments, earning 67 tournament wins along the way.
A four-time National Coach of the Year winner and seven-time Conference Coach of the Year, McGraw won 25 total combined conference regular season and tournament championships. In addition, she has collected 174 wins against ranked opponents with 66 coming against top-10 teams.
Lastly, McGraw is one of just five coaches in NCAA Division I history with over 930 wins, nine Final Fours and multiple NCAA championships — others are Summitt, Auriemma, VanDerveer and Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Robin Roberts: Robin Roberts is co-anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Under her leadership, the broadcast has won numerous Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning Program and the 2017 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Daytime TV Hosting Team.
Roberts has been honored with the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame as well as the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and named one of Glamour’s Women of the Year. She was voted the “Most Trusted Person on Television” by a Reader’s Digest poll in 2013.
Roberts founded her own production company, Rock'n Robin Productions, which creates original broadcast and digital programming for ABC and other networks, ranging from informational shows and documentaries, to live special events.
Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2007, and five years later, she was diagnosed with MDS. Roberts underwent a bone marrow transplant, her sister Sally-Ann was a perfect match. Her story triggered an outpouring of support from across the nation. She joined forces with Be the Match to inform the public about the need for more donors, and since her diagnosis, the bone marrow registry has seen a tremendous increase.
Her battle has been recognized with awards and honors from organizations around the country, including The Susan G. Komen Foundation and The Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program. Roberts was also honored with a George Foster Peabody Award and Gracie Award. Additionally, Roberts was recognized with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY’s in July 2013 for the strength and courage she has displayed throughout her life and career.
Roberts was named co-anchor of “Good Moring America” in May 2005. She began contributing to the morning program in June 1995, and prior to that, she was a contributor to ESPN as a host on “SportsCenter” and contributing to “NFL PrimeTime.” Roberts has worked in broadcasting for more than 30 years. Roberts graduated cum laude from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications. She was a standout performer on the women’s basketball team, ending her career as one of the school’s all-time leading scorers and rebounder. In 2012, Roberts was named an inductee to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Roberts is the author of From the Heart: 7 Rules to Live By and her memoir, “Everybody’s Got Something,” in which she tells the story of her battle against a life-threatening illness, learning life’s hardest lessons, and her inspiring return to the GMA anchor desk. Roberts is a native of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and currently resides in New York City.
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About Women Leaders in College Sports
Founded in 1979, Women Leaders in College Sports (formerly NACWAA) is the only nationally recognized collegiate professional membership organization whose mission is to develop, connect, and advance women leaders working in intercollegiate athletics. More than 3,500 members strong, Women Leaders promotes the growth, leadership, and success of women as athletics administrators, conference commissioners, professional staff, coaches, and student-athletes. Follow Women Leaders on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @WomenLeadersCS.