Students Get Real-World Advice at Women’s Leadership Conference
Keynote speaker Lorna Boucher chats with students during the recent Women's Leadership Conference at University Crossing.
11/24/2014
By Ed Brennen
She was 28 and in New York with her boss to meet with a group of businessmen at Goldman Sachs. “We walked into the room and there were all these guys in gray suits,” Boucher recalled. “And the senior-most guy looked at me and said, ‘Before we start, how about some coffee?’ and he just looked at me pointedly. And I said, ‘I would love some. I take it with milk and sugar’ and I sat down.
“When we left, my boss said, ‘I can’t believe you did that.’ I said, ‘Did what? … He couldn’t have been asking me to get him coffee.’ I didn’t even realize I was being a goof. But I think the point was, people can only patronize you when you’re complicit.”
The anecdote was just one piece of real-world advice Boucher shared with 125 students at the second annual “Know Your Voice, Use Your Voice” Women’s Leadership Conference held recently at University Crossing’s Moloney Hall. Sponsored by Student Affairs, the daylong conference brought leaders from across the university together to help students be more successful on campus, in their personal lives and in the workplace.
Jacqueline Moloney, the first woman to serve as Executive Vice Chancellor at the university, introduced the guest panel by noting how far things have come for women on campus since her days as a student.
“I am proud to be part of this university community that is dedicated to advancing women in all disciplines and all walks of life,” said Moloney, standing on stage in the hall bearing her family’s name. “Half of our executive team is women. Half of our senior cabinet is women. And we’re led by a chancellor, Marty Meehan, who is committed to creating equal access to opportunity.”
The panel included Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Joanne Yestramski, Government Relations Associate Colleen Brady, women’s basketball coach Jenerrie Harris and Boucher, the conference’s keynote speaker. They shared advice and insight on a wide range of topics including balancing work and family, overcoming issues related to age and race and dealing with being considered too aggressive.
“Being assertive is not being negative, it’s not being rude, it’s obtaining what you want,” Brady said. “If you believe in something, if you really want something, there’s no negative word for that.”
Harris, who is raising two small children with her husband while building a Division I basketball program, said the glass ceiling she sometimes faces in her profession is not always installed by men.
“In coaching, I have found that a lot of the young women don’t always veer towards wanting to be led by women. They want a male coach because, especially at the high school level, there are a lot of male figures,” said Harris, who added that the first three assistants she hired were women. “It wasn’t purposely done, it was just that they were the best people for the job and I felt like they all brought something different to the table for our young women to learn from.”
Boucher, a Lowell native who earned her degree in marketing and international management from the Manning School of Business in 1986, is now head of Product Branding and Strategy at KCG Holdings, Inc., a global financial services firm. She recently established the Lorna Boucher ’86 Endowed Scholarship Fund for women business students. When asked how she found her own distinct voice, Boucher said she stopped pulling her hair back and trying to sound like the men — and instead went to her strength.
“I realized I would be more effective when I used my sense of humor,” she said. “For me, if I’m trying to break a wall down, I go to humor.”
Boucher’s humor left a lasting impression on the conference attendees.
‘She was great,” said Brittany Polaski, a senior in the College of Health Sciences and a chair of Omicron Delta Kappa, which helped organize the event. “She really related to us as younger people and I think everyone took what she said to heart.”
“She seems really down to earth, just a really normal person,” added senior Janice Lane, a chemical engineering major who related to the issues of being involved in a male-dominated field.
“I do feel that way a lot — that you’re not identified as just an engineer, you’re identified as a woman in engineering,” Lane said. “Personally, that is probably one of my biggest pet peeves. I hope it changes, because I think our generation is so informed on women’s perspectives. I hope by the time that I’m well into my career I will just be identified as an engineer.”
The conference also featured Golden Gloves boxing champion Elizabeth Leddy and a musical performance by Fermata Nowhere.