Recognizing Female Leaders

I have always had strong female role models who were leaders. The first woman who inspired me was a woman named Olive Spargo, the first President of the Oswego Alumni Association, who tapped me on the shoulder when I was 16 to lead an admissions project to recruit more Rome Free Academy junior and senior students to go to SUNY Oswego. She was a prominent woman in Rome, New York, a school board leader, a businesswoman and a pure inspiration. Her tap on the shoulder set me in motion on a course of leadership that has lasted 35 years.

I also remember listening to Hillary Clinton’s speech online after she lost the Democractic Presidential nomination and this is what she said, “Although we were not able to shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time, and we are going to keep working to make it so, today keep with me and stand for me, we still have so much to do together, we made history, and let’s make some more.”

I have had the honor of shining a light on successful women to inspire other women for 20 years. All it takes is identifying female leaders and asking them to help, they are always gracious and accept my invitation. So I’m honored on October 29th to have Saratoga Springs first female mayor, Joanne Yepsen, agree to share her success strategies with Greater Albany and Saratoga women entrepreneurs at Women TIES event. We can always learn from women who are entering new horizons because it means we are right next to them and the generations of women to follow have more opportunities.