18th Annual Women's Leadership Symposium

Join the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce for our 18th Annual Women's Leadership Symposium! Now, more than ever, you have unlimited potential when it comes to what you can achieve. This event is designed to give you all the powerful information and profound insights that will make a lasting, positive impact on your life. You're invited to join other professionals from your area to spend the day with some of the most inspiring people you'll ever meet – your conference presenters. These highly experienced professionals will move you to action in ways you'll never forget. This exciting conference among professionals and your peers will give you dozens of new ideas and action plans to boost your career, your attitude, and your life. We're also looking forward to announcing the 20th Anniversary ATHENA award recipient during a day of women's leadership activities that are intentional, inspirational, and innovative. We hope to see you there!

Keynote Speaker
Katharina (Kat) Stuerzl, Penn State Schuylkill

Hear Kat's personal story of coming to the US. Filled with preconceptions from those around her, she decided to encounter this new adventure with an open heart and an open mind, which allowed for deep connections to foster and her whole being to expand. Learn how to be intentional and experience a mindset-reset from being the expert in your personal and professional lives to the unique human you are.

Take your everyday pressures off, let the day unfold, and see how you can grow and expand your thinking as a female leader.

Breakout Session #1:

• Tina Welch - The Roots of All Leadership Problems
  • This session will provide each participant the ability to think innovatively and act intentionally around three primary causes of all issues within organizations. Learn how to identify these three sources of problems, ask the questions needed to elevate the concern  with positivity and action, and how to engage people in solving the problem. 
• Kelly Buckley - Self Care: Your Vehicle to Reclaiming Your Confidence 
  • This will be a thought provoking experience to uncover how self-care empowers women, fostering confidence through boundary-setting, resilience, and self-love.

• Jess Fester - I'm Calling YOU Out
  • Inspiration, creativity, and intentionality are at the core of every human being—even those who haven't felt that way in years. Habits and hangups can press us down and keep us in chronic stress, also known as distress. The mission of this session is to bring forth inner inspiration and consistent intention and for participants to leave feeling restored and refreshed. Join me as we discuss values and priorities, reflect on personal purpose, and deal with what has been dealing with us. Deep health is possible. It's time - I'm calling YOU out.
• Kristy Lair - Securing Healthy Habits around Eating
  • Learn how living a healthy lifestyle and making healthy choices affect emotional wellbeing. Kristy will provide tips on having a healthy mind, body, and spirit; how to reduce cravings and how to snack in a healthy manner; how to incorporate activity into your routine without taking a lot of time doing it; and much more.
• Becca Haupt Aldredge - Radical Self Care  
  • Identify common stressors experienced by women leaders, practice identifying/naming/validating the feelings associated with those stressors, and learn self care strategies to implement in your life.

• Stephanie Desaulniers - Success Unveiled, Navigating your Path to Greatness
  • At the completion of this session, participants will have: Defined what success looks like for them individually; Clearly understand and set their goals; Understand imposter syndrome; How to leverage their strengths; and bringing on help. In addition, participants will walk away with tools to evaluate and re-evaluate their goals on an ongoing basis and adapt as their needs and desires change.
• Susana Briscoe-Alba - Help, I work with People–Women’s Guide to becoming a person of influence
  • Participants will gain a deep understanding of team dynamics by identifying the four typical behavior patterns that often arise. They will also discover their personal leadership style and learn how it translates to their team. Through role-playing exercises, participants will practice handling difficult interactions with employees, key stakeholders, or family members.

• Dr. Nicole Whitehead - Permission To Feel, The Emotional Self Care Imperative
  • Participants will learn strategies to embrace and acknowledge their emotions to be better equipped to handle the joys, trials, and tribulations of life. Acknowledge the stigma that women can experience for being "emotional", resulting in internalized feelings that can negatively impact our ability to show up "whole". Embrace the freedom unleashed from the naming of our emotions, positioning the "permission to feel" as a strength for women. 
• Angela Brown - Shaping the Life You Want - A Personal Finance Book Discussion
  • Participants will be inspired to consider their belief systems around money, look at their own definition of financial freedom and prosperity, identify actionable tasks based on their personal values, and recognize that each woman has the ability to drive change with her spending power. 
• Melissa Intindola, Vanessa Hill & Robyn Eversole - Surviving & Thriving in a Bro Culture 
  • Participants will gain an awareness of gender dynamics in the contemporary workplace and learn strategies for navigating male-dominated work cultures.