OPENING CEREMONY FINAL DRAFT 2025 (2)

THE 71st SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CONFERENCE

CHI ETA PHI SORORITY, INCORPORATED ® THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2025 | 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Presiding

Southeast Regional Director

S. Elaine Leonard, MHA, BSN, RN

Mistress of Ceremony

First Assistant Southeast Regional Director

Phyllis Carter Goodman, MSN-Ed, RN

Mistress of Ceremony

Phyllis Carter Goodman, MSN- Ed, RN

First Assistant Southeast Regional Director

Gamma Eta Eta Chapter, Clinton, NC

Processional ..........................................................................................................................................................

Invocation ……………………………..........................………...

Lecia Bonaparte, MSN, RNC-LRN Chaplain

Zeta Eta Eta Chapter, Orangeburg, SC

Posting of Colors ………………………………………………Well Branch Middle College ROTC

National Anthem

Negro National

Retiring of Colors ………………………………

Welcome ……………

Greetings ...............................

Diamond Tyler

Well Branch Middle College ROTC

Sarah Murph, MSN, RN President

Zeta Eta Eta Chapter, Orangeburg, SC

Samantha Agee, MSN-Ed, RN, APRN, CRNA

Second National Vice-President

Alpha Chi Chapter, Nashville, TN

Honorable Mayor Alan R. Perry

Mayor of Hilton Head, South Carolina

Teshieka K. Curtis-Pugh, MSN, RN, CMSRN, RN-BC, NPD, CRRN

Executive Director South Carolina Nurses Association

Latoya Haygood, MSN, RN President

Low Country Black Nursing Association

Rose Willis Daughter of Founder Bessie Cephas Beaufort, South Carolina

Musical Selection Diamond Tyler

Introduction of Keynote Speaker …

Latonya Kearse White, MSN, RN, MBA-HCA Support Chapter Chairman Zeta Eta Eta Chapter, Orangeburg, SC

Keynote Speaker Kenya S. Dunn

Founder & CEO of PFW Coaching & Consulting Charleston, SC

Remarks………………………………………………………...

Sarah Killian, DNP, RN, NEA-BC National President Gamma Chi Chapter, Atlanta, GA

S. Elaine Leonard, MHA, BSN, RN

Southeast Regional Director Zeta Eta Eta Chapter, Orangeburg, SC

Announcements

Benediction

Phyllis Carter Goodman, MSN- Ed, RN First Assistant Southeast Regional Director Gamma Eta Eta Chapter, Clinton, NC

Calperta D. Green, BSN, RN Southeast Regional Chaplain Upsilon Phi Chapter, Florence/Darlington, SC

KENYA S. DUNN

High-Impact Leader | International Speaker Business Strategist | Change Agent

Kenya S. Dunn is a powerhouse leader, executive coach, and strategist dedicated to elevating leaders, businesses, and communities to their highest potential. With over two decades of executive leadership experience, Kenya is known for her ability to inspire, influence, and drive transformative change across industries.

As the Founder & CEO of PFW Coaching & Consulting, Kenya equips high-visibility, high-impact leaders with the vision, strategies, and communication skills necessary to lead with confidence and clarity. Her proprietary EMERGE coaching model empowers executives to navigate complexity, foster collaboration, and make bold, decisive moves that drive results.

Beyond executive development, Kenya is a Managing Partner at Equity Impact Partners, where she specializes in stakeholder engagement and economic development. She partners with businesses, municipalities, and organizations to design corporate social responsibility strategies that create equitable opportunities and sustainable impact ensuring that success is both profitable and purposeful.

At the heart of Kenya’s mission is The POWER Tribe, a groundbreaking community she founded to equip women of color with the tools, strategies, and support necessary to thrive in leadership and business. She believes women of color belong in the rooms where decisions are made, resources are allocated, and communities are transformed. Through mentorship, education, and empowerment, the POWER Tribe is redefining leadership and expanding influence.

Kenya is also the visionary behind impactful initiatives such as the POWER-FILLED Leadership Conference and the Wisdom of Elders Brunch, both of which celebrate and elevate the leadership journeys of African American women.

Her influence extends across industries, including real estate development, technology, and government. She is a trusted advisor to leaders navigating high-stakes decision-making and organizational growth. Kenya’s work has earned her numerous accolades, including the 2024 South Carolina HERstory Award, the 2023 Riley Institute Lowcountry Diversity Leaders Award, and the 2020 YWCA What Women Bring Award.

A proud mother, Kenya finds her greatest fulfillment in her children, Akil and Adia, and in fostering meaningful connections with family and friends. When she’s not leading change, she enjoys reading, traveling, and curating intentional moments of joy and reflection.

Kenya lives by the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”As a trailblazer and transformative force in leadership, Kenya continues to forge new paths empowering others to do the same.

HISTORY OF CHI ETA PHI SORORITY,

INCORPORATED®

Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Incorporated is a professional organization of registered nurses and nursing students. Aliene C. Ewell, BSN, RN, organized the Sorority on October 16, 1932, with the assistance of 11 other courageous registered nurses. The charter chapter, Alpha, was organized at Freedman’s Hospital, now Howard University Hospital, in Washington, D.C. for two specific purposes: (1) elevating the plane of nursing and (2) increasing interest in the field of nursing. The graduate and undergraduate (Beta) chapters are located throughout the United States, District of Columbia, and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Guided by the motto “Service for Humanity,” the Sorority has Programs focusing on health promotion, disease prevention, leadership development, mentoring, recruitment, retention, and scholarship.

Vision

Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Incorporated is an internationally recognized leader in developing healthy communities through advocacy, collaboration, education, leadership, research, and service.

Mission

• Encouragement of the pursuit of continuing education

• Recruitment programs for health careers

• Stimulation of close and friendly relationships among members

• Development of working relationships with other professional groups

• Identification of a core of nursing leaders who affect social changes at the national, regional, local levels

Southeast Region

In 1946, a committee was established to divide the states into regional districts. In 1954, the Southeast Region became the second officially organized region of the sorority This organization took place at the Veteran’sAdministration Nurses’Home, Tuskegee, Alabama. States in this region includeAlabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The region also contains a chapter in the US Virgin Islands.At its inception, the Region had five (5) graduate chapters and one (1) undergraduate chapter. Today our region continues to grow and flourish fulfilling the mission and vision of our founders

SOUTHEAST REGION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

National President

Sarah Killian, DNP, RN, NEA-BC

Southeast Regional Director

S. Elaine Leonard, MHA, BSN, RN

First Assistant Southeast Regional Director

Phyllis Carter Goodman, MSN-Ed, B.A.B.S, RN

Second Assistant SER Director Vacant

SER Recording Secretary

Tracie Augusta, Ph.D, DNP, APRN-BC

SER Corresponding Secretary

Angela Hunt, MSN, BSN, RN

SER Treasurer

Julia Paul, DNP, MSN, RN, NP-C

SER Financial Secretary

Dearline Thomas-Brown, MPH, BSN, RN

SER Historian

Gwen Davis, MIDT, BSN, RN

SER Chaplain

Calperta D. Green, BSN, RN

Regional Event Planner

Darneta G. Brown, MSN, APRN, ANP-BC

Immediate Past SER Director

Juanita Gibbons Delaney, MHA, BSN, RN, BC

LiftEveryVoiceandSing

Lift every voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise

High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast’ning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might, Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, True to our native land.