2022 Year in Review: HERS @ 50

from HERStories Winter 2023

PROGRAMMING UPDATE

In 2022, HERS shared its 50th anniversary with the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments, groundbreaking legislation designed to promote greater equity in employment and education. The founding sisters of HERS—erudite and credentialed women of New England—were ardent in their efforts to hold college and university leaders of that era accountable for equal opportunities for women. They leveraged that landmark legislation as an extraordinary catalyst to fight for positive change through the establishment of HERS—Higher Education Resource Services.

Fifty years later, the representation of women faculty and administrative leaders in higher education has indeed grown. Hundreds of women presidents, provosts, and other academic leaders have crashed through glass ceilings and rightfully taken their places in leading roles at institutions across the U.S. But there is still much work to be done. Women, and especially women of color, are still significantly underrepresented and experience ongoing barriers to obtaining top ranks among the faculty and senior administrative roles. Right-wing conservative politicians in many states are using their power to control what and how students learn instead of leaving these duties to the academic scholars and experts. And inequities persist for students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, faculty, and administrators with respect to access, opportunities, and success, particularly for those who hold multiple intersectional identities.

This is why HERS continues. And in 2022, the year of our Golden Anniversary, HERS celebrated this momentous milestone while simultaneously doubling down on the work that is required to create and sustain a diverse community of woman-identified leaders who serve as bold agents of inclusive and equitable change for higher education. We celebrated. But we continued on with the work too. Provided below are some of the highlights of HERS activities and accomplishments during our 50th anniversary year:

• As the year 2022 kicked off, the HERS team and Board of Directors were in the midst of developing its next 5-year strategic plan, which resulted in HERS 20222027: Excellence, Access, & Equity, with these five goals and strategic priorities: Offering Exemplary Programs, Enriching Thought Leadership, Growing the HERS Community, Enhancing Fiscal Capacity and Organizational Sustainability, and Advancing the HERS Reputation and Brand.

• HERS launched a request for proposals from fundraising firms, which led to a partnership with MPK&D to help

HERS develop an infrastructure for a sustainable fundraising and grant-getting practice, primarily to support scholarships, research, and capacity-building.

• HERS sunsetted pandemic-era virtual programs that focused more on resiliency and survival during the global pandemic and replaced them with other skillbuilding programs across the lifespan of leaders’ careers.

• HERS returned to in-person delivery of our signature HERS Leadership Institute and Next Stages Next Steps, and added new locations for these programs.

• The HERS team and Board members hosted panel discussions and presentations at annual conferences hosted by ACAD, AAC&U, AACTE, AGB, CUMU, and ACE; while in attendance at the ACE Annual Meeting, HERS received the 2022 State Network Leadership Award

• New hires joined the HERS team in 2022: Tracey Bedford joined the team in January as Accounting Specialist and is now serving as Interim Budget Manager; Dr. Shannon Lundeen was appointed the new Director of Programs in May and has since been promoted to Vice President for Programs and Operations; Sophie Williams was appointed Director of Marketing and Recruitment in July; and Alicia Olivares Kirkeby joined the team as interim Event Manager but will officially start in her new role as Senior Associate Director of Alumnae Affairs in March.

• Along the way, we took the time to pause and celebrate the milestone of turning 50. To commemorate this occasion, HERS alums and leaders shared their testimonies of the HERS experiences on their career trajectories.

• The HERS team, along with dedicated Board members, completed the HERStory video, a 12-minute documentary of HERS’s founding and plans for the future.

• The grandest features of the HERS 50th anniversary were the regional receptions hosted by HERS alums and former Board members. Beginning in May at the University of Pittsburgh and ending in November at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a total of ten campusbased regional receptions brought together HERS HLI alums, campus leaders, and prospective HERS program participants. These gatherings allowed us time to pause and acknowledge the many achievements of HERS alums who have advanced in their leadership roles and have served as change agents at their institutions and in higher education more broadly.

In 2022, HERS celebrated this momentous milestone while simultaneously doubling down on the work that is required to create and sustain a diverse community of woman-identified leaders who serve as bold agents of inclusive and equitable change for higher education.