The Power of Female Leaders: A Panel Discussion

Women and Leadership
Women-owned and women-led businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors in the enterprise world. Help us celebrate Women’s History Month and learn how to build a more profitable, resilient and diverse organization.

Topics include:

how to diversity your business
where opportunities for women leaders are available
how the mentors and business advisors can help

Panelists Include:
Rebecca Mark

Director, Institute for Women’s Leadership

Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Rutgers University–New Brunswick
Rebecca Mark, is the Director of the Institute for Women’s Leadership and a Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality at Rutgers University. Formerly, she was the Chair of the English Department and Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Academic Equity at Tulane University.

Professor Mark is a scholar and professor whose research addresses southern writing and cultural representations of trauma. Her books include: The Dragon’s Blood: Feminist Intertextuality in Eudora Welty’s Fiction (University Press of Mississippi 1994), and Ersatz America: Hidden Traces, Graphic Texts, and Mending of Democracy (University of Virginia Press, 2014). Professor Mark is presently completing The Radical Welty: A Private Address and Owl Eyes, a book of original graphic inscriptions.

Sophia Hyder Hock

Chief Diversity Officer

Destinations International

Hock has spent 20 years developing strategy, training, facilitation, and coaching services on topics pertaining to diversity and social inclusion, gender empowerment, community engagement and outreach, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness for clients in the international development and travel industries. Prior to joining Destinations International, Hock was the founder and CEO of Papilia, an organization dedicated to developing tailored equity, diversity and inclusion strategies for the travel industry to attract new audiences while respecting cultural heritage and diverse perspectives.

She has proven experience and success working with international and domestic teams and managing multi-million-dollar bids for participatory governance, economic growth, agriculture, health, and conflict mitigation efforts in Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa for bilateral and multilateral donors. Hock holds a master’s degree in International Development Policy from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Melissa Cherry

Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer

Miles Partnership

In this new executive role at Miles, Cherry leads the development of the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) consulting practice to serve current and future clients, in addition to guiding the company’s internal DEI processes and best practices. Prior to joining Miles, Melissa was the Chief Operating Officer at Destinations International and was responsible for the development and execution of the ove

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