Category: UPC

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WIM Board Seeks Nominations

The Board of Women in Management is seeking nominations for board positions that are open for the upcoming cycle. Like the Membership cycle, Board Members serve for one year (coinciding with the University’s fiscal year), after being slated and voted on by all Members in good standing. Upcoming terms will begin immediately after voting (which, this year, will be after the beginning of the fiscal year).

Self nominations are welcome and encouraged!

Time expectations for each position vary from 1-3 hours per month depending on event schedules. In addition, all Board Members are expected to attend a 60-minute, monthly Board meeting. NOTE: Individuals will be expected to join or renew their WIM Membership ahead of the slate being presented to Membership for voting.

  • Membership Co-Chair (HSC): works with UPC Membership Chair to create, monitor and manage membership development, including membership roster within the WIM Website (with guidance from the WIM Webmaster). Organizes and hosts membership events and mixers for current members and to recruit new ones.
  • Professional Development Co-Chair (UPC): organizes/produces at least one PD event during the year with the focus on tangible skills that help attendees grow and succeed in their work. May collaborate with HSC PD Chair.
  • Public Relations – flyers: using established templates, creates flyers for WIM events and programs for use on the WIM website and in the newsletter and on social media. Ideal candidate has interest and experience with graphic design or layout.
  • Speaker Series Co-Chair (HSC): organizes/produces at least one event for the year, highlighting a leader or leaders from areas of interest to our members and guests. May collaborate with UPC speaker series chair and provide support to the committee overseeing Signature Events (like the Sr. VP spring luncheon).

Complete the online Nomination (Google) Form by Monday, July 11, 2022.

Survey results will be reviewed and you may be contacted by the Slating Committee: Diana Jaque, Amanda Vanni, Elizabeth O’Toole and Stacy Patterson. Confirmations will be sent the week of July 18, 2022.

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40 Inspirations: Katie Boeck

*The featured image for this post is Katie, Then (in the NICU isollete) and Now (fighting on!)

 

“I volunteer at Cedars-Siani Medical Center, and specifically in Good Beginnings, which is a part of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I spent the first 6 weeks of my life there, and the way I give back is to volunteer my time to the NICU. Every year, I am a part of a team of volunteers that makes costumes for the babies in the NICU. It gives me a chance to give back and to thank those who saved my life. I can’t thank them in person, but I can help care for the babies in my own way. I also used to help organize the yearly reunions.

The biggest impact this has had is to remind me to care for people of all ages. I got my Master’s in Gerontology and learned how to better support older adults, and I work every day with college and graduate students, and this helps me remember those who are just starting out in their lives. Volunteering at Cedar-Siani reminds me of what is important and how some of the stresses at work are not as big a deal as those little babies fighting for their lives.

It also reminds me to be kind to all because we never know what people are dealing with.”

Katie in action with the NICU costume program organizer and team members:

A few of the articles on the program (several also include video):

 

Learn more about and connect with her by visiting Katie’s LinkedIn page.

 

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What inspires you? Where do you focus your attention outside of the office? Your story matters to us. We’d like to hear from you.

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40 Inspirations: Kristine Moe

“It all started with a ‘train friend,’ then WIM President, Elaine Padilla, a colleague I had by happenstance met while commuting to work. When I found myself in a place of feeling ‘stuck,’ my ongoing conversations with her opened possibilities: to WIM first and then to the USC Master Coaching Program. The more I heard, the more I was determined to be a part of it. With the eventual support of my department, I delved into the course, learning first about myself, so that I could better lead others through a process of inquiry, reflection and empowerment. I was hooked. (I still am!) Ultimately, I joined a few fellow converts-to-coaching, creating a mastermind group to encourage each other through the certification process and to take on future opportunities. Two years after the program, I obtained an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and began volunteering for the Associate Coaching Program through the USC Center for Work and Family Life.

I continue to coach inside and outside of USC because I see the benefits of these techniques in every aspect of life. I believe our mindsets influence our behaviors, which in turn, determine outcomes. How lovely it would be if we all operated with a growth mindset that impacted ourselves and those around us in positive ways. I believe this is possible. And, that is why I am excited to continue my work as a coach.

I have been mentored; I have mentored; I have been coached and led into leading and coaching through my experiences with USC WIM.  In WIM, I find a sisterhood of curiosity and ambition, of driving forward and resting, when that is needed as well. It has been my space to see possibilities and to get ‘unstuck.’ Thank you, my dear colleagues and friends of USC WIM. You are my greatest inspiration, and you have brought me the greatest satisfaction in working at USC.”

To learn more about her journey, visit Kristine’s LinkedIn page.

The Mastermind Group: Susan Metros, Elaine Padilla, Kristine, and Anna Quyen Nguyen

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What inspires you? Know someone we should highlight? We’d like to hear from you.

 

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40 Inspirations: Ginger Mayerson

“I originally trained as a composer, but I have always made collages for my own amusement. The composition skills I learned as a composer have been put to good use in making collages. In 2006 I began to make them more often and more seriously so I could post them online, which was in vogue just then. I am fascinated and delighted by making art in the arrangement of images, shapes and textures that spark a new view, new angle, new thinking on the arrangement of reality in the viewer (and in me, too).

After spending decades developing the focus and intensity to make art, it’s nearly impossible to shut it off from 9-5 M-F for a day job. I’ve been very lucky at USC to work for/with people who 1) quickly figured me out; 2) knew how to channel my unique skills and strengths without exploiting them; and 3) appreciated and supported me as a person, employee, and artist. I’ve worked a few jobs in a few places, and what I’ve found at USC is a rare thing in a hard world for artists.

So I’m happy to rechannel my focus, intensity, and even inspiration, when appropriate, into my work at USC. In fact, after 21 years here, I wouldn’t know how not to do that. I would, however, like to mention that at various points in my past, I’ve managed to live on my art, but it came at the price of artistic compromise and personal sacrifice (like not seeing a doctor or dentist for over 5 years). I think it’s better to have a day job, and make the art I want when I can. Charles Ives and T.S. Eliot managed it working day jobs; I see no reason why I can’t do that, too.”

To see more of her work, visit Ginger’s website: 

 

 

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What inspires you? Know someone we should highlight? We’d like to hear from you.

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A Special Invite to WIM Members: Join METRANS at Fleet Week – Weds, Aug 29, 11 am, LA Harbor

Join the LA Fleet Week activities, have lunch, visit the USS Iowa, and have your own private tour of the active Navy battleships which have come to LA for the event.    http://www.lafleetweek.com/      http://www.pacificbattleship.com/

Spaces are limited, and when they are gone, they are gone!  If you’d like to join us, or just have questions, please email student assistant Lin Zhu at zhu113@usc.edu., with the following:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your date of birth
  • Your country of citizenship (international is just fine!)
  • Your cell number
  • Would you  be able to drive  carpool?

I look forward to seeing you,

Vicki

Victoria Deguzman

WIM Chair of Professional Development

Associate Director,PSR and METRANS Transportation Centers

University of Southern California

 

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Board Transition Lunch: Mission and Vision

USC WIM Board members attended the annual transition lunch held in July to honor outgoing members, to welcome incoming members, and to kick off a new season of empowering the women of USC! This year we ventured to the Artist’s District’s Zinc Café. Board Members Leonette Williams and Bernice Taylor were honored for their service as they step off the board. Leonette Williams has been a part of USC Women in Management since its inception forty years ago. She served various roles over the years and returned to serve the past four years as WIM’s Vice President, ensuring that the HERS Institute scholarship continues well into the future. We welcomed new board members: Dana Coyle, Karen Escobar, Victoria Esquer and Janet Schmidt.

 

As a group we talked of being grounded and powerful as individuals and coming together as a community of like-minded individuals to continue to provide our members the strength of this organization. We discussed the desire to include more members in the creation of events via subcommittees to brainstorm the upcoming year’s programming. We noted that our mission “to empower the women of USC” remains as it did since the inception of Women in Management in 1979; however, what is our vision? Members agreed it had to do with creating a cohesive leadership program, connecting with senior leadership, developing deeper relations with other organizations doing similar work within our university and throughout higher education. We agreed that getting feedback of members-at-large as how to even better serve us all was critical.

 

We reiterated the fact that our organization was formed by twenty like-minded women at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1979 who followed the need: to empower the women who work at USC and to have women represented in the leadership positions at the university. From our own About Us page: “The compelling forces driving the formation of Women in Management included the need for increased representation of women in responsible University positions, equal pay for men and women holding similar positions, and the provision of a forum in which women could develop leadership skills.”

 

The organization was not offered by the institution; it was a community created by like-minded, forward-thinking individuals who felt compelled to come together to make the changes they sought and were needed.

 

Let us continue to follow the need and to offer a platform that will propel women to the highest levels of responsibility at USC. Let us build a network of like-minded women who will support and empower each other at every level of the institution. Let us all take ownership of the positions we hold and lead at every level.

 

The board looks forward to serving us all as we head into the 40th celebration of this organization that has served the women of USC since 1979!

 

Fight on!

 

Kristine

Your 2018-19 USC WIM President

 

 

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WIM and METRANS Lunch with USC Trustee Suzanne Dworak-Peck

Reposted from METRANS, Pacific Southwest Region 9 UTC 

Sunday, March 25, 2018 – 9:45pm

By Richard Aviles, USC MSW MPL 2019

On March 6th, 2018, at the USC Doheny Memorial Library, USC Women in Management (WIM) and METRANS hosted USC alum Suzanne Dworak-Peck in a lunch conversation centered around her life and career, her principles, and her advice. Suzanne Dworak-Peck has served as President of the National Association of Social Work, is a member of the USC Board of Trustees, and is a proud social work practitioner, and generously provided the naming gift for the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. We appreciate her sharing her time and thoughts with us, and both WIM and METRANS for making this event possible.

Dworak-Peck stressed to the audience of students, faculty, staff, and practitioners from varied backgrounds know that at the center of her work and career, the values of social work have been at her core.  She noted that, as conveyed by the NASW’s Code of Ethics, social workers strive for “competence, dignity and worth of the person, human relationships, and social justice,” and these have been her guiding principles in all aspects of her life.

Dworak-Peck began her talk with a dilemma too common in the social work profession; for those people outside of the profession, social workers are believed to be simply “baby snatchers.” Dworak-Peck explained that the portrayal of social workers in the media does not do justice to the intricacies and pedagogy of the profession. As a dual degree student in Social Work and Planning, I am striving to follow in the legacy of Dworak-Peck: a nontraditional social work practitioner striving to find nontraditional solutions.

She reminded us that at a time where we have social movements like Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and Gun Violence Reform, it is more imperative than ever that we all reconnect to the principle of social justice. Dworak-Peck added that said principles are not limited to just the social work profession. As an example, she applied the NASW Code of Ethics in her real estate business, and believes that social workers can be, and work hand in hand with, developers, planners, artists, and politicians. Social workers, in the words of Suzanne Dworak-Peck, are driven by empathy; in a world that seems to be disconnected and disengaged, now is the time for social workers, and truly all of us, to step to the forefront and remind the world of the power of empathy and human connection.

About the Author: Richard Aviles

Aviles is a dancer, choreographer, and dual degree student. As an artist, Aviles focuses on choreographing queer and feminist theories in American Modern Dance. As a student, Aviles is interested in using his background in choreography to further his interest in spatial analysis and the role of social workers in the development process.