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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.

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June 23, 2017: UPC Book Club “Death is a Lonely Business”

WIM Brown Bag Book Club

Death is a Lonely Business

by Ray Bradbury

ISBN 9780380789658

Next Meeting: Friday, June 23, 2017, Noon to 1:00

Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) room 308

More information: https://goo.gl/SMQ05I

Please RSVP at http://www.uscwim.org/calendar.asp in case there are updates.

Death is a Lonely Business flyer

 

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May 19, 2017: UPC Book Club “The Handmaid’s Tale”

WIM Brown Bag Book Club
The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood
ISBN 9780385490818
Next Meeting: Friday, May 19, 2017, Noon to 1:00
Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) room 304
More information: https://goo.gl/SMQ05I
Please RSVP at http://www.uscwim.org/calendar.asp in case there are updates.

Handmaid's Tale flyer

 

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August 29, 2016: UPC Book Club “The Trap”

ROOM CHANGE: we are moving to RGL room 209!!

Next Meeting: Monday, August 29, 2016, Noon to 1:00
Ralph & Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) Room 209, UPC
The Trap by Melanie Raabe
ISBN 978-1455592920
Click here more information on the book!
Please RSVP in case there are updates!

Click for pdf version

The Trap flyer

You don’t have to be a member of WIM to join either the HSC or UPC book clubs, but it’s fun to be in WIM! So please consider joining.