The University of Vermont will hold a non-partisan one-day campaign training workshop for women who are considering running for office, are interested in becoming leaders in the private or public sectors, or want to learn more about the political system.
"Ready to Run: Campaign Training for Women" will take place Saturday, April 16 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Livak Ballroom of UVM’s Dudley H. Davis Center. The registration deadline is April 10. Participants can register at www.uvm.edu/conferences/readytorunvermont or by calling (802) 656-5665. A $10 donation is suggested.
The event’s primary sponsors are UVM and the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University.
Madeleine M. Kunin, former Vermont governor and a UVM Marsh Visiting Professor-at-Large, under whose aegis the event is taking place, will make welcoming remarks.
Women have made great progress in politics over the last 25 years, but there’s more work to be done, Kunin said, since men still greatly outnumber them at the local, state, and federal levels, even in Vermont, where the numbers are more equal.
“Women’s voices need to be heard at all levels of leadership,” she said. “Women aren’t better than men, but they are different in the issues they bring up, which they often draw from their life experience. Our goal for this event is to spark women’s interest and give them the nuts and bolts of how to get engaged in public policy and public life and how to make a difference.”
Keynote speakers include Christine Jahnke and Celinda Lake. Jahnke, Michelle Obama’s speech coach, is a communications consultant who has prepared clients ranging from Olympic athletes to members of Congress for news media interviews, speeches, business presentations, government testimony and televised debates. She has over ten years of experience helping women achieve leadership positions in government and elected office.
Lake, one of the nation’s foremost experts on electing women candidates and on framing issues for women voters, is a leading political strategist. She has served as a tactician and senior advisor to the national Democratic party committees and dozens of Democratic incumbents and challengers at all levels of the electoral process.
The day will feature a variety of workshops led by a who’s who of accomplished Vermont women. Workshop titles include “The Well Spoken Candidate,” “How Do I Get Involved in Politics; Where Do I Begin?” “What Women Candidates Need to Know,” “Leadership in the Private and Public Sectors: What’s Different, What’s the Same?” and “Citizen Activists and Appointed Positions in the Judiciary, on School Boards, City and Town Government.”
The event’s sponsors also include Burlington College, Langrock Sperry & Wool LLP, Lintilhac Foundation Inc. (Dr. Philip M. Lintilhac & Mrs. Crea Sopher Lintilhac), Main Street Landing Company, the UVM Department of Political Science, the UVM Office of the President, and UVM’s Women and Gender Studies Department and Women's Center.