Dear friend, 

It's been nearly 3 weeks since our inaugural #WPLNSummit in New Orleans, and I'm still feeling the inspiration and excitement. After nearly two years of virtual events and Zoom calls, we were finally able to connect in person at the beginning of this month with women leaders from across the country. Our summit featured current elected officials and candidates from all levels of government, as well as experts across a variety of topics -- and our audience was full of future office holders.

Thanks to all our speakers, attendees, sponsors, and volunteers who helped to make our inaugural national summit a success. Many of you have asked how to connect with one another, so we've created a Facebook group to keep in touch. We've posted an album of the professional photos from the summit, so don't forget to tag yourselves! And you can apply to join WPLN's Impact Council as a way to stay involved in our programming all year long -- the deadline to apply is next Monday, February 28!

We at WPLN are thankful for all the efforts undertaken to champion women's rights and increase women's representation, and the work by previous generations is particularly top of mind as Black History Month comes to a close. We're passionate about the inclusion of women from every background and perspective across the political spectrum and excited to keep growing the number of women in office. And 2022 is already gearing up to be a big year -- the #WPLNSummit kicked off a great year of programming ahead, we've added a new state training partner (more on that below!), and we have some special events and celebrations coming up to celebrate Women's History Month in March -- so stay tuned and make sure you follow us on social media so you don't miss anything!

Onward,

Larissa

WPLN President and Co-Founder

Some of the highlights from our summit include WPLN Board Chair Jen Sarver speaking with Congresswoman Julia Letlow (R-LA) during a Fireside Chat on Friday night; WPLN Board Member Valerie Dowling speaking with Michelle Bekkering for our Women in Leadership panel during Saturday's breakfast; and WPLN Board Member Dee Dee Bass Wilbon and her sister Deana Bass Williams speaking with Louisiana State Representative Julie Emerson and Sandy Holloway of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education during Saturday's lunch.

We've compiled some of our favorite quotes from the summit here, and we also created a Facebook group to help you all stay in contact with each other!

Thank you again to the sponsors of our #WPLNSummit! Women leaders from across the country enjoyed meeting our sponsors who could attend, and we all were so inspired by all our sponsors’ support for women leaders at all levels. We are grateful for your partnership and look forward to next year!

Some exciting news: We also recently celebrated the launch of our newest state training partner, the Nevada Women's Leadership Alliance! We are so excited to welcome NWLA as a WPLN state partner and thrilled to be working in another state to increase women's representation. To learn more about the states we have training partners in, click here.

On February 8, countries around the world celebrated Safer Internet Day. Google recently launched the Campaign Security Project, a bipartisan effort to provide tools to train candidates and campaign workers in ways to stay safe online ahead of the 2022 midterm election -- and is partnering with WPLN, among other groups, to do so! On March 7, we'll be hosting a WPLN Facebook Live on how to keep your information secure.

“We’re so proud to partner with Google to help future officeholders and their teams have more peace of mind,” said WPLN President and Co-Founder Larissa Martinez. “It’s crucial now more than ever to equip women across the political spectrum with the knowledge, skills, and resources for optimal digital security. As we educate women on the fundamentals of running for office, implementing best practices to keep their campaigns secure should be at the forefront.” Learn more.

WASHINGTON POST | "Black female judges, law students, and more on what the Supreme Court nomination means to them": "My guess is that the day Biden nominates a Black woman, there will be many Black girls across the nation who will see themselves for the first time as future lawyers and judges, and that will contribute to diversifying the profession.” Learn more.

POLITICO | "Women, candidates of color lead GOP charge to flip the House": "Broadly, there are more Republican women and Hispanics running for Congress than ever before, according to figures tracked by the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. So far, more than 253 women and 228 people of color have filed to run as Republicans across the House map, the committee says. In the most important seats, roughly two dozen open and battleground districts, a leading GOP candidate is either a woman or a person of color." Learn more.

WALL STREET JOURNAL | "Moms in middle age: Rarely alone, often online and increasingly lonely": "Middle age is a crowded time. It’s also a lonely one. Work and family demands leave little time for nurturing friendships, particularly for women. Pre-pandemic, conversations about loneliness often centered on men, with talk of a 'loneliness epidemic.' But during lockdown, Generation X women, who range in age from 41 to 57 years old, reported the sharpest rise in loneliness... And the increase in social isolation reported by women living with children was also greatest among those from Gen X... For women feeling burned out from holding family life and work together, social media has typically been the most convenient place to vent and seek connection. But going online has surfaced feelings of inadequacy and loneliness, many say." Learn more.

POLITICO | "The GOP is gaining among Texas Hispanics. Women are leading the charge.": "'We’re finally united ourselves,' [Starr Country Republican Party chairwoman Claudia] Alcazar said. 'We’re doing this because, as mothers and career women, we’re finally coming out and saying we’re part of this party and want to make sure our issues are paid attention to and heard.'" Learn more.

While there were many quotes we could have chosen from the #WPLNSummit, we wanted to include this one because it exemplified the spirit of the summit:

"We met so many amazing women who have said that they're thinking about running... when you leave, you're going to be on this high, you're going to be so excited, and you got so much information and it's been so great. And you're going to go back to wherever you came from and you're going to run, and someone's going to say, ‘No, you're not,’ and someone's going to say you shouldn't, and someone's going to be very negative about it, and WE just want to say: Remember this. Remember them. Remember the stories you've heard. Remember the women you've met… You were here for a reason… Make sure you remember that.” - WPLN Board Member Dee Dee Bass Wilbon

READING | "Do Women Dare?" by Shirley Chisholm: This Black History Month marks 50 years since Shirley Chisholm broke through barriers to become the first Black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's nomination. She had previously shattered a glass ceiling in 1968 by becoming the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Her "Do Women Dare?" speech was recently digitized and transcribed for the first time. Learn more.

WATCHING | Inventing Anna, a Netflix series about the con artist Anna Delvey: Anna Delvey first gained prominent recognition after a 2018 New Yorker article titled "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" revealed the extent of her cons -- which Shonda Rhimes turned it into a series. Learn more.

LISTENING TO | Condoleezza Rice on the Honestly with Bari Weiss podcast: Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined journalist Bari Weiss to discuss a variety of topics, including race, Russia, and the future of the GOP. Learn more.

EXCITED FOR | WPLN's Facebook Live: Turning Moments into Movements with Terri Broussard Williams: WPLN Facebook Lives are back! On Tuesday, award-winning speaker and best-selling author Terri Broussard Williams joined WPLN for a conversation about inspiring women to create change in their communities through philanthropy, policy, and movement building. Watch it here!

• Ayn Rand, Russian-American author and philosopher (February 2)
• Gertrude Stein, writer and poet (February 3)
• Helen Stephens, athlete and Olympian (February 3)
• Rosa Parks, civil rights activist whose bus boycott led to nationwide civil rights protests and attempts to end racial segregation (February 4)
• Betty Friedan, author whose novel The Feminine Mystique is widely credited with beginning second wave feminism in the United States (February 4)
• Laura Ingalls Wilder, author most famous for her Little House on the Prairie series (February 7)
• Kate Chopin, author who wrote The Awakening (February 8)
• Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black woman to earn a medical degree and become a doctor of medicine in the United States (February 8)
• Grace Towns, who was the first Black woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly (February 10)
• Sarah Palin, first woman to be elected governor of Alaska and first Republican female vice presidential nominee (February 11)
• Lydia Child, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and Native American rights activist (February 11)
• Harriet Ann Jacobs, writer who escaped slavery (February 13)
• Susan B. Anthony, suffragist (February 15)
• Audre Lorde, writer who was a feminist and suffragist (February 18)
• Angelina Grimke, abolitionist, suffragist, and sister to Sarah Moore Grimke (February 20)
• Nina Simone, singer and civil rights activist (February 21)
• Elizabeth Taylor, actress (February 27)

ICYMI | WPLN Facebook LIVE: "Turning Moments into Movements with Terri Broussard Williams": If you missed our conversation with award-winning speaker and best-selling author Terri Broussard Williams, you can still watch the video on Facebook! We at WPLN believe that women need to be the change they want to see, so we spoke with Terri about inspiring women to create change and build movements in their communities. Learn more.

MARCH 7 | WPLN Facebook Live: "Keeping Yourself (And Your Campaign) Secure Online": We recently shared that we're teaming up with Google on the Campaign Security Project, so in this Facebook Live, we'll be discussing the importance of campaign security and the steps candidates and their campaigns can take to keep themselves and their information safe. Keep an eye out on the WPLN events page and WPLN social media for more details.

MARCH 10 | "Does Your Community Know Your Name?" workshop by Colorado Women's Alliance: Join our training partner Colorado Women’s Alliance (CWA) for Colorado Women’s Day on March 10 to celebrate! CWA will be hosting a workshop titled "Does Your Community Know Your Name?" Learn more.

APRIL 6 | Nevada Women's Leadership Alliance training: Our newest WPLN state training partner Nevada Women's Leadership Alliance (NWLA) is finalizing the details for their April 6 training -- so keep an eye out on the WPLN events page or on the NWLA website! Learn more.

Support WPLN programs and resources by making a contribution today!

Women’s Public Leadership Network (WPLN) is a non-profit organization organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent provided by law.