Becca WertheimOpening KeynoteBecca Wertheim is a 2013 graduate of UNC Asheville and is now a 2nd grade teacher at Claxton Elementary School of Arts and Humanities in Asheville. During her time at UNC Asheville, Becca founded the campus chapter of She's the First and was named the 2013 She's the First Campus Chapter President of the Year among chapters across the world. During her senior year Becca created GOAL Getters (Global Opportunities, Awareness, and Leadership) an initiative featured at Clinton Global Initiative University in 2013. GOAL Getters evolved to become the service-learning curriculum for She’s the First which is now used by elementary and middle grades educators throughout the nation. Becca has written for Huffington Post and now blogs about all things education on The Teacher’s Passport.
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FEMALE PROFESSIONALS IN ASHEVILLE
Join these women as they discuss their impact of education on their professional experiences
Elly WellsElly Wells is the president of Elly Wells Inc. a marketing and project management firm in downtown Asheville that specializes in communications for businesses and nonprofit organizations including regional arts and environmental groups. The fourth-generation of a family of women entrepreneurs with deep Western North Carolina roots, she grew up working in her mother’s printing business – and has been busy organizing projects and campaigns ever since. She is a 1992 graduate of Guilford College where she was a Frank Fellows Entrepreneurial Scholar. In 1993-1994 she was a Rotary Scholar focused on women and entrepreneurship in Ghana, West Africa. She is a past board member of the YWCA of Asheville and currently volunteers on the marketing committee of the Asheville Humane Society.
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Ali McGheeAli McGhee is the Editorial Director of the Asheville Grit (ashevillegrit.com), an Asheville-focused arts, entertainment, and culture website. She has a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Rochester and a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her academic work has appeared inThe Edgar Allan Poe Review, Romantic Circles, Symbiosis, andAtlantic Studies, and she was the 2015 recipient of the William H. Gilman Memorial Prize for outstanding PhD Candidate in English Literature. She has been a finalist for Glimmer Train's, New South's, and Slippery Elm Literary Journal's fiction contests, and her short story, "Chinchilla," is forthcoming in Slippery Elm. She is also a contributor and editor for Sensible Reason, a millennial arts and culture website, and she writes for Yoga Basics and Embodied Philosophy. She teaches Baptiste-inspired yoga at Pure Yoga Asheville.
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Constance RichardsConstance E. Richards is an author, freelance writer and curator. At Georgetown University Richards graduated with a double major in Russian and German and a concentration in Russian Area Studies. She interned for the city of Berlin, then attended the Plekhanov Institute of Economics and Social Sciences in Moscow, eventually working with ABC News, then moving to reporting and writing for Time Magazine, LIFE, People, Moscow Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, the New York Times and other publications.. She has authored and co-authored ten non-fiction guidebooks about travel and art and is a contributing editor to WNC Magazine. She is also curator and director of the Grand Bohemian Gallery in Biltmore Village and serves on the Public Arts and Culture Commission for the City of Asheville and is on the board of Asheville Sister Cities, Inc.
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John WandaJoin John Wanda for his "He for She" workshopJohn Wanda is the Co-Founder of the Arlington Academy of Hope, one of She’s the First’s partner schools. The Arlington Academy of Hope, a primary school in rural Eastern Uganda, emphasizes small class sizes and high learning standards, in order to allow children to receive a high quality education. Wanda grew up in Bumwalukani village, and was the only student in his year to gain admission to Secondary school.From there, he attended university, and in 1995, he and his wife won a diversity lottery visa, eventually settling in Arlington, VA. Inspired by the education system in Arlignton, the couple then went on to found the Arlington Academy of Hope, in order to offer other Ugandan students the chance to receive a quality education.
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THE STATE OF GIRLS' EDUCATION GLOBALLY AND IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Join our panelists as they discuss the barriers and obstacles to education for girls, the actions people are taking to enact change, and the initiatives members of our community can take to make an impact
Shannon CorneliusShannon Cornelius served in the Peace Corps from 2000-2002 in Ghana working in Water, Sanitation & Health Education. Most of her successful projects centered around HIV, including prevention with youth groups and a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS. When Shannon returned to the states, she ended up staying in the field, working in HIV/AIDS programs in the non-profit sector as well as public health for over 10 years. Now, with a MSW in Non-profit Management, Shannon works at Pisgah Legal Services as the Affordable Care Act Program Director. She also volunteers with Groundswell International, a non-profit focusing on sustainable Agro-Ecology practices in 9 countries around the world and teaches yoga at the YMCA.
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Joyce WandaJoyce Wanda is the Co-Founder of the Arlington Academy of Hope, one of She’s the First’s partner schools. The Arlington Academy of Hope, a primary school in rural Eastern Uganda, emphasizes small class sizes and high learning standards, in order to allow children to receive a high quality education. Wanda grew up in Bitunduyi village in Easter Uganda. Her family worked hard to allow her to continue her education all the way to the university level. After winning a diversity lottery visa, she moved to Arlington, Virginia with her husband, and together, they founded the Arlington Academy of Hope.
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Amy RenigarAmy Renigar is the Executive Director for Girls on the Run of Western North Carolina. Girls on the Run is a non-profit program for young girls, which inspires them to be healthy and confident through running and conversation-based lessons. Cornelius has an MA in Women’s Studies and a BA in Psychology. Before becoming the Executive Director of Girls on the Run WNC, she worked for the American Cancer Society, ran a supervised visitation center in Dayton, Ohio, and was a children’s clinician in Hazard, Kentucky.
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