“I’ve seen it in community after community. Women help make peace. Women help resolve conflict. Women are picking up the pieces. And if we simply give more power in places it should have been put long ago, then we are going to make this world reach a place it has dreamed of.”
Those are the impassioned words of U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry who addressed this years participants of the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership at the Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner held at the State Department. He explained that women’s empowerment was both an administration priority, but also a personal commitment for him as the husband to a strong woman and a father to two daughters.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the partnership that pairs international businesswomen with top American female executives-Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women-and their teams who serve as mentors. The 2015 cohort includes 19 women leaders from 15 countries. The participants hail from diverse industries, including fashion design, technology and investment consulting, and come from countries around the globe.
The month-long program kicked off at our offices in Washington D.C. last week. Mentees participated in a four-day orientation that included various networking events, leadership roundtables and communications trainings. They also had the opportunity to meet Catherine Russell, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues. “Countries do better when they empower women and girls,” she explained, “and when countries do better, they are more stable.” Ambassador Russell underscored the importance of creating a comprehensive approach to women’s empowerment that was rooted in addressing women’s devalued status in many societies. She highlighted the need to involve men in these strategies explaining, “boys aren’t born with negative views about women. It’s a learned behavior.”
At the conclusion of the week, participants celebrated newfound friendships at a closing dinner before departing to cities across the U.S. to spend two weeks with their mentor company.
Keep up with our mentors and mentees by following #FortuneMPW!
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MENTEE |
MENTOR |
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Aleks Gren |
Kathleen Murphy |
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Ana Victoria GarcĢ_a |
Kerrie MacPherson Karyn Twaronite |
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Apra Kuchal |
Ann Davison |
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Clara de Tezanos |
Ellyn Shook |
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Dina A. Mabrouk Gamea |
Deanna Mulligan |
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Harini Sivasankaran |
Laura Desmond |
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Hye Kyoung Kim |
Shelley Brindle |
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Jackie Ngwenya |
Paula Tolliver |
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Jacqueline Nyangweso |
Sarah Kauss |
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Jin Kyeung Ha |
Kristin Lemkau |
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Laura Akunga |
Shelley Diamond Barbara Basney |
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Marjorie Chorro de Trigueros |
Jami Wintz McKeon |
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Olga Azarova |
Evelyn Webster |
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Paula Ledesma |
Gabrielle Toledano |
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Seyi Akesode |
Bridget van Kralingen |
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Sheila E. Akyea |
Donna Milrod |
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Sun Bo |
Roxanne Taylor |
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Vaishali Neotia |
Dina Habib Powell |
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Victoria Alonsoperez |
Molly Ashby Sherrie Westin |