This year, we joined with advocates and leaders to recognize women’s international progress towards equality, prosperity and peace.
On International Women’s Day, we announced an innovative new partnership with Bank of America: The Global Ambassadors Program. This program will mobilize distinguished professionals as mentors over the next five years to provide mentorship opportunities for hundreds of talented, emerging women leaders in developing countries, such as Haiti, India and South Africa. Read about our first program in Haiti and see how you can stay involved.
We were once again proud to serve as a Solutions Partner for the third annual Women in the World: Stories and Solutions Summit, hosted by the incomparable Tina Brown and her team at the Women in World Foundation. On the final day of the summit, I joined entrepreneur, Cameroonian presidential candidate and Vital Voices Global Network member Kah Walla on a panel about the importance of women’s political leadership. Our fellow panelists included President Atifete Jahjaga of Kosoco, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence Margot Wallstrom, and, former U.S. Representative from California, the Honorable Jane Harman.
Committed Board member Diane von Furstenberg hosted the third annual DVF Awards in New York, honoring Brazilian graffiti artist Panmela Castro and Congolese radio journalist Chouchou Namegabe for their creativity and courage. (View a slideshow of photos on Facebook.)
Finally, we were pleased to announce that applications for the ANNpower Leadership Forum, an exciting initiative supported by ANN Inc., are now open through the end of March. Rising high school juniors and seniors will have the chance to be mentored by Global Leadership Network members and attend the 2012 Global Leadership Awards at the John F. Kennedy Center in June of this year. We’re looking forward to hosting these 50 rising stars, and to sharing more exciting news about this year’s honorees, as we get closer to June.