Advancing the vision
In the early 2000s, under the leadership of McDaniel’s first woman president, Joan Develin Coley, the college launched the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network (MWLN). Founding members were motivated by the fact that when they were starting out in their careers, they had very little mentorship by women and they wanted to fill that gap for future generations.
The most significant initiative of those early days of MWLN was the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network Endowed Scholarship, which now awards more than $16,000 annually to a current student.
When she was named the 10th president of the college, President Julia Jasken knew she wanted to carry on what was started under President Coley’s leadership by reimagining and reinvigorating the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network.
In February 2023, President Jasken convened the inaugural advisory council, the 15-woman leadership body of the MWLN that meets regularly to guide the direction of the network, including annual events and activities. Barbara Payne Shelton ’70 and Barbara Thomas ’70 became involved as former supporters who wanted to continue the program’s legacy, and Lisa Turner ’85 and Faith Walker ’97 joined as new members of the council and the network.
“The intention was always to be a network created by women for women,” Jasken says. “We are thankful to have Barb Shelton and Barb Thomas still involved, and excited about the future under a new generation of McDaniel women leaders.
“We are eager to provide personal and professional development for both alumni and current students as well as building a pipeline of new women donors and trustees.”
Associate Vice President of Development Carolyn Hojnowski has noticed that women are making more financial decisions, especially when it comes to philanthropy. “Over the past 20 years or so, a lot of the wealth is resting in the hands of women,” Hojnowski says. “Nonprofits have been looking at ways to better engage them. One thing about women as philanthropists is that they want to be engaged, they want to become emotionally invested, and they want to see the impact of their giving.”
That is exactly what has made MWLN the perfect opportunity to get more alums, community members, and students reconnected with the college. Women are craving the kind of relationships this network can bring to their lives because across generations, women continue to face many of the same issues.
In the first year of the reimagined MWLN, Turner and Walker see the value of this type of community — and echo the sentiments founding members shared that spurred the creation of the network almost two decades ago.
Acknowledging the double standards women have faced in the workforce over their careers — where “involved, interested dads” are praised for leaving work early to take a child somewhere versus women who are perceived as “shirking their responsibilities” by doing the same — Turner and Walker see opportunities to create a better working world for the next generation.
“In 2018, my career as a recruiter with an agency was fulfilling, but it slowly started taking its toll on me,” Walker says. “I was on the road all the time, and I had kids. I felt guilty when I wasn’t at work, and I felt guilty when I wasn’t at home. That’s when I decided to leave to reset myself and see what really aligned with my goals and life. During that time, I had the opportunity to work with a small startup to grow their teams and learned that I could work in this niche market without the competition and pressures of the agency world.”
Walker eventually joined forces with Meredith Bowen ’98 — another inaugural MWLN advisory council member — and opened Walker Bowen Talent Partners. The male-dominated staffing industry was geared toward a 24/7 on-call mentality, and made work-life balance near impossible for Walker and Bowen, so they sought an opportunity to reframe the industry.
Turner recalls feeling the same way when she was raising her kids, especially as a woman in male-dominated industries, first as a criminal prosecutor and then moving into the National Security Agency, where she currently serves as the deputy chief of security and counterintelligence.
“Throughout my career, I’ve noticed women are more easily able to acknowledge the stress of feeling guilty if you’re at work missing out on time with your kids and feeling guilty if you’re at home not giving your full attention to your job,” Turner says. “It’s always been a challenge, but I hope it’s getting better as time goes on.”
Now in phases of their lives when their kids are less dependent on them, Turner and Walker each found themselves with a bit of time that they could devote to a new cause.
“Since my kids are now grown, I have more time to mentor people, so when this opportunity came up, it very much interested me,” Turner says. “The path to success depends on how connected you are to your environment. The college has always set up an environment where meaningful connections can be established, and the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network is one more place women can turn for guidance.”
An extra perk for Walker? The members of the advisory council had the opportunity to truly build the network into what they wanted it to be.
“What I liked about this idea was that, yes, there was a mission and a vision in place already, but there was an opportunity to refine it and work out the details of how we achieve that mission and vision,” Walker says. “I was attracted to being part of building it into what we all wanted it to be, which includes those pillars of philanthropy, mentorship, career, and community.”
In addition to offering financial support, the advisory council is working on programming and ways to engage students on the Hill. Hearing about successful alumni is one thing; bringing those alumni straight to students on campus to engage with them and learn from them in person unlocks a new level of commitment. Many alumni recall that they had no idea their current career was even an option based on what they studied at school. The connections MWLN will facilitate between alumni and current students aim to break down those barriers for the next generation of leaders.
“I think back to when I was a student on the Hill, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know. A lot of women in college don’t get the support they need when they’re first starting out,” Walker says. “If I’d had something like the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network in the 1990s, would things have been different? I don’t know, but I hope that we can make a difference for the current students, and that they’ll then be inspired to invest right back into the college in the future the way the advisory council members have been compelled to.”
In a group created by and for women, diversity takes a new meaning that goes far beneath the surface. The members of the advisory council of the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network were insistent that diversity of perspective and experience was important in forming this group to benefit as many women as possible.
“In an organization like this, we want diversity in terms of career paths, age, and experience in addition to the more traditional indicators of diversity,” says Turner. “For example, I think I’m the only one on the advisory council who has been a government employee my entire career, which helps me bring a unique perspective to the table. People like me who’ve been in the workforce for a long time have something different to offer than someone who is still amid the rat race or still climbing in their career. And it’s all valuable insight.”
Walker, who grew up in Howard County, Maryland, is excited about the different kinds of diversity the network provides. “I’m biracial and grew up in a very culturally rich area, but diversity goes beyond nationality and race these days,” she says. “At our event in November, I was sitting at this table with a bunch of other Enneagram Ones, but we were all so different: there was one current student, a couple who had graduated in the 2000s, one my age, and a couple my mom’s age. That diversity of life experience helps us all have better conversations, and really left me feeling charged up after the event.”
In 2023, McDaniel College was chosen as a recipient of the inaugural Empowering Women Award by The Daily Record and was honored at The Daily Record’s Women’s Leadership Summit in October, where President Julia Jasken spoke as part of a panel discussion and several members of the McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network were in attendance.
“The 2023 Empowering Women honorees demonstrate a consistent commitment to recruiting, hiring, and promoting women in their organizations. They also know the benefit of mentoring programs for women and understand the value of women in leadership positions,” said Suzanne Fischer-Huettner, managing director of BridgeTower Media/The Daily Record.