About the Women of Color Summit

Making Our Mark, Making a Difference is the third ACE summit for women of color. The purpose of this summit is to promote the participation of women of color at all levels in the academy, but especially within senior administrative leadership. This meeting builds not only on the programmatic and research activities facilitated by the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity (CAREE) and the Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE), but also on two earlier conferences. The first, Strengthening Our Place in the Academy: A Summit for Women Administrators and Faculty of Color, in February/ March 2003, was co-sponsored by OWHE, in partnership with the University of California Office of the President and the University of California, Berkeley. The second, Validating Our Strengths: Exercising Leadership Through Participation and Achievement, in November 2004, was co-sponsored by CAREE and OWHE, with generous support from The Ford Foundation and Brown University.
 
This summit provides a forum in which women of color in higher education can reflect on the complex role and broad scope of leadership responsibilities. The participants—from emerging leaders to chief executive officers—can address the special challenges facing women of color in the academy.  
 
During the summit, participants:

• Engaged in candid discussions about different routes to the presidency.
  
  
• Reflected and deliberated on the challenges and rewards of higher education management and governance.
  
  
• Built strategic alliances across cultural and racial groups to encourage and support the ascendancy of women of color to leadership positions.
  
  
• Shared and captured those experiences and strategies that have successfully moved women of color into senior administrative positions.