When the Intercollegiate Association for Women Students (IAWS) suspended its operations in 1983, Donna Shavlik, then-director of the Office for Women at the American Council on Education (ACE), secured a grant from the Johnson Foundation to fund a meeting at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin. Attendees wanted to continue supporting college women's leadership development and proposed a successor organization to IAWS, the Intercollegiate Association for Women Student Leaders (IAWSL).
Although IAWSL never developed into a viable organization, Donna Shavlik and Emily Taylor, former director of the Office for Women at ACE, enlisted a coalition of leaders of women's organizations and raised funds to support a national conference in Washington, D.C., that would focus on leadership and career development for college women. Shavlik and Taylor had both been national advisors to IAWS and drew support from the network of women in higher education who had shared their commitment to the organization.
In 1985, the first leadership conference was held on the campus of American University. The Office for Women at ACE was the principal architect of the event, providing both program leadership and funding. The National Association of Women Deans, Administrators and Counselors, many of whom were deans of women or deans of students, shared some of the financial burden. The Women's Institute at American University, led by Emily Taylor, the Project on the Status and Education of Women at the Association of American Colleges, led by Bernice Sandler, and AAUW lent the effort legitimacy and support. For a number of years, AAUW presented a legislative briefing on Capitol Hill that immediately preceded the leadership conference program.
After several years, the loose coalition of organizations could no longer provide the stable funding and leadership necessary to continue the conference, so organizers sought a permanent home for it among the sponsoring groups.
NAWDAC became the National Association of Women in Education and the conference sponsor. A planning committee of Washington, D.C.-area women in higher education took on programming and logistical support for the conference. Under NAWE's stewardship, NCCWSL grew to an annual participation rate of 500 to 600 women student leaders. For many years, NAWE continued to enlist a number of women organizations that helped promote and support the conference.
In 2000, NAWE closed its doors and AAUW became the new conference sponsor. In 2007, AAUW joined with NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education to sponsor the leadership conference. AAUW and NASPA partnered to build an event that took advantage of both organizations’ strengths in advocacy and education.
The NCCWSL Steering Committee has, throughout the history of the conference, remained a critical component to the conference’s success.
The Women of Distinction Awards Ceremony is a highlight of NCCWSL. Each year several accomplished, successful women who are leaders in their respective fields receive this prestigious award.
Women of Distinction Recipients
2008
Maya Ajmera, Founder and President, Global Fund for Children
Jovita Carranza, Deputy Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration
Majora Carter, Founder and Executive Director, Sustainable South Bronx
Kimberly Dozier, Award-winning journalist
Evelyn "Pat" Foote, Brigadier General (ret.), U.S. Army
2007
Deborah Bial,, President and Founder, The Posse Foundation
Caryn G. Mathes, General Manager, WAMU 88.5 FM
Alison Malmon, President and Executive Director, Active Minds, Inc.
Asra Q. Nomani, Writer-Activist
María Otero, President and CEO, ACCION International
2006
Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.); Author; and Founder, Educational Achievement Services
Beverly Tatum, Ph.D., President, Spelman College; Clinical Psychologist
Eve Ensler, Playwright; Performer; Activist; and Founder, V-Day
Rebecca Walker, Author; Co-Founder, Third Wave Foundation
Bernice Sandler, Scholar and Author, received a special NCCWSL award for Achievement in Sexual Harassment Education
2005
Jehmu Greene, President, Rock the Vote
Rachel Muir, Founder and Executive Director, Girlstart
Eleanor Smeal, President, Feminist Majority Foundation
Gail Wyatt, Psychologist and Sex Educator
2004
Dominique Dawes, Olympic Medalist; Activist; and President-elect, Women’s Sports Foundation
Amy Richards, Co-Founder, Third Wave Foundation; Author; and Consultant
Linda Sánchez, U.S. Representative
Stacey Davis Stewart, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fannie Mae Foundation
Deborah Tannen, University Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University
Marie C. Wilson, President, The White House Project, and Former President, The Ms. Foundation for Women
2002
Sarita E. Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hispanic Scholarship Fund Institute
Kendra Fox-Davis, Training Director, Center for Third World Organizing
Ruth B. Mandel, Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University, and Board of Governors Professor of Politics, Rutgers University
Jane E. Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Business and Professional Women/USA
Melanne Verveer, Chair, Vital Voices Global Partnership
Belle S. Wheelan, Secretary of Education, Commonwealth of Virginia
2000
Sheila Trice Bell, National Association of College and University Attorneys
Danise Jones-Dorsey, Catholic Charities USA
Elizabeth Lisboa-Farrow, DC Chamber of Commerce, LISBOA, Inc.
Joan Rector McGlockton, Sodexho Marriott Services
Sharon Murphy, Mary House
1999
Joyce Hale, Paralympic Medalist
Marie C. Johns, Bell Atlantic, Washington, D.C.
Ruth Watson Lubic, D.C. Developing Families Center
Indira Nair, Carnegie Mellon University
Angela E. Oh, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
1998
Sharon Barbano, Women’s Sports Marketing Group
Susan Blumenthal, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Amy Cohen, Plaintiff, Landmark Title IX Case
Laura Groppe, Girl Games Inc.
Sylvia Peters, Whole Village/Whole Nation, Inc.
Eva M. Plaza, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Jennifer Sheehy, National Organization on Disability
Luci Tapahonso, Navajo Poet and English Professor
Wilma L. Vaught, (ret.), U.S. Air Force
1997
Bettie Baca, U.S. Department of Commerce
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Singer/Songwriter and Grammy Award Winner
Rita Dove, University of Virginia and Poet Laureate of the United States
Nancy Gruver, New Moon Publishing
M. Charito Kruvant, Creative Associates International, Inc.
Blanche Lambert Lincoln, U.S. Representative
Aimee Mullins, Paralympic and Olympic Medalist
1996
Kavelle R. Bajaj, I-Net, Inc.
Norma V. Cantu, U.S. Department of Education
Deborah J. Doxtator, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin
A. Danielle England-Dansiker, Fire Battalion Chief, Maryland
Margaret B. Rawson, Author and Dyslexia Educator
Carolyn S. Shoemaker, U.S. Geological Survey
Isabel Carter Stewart, Girls Inc.
1995
Ada E. Deer, Bureau of Indian Affairs
Shannon Richey Faulkner, The Citadel
Beatrice Gaddy, Patterson Park Emergency Food Center
Juliet V. Garcia, University of Texas at Brownsville
Beverly J. Harvard, Chief of Police, Atlanta, Georgia
Susan Stroud, Corporation for National and Community Service
Dolores Wharton, Fund for Corporate Initiatives, Inc.
Elvira Felton Williams, Adventures in Higher Education and Agricultural Development, Inc.
V. Cheryl Womack, VCW, Inc.
1994
Mae Jemison, Astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Betty Jean Murphy, Savannah Development Corporation
Nancy H. Richardson, Girl Scouts of America
Patricia Rueckel, National Association for Women in Education
Haley Scott, University of Notre Dame
Leslie C. Shields, Author, Work Sister Work
Catherine Filene Shouse, Philanthropist
1993
Jill Alper, Women’s Information Network
Margaret Bridwell, University of Maryland Health Center
Diane Carlson Evans, Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project
Elaine Chao, United Way of America
Kimi Gray, Kenilworth-Parkside Resident Management Corporation
Barbara Hedges, University of Washington Department of Athletics
Ellen Malcolm, EMILY’s List
Karen Thompson, Author and Activist
Sarah Weddington, Attorney and Author
1992
Donna Brazile, Chief of Staff, U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton
Judy Canales, Mexican American Women’s National Association
Rayna Green, National Museum of American History
Susan Hester, Mautner Project for Lesbians With Cancer and National Coalition of Feminist and Lesbian Cancer Projects
Doris Leader Charge, Sinte Gleska College
Lorraine Mintzmeyer, National Park Service
Sima Wal, National Women’s Studies Association
1991
Eleanor Baum, Cooper Union Department of Engineering
Hazel Johnson-Brown, Army Nurse Corps
Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi, Reparation of Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians
Ruth Otte, Discovery Channel
Bernice Johnson Reagon, National Museum of American History and
Founder, Sweet Honey in the Rock
Marilyn Russo, Psychotherapist and Advocate for Young Women
With Disabilities
Bernice Sandler, Project on the Status and Education of Women
1990
Lois J. Barber, 20/20 Vision
Sarah K. Brady, Handgun Control, Inc.
Eugenie Clark, University of Maryland, College Park
Barbara Hart, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour
Ann Lewin, Capital Children’s Museum
Wilma P. Mankiller, Cherokee Nation
Bonnie Newman, White House Office of Management and Operations
Nancy K. Schlossberg, University of Maryland
Molly Yard, National Organization for Women
1989
Margaret Burroughs, Founder, Museum of African American Art
Elaine Copeland, University of Illinois
Dorothy Gilliam, Columnist, Washington Post
Ruth Knee, Consultant
Carmen Neuberger, Dickinson College
Ann-Imelda Radice, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Estelle Ramey, Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University
Donna Shavlik, American Council on Education
1988
Lindy Boggs, U.S. Representative
Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund
Dana Harris, Homelessness Information Exchange
Florence Howe, Feminist Press
Karen Keesling, U.S. Air Force
Jewel LaFontant, Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholtz
Cokie Roberts, National Public Radio
Emily Taylor, American Council on Education
1987
Cathleen Black, USA Today
Julia Chang Bloch, Agency for International Development
Anna Fisher, Astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, U.S. Department of Labor
Candy Lightner, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Wilma Rudolph, Olympic Medalist
1985
Jessie Bernard, Author, The Female World
Donna de Varona, ABC Sports and Olympic Medalist
Catherine East, U.S. Government Commissions and Councils on Women
Nancy Kassebaum, U.S. Senator
Shirley Malcolm, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Justine Merritt, Poet and Missionary
Loret Ruppe, Peace Corps
Helen Thomas, United Press International
