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 NASPAStudent 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
2009
Anucha Browne Sanders, Senior Associate Athletic Director of Marketing, University of Buffalo; Former Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations
Tammy Duckworth, Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Major, Illinois Army National Guard
Melissa Poe Hood, Founder, Kids F.A.C.E.
Diane Rehm, Host, The Diane Rehm Show
Martine Rothblatt, Founder and CEO, United Therapeutics
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 Gold Medalist; Activist; and President, Women's Sports Foundation
Amy Richards, Co-Founder, Third Wave Foundation; Author; and Consultant
The Honorable 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, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, National Association of College and University Attorneys
Danise Jones-Dorsey, Director, Catholic Charities USA
Elizabeth Lisboa-Farrow, Chair, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; President and CEO, LISBOA, Inc.
Joan Rector McGlockton, Sodexho Marriott Services
Sharon Murphy, Co-Founder, Mary House
1999
Joyce Hale, Paralympic Medalist
Marie C. Johns, President and CEO, Bell Atlantic, Washington, D.C.
Ruth Watson Lubic, Founder and President Emeritus, D.C. Developing Families Center
Indira Nair Ph.D., Vice Provost of Education, Carnegie Mellon University
Angela E. Oh, Attorney; Teacher; Public Lecturer
1998
Sharon Barbano, President, Women's Sports Marketing Group
Dr. Susan Blumenthal, Senior Global and e-Health Advisor, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Amy Cohen, Plaintiff, Landmark Title IX Case
Laura Groppe, President, Girl Games Inc.
Sylvia Peters, Founder and President, Whole Village/Whole Nation, Inc.
Eva M. Plaza, Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Jennifer Sheehy, Vice President and Director, CEO Council, National Organization on Disability
Luci Tapahonso, Navajo Poet and English Professor
Wilma L. Vaught, Brigadier General (ret.), U.S. Air Force
1997
Bettie Baca, Director, Executive Secretariat, U.S. Department of Commerce
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Singer/Songwriter and Grammy Award Winner
Rita Dove, Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress
Nancy Gruver, Founder, New Moon Publishing
M. Charito Kruvant, President and CEO, Creative Associates International, Inc.
The Honorable Blanche Lambert Lincoln, U.S. Representative
Aimee Mullins, Paralympic and Olympic Medalist
1996
Kavelle R. Bajaj, Founder and CEO, I-Net, Inc.
Norma V. Cantu, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
The Honorable Deborah J. Doxtator, Tribal Chairwoman, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin
A. Danielle England-Dansiker, Fire Battalion Chief, Maryland
Margaret B. Rawson, Author and Dyslexia Educator
Carolyn S. Shoemaker, American Astronomer; Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey
Isabel Carter Stewart, National Executive Director, Girls Inc.
1995
Ada E. Deer, Head of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Shannon Richey Faulkner, Cadet, The Citadel
Beatrice Gaddy, City Councilwoman; Advocate, Patterson Park Emergency Food Center
Juliet V. Garcia, President, University of Texas at Brownsville
Beverly J. Harvard, Chief of Police, Atlanta, Georgia
Susan Stroud, Founder and Executive Director, Innovations in Civic Participation
Dolores D. Wharton, Chairman and CEO, Fund for Corporate Initiatives, Inc.
Elvira Felton Williams, Co-Founder, Adventures in Higher Education and Agricultural Development, Inc. (AHEAD)
V. Cheryl Womack, Founder, VCW, Inc.
1994
Mae Jemison, Astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Betty Jean Murphy, CEO, Savannah Development Corporation
Nancy H. Richardson, Mariner, Girl Scouts of America Leader
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, Head of Campaign Practice, Dewey Square Group
Margaret Bridwell, Director, University of Maryland Health Center
Diane Carlson Evans, Nurse, Vietnam Women's Memorial Project
Elaine Chao, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of America
Kimi Gray, Chairperson, Kenilworth-Parkside Resident Management Corporation
Barbara Hedges, Director, University of Washington Department of Athletics
Ellen Malcolm, Founder, 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, President, Mexican American Women's National Association
Rayna Green, Curator and Director of the American Indian Program, National Museum of American History
Susan Hester, Founder, Mautner Project for Lesbians With Cancer and National Coalition of Feminist and Lesbian Cancer Projects
Doris Leader Charge, Teacher, Sinte Gleska College
Lorraine Mintzmyer, Regional Director, National Park Service
Sima Wal, National Women's Studies Association
1991
Eleanor Baum, Dean, Cooper Union Department of Engineering
Brigadier General Hazel Johnson-Brown, Chief, Army Nurse Corps
Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY;
Founding President, Asian American Federation of NY; Principal Investigator, The Japanese American Life Course Study
on Long-Term Effects of Japanese American's Wartime Incarceration
Ruth Otte, President and COO, Discovery Communications
Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Curator Emeritus, National Museum of American History; Founder, Sweet Honey in the Rock
Marilyn Russo, Psychotherapist and Advocate for Young Women With Disabilities
Dr. Bernice R. Sandler, Director, Project on the Status and Education of Women
1990
Lois J. Barber, Founder and President Emerita, 20/20 Vision
Sarah K. Brady, Activist, Handgun Control, Inc.
Eugenie Clark, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist and Professor Emerita, University of Maryland
Barbara Hart Esq.., Noted Author; Founder, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Chief National Correspondent for PBS, MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour
Ann Lewin, Director, Capital Children's Museum
Wilma P. Mankiller, Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation
Bonnie Newman, Director of FairPoint Communications; Former Director, White House Office of Management and Operations
Dr. Nancy K. Schlossberg, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Molly Yard, President, National Organization for Women (NOW)
1989
Margaret Burroughs, Founder, Museum of African American Art
Dr. Elaine Copeland, Associate Dean, Graduate College, University of Illinois
Dorothy Gilliam, Columnist, Washington Post
Ruth Knee, Consultant
Carmen Neuberger, Dean of Educational Services, Dickinson College
Anne-Imelda Radice, Director, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Estelle Ramey, Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University
Donna Shavlik, ,Director, Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE) at the American Council on Education (ACE)
1988
The Honorable Lindy Boggs, U.S. Representative
Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President, Children's Defense Fund
Dana Harris, President, Homelessness Information Exchange
Florence Howe, Founder, Feminist Press
Karen Keesling, Acting Administrator, U.S. Department of Labor
Jewel LaFontant, Attorney, Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholtz
Cokie Roberts, Senior News Analyst, National Public Radio
Emily Taylor, Director, Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE) at the American Council on Education (ACE)
1987
Cathleen Black, President, USA Today
Julia Chang Bloch, Founder and President, U.S.-China Education Trust
Anna Fisher, Astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, Co-Founder, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, Director, Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor
Candy Lightner, Organizer and Founding President, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
Wilma Rudolph, Olympic Gold Medalist
1985
Jessie Bernard, Author, The Female World
Donna de Varona, Sportscaster, ABC Sports; Olympic Gold Medalist
Catherine East, Executive Secretary, Inter-Departmental Commission on the Status of Women
and the Citizen's Advisory Council on the Status of Women
The Honorable Nancy Landon Kassebaum, U.S. Senator
Shirley M. Malcom Ph.D., Head, Education and Human Resources, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Justine Merritt, Poet and Missionary
Loret Ruppe, Director, Peace Corps
Helen Thomas, White House Bureau Chief, United Press International
