Women’s Summit

Dallas-area women entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to share their lessons learned, offer on-the-ground guidance and talk through their careers with UT Dallas students and others in the University community. The Women’s Summit is one of more than 100 similar events happening on university campuses worldwide during the Women Entrepreneurship Week. These events will encourage women to chart their own course in business, wherever they may be.Highlights of this summit, hosted by the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas include:

• How to find investors and funding

• Where to get advice

• The economic impact of women-owned businesses

• Networking, breaks, dinner, and reception.

Attendees will include UT Dallas students, alumni, and staff representing all majors and degrees and female professionals who will attend for the networking, learning and mentoring opportunities.

• How to find investors and funding

• Where to get advice

• The economic impact of women-owned businesses

• Networking, breaks, dinner, and reception.

Attendees will include UT Dallas students, alumni, and staff representing all majors and degrees and female professionals who will attend for the networking, learning and mentoring opportunities.

2:00 PM – Kick Off with speakers from the University of Texas at Dallas
2:15 PM – Partners in Starting and Growing Your Business with Ruth R. Hughs, Texas Workforce Commission
2:45 PM – Investor Panel with Laura Baldwin, Inobat Igamberdieva, Linda L. Williams, and Cindy Revol, moderated by Clarisa Lindenmeyer

3:45 PM – Networking Break with Refreshments and Networking

4:15 PM – Fireside Chat with Special Guest Interviewed by Kellie Rasberry

5:00 PM – Founders Panel with Merilee Kick, Danyel Surrency Jones, Yasmeen Tadia, and Kimberly Gorsuch-Bradbury, Moderated by Leah Frazier

6:00 PM – Dinner

6:45 PM – Keynote: The Hard Work of Doing Good Well by Jessica Shortall

7:45 PM – Reception with Desserts, Beer, and Wine

Join us next Fall for the 2019 Women’s Summit

Keynote: Jessica Shortall

Jessica Shortall is a nationally recognized advocate, author, and speaker, focusing on workplace diversity and the economic case for supporting people to bring their whole selves to work.

Jessica is a prolific writer and speaker about and for working parents; about a diverse, human workforce; and about doing good in the world. Her 2015 book, Work. Pump. Repeat., is a survival guide for breastfeeding and going back to work, and her TED talk that same year on the moral and economic case for paid family leave was a TED “Talk of the Day” and has 1.5 million views.

By day, Jessica runs Texas Competes, a coalition of more than 1,300 Texas employers making the economic case for Texas to be welcoming to LGBTQ people. Jessica keynoted SXSW 2017 on the story of Texas Competes, the Texas bathroom bill, and building unexpected bridges in a divided time.

Jessica was the first Director of Giving at TOMS Shoes; co-founder of The Campus Kitchens Project, a hunger, and nutrition program now active on more than 50 college campuses; and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan. She has a bachelor’s in Art History from Wake Forest University and an MBA from Oxford, where she was a Skoll Scholar in Social Entrepreneurship. She is married with two kids.