Women Impact Virginia

Build your network. Find your voice. Be inspired.

The Women Impact Virginia series supports women leaders in Virginia. Each regional event, held at the university's Commonwealth Campus Centers located across Virginia, promotes connections, engagement, and empowerment of women who want to better impact their community. The series is capped by the Women Impact Virginia Summit each fall.

Rooted in Purpose

Our 2024 Women Impact Virginia event will focus on how being deeply rooted in our purpose requires knowing our WHY...our reason for being in the world, our raison d’etre. Join us to hear how our speakers learned the importance of knowing their WHY, how they discovered their WHY, and how rooting themselves in their purpose impacts their everyday work.

Two sessions - both held at Stormbrew Farm in Abingdon, Virginia - are available for registration: Friday, Nov. 15, 2024 or Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. You will be prompted to choose a session when registering.

Agenda/Schedule

8:45 a.m. - 9 a.m. Registration
9 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. Welcome and Announcements
9:15 a.m. – 10 a.m. Tea Time & Tasties: Lori Briscoe - The Appalachian Apothecary
10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Transplanting Our Roots: Daisy Sturgill - Stormbrew Farm
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Reconciling Our Roots: Julie Walters Steele, director, Reynolds Homestead
11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. The Roots of Arts & Culture in SWVA: Allison Mays, director, Virginia Tech Southwest Center
11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Roots to Rails and Trails: - Lisa Quigley, executive director, Virginia Creeper Trail Conservancy
12:30 p.m. Lunch: Connecting Our Roots Back to the Dinner Table: Daisy Sturgill, Stormbrew Farm

Thank you to our sponsors!

Blue Hills Community Market and Jan-Carol Publishing, Inc.

Past Women Impact Virginia events

A woman steps to the side of a podium and gestures with her hands as she speaks. — Amy Clark, author and professor at UVA Wise, speaks about the history of Appalachian dialects during the "Women Impact Virginia: Embracing Your Voice" event held in September 2023.

Women sit at round tables with maroon tablecloths listening to a speaker.

Women perform a seated yoga pose at their seats, arms held above their heads.

Embracing Your Voice

In September 2023, we hosted a series of speakers examining the culture, dialect, music, and history of women in Southwest Virginia laid the groundwork for women's success today.

Speakers included:

Amy Clark, author of "Talking Appalachian: Voice, Identity, and Community."
Rene Rodgers of The Birthplace of Country Music
Katrina Powell, co-director of the Virginia Tech Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies.