Get Ready to Gain Leadership Insights at 2025 Leadership Conference ‘Ignite Passion!’

In today’s dynamic environment, continually surrounding yourself with positive leaders, proven experiences, and innovative thinking is critical for your professional and personal growth.  

The Women’s Center 2025 Leadership Conference is a full-day, in-person event consisting of mainstage keynote presentations, focused topic discussion panels, and interactive breakout sessions, plus networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities.  

Our theme this year is “Ignite Passion,” focusing on stories and educators who provide inspiration, sparking the motivation to pursue what truly drives us. By building self-awareness, we can identify the passions that give us a sense of purpose. This connection fuels the desire to lean in and actively work toward realizing our passions. 

Why attend: 

• Become a better leader – By observing the priorities, decision-making processes, and communications styles of successful leaders, you can refine your own leadership skills.   

• Hone your entrepreneurial mindset – Many speakers and sessions focus on understanding and developing an entrepreneurial mindset, including passion for your business, adaptability to change, motivational leadership and willingness to take calculated risks.   

• Network, build relationships and potentially activate your next career – with hundreds of like-minded professionals, representing a variety of industries and functions.  

• Support the mission of The Women’s Center – while also supporting yourself and driving your own career. 

Specific topics of this year’s conference will include: 

• How to be a great leader in an evolving landscape 

• How to redefine yourself in life’s pivotal moments and pivot your career 

• How to tackle unsolvable problems 

Speakers and Sessions:   

As always, the leadership conference will feature a long list of proven leaders. To name just a few of the mainstage speakers: 

• Linda Rabbit – Founder of rand* construction corporation.  In addition to being named a “Top Workplaces” (The Washington Post), and “Best Places to Work” (Washington Business Journal), Linda’s leadership has helped rand* become one of the top commercial general contractors in the DC metro area, and is now the largest woman-founded, woman-owned commercial general contractor in the United States.   

• Karen Schaufeld – Renown philanthropist, author, entrepreneur, and lawyer.  Karen actively supports local and global causes related to education, food insecurity, shelter, healthcare, and the advancement of the arts.   

• Tara Lee – Naval Academy graduate and former military officer, Tara is one of the most successful trial attorneys in the United States and has chaired the litigation practices at several of the largest firms in the world. 

 *Please note that conference attendance is not limited to women. The event is an inspirational professional development conference. While some topics focus on specific care-abouts of women, all people are welcome to attend.