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AURORA - The Colorado High School Activities Association hosted its first-annual Women in Leadership Conference on Thursday, at the Stanley Marketplace, in Aurora, titled "The Many Faces of Leadership".
 
The day started with breakfast and a BINGO ice breaker designed to help the women meet and connect with other women. Yin Yoga with Lisa Vogt, the owner of Haute Yoga Colorado, helped center the attendess before Keynote Speaker Tracie Cormaney, the Principal at Pine Creek High School, took the stage to talk about how women can kick butt and not apologize.
 
“Whatever you do, do it big,” Cormaney told the attendees. “I don’t care what it is, just do it big, because then you don’t have any regrets. You’ll never regret anything that you’re all-in on. That would be my challenge to you; that when you decide to do something, you are all in.”
 
An Administrator Panel featuring Janay Bird, Sybil Booker, Sara Crawford, Autumn Sereno, Cass Tafoya and Terita Walker featured on Overcoming Barriers for Leadership. Booker, the principal of the most diverse school in the state - Overland High School, talked about how she was able to grow the confidence that it took to be a female principal at a large school. Sereno then talked about how she empowers herself and women around her, and later talked about how women can support other women in their roles and organizations.
 
“Being a part of things like this, being in front of you all, whether I’m an attendee or helping to present different topics – those are the things that make me feel really good and want to do more of,” Sereno said. “It also provides more opportunities to help pull some of our younger kids into that as well. It’s nice for them to see us in this role.”
 
Bird touched on what other women have done to help her and Walker talked about a difficult situation that happened last year with basketball and how she had to face a room full of men to find a resolution. She also shared strategies around how to reframe negative thoughts and emotions.
 
“I think the best way [to reframe negative thoughts] is to remember your purpose – the reason you’re doing what you’re doing – and then turn those tough things into opportunities, and then take it and roll with it,” Walker shared.
 
The panel continued with Tafoya sharing how she worked through a difficult situation with a coworker and Crawford touching on how she built strength to make changes in male-dominated workplaces. Crawford also talked about how to be a supportive wife and mother while continuing to be a leader in the workplace.
 
Booker and Tafoya concluded the session stressing the importance of mental health. Booker talked about healthy work/life balance and Tafoya touched on the importance of encouraging female student leaders to find balance.
 
To get attendees moving between panels, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance was on site to lead some movement. Cleo immediately injected a spark of energy and fun into the event, which got the attendees smiling and laughing and was a nice change of pace from the panels.
 
During the panel with the National Federation of State High School Associations, Dana Pappas and Lindsey Atkinson talked about what it means to have a community of female leaders and they shared what the NFHS is currently doing to empower women leaders.
 
“This is what we hoped for – that these events would happen,” Atkinson said during her panel. “We can’t come to every state and run something that reaches coaches and officials and even students, who we really want to hear these messages from and empower, but we were hoping that we would empower the women in the state offices to do this. So this feels so good, that what we have done has trickled down to reaching those that we truly serve.”
 
“The whole point of why Women’s Leadership does what they do is to see stuff like this [event],” Pappas added.
 
The next panel featured some of CHSAA's most notable coaches and officials.
 
Monica Abelein, the meet referee for all of Missy Franklin’s swim meets while she competed at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, talked about how she overcame feelings of intimidation in a male-dominated officiating arena. A retired president of the swim and dive officials association, Abelein discussed how she was often the only female referee on the officiating team.
 
Elaine Wright, a basketball official, talked about the challenges involved with handling difficult or prejudiced coaches.
 
“I’m an approachable person,” Wright said. “I’m very respectful and I ask coaches to respect me. I always say in my coaches meeting before the game, ‘Coach, you can ask me anything, but you have to be respectful, and if you’re not gonna be respectful, then I’m not gonna listen to you.’ I think by setting that expectation, they know better.”
 
A CHSAA Hall of Fame volleyball coach, T.R. Ellis, and a legendary basketball coach at Highlands Ranch, Caryn Jarocki, were also on the panel to talk about how they became leaders within their school and community, and the importance for females to uplift each other.

Former CHSAA Commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green led the final Leaders Panel, which was over lunch and featured many faces of leadership.

Liz Carey, the founder and co-owner of Cheer Athletics, Megan Scremin, the president and CEO of Special Olympics, Heather Grantham, the educator recruitment and retention specialist at CDE, Vina Macial Diaz, Denver Police detective, and Janet Buckner, a Colorado State Senator, all talked about the paths that brought them to their current positions of leadership and how women can thrive in these roles.
 
“My best advice for you is to just be yourself, you never know where you might land,” Senator Buckner shared. “I landed in the state legislature, and I never thought I would’ve done this before. So, just stay open to opportunity, because there are a lot of opportunities out there, and just keep doing what you love.”
 
The event closed with reminders about monthly follow-ups, upcoming events, drawings and mentorship pairings.

“This event has been in the making with Bethany [Brookens], Jenn [Roberts-Uhlig] and myself for years,” Blanford-Green, the former commissioner, said. “When I walked through the door and I saw the crowd, I just had chills. Empowerment and networking – that was the vision, and to see it come to fruition just makes me so proud of them.”
 
Overall, CHSAA’s first-ever Women In Leadership conference was a tremendous success, and it sets the association up well to take further steps in the near future.