1) Alumni Profile - Cheryl L. Ka'uhane Lupenui, President and Chief Executive Officer for the YWCA of O'ahu.
My 'wildly delighted' that I committed to at the October 2004 WLC was to seek inspiration and innovation towards my goal of building a leadership center for Hawaii . I had attended several leadership programs locally and nationally prior to learning of IWL. I remember reading Rayona's article in Fast Company (Dec. 2000) and her leadership philosophy made quite an impression on me. After completing the program, I realized I would need more support locally if I was going to integrate this learning into the organization. This September, the YWCA partnered with IWL to host the first-ever Women Leading Change in Hawaii and now we have a 'tribe' of amazing Hawaii women on our voyage!
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2) Coach's Column - Shifting Context: The Stakes are High; an excerpt from The Trance of Scarcity by Victoria Castle
"I'm 55, and I want to feel alive." Outwardly, Barbara was successful in every sense of the word, but secretly her life felt desolate. "I've done everything I know to do, but it feels like my energy just keeps getting siphoned off somehow. What do I have to do to finally be good enough ?" With these words, she revealed that she was living in a story that was strangling her.
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3)
Coaching Success - Kimberlee Washington Barr and Loretta Love Huff
Kimberlee Washington Barr, PricewaterhouseCoopers Director, Minority
Retention and Advancement, was initially skeptical when her boss presented
her team with an opportunity to consult with IWL's Rayona Sharpnack and
others. She was also initially resistant to working with IWL coach,
Loretta
Love Huff. "I wasn't the only one on the team who felt that we 'didn't
have
time' for this engagement; some of us just initially approached this
opportunity with a 'let's just get it over with as quickly as possible'
attitude."
More 4) Resources
A. Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is breast cancer awareness month. While it's always important to provide support to those with cancer, I thought it would be helpful to move beyond that into less known areas. Here's what I came up with:
Breast Cancer Action members are the self-described 'bad girls of breast cancer.' BCA carries the voices of people affected by breast cancer to inspire and compel the changes necessary to end the breast cancer epidemic.
Breastcancer.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the most reliable, complete, and up-to-date information about breast cancer.
Women's Cancer Resource Center 's (WCRC) mission is to empower women with cancer to be active and informed consumers and survivors; to provide community for women with cancer and their supporters; to educate the general community about cancer; and to be actively involved in the struggle for a life-affirming, cancer-free society.
WCRC has an excellent list of resources and links on many cancer-related topics.
C. Breast Cancer Prevention Article
by The Cancer Prevention and Research Foundation
...Prevention
Women may lower their chances of developing breast cancer by making some healthy lifestyle choices. The steps outlined below can serve as a guide to healthy living that may aid in preventing not only breast cancer, but other cancers, as well.
- Eat a well-balanced, low-fat diet full of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and maintain a healthy weight.
- Limit alcohol consumption
- Exercise
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C. Breastfeeding Benefits Mothers, Too
The benefits of breastfeeding to our children are generally well-known. Benefits to mothers are still a secret to many. This article highlights breastfeeding benefits to mothers.
The World Health Organization recommends feeding infants exclusively with breastmilk for the first six months and for feeding of breast milk to continue for a minimum of one year; preferably up to two years. That time frame also coincides with the length of time necessary for mothers to receive the benefits as well.
Of course breastfeeding is the most straight-forward way to accomplish this . Yet, we 'modern,' busy women CAN accomplish this by pumping breast milk as needed. It takes dedication and commitment AND the benefits to the future health of you and your children are worth it.
...Non-breastfeeding mothers have been shown in numerous studies to have a higher risk of reproductive cancers. Ovarian and uterine cancers have been found to be more common in women who did not breastfeed. This may be due to the repeated ovulatory cycles and exposure to higher levels of estrogen from not breastfeeding.
Although numerous studies have looked at the relationship between breastfeeding and breast cancer, the results have been conflicting. This is largely due to flaws in study design and lack of uniform definition of breastfeeding, resulting in difficulty comparing the data. (In some studies, breastfeeding has been defined as having breastfed at least once a day, while in others it is defined as exclusive breastfeeding, using no supplements or artificial nipples.)
Despite this, it is now estimated that breastfeeding from six to 24 months throughout a mother's reproductive lifetime may reduce the risk of breast cancer by 11 to 25 percent (Lyde 1989; Newcomb 1994).
4) Upcoming Events
IWL 2006 Programs:
We invite you to attend, visit, review, or send a friend or colleague to our public programs.
Women Leading Change (WLC) 2005
Executives Leading Sustainable Change (ELSC)
Prerequisite: Either Women Leading Change (3 day program) OR a one-day Contextual Leadership Intensive course the day before the ELSC program.
Other Events:
5) A
Note from Rayona
...I have always said that I want Chelsea to inherit a workplace that provides the same kind of nourishment for her full potential as she received at home. Yes, things have improved in the past 18 years but not nearly enough. I remain committed to the vision that a sustainable world is only possible through the full partnership of women and men; the workplace is a perfect environment to forge that partnership. Until Chelsea graduates and moves into the workplace full time I will continue to lead IWL to fulfill that mission. I don't envision 'retiring' from my life's work but once she has acquired her first post-college job, gets married and has kids I will re-evaluate how much time I spend at IWL versus being the best grandma I can be to the next generation. Needless to say I'll be around for awhile!
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