Seneca Falls Dialogues © 2008  Women’s Institute for Leadership and Learning

Women’s Institute for Leadership and Learning

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Planners of the Seneca Falls Dialogues have met throughout the past two years, formalizing the theme and focus for the October event, generating a call for conference submissions, and wll soon be reviewing the many entries received.  Throughout the summer, they will be finalizing event details.

“This is always an exciting time,” said Adriene Emmo, logistics director for the event.  “We’re finishing the itinerary and will soon be able to publish a full and formal schedule of topics and discussions.”

The biennial event is planned through the collaborative efforts of the American Association of University Women’s Rochester and Buffalo Chapters; the University Alliance, comprised of leaders from women’s studies programs offered by educational institutions across New York State; Friends of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park; and supporters of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. The biennial event features a theme chosen by the University Alliance which places focus on a particular facet of the continuing struggle for women’s equality.  The 2014 theme is: EcoFeminism: Cultivating Place and Identity.

Organizers say the issues associated with this year’s theme are wide in scope, and many responses are sure to be received.  The challenge will be to select presentations that will stimulate discussion and inspire and motivate participants, a goal of the dialogues since its inception in 2006.

“Each event gets even better than the one before,” Emmo said.  “The feedback from previous events has been tremendous and continually challenges us to set higher goals,” she continued.  “I think that this year, participants will once again be ‘wow-ed’ by the topics.”  


While the itinerary for the next event is still being finalized, past participants of the Dialogues and in other WILL events have included some amazing leaders in the history of the battle for equal rights for women.  

Past participants include Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, champion of women’s rights in the US House of Representatives; Carolyn Hannan, Past Director of the United Nations Conference on the Advancement of Women; Judith Pipher, National Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee and world renowned astrophysicist; Colleen Jenkins, speaker, scholar and great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Dr. Judith Wellman, historian, professor and author of Roads From Seneca Falls; Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights and former President of Ireland; “Heroic Girlz” Directors Cindy Parish and Meg Agnew; author, activist, and President of “The Breakthrough Way” Eleanor LeCain; Lucky Sweeny, representative of Evolutionary Women; Uncrowned Queens Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram and Dr. Barbara Seals Nevergold; and many others.  In fact, there are so many powerful individuals who’ve been involved, we cannot possibly mention them all here.

PAST PARTICIPANTS The Seneca Falls Dialogues: WHAT IT TAKES              WHO IT TAKES                TO MAKE IT ALL HAPPEN