Queen Latifah coming to Richmond to host Women’s Achieve Summit

Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution will present the Women’s Achieve Summit on October 15, 2019 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, VA. Queen Latifah will host the summit with honorary co-host Senator Mark Warner. Mika Brzezinski, journalist, and co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, is the summit’s keynote speaker and featured speakers include First Lady of Virginia, Pamela Northam, and other notable female business leaders, politicians, and activists who will come together to honor 400 years of women’s achievements.

The Women’s Achieve Summit is timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the recruitment of English women in significant numbers in the Virginia Colony. In November 1619, 147 English women were recruited to join Jamestown’s male settlers, after Virginia Company of London officials recognized that the presence of women would be crucial to developing a stable, productive, and more permanent society.  America’s birthplace, the Jamestown colony, would not have survived without the brave Native American, African and English women who fostered stability and facilitated Virginia’s transition from a colony to a permanent home.

“This year, American Evolution is commemorating the courageous actions of the Native American, African and English women who in 1619, indelibly influenced the course of Virginia and America’s history,” said Kathy Spangler, Executive Director, 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution. “During the Women’s Achieve Summit, we are honored to be joined by trailblazing women who will recognize and celebrate the achievements, untold stories and experiences of inspirational women from 400 years ago, today, and in the future.”

Panel discussions, interviews, and keynote topics will include Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Women in Education; Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women Trailblazers; Stepping into Public Life and Beyond: A Conversation with Virginia First Ladies Interviews, mash-ups, panels and more!

Additionally, the Women’s Achieve Summit will host the first-ever “Well-behaved women seldom make history” Story Slam. The summit invites Virginia women to share their history-making, rule-breaking moment in a story-slam style commentary. Members of the public are invited to enter the Story Slam by calling the submission line at (888) 922-7424 and telling their story in a one-minute pitch. Submissions will be accepted between August 19 and October 1. Top story-tellers will be selected to submit a video of themselves telling their full story, and four finalists will be invited to tell their five-minute story live at the Women’s Achieve Summit. Travel and one-night accommodation in Richmond will be provided to the finalists.

The list of Women’s Achieve Summit speakers includes:

• Queen Latifah, Summit Host
• Jay Ell Alexander, Founder, and CEO of The Vaughn Strategy, and of Black Girls RUN!
• Susan Allen, Former First Lady of Virginia
• Mika Brzezinski, journalist, and co-host of MSNBC’s show Morning Joe
• Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Professor of Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Former Superintendent of the Richmond Public Schools
• Pamela Northam, First Lady of Virginia
• Connie Nyholm, owner and CEO of Virginia International Raceway
• Nancy Redd, Miss Virginia 2003, author, speaker on women’s body image and founding host of HuffPost Live
• Anne Richardson, Chief of the Rappahannock Tribe
• Shannon Siriano, Founder of Rebelle Con & the Rebelle Community

On Monday, October 14, the Virginia Women’s Monument Commission will host a dedication ceremony for Voices from the Garden, the first-in-the-nation monument dedicated to Virginia women, on state capitol grounds in Richmond. The Women’s Monument Dedication Event will recognize the full range of women’s achievements by honoring 12 historic Virginia women who are memorialized in the monument. The dedication ceremony is free and open to the public.

The Women’s Monument Dedication Event and the Women’s Achieve Summit are signature events of Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution. Registration for the summit is now open and participants can register here.