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Centers and Institutes
The People’s United Center for Women & Business is dedicated to bringing together a community of women and their allies who are focused on achieving their professional goals and sharing their wisdom and experiences with each other through skill-building workshops, motivational events and networking opportunities.
The center brings together women at all stages of work and life, and with varied backgrounds to learn from and support each other. In recent months, the center has offered virtual events focused on topics such as hope, resilience and healing during adversity. These events focused on ways to increase skills, improve self-awareness and build resilience while preparing for the future. As the pandemic stretched into the fall semester, the center conducted events centered on mindfulness, networking and inclusion.
A variety of center events with speakers and more intimate coffee chats are listed below.
The People’s United Center for Women & Business is dedicated to creating and growing a community of women and their allies. This event is a relationship-building experience held in a relaxed setting to discuss and share ideas that benefit you and your organization through added contacts and resources. Each event will begin with a short mindfulness meditation session from 1 – 1:15 p.m. led by Tami Reilly, director of fitness and well-being, and Terri Johnson, associate vice president of operations, before moving into the Coffee Chat session. (Event dates: monthly on Thursdays, February 11, March 11, April 8, May 12, June 10; all sessions start at 1 p.m.)
Register here for March 11 event
Register here for April 8 event
“Growing younger...with age.”
Anna Jakubowski is an engaging public speaker whose appearances include TEDx events, keynote addresses at corporate events and international conferences. She has over 25 years of professional experience in global companies, across developed and emerging markets in Europe, North America and Africa. During this time, she has successfully developed businesses and organizations having held various positions in the areas of strategy, sales, operations and business development, working for companies such as Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, The Coca-Cola Company and Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits.
This event has reached capacity.
The People’s United Center for Women & Business is pleased to offer free virtual salary negotiations training sessions designed for students and professionals, presented in partnership with the Women’s and Gender Studies Department with support from the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, the Office of Academic Innovation and Effectiveness, the College of Arts and Sciences Advising Center and the Collaborative for Interdisciplinary/Integrative Studies.
This event has reached capacity.
The People’s United Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Speaker Series will commence on March 3, 2021, at 6 p.m. with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who will offer his perspective on the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in Connecticut. This virtual program will include an interactive discussion. Participants are encouraged to ask questions live or submit in advance during registration. This event is co-sponsored by the People’s United Center for Women & Business.
Featured Speaker:
The PUCWB Spring Workshop Series will feature a series of monthly workshops throughout the Spring 2021 semester on various topics related to business success, including financial, legal and marketing to benefit current and future women entrepreneurs.
Featured Speakers:
Knowledge is power — and when it comes to your career and business, harnessing the power of financial know-how can make a difference. Whether you are a college student or a small business owner, the financial choices you make now will affect your life for decades.
This workshop will run 10 to 11 a.m. with a networking session to follow between 11:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.
Featured Speakers:
Knowledge is power — and when it comes to your career and business, harnessing the power of financial know-how can make a difference. Whether you are a college student or a small business owner, the financial choices you make now will affect your life for decades.
This workshop will run 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. A networking session will take place between 11:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. for all attendees.
Click here to register for the networking event
Click here to register for the small business owner workshop
Simone Morris '90 - Inclusive Leadership Expert
Simone Morris Enterprises
Djuana Beamon - Chief Diversity Officer
People’s United Bank
It’s no secret that women are struggling during an unprecedented global crisis. Personal stories of hardship from friends and family, viral articles on society’s betrayal of working mothers and global research on labor market trends have all demonstrated the pandemic’s significant social and economic impact on women. Join our panel of DEI experts and women’s rights advocates as they discuss the year in review and share practical insights for better-supporting women in the workplace in 2021 and beyond. You’ll learn best practices in inclusive leadership, forward-thinking organizational policies, how individuals can self-advocate in their current workplaces and tips for job-hunters seeking supportive work environments.
Featured Speaker:
Join the author as she shares her journey as an Environmental Health Advocate and
discusses her book about the basic human right to water and sanitation. More information is available at the link below.
Date: Thursday, April 15th at 6:00PM EST.
Co-Sponsored by:
Inclusivity and Diversity Council
People's United Center for Women in Business
Medical Students for a Sustainable Future
Victoria Tuttle '21
Kristen Anderson '21
Social media has become the most powerful community building tool ever created. With careful planning and a strategy, you can learn to rally a large and engaged community around your business. This leads to more sales and better brand awareness.
We will explore your social media goals and objectives:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What are the best tactics and techniques to drive real social media results?
- How do you manage it all?
By attending this event, you will also receive a social media marketing PDF toolkit with resources, bonus tips, and more.
The Kathleen Simione PUCWB Women in Business Scholarship program helps women pursue undergraduate and master's degrees in business that will further help to develop skills that are focused on enhancing characteristics associated with forward thinking leadership, conscious communication skills, authentic, ethical and honest self-reflection. Applications will be due on Monday, April 12, 2021 at 5pm EDT.
Amount: $2000
To provide opportunities for women to achieve their professional goals as well as to build a community focused on achieving those goals consistent with their personal values. This community of women and their allies is committed to lifelong learning, is eager to share, and includes the external community, students, alumni, faculty and staff. Our center is devoted to preparing our community for enlightened and engaged citizenship.
The center, as part of a thriving, 3-campus university, provides programs designed to educate and inspire women focused on achieving their personal and professional best through lifelong learning. The center also facilitates connections and thereby builds and develops an engaged community, where wisdom and experience are shared with each other to educate, inspire and foster growth.
Ambitious women and their allies coming together to engage in learning to empower themselves and others.
The center is part of a dynamic and growing university with a commitment to academic excellence and to building a strong sense of community enlightenment and engagement. It serves the needs of women professionals by providing opportunities for lifelong learning, professional development and community-building and citizenship.
“We felt it was important to continue to meet the needs of our community, especially during this time. We utilized virtual platforms to present our programming to ensure our community could continue its personal and professional development.”
Professors Julia Fullick-Jagiela, right, and Kiku Jones were appointed co-directors of the People’s United Center for Women & Business.
Co-Director Press Release
Two PUCW&B research grants will be awarded in the amount of $2,500 each to support faculty and/or student research that aligns with the center's mission.
Learn More
Mindfulness is more than just something practiced in quiet monasteries by Buddhist monks. In fact, nowhere is mindfulness — the ability to focus awareness on the present moment and acknowledge thoughts and feelings without judgement — more necessary than in the fast-paced, highly competitive business world.
The People’s United Center for Women & Business hosted an interactive workshop on mindfulness in the workplace on April 20, 2017. The workshop, presented by Cheryl L. Jones, chief mindfulness officer at The Mindful Path, LLC, focused on lowering stress, managing distractions, cultivating emotional intelligence and improving relationships in the workplace.
“Mindfulness is about noticing what’s happening within you and around you with a gentle, open mind,” Jones explained. “I believe it is the key to creating healthy and sustainable business practices for individuals, organizations and communities.”
Jones has been a certified health and wellness coach and an authority on mindfulness for more than 20 years. Her inspiring workshop echoed the center's mission to empower women to achieve their professional goals.
“Cheryl is a skilled teacher with a real passion for helping women reduce stress, build resilience and improve poise through mindfulness,” said Judy Gedge, associate teaching professor of business law.
For Jones, mindfulness isn’t just a cognitive tool for practicing mental and emotional self-care, but a way to help an organization improve its workplace culture. Mindful leadership and increased employee well-being and performance, she says, enables a company to attract and retain talent, achieve business excellence, navigate change and improve employee engagement.
“Mindfulness teaches professionals to clearly see how their work aligns with the objectives of their organizations and how they can be accountable for their part in its success,” Jones said. “Practitioners learn how to transform the way they work every day.”
Judy Olian, Quinnipiac's president, and Sara Longobardi, senior executive vice president of retail banking at People’s United Bank, shared stories and tips from their distinguished careers to inspire more than 300 professionals and students in November 2018.
To celebrate Women Entrepreneurship Week, Quinnipiac’s People’s United Center for Women & Business and the Women Presidents' Educational Organization joined forces to present a panel of three successful Connecticut women business owners from different industries in October 2019.
Kathy McAfee, America’s marketing motivator, speaks to students and faculty attending the o “Defining You” program hosted in April 2019 by the PUCW&B.
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In collaboration with the School of Business, the center launched a graduate student affinity group, Graduate Women in Business, which aims to promote a spirit of solidarity among Quinnipiac’s graduate students through a variety of educational and social events. This group serves to empower graduate women studying business by creating inclusive spaces to grow authentic connections, further gender equity and forge partnerships on and off campus. During Spring 2020, the group hosted a virtual book club that culminated in a live Zoom session with the author, Kate Crocco. It also had a weekly virtual Netflix Watch Party, virtual happy hours, and a virtual wellness event with Tami Reilly, director of fitness and well-being, called “Living Well While Living Online."
We believe education doesn’t begin and end inside the classroom. We live in an increasingly diverse and complex world that demands the knowledge, collaboration and empathy required to deliver meaningful impact.
Whether it’s turning ideas into viable business applications, or digging through human history by analyzing ancient artifacts, each of our centers and institutes pairs our students and faculty to transform academic theory into real-world solutions.
Our broad liberal arts core complements deep expertise across more than 100 degree programs to provide an education that equips you for an extraordinary career. Whether you are in high school and ready to pursue your undergraduate degree, currently in the workforce and looking to advance your career through one of our graduate programs or have ambitions of becoming a lawyer or doctor, we have the schools, programs and faculty that will help unlock your potential.