APRU’s APWiL Mentoring Program facilitated a fruitful exchange between APRU member universities’ women leaders and other program participants. Held virtually on June 2, the Fireside Chat highlighted speakers’ personal stories, from accomplishments to opportunities and challenges throughout their professional career. During the Q&A session of the program, they addressed participants’ questions ranging from work-life balance to women empowering other women.

“There are many, many more women in leadership positions now than there used to be, and I think that is going to continue as we move forward,” said Professor Carol Christ, the Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, at the Fireside Chat.

“Being a member of a faculty in which the leadership was predominantly women was enormously liberating for me, really helping me grow in confidence as a leader,” she added, referring to her time as President of Smith College.

The other Fireside Chat speakers were Professor Dr. Kamila Ghazali, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) at Universiti Malaya, and Professor Nancy Y. Ip, Vice-President for Research and Development, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Professor Cindy Fan, UCLA’s Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement, served as the moderator.

“I’m only here today because of the support of the people around me,” said Ghazali.

“This made a huge difference in my entire career, and especially in the difficult situation when the pandemic first started,” she added.

Professor Ip, for her part, shared her experiences of working in the private sector, which prepared her to be the first and only woman in a senior management position.

“This experience was very helpful to navigate the situation, when I returned to Hong Kong where I often found myself being the only woman in a senior position,” Ip said.

This workshop is one of the activities of APWiL Mentoring Program. The APWiL Mentoring Program is designed to connect senior leaders at APRU institutions with emerging women leaders to create an effective network to overcome complex social and economic barriers to women’s advancement in leadership. The program’s overarching aim is the advancement of ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity of participants’ institutions.

Revisit the event recording at YouTube.

More information on the event page.