Journalist Soledad O’Brien, with Help from Xavier Alumni, Inspires Young Women to Lead

Mar 10, 2019

Julianna Reminder couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

Here, on what seemed like just a normal weekday morning, she was able to converse, network and get advice from some of the area’s most successful female leaders. There were vice presidents. CEOs. And journalist Soledad O’Brien, who was already in town to serve as the keynote for the year’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

“This was such a unique, awesome thing to be a part of,” said Reminder, a senior marketing major from Cleveland. “It was so valuable to hear these powerful women talk about their stories. I could look at them and think, ‘I could be them one day.’”

About 100 young women from four area high schools attended a panel discussion Feb.27 in Xavier’s Conaton Board Room, where they heard from five prominent female leaders:

• Annie Daniel, senior vice president and managing director, corporate banking, PNC (a Xavier finance graduate from 2005)
• Nerissa Morris, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (a two-time Xavier graduate: business in 1982 and MBA in 1986)
• Jill McIntosh, vice president digital, Kroger (a Xavier graduate in business administration in 1994)
• Maribeth Rahe, president and CEO of Fort Washington Investments
• and O’Brien

“I knew I had a voice that needed to be heard,” said O’Brien, the Emmy-award winning host of the Sunday morning syndicated political show, “Matter of Fact.” “I worked and prepared and ended up being the CEO of my own company.”

The students came from Notre Dame Academy, Ursuline Academy, Mount Notre Dame High School and Purcell Marian High School. They were seated at tables alongside current students in Xavier’s Williams College of Business, and afterward, the groups were asked to reflect on what they’d learned from the panel discussion.

Each table selected a speaker and explained two points they wanted to discuss further. Themes included: Confidence in the workplace, finding a place to work that has values similar to yours, and the importance of mentors and internships.

“I learned to trust your gut, and trust your experiences,” said Savannah Quinn, from Ursuline Academy.

“We talked about P.I.E. — Performance. Image. Exposure,” said Jules Jefferson from Mount Notre Dame. “Look your best. Don’t burn bridges. And always be confident.”

For the Xavier alumni who were part of the panel, the experience provided a chance to give back.

“Always have a positive attitude, and find people who have the same attributes,” Jill McIntosh told the group. “Every day will be rewarding, challenging and exciting,”

After a campus tour, the students from the high schools, as well as those from Xavier, walked to the Cintas Center to listen to O’Brien’s speech for the Distinguished Speaker Series.

She urged a packed audience to use their own voices and experiences to set examples for leadership.

“Leadership does not have a particular face or gender or color or sexual orientation," she said. "Leadership is about ultimately understanding yourself and using that self-awareness to motivate and mobilize and inspire and make change wherever you are.”

O’Brien also recognized the women pioneers of Xavier University, which is celebrating the 50^thanniversary of becoming fully coed. In the fall of 1969, 52 women enrolled as full-time undergraduates in the day school.

“Fifty years ago, a bunch of women came through the doors, and they didn’t know what to expect,” O’Brien said of those first women students at Xavier. “So, I don’t think there’s any better way to salute and honor them than to have young women say, 'I aspire to lead. I can develop what it takes to get there.'”