Provo's Trailblazing Women

Due to popular demand, our Lecture Series & Tea Party Luncheon is FULL! Thank you to everyone who RSVP'd. We will be sharing a video of the event for those who won't be able to attend. And don't forget, we still have a full schedule of events that you can attend on March 7th! Activities include a Suffragette Bike Ride, Film Screening, Roaring 2020 Afterparty, and more! Invite your friends and RSVP to a program that speaks to you!

And now, I am excited to announce our amazing speakers for Provo Women's Day! Get ready to meet some of Provo’s most established influencers, academics, social advocates, philanthropists, and thinkers. These women are changing the face of Provo with their passion and personal and professional projects:

Dr. Susan Madsen

10:05 AM

Strengthening the Impact of Utah Women

This lecture will focus on how to increase the impact of Utah women through strengthening their leadership identity, purpose, and calling. Dr. Madsen will also share insights on how to start changing masculine processes and systems in organizations and society in Utah County that can begin to unleash the untapped potential of women.

Dr. Susan R. Madsen is the Orin R. Woodbury Professor of Leadership & Ethics in the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University. She is also the Founding Director of the Utah Women & Leadership Project, which focuses on strengthening the impact of Utah girls and women. Through the years, Professor Madsen has written a host of Utah research and policy briefs and snapshots, reports, and op-eds. She is also a well-known global scholar, publishing six books and hundreds of articles, chapters, and reports. Madsen’s research has been featured in the U.S. News and World Report, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Parenting Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and she is a regular contributor to Forbes.

She speaks globally, and in 2019 did keynotes in the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Lithuania, Denmark, and Germany. She serves on many nonprofit, community, and education boards and committees, including Silicon Slopes, Envision Utah, Better Days 2020, Real Women Run, United Way of Utah County, Utah Financial Empowerment Coalition, and more. Madsen received a bachelor’s degree from BYU, masters from Portland State University, and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She has four young adult children and two grandchildren.

Amy Stellhorn

10:30 AM

Living by design, not by default

Amy will speak on designing the life and business you want, covering key lessons learned on both business and personal fronts in the last 7 years.

Amy Stellhorn is the founder and CEO of Big Monocle, an award-winning creative agency with offices in Utah and California. Big Monocle focuses on branding and brand experiences. Their full-service capabilities allow them to execute across a broad range of deliverables required for, say, a new web presence. From the overall infrastructure, user experience, design, and development, to the messaging, video, photo, and marketing strategies that the site would need to thrive.

Big Monocle was recently named International Small Agency of the Year by the DMA Echo Awards. The logo they did for the Women’s March has created an identity for a global movement in support of women everywhere. Amy has served on the board of AIGA SF, and currently serves as a board member of Braid Workshops (in support of women entrepreneurs) and Child Rescue (fighting sexual exploitation of children) and co-founded the Sego Awards for female founders and CEOs. She is currently obsessed with karaoke and baking sourdough bread.

Yvonne Baraketse

10:55 AM

Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world

An inspirational narrative of an educator, public servant, and immigrant on overcoming life challenges and serving the Community through education.

Yvonne grew up in Rwanda (East Africa) and moved to Belgium as a refugee during the Civil War in 1994. She lost her father and half of her extended family in the conflict. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from a Belgian university, Yvonne and her husband moved to the Louisiana to pursue higher education living in culturally rich New Orleans before relocating to Utah as refugees for the second time from Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. After returning to school to complete their U.S. Bachelor Degrees Equivalency in 2009, the Baraketses returned to Belgium and Yvonne worked for the British Embassy and the UK Representation to the European Union.

In 2014, Yvonne and her family moved back to Utah to pursue their dream of getting a higher education. She graduated with a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) from BYU Romney Institute. After which, she switched her career to Education. She then went back to school for a second Masters degree in Educational Studies from Western Governors University to become a certified teacher.

Yvonne is currently a French Dual Language Immersion Teacher with Provo City School District. The Utah Dual Language Immersion Program uses a fifty-fifty model, in which students spend half of their school day in the target language and the other half-day in English. Yvonne is also the Founder of Ngoma y’Africa Cultural Center, a nonprofit based in Provo whose mission is to preserve and increase understanding of African culture through the arts such as storytelling, languages, music, dance, and other educational experiences. Yvonne speaks five languages, has three children, and enjoys serving the community.

Tanei Henry

11:20 AM

If She Can See It, She Can Be It

When planning for the future, it is easier to aim for a goal that is within sight--even if it will take hard work to get there. The earlier a girl meets professionals and sets her sights, the more time she has to consider where she would like to be, ask questions, and start preparing.

When she first moved to Provo, Tanei Atagi Henry was captivated by the mountains. She loves to hike in the mountains to see what she can see. That attitude has bled into her personal and professional life as well. She loves to walk along paths and see what she can learn, do, and become.

Four years ago, Tanei started the Provo Girls Summit, a career exploration event for girls ages 8-12 which allows attendees to meet women professionals from a variety of professions and encourages them to consider what they might learn, do, and become. Since Provo Girls Summit's start, more than 750 girls have been introduced to women in 80 different paths. Provo Girls Summit is now part of a nonprofit called Introducing Tomorrow, where Tanei is the Executive Director.

Tanei was honored as a 2019 Sego Award Finalist in Community and Culture, and 40 under 40 honoree with Utah Valley Magazine for her work with Provo Girls Summit. Tanei is a content creator at The RBL Group. She and her partner are raising their four children here in Provo.

Lillian Hayes

Trailblazer Award Recipient

Lillian Hayes turned 100 years old this year. Her smile and kind eyes hide the environmentalist moxie inside her. She is a friend of the earth, the water and the air residents breathe. She also cares for the wildlife, particularly the birds in the area.

What took this stay-at-home mom and PTA president on a journey from caring about school conditions at Maeser Elementary School to fighting the government to save the environment was a story she read in a 1969 edition of the Daily Herald about a new road that was planned to go up Provo Canyon. Hayes’ work paid off and forced a change in the road’s alignment so it wouldn’t go over the springs between the Olmstead Power Plant and Wildwood housing area.

In the ensuing years Hayes fought against the growth of the Provo Airport because it would kill a bird sanctuary. She loves birds and was all about making their domain protected.

She protested the planned Four Seasons Ski Resort now known as Seven Peaks. And she always yearned for mass transit, advocating for it for years. She traveled back and forth to Salt Lake City for meetings and was elated when public transit was put in place, thus helping with air quality. In all, Hayes’ legacy is that of Utah County’s woman who was concerned about and fought for the environment before it was on most individuals’ radar.

Hayes married John Keith Hayes after the war and raised their family of seven children in Provo. Still an activist, Hayes is concerned that people don’t engage in public discourse or go to their council meetings. Hayes knows what she likes and she knows what she wants to say to residents of Provo. “Pay attention to what your government’s doing and find out where your water comes from.”