MUW in conjunction with the American Association of University Women in Mississippi will host the conference titled "Going Places! Taking Charge!" Sunday, July 27 through Tuesday, July 29.

MUW, an institutional member of the AAUW, was chosen as a site for one of the four regional conferences to be held by the association.

The conference is being held for the Southeast Central Region of AAUW, which includes Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee. The conference was formed to complement the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders, hosted only once each year.

"It is appropriate that The W is hosting the first regional conference due to its historical significance as being the first public university for women in the U.S.," said Dr. Maggie McClintock, MUW institutional representative for AAUW and registrar for the conference.

She added, "AAUW holds this conference nationally once each year but this is the first time it is offered at a regional level thus providing women with the opportunity to participate with their peers and to have the opportunity to meet women who have already received leadership roles."

The conference is open to all current and freshman women college students; members and non-members are invited to attend. The main focus of the conference is the development of leadership skills and the development of personal skills for the college woman.

AAUW is an organization dedicated to the improvement of women's equity, education and empowerment. The association has more than 1,500 branches and more than 150,000 members.

McClintock said, "This is an important conference giving women a chance to first hear other women who are in leadership roles ... and secondly because it will hopefully provide them with skills that they can take back to their campuses and use in developing their own leadership potential."

Events begin on Sunday, July 27 with a dinner followed by guest speaker Allegra Brigham, general manager and CEO of 4-County Electric Power Association.

On Monday, July 28, there will be a President's Leadership Panel led by Dr. Claudia Limbert, MUW president.

Other panelists will include Judge Lenore Prather, the first woman chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and 2001 interim president of MUW, and Tammy Craddock, founder and president of Jubilations cheesecake.

Attendees can choose to attend two of three concurring sessions dealing with health and fitness, financial security and self-marketing hosted in the morning and afternoon.

Dr. Annette Low, University Medical Center, will lead the health and fitness session. Other participants for the health and fitness session will be Amy Weathers, registered pharmacist and owner of Southern Drug Store, New Hope Pharmacy and the New Hope Medical Clinic and Dr. Joyce Yates, coordinator of the health education graduate program in the division of Health and Kinesiology at MUW.

The financial security session will be led by Rhonda Ferguson, a certified fund specialist and a certified financial planner and co-founder of Financial Concepts.

The session leader for the self-marketing program will be Theresa Ervin, director of Career Services at MUW.

There also will be a non traditional career leaders round table discussion with Capt. Andrea Misner, Air Force T-38 instructor pilot at the Columbus Air Force Base; Jeanise Lane Andrews, technology coordinator for the Lowndes County School District; Deborah Grison, founder and CEO of Writes of Passage Publishing Group; and 3 Point Technologies.

Monday night's dinner speaker will be Barbara Travis, executive director of the Mississippi World Trade Center in Jackson.

On Tuesday, July 29, there will be a leadership training session led by Roseanne Ritchie-Fusaro, a certified professional in human resources and human resources-generalist at the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company, Ervin, and Robin Robinson, director of organization development and corporate communication at Sanderson Farms, Inc.

The conference will end with a luncheon and a presentation by AAUW's national representative, Shellie Solomon, also an economist and director of the south Florida office of 21st Century Solutions.

The cost of registration before Tuesday, July 15 is $85, which includes lodging, meals and conference materials. The registration fee without lodging is $60 and registration after July 15 will cost $95.