After high school, when most of Anne Sempowski Ward’s friends were headed to the University of Michigan a few miles down the road for college, Anne took herself in a different direction—toward Duke University in North Carolina and its school of Engineering. Not that she knew exactly how to get there. The oldest child in…
Since babyhood, Tena Clark had a habit of tapping out rhythms with whatever was at hand — pencils, her fingers, eating utensils, you name it. “Drumming felt like music, and the music felt like it was coming straight out of me,” she wrote in her autobiography Southern Discomfort. But good Southern girls growing up in…
Studio Gang, the international architecture and urban design firm led by Jeanne Gang, and Lincoln Road Enterprises, a philanthropic organization focused on elevating women’s leadership led by Ann Drake, have unveiled the design for the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay. Overlooking Geneva Lake, the 24,000 square foot center will provide professional women’s groups with a unique retreat space…
Accelerate Action is the theme of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2025. Around the world, women and their supporters are being asked to get involved in ways that will advance gender equality while challenging barriers to progress. It’s a call to roll up sleeves and get in the mix — because women touch every…
The International Women’s Forum (IWF) voted Ann M. Drake onto its 2024-2026 Board of Directors at the organization’s 50th Anniversary Cornerstone Conference this November in Hong Kong. IWF’s mission is to advance women’s leadership today and tomorrow by fostering individual success and inspiring other women. With 76 forums operating in 33 nations around the world, the…
If it wasn’t for a fire that flared on a warm and windy night 150 years ago, Betsy Ziegler might not be leading the best incubator in the world today for women starting new enterprises. But in October 1871, the great Chicago Fire exploded and burned much of the city to the ground just as…