Wisdom. Camaraderie. Community.

‘‘
I don’t know what I enjoy more—–the lectures or the
scintillating lunchtime conversations they spark.
The thinking woman’s alternative
to just doing lunch...
In 2001, a group of Loyola Academy mothers established
the Women of Wisdom Society (WOW) to bring women
in the school community together to share in the pursuit
of knowledge and the life of the mind. Every year since
then, we’ve sought out some of the area’s most distinguished
and visionary professionals, educators, entrepreneurs and
innovators for a Tuesday morning lecture and lunch series
that’s lively, entertaining, sometimes provocative—and always
enlightening.
‘‘
WOW is one of my favorite fall events. I always
feel edified and enriched by the lectures and more
connected to the school community.
’’
WOW subscriber since 2008
’’
wow
wo m e n of w i s d o m s o c i et y
autum n 2014 L e cture S eri es
Co-Chair
9:15 a.m. —Motor coach departs from Loyola Academy
Noon
—Lunch and lecture at the Tortoise Club
2:30 p.m. —Motor coach arrives back at Loyola Academy
$65 for WOW subscribers who register for the two- or fourlecture series. Please note that the motor coach tour is not available as
a stand-alone event.
Tour fee:
Limited to 45 participants. Please register early to reserve your seat.
C
WOW’s 2014 Season at a Glance
hicago has always been renowned for its scenic
lakefront, but the Chicago River has recently been making
waves as the focus of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ongoing $6
million initiative to transform the polluted and neglected
waterway into the city’s next “recreational frontier.”
Our first destination will be the Ping Tom Memorial Park in
Chinatown. Award-winning landscape architect Ernie Wong, president
of the Site Design Group, will personally guide us through the 12-acre
park, with its Chinese landscape design elements, pagoda-inspired
pavilion, outdoor plaza, boathouse and stone walkway leading to a
floating dock offering access to a kayak and canoe launch.
After our tour of Ping Tom, we’ll head over to the Tortoise Club, a
classic American dining club on the Chicago River. While we eat lunch
in the club’s famed Red Room and Library, Betsy Hands, director of
outreach and community relations for Friends of the Chicago River,
will share her historical perspective on the Chicago River and its
continuing ecological and recreational revival.
Next, we’ll head north to the Clark Park Boathouse in Roscoe
Village, which was designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects
to represent the “poetic motion and rhythm of rowing” with its
architectural roof form. Designers from Studio Gang will lead us on
a private tour of the boathouse, which Chicago Tribune architecture
critic Blair Kamin lauded as “a stunner that befits Chicago’s status as
the first city of American architecture.”
Sign up for two lectures or the entire series.
Bring a guest and share the wisdom!
Tuesday, October 7
Chicago Victory Gardens,
Yesterday and Tomorrow
LaManda Joy
Director of Special Events
Joan Schniedwind
Special Events Coordinator
Beth Aldrich
Barbara Goschi
Jill Rueth
Gloria Athanis
Loretta Kenny
Donna Suhey
Cathleen Bottini
Danielle Mergner
Amy Thalmann
Pam Cirignani
Tracie Michalek
Ann Waris
Marcia Desmond
Kathy Pappas
Lisa Faremouth Weber
Dawn Dooley
Mary Petit
Jody Weschler
Mary Ellen Fausone
Mary Ann Quinn
Anne Williams
Mary Rafferty
‘‘
WOW offers what many of us
are hungering for: an opportunity
to connect with other women in the
Loyola community while engaging
in intelligent discourse about
some of the most intriguing topics
of our time.
’’
A longtime WOW subscriber
WOW Co-Chairs Mimi Brault (left) and Jennifer Gonzalez
AMDG
r o a d
The Revitalized Chicago River:
A Tour of the City’s
New Recreational Frontier
If you’re a longtime WOW subscriber, we’re
thrilled to welcome you back for our 13th season. If you’ve never
experienced our lecture and lunch series, why not start a new
autumn tradition that will broaden your horizons and change
the way you think about the world?
With its mission to connect and inspire women with
engaging speakers, lively lunches and intelligent debate, WOW
makes autumn one of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking
seasons of the year.
After each Tuesday morning lecture, join us for a catered
lunch and conversation with friends old and new. We look
forward to seeing you at the lectures!
Motor coach tour with lunch and lecture at the
Tortoise Club
Julie Fischer
t h e
Motor coach tour and lunch
Jennifer Gonzalez
Co-Chair
o n
Tuesday, September 30
Tuesday, September 30
The Revitalized Chicago River:
A Tour of the City’s New Recreational Frontier
2014 WO W Co mm i tte e
g o e s
A unique opportunity for WOW Lecture Series participants
A pa s t s e a s o n pa r t i c i pa n t
Wisdom. Camaraderie. Community.
Mimi Brault
W O W
Author, national speaker, master gardener and
founder of the Peterson Garden Project
Tuesday, October 14
ARZU Means Hope: Innovation, Empowerment
and Risk-Taking to Fight Global Poverty
Connie Duckworth
ARZU founder, social entrepreneur, author and activist
Tuesday, October 21
Balancing the What and the How:
The Critical Nature of Effective Leaders and
Strong Culture in Business to Drive Results
Mary Dillon
Chief Executive Officer, ULTA Beauty
Tuesday, October 28
Reclaiming the Divine Feminine: Re-Reception
of the Holy Spirit in the Divine Economy
Paul Pasquesi
PhD candidate in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity,
Marquette University
Clark Park Boathouse
Bring a GUEST if space permits: Motor coach tour participants are
invited to bring a guest for $65 if seats are still available one week prior
to the tour date. Please contact Joan Schniedwind at 847.920.2765 or
[email protected] after September 22 to inquire about availability.
‘‘
’’
I’ve been to nearly every WOW lecture since the series began. It’s a fascinating, fulfilling way to spend a Tuesday morning.
—
Wow series Subscriber
T u e s d a y, O ctob e r 7
T u e s d a y, O ctob e r 1 4
T u e s d a y, O ctob e r 2 1
T u e s d a y, O ctob e r 2 8
Chicago Victory Gardens,
Yesterday and Tomorrow
ARZU Means Hope:
Innovation, Empowerment
and Risk-Taking to Fight
Global Poverty
Balancing the What and the How:
The Critical Nature of Effective
Leaders and Strong Culture in
Business to Drive Results
Reclaiming the Divine Feminine:
Re-Reception of the Holy Spirit
in the Divine Economy
Co nni e Duckwo rth
ARZU founder, social entrepreneur, author and activist
Mary Dillon
CEO, ULTA Beauty
9:30 a.m. — Lecture in the Loyola Theater
11:30 a.m.— Lunch in the Marillac Room
9:30 a.m. — Lecture in the Loyola Theater
11:30 a.m.— Lunch in the Marillac Room
LaManda J o y
Author, national speaker, master gardener and founder of
the Peterson Garden Project
9:30 a.m. — Lecture in the Loyola Theater
11:30 a.m.— Lunch in the Marillac Room
D
uring World War II, more
than 20 million Victory Gardens
were planted by American families
to help prevent a food shortage. By
1944, these Victory Gardens—also called War
Gardens—were producing 40 percent of all the
vegetables grown in the U.S.
In four short years, Chicagoans planted 1,500 community Victory
Gardens—and more than 250,000 of the city’s residents started home
gardens as well. Ninety percent of these city dwellers had never gardened
before.
In this engaging and media-rich presentation, LaManda Joy will
discuss the pivotal role that Chicago played in the Victory Garden
movement. She’ll also talk about the resurgence in community food
gardening taking place on the city’s North Side through the Peterson
Garden Project—a community gardening program that transforms empty
urban lots into organic gardens and teaches thousands of people each
year how to grow their own food.
We know you’ll be charmed by this delightful presentation by one of
urban gardening’s most enthusiastic advocates, whose rallying cry “We can
grow it!” celebrates the influences of the past and the American can-do
spirit to change the future.
Recognized as the “Best Urban Farmer in Chicago,” LaManda Joy is an
author, national speaker and master gardener who wants to teach everyone
she meets about a better way to eat, a better way to garden and a better
way to sustain our natural resources. Inspired by the World War II Victory
Garden movement, she founded the Peterson Garden Project in 2010.
LaManda has appeared on PBS and other media outlets, spoken at the
Library of Congress and shared her passion for urban food gardening at
national conferences, garden shows, festivals and libraries. Her upcoming
book, Start a Community Food Garden: The Essential Handbook, will be
released in December 2014.
I
n early 2003, Connie Duckworth
embarked on a fact-finding expedition to gain
a firsthand view of the life circumstances of
Afghan women in the wake of 9/11. What she
encountered there changed her life—and led the
intrepid social entrepreneur on a journey that has
fortified her faith through service to others and
bolstered her belief in the possibility of peace.
Duckworth returned home and founded ARZU, a business with
a social mission to transform lives by empowering Afghan women to
lift themselves and their families out of poverty through artisan-based
fair employment, education and healthcare. This year marks the 10th
anniversary of ARZU’s operation in the “world’s worst place to be a
woman,” with an all-local Afghan staff and hundreds of women artisans.
You won’t want to miss this inspiring story of one woman’s
quest to make a difference with a social-benefit business model that
has attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, the
Departments of Commerce and Defense, the United Nations and
the World Food Program.
Connie Duckworth founded ARZU—which means “hope” in Dari, one of
Afghanistan’s two official languages—in 2004. Today, ARZU employs some
700 Afghans; produces award-winning, fair-labor rugs; provides access
to education and basic healthcare; and benefits the larger community by
operating women’s centers, preschools and parks.
A retired partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs, Duckworth
was the first woman to be named a sales and trading partner in the firm’s
history. The recipient of numerous awards for leadership, advocacy, social
impact and innovation, she holds a BA from the University of Texas and an
MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
J
oin us for a close look inside
corporate leadership and culture as one of
Chicago’s key business leaders reflects on
the lessons she has learned throughout her
accomplished career.
As Mary Dillon shares her insights on the
critical importance of leadership development
and a strong business culture for corporate success, she will draw on her
current experience as chief executive officer of ULTA Beauty. Under her
strategic direction, ULTA has continued to see robust sales growth, gained
momentum in e-commerce and completed the most ambitious annual
store-opening program in the company’s history.
Dillon will also share observations from three decades of successful
leadership at corporations including U.S. Cellular, McDonald’s
Corporation and PepsiCo Corporation and will offer her perspective on
the evolution of the retail industry—including the role of both brick
and mortar stores and online experiences in modern retailing—as well as
ULTA Beauty’s vision for the future.
Mary Dillon serves as chief executive officer of ULTA Beauty, a position
she has held since July 2013. Prior to joining ULTA Beauty, Dillon served
as president and CEO of U.S. Cellular, global chief marketing officer and
executive vice president for McDonald’s Corporation and president of PepsiCo
Corporation’s Quaker Foods division. She serves on the boards of Loyola
Academy, NorthShore University HealthSystem, World Business Chicago, the
Economic Club of Chicago, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of
Chicago and the Executives’ Club of Chicago. The Chicago native earned her
bachelor’s degree in marketing and Asian studies at the University of Illinois at
Chicago.
Paul Pasquesi
PhD candidate in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity and
Master of Theology degree, Marquette University
9:30 a.m. — Lecture in the Loyola Theater
11:30 a.m.— Lunch in the Marillac Room
T
heologically, God as Trinity
transcends gender. Liturgically, God
is emphatically and repeatedly treated
as masculine. Yet, for centuries, the
Holy Spirit was referred to as “Mother,” “Queen,”
“Bride,” “Lady,” “Midwife,” “She” and “Her” in
Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic and
Syriac.
In this intriguing presentation, theological
scholar Paul Pasquesi will trace the Divine Feminine back to its earliest
formulations and discuss its influence on the early roles of women within
the Church. He will also propose the idea of reclaiming the Divine
Feminine and discuss its potential to change our current-day debate
about the role of women in the contemporary Church.
This lecture also provides resources for ways to explain and
describe the Trinity and the role of the Divine in salvation history to
a contemporary audience. Accompany this scholar on a theological
journey back through time as he acquaints us with the ancient Church
theologians and authors who embraced a language and a theology of a
God in whose image we are made, both male and female.
Paul Pasquesi is a PhD candidate in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity
at Marquette University. His research interests focus on late Second
Temple Judaism and its literature (including the Dead Sea Scrolls and
Pseudepigrapha) and the impact of these texts on formative Judaism
and Christianity, especially Syriac-speaking Christianity, which developed
outside of the Roman Empire. He completed his undergraduate degree in
religious studies and anthropology at Grinnell College, worked toward a
master’s degree in biblical studies at Trinity Western University in British
Columbia, Canada, and holds a Master of Theology degree from
Marquette University.
WOW Registration Options
‘‘
WOW’s speakers shared valuable insights about current topics and trends and challenged me
to think differently about the world.
’’
— 2 0 1 3 W O W att e n d e e
Want to gain all the wisdom that WOW has to offer? Register for the full four-lecture series: $200
Want to be WOWed, but can’t commit to four lectures? Register for any two lectures: $125*
Please indicate your preference on the enclosed registration form.
*Only registering for two lectures? You’re still eligible to join us for the motor coach tour.
Visit us at www.goramblers.org/Parents/WOW for online registration and program information.
Registration deadline:
September 22, 2014