How Women Will Fix the World
Over the past two days, there was laughter and tears, excellent career advice, and a collective commitment to fix a broken world at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif.
As always, the members of the Next Gen community shared rich insights from their experiences—learn to overcome imposter syndrome here, get yourself on a board here, perfect that pitch here—but also tackled some of the seemingly intractable burdens that plague individuals and society.
Don’t miss this extraordinary discussion on opioid abuse disorder, an issue that resonated deeply with the audience. From Nicole Goodkind’s coverage:
“‘If someone had lung disease or heart disease, we’d be running 5Ks and putting their faces on T-shirts and raising money and posting on Facebook. But if someone has chronic addiction, you don’t want to say why that person is out of the office,’ said Laura Hutfless, co-founder of FlyteVu, an entertainment marketing agency. Hutfless’s partner struggled with an opioid addiction that stemmed from trauma he experienced as a survivor of 1999’s Columbine High School shooting. He passed away this year.
‘For me, walking in as a company leader and sharing my story and making a safe place for that, I found out about so many people in my company that were struggling in different ways,’ she said. ‘And it’s now not a taboo topic.‘
In response, Hutfless rolled out company-wide wellness and mental health programs: ‘As a leader at your company, it’s important to normalize this.‘”
And finally, in a lively and personal town hall, Next Gen’ers shared their best ideas for making sure that all people were fully represented in their workplaces and society, and explored how we could come together as part of a truly intersectional women’s network.
Vivianne Castillo, senior design researcher at Salesforce, Samantha Rapoport, senior director of football development for the NFL, and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, kicked off the conversation.
Stay tuned for Fortune coverage on that one.
While everyone felt they had a piece of the inclusion puzzle—we talked about prison reform, Black maternal health, mentoring, and mental health—the common theme that bubbled up from the room focused on restoring the humanity of the people who are systematically excluded at work and in the world, usually by design.
I am leaving Laguna Niguel with a hopeful heart and a long list of new ideas. Stay tuned.
Ellen McGirt
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