Following months of intensive planning from a local Steering Committee of ten, ULI Triangle kicked off its local Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) at a lively luncheon on June 25, 2013.  Sixty-four women attended to hear keynote Diana Permar, Founding Principal of Permar, Inc., reflect on her career in real estate and the great mentors who assisted her along the way.  Diana urged the audience to embrace the times we are the only females in the room, add value by bringing diverse viewpoints to the table, speak up, and help each other.

Following Diana, Trish Healy, Co-Founder of Hyde Street Holdings and former ULI Trustee, shared the benefits of ULI membership with the audience, many of whom were not (yet) members and talked about ULI’s commitment to education and leadership in land use.  Trish, as a member of the National WLI Steering Committee, also provided an overview of the WLI Strategic Plan, and shared the Triangle’s additional mission objective of “making the business case for gender diversity.”   She then led us through an interactive table exercise on implementing WLI in the Triangle which yielded some creative and sometimes amusing ideas.

The Triangle’s next step is to survey all participants in order to prioritize and develop the best ideas from the exercise into an actionable plan.  The audience left energized by the conversation and ready to get involved.

–          Julie Paul, Executive Director, ULI Triangle