NeW is celebrating 17 years of educating, equipping, and empowering conservative women across the country. We look back at our top 10 successes and highlights this year and the impact we have had on conservative women:
1. 2021 is the Year of the Conservative Woman NeW declared 2021 the “Year of the Conservative Woman” following the historic wins women had in 2020. Every month we featured a prominent conservative woman as part of the campaign to encourage young women to be leaders in their spheres of influence. The women were members of the media, elected officials, entrepreneurs, and more. Some highlights included our conversation with Kay Coles James, President of The Heritage Foundation, in February on how to respond to criticism as a conservative woman. Katie Pavlich, Fox News Contributor and editor for Townhall.com, was our May Conservative Woman of the Month. She spoke about how conservative women are portrayed in the media and the importance of how facts are reported. Our August Conservative Woman of the Month, Marissa Streit, CEO of Prager University, shared her advice for young conservatives on how to be bold in sharing their beliefs. Her conversation with Karin Lips, President of NeW, reached 38,000 people on Facebook in less than 24 hours.
2. NeW Celebrates 17 Years of Empowering Women On September 28, we celebrated the 17th Anniversary of NeW’s founding at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. This event brought together college chapter women, members of the NeW Professional Network, and friends of NeW to celebrate the impact NeW has had on conservative women over the last 17 years. During the event, we honored Congresswoman Kat Cammack (FL-03) with the Empowered Woman of the Year award. Following the award presentation, she encouraged attendees and shared that conservative women are needed in the fight to make our country freer.
3. Educating DC Interns at Capitol Hill Intern Summit We hosted our first annual Capitol Hill Intern Summit on September 17 at the Capitol Hill Club. 50 Washington, DC interns gathered to hear Karin Lips interview Anita McBride, executive-in-residence at American University’s School of Public Affairs, former chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush, and member of the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council, about the current situation in Afghanistan and the future for women there under Taliban rule. The summit also featured a panel of NeW alumnae who gave advice and lessons about working on Capitol Hill. The panel included, Mara Mellstrom, Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Nancy Mace (SC-01) and NeW at Boston University alumna; Samara Brown, Legislative Aid for Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) and NeW at the University of Virginia alumna; and Charlotte Townsend, Press Assistant and Legislative Correspondent for Congressman Bob Good (VA-05) and NeW at College of Charleston alumna. The women shared what they wish they knew as hopeful DC interns, their proudest moments in their careers, and skills they found beneficial to succeed in the professional world.
4. Equipping Student Leaders at Retreat More than 60 of our college chapter leaders gathered in Chattanooga, Tennessee for our annual NeW Leadership Retreat. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from numerous speakers, including Senator Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee); Mary Kate Cary, Senior Fellow at The Miller Center and Professor at the University of Virginia; Cabot Philips, writer and editor at The Daily Wire; Emma Phillips, previous spokesperson for Young Americans for Liberty and author at The Tuttle Twins education program; and Rachel Riley, consultant and Rhodes Scholar. The leaders attended workshops on hosting events on campus, learned how to make their voice heard on campus and in the media, and made connections with conservative women from campuses across the country.
5. Book Clubs Bring Together Network NeW book clubs bring together women from our college chapters, the Professional Network, and other friends of NeW. This year NeW hosted Dana Perino, Fox News Anchor and former White House Press Secretary, for our Spring Book Cub. More than 100 women participated in the book club and attended our kickoff event with Perino on her new book Everything Will Be Okay: Life Lessons for Young Women (from a Former Young Woman) in March. NeW also hosted Dr. Yuval Levin for a discussion on his book, A Time To Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream. Over the summer, the NeW Book Club read Kind is the New Classy: The Power of Living Graciously by Candace Cameron Bure and Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West.
6. Speakers Bring Intellectual Diversity to Campus NeW is proud to present a different intellectual perspective that is lacking on college campuses today. From having policy discussions to bringing speakers to campus who are experts in their field. Some of the speaker highlights from this year included, NeW at Catholic University and NeW at American University co-hosting Morgan Viña, Vice President of Government Affairs at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and former Chief of Staff to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who spoke about her experiences as a conservative woman working in the political world and how she balances her personal and professional life. In the spring, NeW at the University of South Carolina hosted South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette for a conversation on empowering conservative women in leadership during Women's History Month. NeW at Mercer University and NeW at the University of South Florida both brought in Sophia Fisher, executive director of the Stop the Demand Project, to learn about the dangers of human trafficking. NeW at the University of Notre Dame heard from Lindsey Burke, Director of the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, about education policy in the United States and the efforts being made to reduce federal intervention in education at all levels and empower families with education choice.
7. NeW Professional Network Reconnects Post-Covid After nearly a year and a half apart, three of the NeW Professional Network chapters were able to reconnect, hosting their first in-person events since the start of the pandemic. The NeW DC Professional Network met for a picnic over the summer and hosted two dinners with Lyndsey Fifield, Social Media Manager for The Heritage Foundation, and Rachel Bovard, Senior Director of Policy at the Conservative Policy Institute. The NeW Columbus Professional Network co-hosted three events with AF-Columbus on Ohio’s Covid-19 recovery, personal branding, and communication tools effective leaders use. Finally, the NeW Philadelphia Professional Network gathered for brunch and to learn from State Representative Martina White.
8. Essay Contest Gives Students a Voice The 2021 NeW Essay Contest celebrated the historic wins that women had in Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Vice Presidency and asked what these achievements mean for the future of women in America and how women can come together to advance women. With the help of our co-sponsor, the Washington Examiner, we were proud to select Sydney King as the winner of the high school contest and Sarah Montalbano as the winner of the college category. Their essays were published in the Washington Examiner on May 30.
9. NeW Celebrates Gentlemen of Service During this year’s Gentlemen Showcase, America was encouraged to recognize and celebrate the gentlemen on their campuses and in their communities. Reese Dickerhoff, a Political Science and History major at the College of Charleston, was the winner of the title “Gentleman of the Year”. Ryan Krawczyk, an Environmental and Environmental Health Engineering major at Stevens Institute of Technology, was chosen as the 2021 Gentlemen Showcase Honorable Mention. During this year’s Gentlemen Showcase, more than 140 young men were nominated from schools across the country. We are already looking forward to 2022’s Gentlemen Showcase that will take place next month.
10. NeW Featured in the News NeW was featured in multiple news publications this year with op-eds written by Student Media Fellows, interviews of chapter leaders, and op-eds written by Karin Lips. Op-ed pieces were featured in USA Today, Washington Examiner, The American Spectator, Orange County Register, and The Federalist, and interviews were conducted with Fox News and the Tennessee Star Report.
NeW has deemed 2021 “The Year of the Conservative Woman.” Each month we are posting a conversation with a featured Conservative Woman of the Month. For the last month of the year, we are proud to celebrate and recognize our December Conservative Woman of the Month, Morgan Ortagus, Former State Department Spokeswoman.
Morgan Ortagus was the official spokesperson for the United States Department of State under Secretary Michael Pompeo. She was previously with Ernest and Young, where she helped establish a geostrategic business group. Ortagus served as Deputy Treasury Attaché at the United States Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the Obama administration. She is a Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer and has been a national security contributor and political strategist on the Fox News Channel.
We hope you will join us on December 9 at 2pm ET on Facebook Live for an engaging discussion with our inspiring Conservative Woman of the Month.
