Eye Team Members Enjoy Day of Empowerment

Last week, members of the UMass Memorial Eye Center attended the Worcester Women’s Leadership Conference held by the Worcester Chamber of Commerce. UMass Memorial serves as one of the lead sponsors of this incredible, inspirational day, which feeds the hearts and souls of our women leaders, and encourages them to learn, develop and grow.

Shlomit Schaal, MD, PhD, MHCM, President of UMass Memorial Medical Group and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences was invited to welcome the attendees and help kick off the morning. “This was a huge honor for me as I had the opportunity to do that exactly 931 days prior – at their last in-person conference before the pandemic struck. Being back in a lively room full of energized people was an unbelievable feeling,” said Dr. Schaal. “Everyone was vaccinated and masked, but it finally felt normal once again. The ability to physically connect with one another was something all of us had been craving, and it was everything we could have hoped for and more.”

Attendees started their day by listening to an inspirational morning keynote presentation by Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, who spoke about culture transformation from the perspective of leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, and finished that day with a keynote presentation by, Michelle Poler, Founder, Hello Fears. Michelle gave an exceptional talk about a positive mindset – facing your fears and not allowing negativity to cloud or deter you from achieving your goals.

Participants were also invited to attend workshop sessions, one of which was led by Dr. Schaal and her team of past and current women chairs from the Medical Group, Mary Maloney, MD, Diane McKee, MD, Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, and Kim Yonkers, MD, that focused on the efforts they made to Communicate, Appreciate, Support and Address the Inequities of caregivers during the pandemic.

“I enjoyed the Worcester Women’s Leadership Conference for a wide variety of reasons” said Katherine Ribeiro, Clinic Manager of the Eye Center. “I was able to meet people from other areas and other roles from UMass and we have now become connected and plan to stay in touch. The speakers were entertaining and motivating and provided concrete examples of how to plan for personal and organizational change and the encouragement and steps to do so. By being so memorable, I think the impact of this conference will resonate perhaps months or years from now.”