Ladies' empowerment group hosts panel of professionals

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Sabrina A. Moore
  • 460th Space Wing Public Affairs
About 35 women gathered for a Women's Professional Panel of four women active in local and state government offering advice and insights based on their own life and work experiences Aug. 28 in the Panther Den.

The panel consisted of Su Ryden, Colorado House of Representatives from the 36th District; Cathy Noon, mayor of the City of Centennial; Mary Chelsey, recently retired superintendent of Cherry Creek School District; and Lisa Buckley,chair of Command Information on the Aurora Defense Council, and CEO of American Automation Building Solutions.

The women talked about their experiences balancing work and home life, and shared that it is OK to not always have that perfect balance.

"I think it's about timing. I think if I went back and looked over everything I've done, you will see balance. But it was never balanced at one time," said Noon.

Ryden also shared that everyone doesn't have to take the same path. She offered, "My advice would be, you basically do what you've been doing all your life, which is doing the best you can with what you have and hope for the best outcome, because there is no one way to do anything, and you have to find your own way."

Col. DeAnna Burt, 460th Operations Group commander, asked what women looking for a mentor should do; Buckley advised that no one mentor will know everything.

"I always try to have about five to six people or so from different backgrounds, different parts of the world sometimes, different industries that would stretch me, that would pull me to a point that was sometimes uncomfortable," she said. "They wouldn't tell me what I wanted to hear but yet still knew me, cared about me, and was helpful to me to help me achieve what I wanted to try to achieve."

Ryden added, "If you don't feel you have a mentoring situation and you would like one, start looking for somebody that you think would be a good mentor and ask them because I would say nine times out of ten, that person would be so complimented by that, that they would love to do it."

When asked what challenges they've had to work through, Chelsey said being confident that she does know what she's doing and that she is capable is something she had to work on, and that helped her get the job done.

"It's knowing very well what your mission is and then finding other ways to communicate that mission for good so that people say, "Yeah, I'm with you," she stated.

The next Ladies' Empowerment event is the Castlewood Canyon hike scheduled 1 - 3 p.m. Sept. 28.

For more information, visit the Buckley Community Events Calendar.