Former U.S. Surgeon General and Google Chief Health Officer to headline Women Making Waves

Now in its seventh year, Tulane University’s annual Women Making Waves conference will be headlined by two incredibly accomplished Tulane alumnae – former United States Surgeon General and Founder and CEO, Gulf States Health Policy Center, Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA (B *91), and Chief Health Officer at Google Inc., Karen DeSalvo, MD (M *92, PHTM *92, R *94, R *96). 

The annual women’s leadership conference will take place virtually on March 2-3, 2021 and offers participants an inspiring and empowering opportunity to gather together for informative panels, discussions and exciting networking opportunities. 

Tulane President Michael A. Fitts will kick off the Women Making Waves Opening Session on March 2 at 5:30 p.m. CST. Dr. Benjamin and Dr. DeSalvo will follow with a wide-ranging discussion about their time at Tulane and their individual paths to achievement, with advice for those just starting out and those a little further along on their own roads to success. The conversation will be moderated by Carol Lavin Bernick, Chair, Board of Tulane.

Register today.

Women Making Waves is designed to give concrete advice about how attendees can find ways to move forward in their careers whether through education, certification or other arenas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused job losses which have disproportionately impacted women. C. Nicole Mason, president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, coined the term “she-cession” to describe the coronavirus-induced economic downturn’s effect on women’s participation in the job market.

Nicole Bush, director of Alumni Career Services at Tulane, believes that Women Making Waves offers participants a unique opportunity to utilize the alumnae network to forge their own avenues of professional growth. “[With COVID-19] Women are leaving the workforce in much higher numbers than men right now. It’s more important than ever that those women stay connected to professional development opportunities.”

Bush regards this year’s virtual format as a wonderful opportunity to emphasize some of the conference’s strengths, such as networking and the popular Herstories panel, while opening it up to a much wider audience. Participants will also be able to access on-demand content tailored to the themes of the conference for the first time. 

Bush says, “The networking has always been a very important part of the conference so we wanted to make sure that we had a virtual platform that would facilitate that, which is why we are using [Whova]. It makes it very easy for people to connect throughout the day. You can review the directory and reach out to individuals for meet ups or discussions — it allows a lot of different ways for people to connect.”