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Soledad O’Brien’s PowHERful Summit Hosts 300 Atlanta Girls

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The PowHERful Foundation hosted its final empowerment summit for the year on Saturday, December 15, 2018.

In partnership with the Sara Blakely Foundation, PowHerful empowered over 300 girls and women across the Atlanta metro area at Spanx HQ. Founder Soledad O’Brien hosted panels to benefit the girls and their parents.

Soledad O'Brien PowerHerful Summit Atlanta

Soledad O’Brien speaking with editor Annette Johnson

The PowHERful Atlanta Summit opened with a 360°health discussion led by the foundation’s board member Dr. Patsy McNeil; celebrity chef, Chef Ahki; national board-certified counselor Spirit; and Dr. Donna McCree, PhD, MPH, RPh, the Associate Director for Health Equity. In the chat between Sara Blakely and O’Brien, the Spanx founder shared a personal story of how her world was transformed by one of the most tragic experiences of her life – losing her best friend in a car accident in front of her. She emphasized, “There’s a hidden gift and blessing in every single thing we go through in life.”

Blakely even shared four of the greatest lessons she learned from the experience:

1. Don’t care so much what other people think of you, don’t be consumed by that
2. Visualize what you want in life and take a mental snapshot of what that is
3. Work on manifesting what you want
4. Let go of your fear of failure

To round out the year, the event incorporated parental sessions ranging from health and mental wellness instructed by Spirit, to college readiness and scholarship help with The Planner, Khalilah Hall. Linda Clemons led an energizing discussion around the power of body language and Morgan Wider of Wider Style helped each young woman style their size beautiful. Breakout sessions featuring vision boarding with The Sister Accord’s Sonia Jackson Myles and a practical branding session with Emmelie De La Cruz of Rev 15 Agency, and Alechia Reese of 360 Gateway Brands showed every attendee how to design the future they desire and then use their brand to develop key relationships. No summit is complete with an introduction to the vast opportunities in STEM with dynamic women like Billye Boddie, engineer, and author; Jodie Taylor, campus outreach and diversity specialist for Google; and Bettina Benson, founder and creative director of Chloe Kristyn. To close the summit, Nikkia McClain, of TENÉ NÍCOLE Marketing and Public Relations led the Women in Business panel with Arian SimoneofArian Simone Enterprise; Theia Smith, founding executive director of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative; and Altrichia Cook, entrepreneur and designer for Allusions by A.Lekay.

 

 

PowHERful 2018 Enrichment Conference: Atlanta, GA

Event sponsors included ChooseATL, Metro Atlanta Chamber, and Shutterbooth ATL who presented the 1stever After-Summit Party complete with photobooth, mocktails, and tasty treats!

 

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