By Taylor Trevizo
Division of Outreach and Community Engagement
The University of Central Arkansas Women’s Leadership Network will host an Empowering Partnerships event Nov. 15 from 6-8 p.m. at the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center on the UCA campus.
The program will feature Sherita Herring-Oglesby, owner of the Gallery Grapevine in Conway and founder of the Kreative Images Foundation; Dr. Alicia Landry, assistant professor and registered dietitian at UCA; and Leslie Thomas, licensed professional counselor and owner of An Embraced Life in Conway.
Herring-Oglesby, who has worked behind the scenes coaching, facilitating and strategizing with some of the top social entrepreneurs, celebrities and organizations in the world, will present a workshop on collaborations to promote self-growth. The workshop will encourage participants to implement relationship building as a business strategy for success.
“Empowering partnerships are more valuable than titles, income level or status,” Herring-Oglesby said.
Landry will host a workshop to discuss “self-empowerment through wellness” in the context of modeling self-care. The workshop will address size acceptability, nutrition and health, prioritizing topics such as body diversity, cultural assumptions and eating mindfully.
“So often, women are expected to be the superhero and perform at a level of impossible standards while maintaining a perfect figure,” Landry said. “By modeling good self care, you empower others to take care of themselves as well,” she said.
Thomas will speak about balancing the emotional workload in partnerships. By using tools and techniques from Acceptance Commitment Therapy, participants will learn new ways to manage emotional workload.
“Emotional workload can be defined as the time and energy that goes into managing a household, including who will be in charge of what, from getting the kids to events and buying birthday presents to managing your partner’s stress levels. All of these things can lead to a partner feeling overwhelmed or resentful,” Thomas said. “Participants will leave with tools they can utilize to help them, whether they tend to carry more of the emotional workload in their partnership, or less.”
This event is free and open to women. Refreshments will be served. RSVP online at uca.edu/outreach/wln-events/. For more information, contact Dr. Shaneil Ealy at (501) 450-3118 or email women@uca.edu.
