Strengthening Our Influence as Women: Confidence, Competence, and Leadership

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This workshop is designed to help women learn how to strengthen their influence by learning more about confidence, the differences in confidence between men and women, and what we can do to strengthen it. Based on interviews conducted with top women leaders around the world, Dr. Madsen will also mention some of the challenges women face in becoming leaders and how they have navigated through them to become successful. She will also share research on imposter syndrome, women’s negative interactions with each other, and why more Utah women need to step into leadership roles. Applications to women at work in any setting and as entrepreneurs, employees, and emerging and current leaders will be threaded throughout the workshop.


Meet the Speakers! 


Dr Susan Madsen 
Founding Director 
Utah Women & Leadership Project 

Dr. Susan R. Madsen is the Inaugural Karen Haight Huntsman Endowed Professor of Leadership in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. She is also the Founding Director of the Utah Women & Leadership Project, which focuses on strengthening the impact of Utah girls and women. Through the years, Professor Madsen has written a host of Utah research and policy briefs and snapshots, reports, and op-eds. She is also a well-known global scholar, publishing six books and hundreds of articles, chapters, and reports. Madsen’s research has been featured in the U.S. News and World Report, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Parenting Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post and she is a regular contributor to Forbes. She speaks globally, and in 2019 did keynotes in the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Lithuania, and Germany. She serves on many nonprofit, community, and education boards and committees, including Silicon Slopes, Envision Utah, Better Days 2020, Real Women Run, United Way of Utah County, Utah Financial Empowerment Coalition, and more. Madsen received a bachelor’s degree from BYU, masters from Portland State University, and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.


Ann Marie Wallace 
State Director 
Women's Business Center of Utah

Ann Marie Wallace is the state director of the Women’s Business Center of Utah (WBCUtah), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization funded in part by a federal grant from the US Small Business Administration. Ann Marie ensures the Women’s Business Center of Utah provides valuable and accessible resources for women entrepreneurs, collaborates in the local business community and influences the center’s impact of new businesses started, jobs created and increase in revenue.Ann Marie represents WBCUtah as a resource partner for the US Small Business Administration and currently serves on the Women’s Entrepreneurial Conference & Grant Competition Planning Committee, Salt Lake City Economic Development Loan Fund Committee and appointed by Governor Gary Herbert to serve on the Women in the Economy Commission representing small business. Ann Marie holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Utah State University.

Participating Organizations 



The mission of the Utah Women & Leadership Project is to strengthen the impact of Utah girls and women. We serve Utah and its residents by producing relevant, trustworthy, and applicable research; creating and gathering valuable resources; and convening trainings and events that inform, inspire, and ignite growth and change for all Utahns. We are working to move mountains for Utah girls and women and are hosted by the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.

The Women’s Business Center of Utah (WBCUtah) is one of a national network of nearly 100 centers supported by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) and is “designed to assist women in starting and growing small businesses.” However, unlike many other centers, WBCUtah operates as a separate non-profit organization within the Salt Lake Chamber, allowing it access to a unique set of tools and resources to aid entrepreneurs. WBCUtah provides a platform of business development and job creation in Utah by delivering quality and applicable entrepreneurial consulting, professional training and premier networking opportunities.