Lifelong Champions for Women Gather, Celebrate

The eighth annual Westmont Women’s Leadership Council Luncheon reached new heights with a goal of encouraging and empowering female students with scholarships and networking connections to help them thrive in their future careers. The event, which featured Henrietta Holsman Fore, a Santa Barbara native who served as executive director of UNICEF and USAID administrator, has grown so popular, organizers moved it to the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort to accommodate additional supporters.

Fore, who grew up in Santa Barbara attending Cold Spring and Crane Country Day schools, spoke to students about her inspiring career that seamlessly melded business, government and the nonprofit sector.

She urged students to enroll in finance, STEM and entrepreneurship courses. “Eight out of 10 of this generation are going to have to be entrepreneurs,” she said. “They’re not going to be jobs made for you, so you’ll need to make your own. Learn to love technology and machines for they will be your partners. Times will change rapidly. Technology and digital skills will evolve at rates that you cannot imagine.”

Secondly, she encouraged the students to not be afraid of failing or concerned with how their parents, friends or teachers will see them if they fail. “Every one of them has failed at something too, and you learn from failure,” she said. 

She shared one of her early business’ failures, creating greeting cards designed around the theme of tennis. “While we were excited about our cards, our buyers were not seeing as many reorders,” she said. “We realized that maybe we didn’t know enough about our markets, and we weren’t covering our gas or our time.”

She said she learned from the failure and didn’t dwell on the demise of her tennis greeting card company.

Next, she worked for her dad’s steel wire lath company, meeting construction customers and suppliers. She learned about corporates, welding, transformers and ordering carbon tensile strength steel wire. “I told my father I would stay two weeks, but I stayed 12 years, and I learned to love it,” she said. “Try new things, even something like steal lath that you don’t think you’d like, you will learn from it, and you will get roles where you will be the first. It’ll be lonely, but be confident that you can make things work. Women can do anything. Just set out to do the job and be curious. There’s beauty in the world. Go find it.”

Later, when Fore sought to serve her country, help the planet and serve others, she discovered USAID, the business arm of the State Department. This was the first of five Senate confirmations in the years to follow. She oversaw 14 people with a $14 million budget focused on private enterprise. “A business knowledge is enormously powerful in government,” she said. “It gives you a fiscal discipline to earn your way to sustainable social services. It gives you models of fairness for employees and services for citizens. In business, you must see benefits for your customers, for society and for your business. The morals and values that you’ve learned at Westmont will help in both sectors, particularly the value of respect.”

At the U.S. Mint, she put her college degree to use, recalling knowledge learned about history, art, and economics. “We turned in a billion dollars into the U.S. Treasury from our coin products profits,” she said. “We launched the 50-state quarter program and sold coin products online.

“And it’s an example of never knowing what you are studying now or learning now or working at now that will be useful later, but you will use everything you learn at one point or another in your life.”

She worked in the Department of State as the chief operating officer, served in the United Nations and ran UNICEF globally. 

“In closing, be a lifelong champion for girls, all girls everywhere,” she said. “Girls can do anything they dream of doing. Studying is not just to get a job, it is to make you a better person. Studying is a pleasure, and there’s a joy in learning. So, explore a wide range of disciplines. Westmont women, then, step out into the world as creative thinkers, thoughtful business and government leaders and community servants, making a promise to make a difference in the world.”

The event included President Gayle D. Beebe giving Anne Smith Towbes the 2025 Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree Spirit of Santa Barbara Award, which recognizes people who exemplified the life and spirit of Lady Ridley-Tree. Towbes, cofounder of the Women’s Fund and the Alzheimer’s Women’s Initiative, recounted her friendship with Lady Ridley-Tree, praising her generosity, style and influence. “Perhaps it was because of her fragile childhood that Leslie had the sensitivity, heart and dedication to serve the less fortunate,” Towbes said. “She truly felt, the more you have, the more incumbent it is upon you to give.”

Current Westmont student Whitney Alpher (‘27) shared her story of faith and education, expressing gratitude for her supportive family and the women’s leadership council’s generosity. “You may feel burnt out, stressed for what’s next in your life, or maybe you just simply have lost your spark,” she said, “but I am here today to tell you that God is working day in and day out, to prepare for you the most beautiful, unimaginable life planned for you.”

Alumna Drew Parisi (‘05) explained the council’s mission to help women students flourish by connecting them with the business professionals in attendance. “You can share your networks, internships and job opportunities with our students,” she said. “This event serves to inspire and celebrate women of excellence, and it’s our hope that our students become the inspiring leaders of tomorrow.”

The council includes incoming Vice chair Parisi, incoming Chair Sherry Nasseri (‘00), Kim Crawford (‘00), Courtney DeSoto (’94), Amy Eddy (‘02), Chair Denice Fellows, founding member Anna Grotenhuis, Cheryl Miller, Vice President and CIO of Westmont Reed Sheard, and Karen Yonally. Renee Curtis and Grotenhuis sponsored the luncheon. Westmont’s female leadership is also highly involved in planning and supporting the annual event and hosts women leaders in the Santa Barbara community.