Business School to host Women on Boards 2020 initiative

Photo of outside of law school with Raleigh skyline in the background

On Tuesday, April 7, the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business will host a discussion on the importance of improving diversity on corporate and nonprofit boards at the Law School at Campbell’s Raleigh campus. 

The Women on Boards 2020 initiative is a global education, public awareness, and advocacy campaign urging corporations to meet or exceed 20 percent women directors on their boards by the year 2020. This organization found that 50 percent of the boards in North Carolina have at least 20 percent representation from women. Many others are working to improve their board diversity. 

The event’s keynote speaker, Lissa Lamkin Broome, is the Burton Craige Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Banking and Finance at UNC. She is a strong advocate for improving diversity on NC boards, and is head of the UNC’s Director Diversity Initiative, which works to increase the gender, racial, and ethnic diversity on corporate boards of directors. 

“I had the opportunity to attend Lissa Broome’s board workshop at UNC a few years ago and it was very enlightening,” said event organizer and Associate Professor of Management & Marketing at Campbell University Dr. Karen Mishra. “This will be an event that will help women, minorities, companies and nonprofits serve our community better.”
 
Mishra has served on a North Carolina for profit board and several nonprofit boards around the state. While serving on a nonprofit board in Winston-Salem, she observed that some board seats are held by local businesses who use the seats to give their executives exposure in the community.  To support company development, Mishra encourages executives to use their nonprofit board seats to give managers added experience and skillsets that they might not be getting currently in their jobs.  
 
“There is no exact science when it comes to filling seats with women or minorities—sometimes it is just who is next in line,” Mishra says. “Going through Leadership Winston-Salem in 2000 opened my eyes to see that we need to be more intentional about inclusion.
 
In addition, for both nonprofit and for-profit boards, diversity and inclusion means shaping the board to reflect both the community that is served as well as the clients and customers who are served. As board chair of a Durham nonprofit, Preston’s League, Mishra strives include younger women on the board, developing their executive skills so they can learn to serve their community and take those skills back to their workplaces.
 

The panel discussion will focus on how organizations can both prepare and invite more women and minorities to share their expertise on both for-profit and non-profit boards. The event will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Law School on Campbell’s Raleigh Campus. Following the keynote speaker and panel discussion, attendees will form breakout groups that will explore this issue of growing importance. Visit the registration page for more information.