 And so, people want to present themselves. So you're back home. Yes, I'm back home. And how does that feel? I'm feeling good. I'm still to.... You're good. We're excited. Yep. Hi, everyone. Is that a compliment? You're awkward. You're awkward. You're awkward. I'm like, that's awkward. You're awkward. You're awkward. You're awkward. Yeah. You're awkward. You're awkward. I'm a little bit awkward. I'm a little bit awkward. I don't know what to ask for, how do you know her guys? Thank you. All right. This is a story by Melissa. She is talking, so she is one of those people on my list. I've seen you probably always look through your eyes, and I'm a special person. I'm not really a star, but I'm just curious. I'm just curious. Right here on the screen. It's just there. I'm curious. I'm curious. I'm curious to know your place. I'm still trying to find out. I don't know every day about. I don't know what that is. So are you ready to start? I'm just curious. That's cool. Okay, I think we're about ready to start. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Central Library. I'm Ramiro Salazar, Director of the San Antonio Public Library. This evening, we are celebrating the third annual Texas Women of Influence Panel Discussion. This event has become our signature event to celebrate Women's Month, which is the month of March. It's an opportunity to celebrate and recognize the many accomplishments of women, the history of women's contribution to America. And throughout the month of March, we have programs throughout the library system. We have 28 library locations. And almost in every location, we have some kind of a program to, again, recognize the contributions of women. We're very fortunate this evening to have a distinguished panel of women that have accomplished so much. And indeed, they serve as role models to other women and indeed men as well. They have, again, contributed so much. And we're very fortunate to have them be part of the panel this evening. And I would like to introduce them briefly at this point. They will be more formally introduced later by the moderator. So I'm going to start first with Mayor Ivy Taylor. We also have City Manager Shirley Scali. We have Via Board of Trustee Chair Copandrade and former Secretary of State for the State of Texas, Texas A&M San Antonio President Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson, and UTSA Institute of Economic Development Director Terry Williams, their members of the panel. Thank you all so much for making time to be part of this panel. Our moderator tonight is an inspiration in her own ride. Eileen Pace is the morning edition host and news anchor for Texas Public Radio, San Antonio's NPR member station. She's a veteran journalist who has worked in Texas throughout her career. She has earned more than 50 national, state, and local awards for her broadcast news coverage. And her stories have been heard on NPR, the BBC, the CBS, and ABC. Eileen became OAI's radio first female news anchor working alongside Bob Guthrie during morning drive for more than a decade. We're very fortunate to have Eileen here tonight as our moderator, and she will now introduce the panel. Eileen, thank you so much. All right, Remito, thank you. Now, it's my strategic workplace, because I know the guests are, but I'm not sure about mine. I may just want to pull it closer. That's habit. Welcome, everyone. I'm so glad to see everyone tonight. Thank you for coming. This is my third year doing this, and it's always fun. But last year, it was the same size print, and I didn't need the glasses. The women who are here with us this evening are pillars of the community and truly exemplify the national theme of Women's History Month, working to form a more perfect union, honoring women in public service and in government. Our first panelist is Mayor Ivy Taylor in the center. Mayor Taylor was elected mayor on June 13, 2015. Prior to that, Mayor Taylor was appointed to the office of San Antonio Mayor in July of 2014 to fulfill the unexpired term of Julian Castro, who went to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Previously, she had served as the district two city council representative for a total of five years. She's worked with lots and lots of neighborhood associations, developers, nonprofit organizations in order to facilitate inner city redevelopment. And I have seen then Councilman Taylor out in the community talking with people at their homes and in neighborhood groups, and she truly is hands-on. So welcome, Mayor Taylor. Our second panelist city manager, Cheryl Scully, to the mayor's left. Cheryl began serving as city manager of San Antonio in November of 2005. During her tenure, she's appointed executive leadership, reorganized city departments, streamlined city business systems, improved customer service, and elevated the professionalism of city management. Mrs. Scully has served on the San Antonio United Way Board of Directors since 2007 and was the 2013 United Way Campaign Chair, where she raised a record setting $52.5 million for the community. Thank you very much for being here, Cheryl. Our next panelist is Hope Andrade. Hope serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees for VIA Metro Transit. She also served as Texas 107th Secretary of State from July 2008 to November 2012. She was Texas 1st Latina Texas Secretary of State and the 4th longest serving secretary in our state's history, and she said she loved it. Welcome, Ms. Andrade. Our fourth panelist, and welcome to your relatively new position, Dr. Madsen. Dr. Cynthia Timienthe Madsen was officially confirmed as president of A&M University San Antonio February 12, 2015. She has served on a number of boards, including the Higher Education Resource Services Board, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, and the Western Association of College and University Business Officers. So welcome. We're excited to have you here and eager to hear from you. Our next panelist is Ms. Terry Williams. Terry is the director of the UTSA Institute for Economic Development Small Business Development Center and in the Professional Technical Assistance Center. That's, I learned tonight, the PTAC. So there are lots of things that she can tell you about what she's able to do for local entrepreneurs and new business people, and it's a very exciting program. Ms. Williams is the recipient of the 2015 Women in Leadership Award from the San Antonio Business Journal. She is also a 2015 graduate of the NEISD Leadership Northeast program. And I think you've also been an LSA graduate as well, the Leadership San Antonio program. So welcome to everyone. I'd like to take just a moment now to start and allow our panelists just to share a little bit more if they'd like to about their backgrounds. Mayor Taylor, could I start with you, please? OK, well, good evening, everyone. Thanks so much for being here. Just a little bit, I guess, about me. I started my life's journey back on the East Coast in Brooklyn, New York. Parents who were Southerners who had to leave home in order to seek better opportunities. And though they didn't attend college or have professional jobs, they created a great stable home environment and encouraged my sister and I to do well in school, which we did. And I went off to college and came back home and really kind of floundered as far as I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. No one had ever sat down and talked with me about what I could do with my life that would have meaning. All I knew was that you'd go to college and then you'd get a good job. And I wasn't quite sure how exactly that happened. So after a few years of getting jobs that I hated, I decided I need to go back to school but I didn't know what I wanted to study. I was just going to go to night school in New York and keep working. But I looked through the catalog for the local school there and I started at A because I didn't know what I wanted to study. When I got to U, I discovered urban planning. Decided that that was very interesting and that set me on the path that ultimately led me to San Antonio. First I made a stopover at UNC Chapel Hill Goatar Hills. I'm going to win the final four this year. But anyways, I came here for a summer job and started my career in public service. I'm a wife and mom and it's been a joy and a pleasure to have the privilege to serve my doctor hometown as mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Miss Cully, would you like to talk about that same thing? Well, first of all, I want to recognize we have several women from the city organization who are here tonight. And I'd like to ask them to stand so that you can see who they are. Kathy and Maria and Alt Felicia, okay, Wanda. We have several, thank you for being here tonight. These are women within our city organization and I'm happy to say we have 40% of our city executives are women. That would be department heads, assistant department heads, deputy and assistant city managers. And so we work as women to develop and support and promote other women within the organization and a few men along the way too. I've been in city management all of my career. I began working right out of college with the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. I have an undergraduate degree in political science and journalism. I grew up in the Chicago area. I'm the oldest of seven children. Working class family and went to college because I was able to earn a scholarship. I marvel at my parents. I have no idea how all seven of us, they helped us and we all have college degrees. And I can't even imagine that, you know, that many years ago, 50 years ago. So I started in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was worked there for 10 years and competed for the city manager's position and was selected at age 32. And at the time, 30 years ago, there were only five female city managers in the country in cities greater than 50,000 in population. And nonetheless, I worked there as city manager for five years and then was recruited to Phoenix, Arizona, had never been there. At that point in time, I had two children that were born while I was city manager, which is an interesting story in and of itself. Worked till I was in labor with both children. And so we moved across the country when I was offered the position in Phoenix as the number two person and worked there for 16 years. I was recruited to San Antonio in 2005 and it's just been a fabulous experience. This is, I love this city. We talked about loving our city today at noon and this city has so much opportunity. It's been a great experience. I work with a great team and I've had tremendous opportunities here in San Antonio. So it's a long city management, professional, public service career and I'm dedicated to adding value and improving the quality of life for our community. Happy to be here. Thank you, Cheryl. I appreciate it. Dr. Madsen, I wonder if you might tell us your journey. Well, certainly I was born in San Antonio here. My family like Ivy's family, my parents moved away for better opportunities in their lives. Neither one of my parents went to college but I was certainly in a home of love and we moved to California as a young girl and then moved to Alaska where I grew up. I started, I moved there when I was 12 until I moved back to California about 11 years ago, 12 years ago now and then back to San Antonio. I'm delighted and loving every minute of being back here. I went to like most traditional Mexican American homes. When I graduated from high school, my parents did not want me to move far from home. So I went to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks which was 1200 miles away and you could only get there by plane and received my undergraduate degree there and earned my graduate degree at the University of Alaska at Anchorage and my doctorate later in life at the California State University System. I was very fortunate in my career transition, much like Cheryl, I was a very young administrator. I became a vice chancellor for administration at 34. I was the youngest vice chancellor they'd ever had and when I went to the California State University System I was also a young vice president there in CFO. Not so young anymore but I am certainly enjoying my opportunity at Texas A&M San Antonio. I am married and I have two children in their 20s, one in college and one working in Los Angeles. Dr. Mattson, thank you so much. Everybody comes back to San Antonio, don't they? It's a wonderful place. Hope Andrade, I wonder if you might give us a little of your background and what attracted you to leadership. Well, I was born and raised in San Antonio. My parents were non-English speaking. They didn't have any education and I did what I was supposed to do as soon as I graduated high school I was supposed to get married and I was a good daughter, so I did. I married at 18. I won't tell you how long I've been married because then I will age myself. But I will tell you I'm still married to the same man and he's been my biggest champion and my biggest supporter. One of the things that we learned soon after we were married was that if we didn't want to move up and what we were working is that we needed to go back to school. And so we got our education after we were married. I started a small business and again, I won't tell you how many years ago that was but I started a small business in the 70s and I sold it in 2007 to a publicly traded company after I built it to 400 employees. And I will tell you I'm the biggest supporter of small business because I changed my family tree forever. After I had so many years of being in business I was so grateful to what I had been able to accomplish in this community that I saw the importance of giving back. And fortunately I had enough people in my office that I could step out of the office and do volunteer work. And you know, once you prove yourself in the community of not for profit there's always a place for you. And so I would always say, you know, I feed my heart through my work and I feed my pocket through my poor business work. But I've also had a very successful public sector career. I served on the Texas Transportation Commission for four and a half years. I was the first, I was only the second woman in the 90 year history and I was the first Latina. After I completed that I was asked to serve as Secretary of State, biggest honor to serve this great state of Texas. You can't imagine how many people envious of being in Texas. How many people wanna be Texan? When we went out and promoted the state it wasn't that we were out there recruiting. They were out there trying to impress us why they should move to Texas. And they also didn't understand the pride and the love that we have for our state. And so we're blessed to, I always say, to live in the greatest state in the country. After I finished in my term as Secretary of State I asked if I would ever be an opportunity to serve on the Texas Workforce Commission because I also saw that if we wanted to remain competitive, Workforce was one of the biggest needs that most companies looked at to see if they could come to Texas and grow their business. I completed my government service in June of last year. I came back to San Antonio. I had, the way I say it is I slept and I worked in Austin but I never lived in Austin. I lived here in San Antonio. So I came back home and my biggest gift in coming back home is that now I get to take my three grandsons to school every morning. And that is the best time of the day for me. I have one son and his biggest gift to me was that he married a beautiful woman that gave me three grandsons. And they are absolutely the love of my life and we have the best time. So came back, wasn't sure what I was gonna do with the rest of my life and so I started another business. And once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. And I'll tell you for me with the wisdom and the experience that I had, I felt like I needed to continue helping and serving. And so I've done that and many of you may have heard that we formed a consulting company, former center of Littice-Vandiput and I. And so we're out helping the private sector understand the public sector. Thank you, Ms. Andarotti. Thank you so much. Let's move to some questions now regarding your leadership and the reason that we're here tonight. If you would, Mayor, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't get to Terry. Thank you, Cheryl. Cheryl's going like this. She's so sweet. Terry, please, Terry Williams, please tell us about your path to leadership. That's okay, I was gonna let you just move right along. I'm so sorry. Well, first of all, thank you for the opportunity. I'm honored to be on such a distinguished panel and when I saw it, I'm like, are you sure you have the right Terry Williams? But I'd like to just take a minute to recognize two of my biggest supporters, my husband and my mother-in-law that's here with me. Thank you. Thank you. But I was BOI. Those of you who know what BOI is, I was born on the island of Galveston, Texas. Okay, I've been here in San Antonio since I was five. Never left, stayed here. Of course, this is my home. Grew up on the east side of San Antonio. Just left for a little while. I'd go to college, UT Austin, and UTSA, go Roadrunners, Hook'em Horns. Started my, I've always had a desire to be in public service, probably because of my influences in my life, being my mother, my grandmother. My father was a chemistry professor at Texas Southern University. My mom worked in several political campaigns early on for G.J. Sutton. Those of you who might remember the first black representative here, G.J. Sutton. He was also friends with Charles Evers, Medgar Evers' brother as well. So I've always had that public service enemy. Started my career in 1989 with the city of San Antonio in the economic development department. Starting the small business program there, was there for 11 years, had the opportunity to, excuse me, had the opportunity to diversify some of my economic development experience by also working for two black bases. Kelly, USA, Port St. Antonio now, formerly Kelly Air Force Base, and also Brook City Base. I also had an opportunity to be a business owner for a little while, having my own consulting business, Williams Economic Development Consulting. So now I am back in the small business arena at UTSA. So as you can see, my passion is for economic development, is small business, is the city of San Antonio being that I've had the opportunity to see the city transform into the city that it is now. I'm just fortunate to have that opportunity and I'm glad to be able to share some of those experiences. It's easy to see you have a passion and that's in your heart is helping other business people. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming tonight. So I wanted to ask you, what are some of the skills and things that you developed along the way that you have found useful to help you advance in your career and perhaps some people that influenced you along the way? Mayor? Okay, well, I think certainly as a planner, some of the skill sets that I've gained along the way go back to collecting data and setting priorities and then determining what's the best course of action after listening to various perspectives. So I think as a trained planner, I kind of tend to think in that way. Also, I think to see the connections between different areas. A lot of times we are passionate about a certain policy issue, whether it's education, transportation or housing, but we don't see the connections and the links between all of them and I think as planners, we're kind of trained to look at the big picture. I think that's valuable and also being a good listener, I think comes in handy in this line of work. Anybody that you can think of who influenced you in some of those areas? You know, there really isn't someone that I've encountered in my personal day-to-day life or in my family that I think has influenced me in those areas. Sometimes I read biographies of folks that have done bigger and better things and I find those to be inspirational. So I kind of pick up nuggets along the way but there probably isn't one person that I can point to or that I've tried to model myself after. That's good advice. Picking up nuggets along the way. I'll skip around a little bit. Dr. Metz, and I wonder if you can tell us some of the things that have helped you to develop your career and maybe who's your big influencer? Well certainly, I think one of the, whatever your area of expertise is in my case, my professional area of expertise has always been in administration and finance and so some of those skills are technical and whatever your points of pride are as an individual and as a professional you have to develop technically. So you have those things that are just a given and in this day and age those are just considered threshold skills. So you need to be very competent at whatever it is you do as a profession. I think on top of that in my area of scholarship and publication is around leadership and I think one of the areas where I have spent a lot of focused time over my entire career has been on focusing on leadership acumen, the leadership expertise and really understanding what the academic literature says about leadership and practicing leadership but then living it out in what you do in your workplace. The other element that I find to have been very important is really an area that I picked up that I would say was actually one of the most intimidating roles I've had and that is that of learning more academically, practically and in a professional workplace issues around inclusive excellence, social and cultural competence and what that means and certainly within the academy at the university, what it means for students who come to us, what it means to the communities that we serve and what it means to be a leader and what it means to be a leader in an inclusive way in a public sector role when you work in a community like higher education or the university where I'm responsible for a wide range of welcoming cultures but as well as administrative practices and policies and role modeling those behaviors. So I think those two are very important. For myself personally, I think one of the innate characteristics that I possess that have helped me everywhere I've been is drive. I have an overwhelming drive and I'm very enthusiastic and energetic about everything that I do and when I'm not I need to change directions and do something else. I think those are some of the things that set me apart from others but I also think that some of the things that bring women together is the professional enthusiasm and the energy to help ourselves and I've always said that there is no group more accomplished or they can accomplish more than a group of women when they put their minds to achieving a goal. Dr. Manson, thank you so much. How about you Terry? Well, I grew up a only child so I had myself to rely on a lot. Characteristics and I say this humbly but confidence, I really like a challenge and think that I can achieve whatever the end result is going to be confidence in the ability to do that. Finding solutions, being results orient is really what drives me. I like to look at a project or look at a challenge and say, okay, what is the end result and how do I get to that end result? Something that's meaningful as well, not just doing something to do it but something that's going to be beneficial to that target audience or the group that we're trying to serve, something that's going to positively contribute to the community and as I mentioned before, that's my passion, that's my drive. Something that I can say, hey, I contributed not for recognition or for credit but just to have a piece of that being a part of that solution. Thank you, Terry. Cheryl, tell us what you think. What are your big influencers and what skills do you think have helped you to get this far? Well, I would say my parents were my greatest influencers and I say that with deep respect. My brothers and sisters would say that I've been managing for a long time, not always when they wanted me to be managing them but my parents were only 20 years old when I was born and I know they've relied on me for decades to help them through issues. They were not college educated and but all seven of us are college educated and they believed strongly in the need to be educated to do the best that you can. There isn't anything that beats hard work and my dad always worked two jobs. My mother managed the household and told me that I needed to be on my very best behavior because there were six others following me through school and so I needed to do the very best so that they could follow in positive footsteps. I'm a very focused individual and like Cynthia thrive on something that's very challenging. When I left Kalamazoo, Michigan to go, when I was recruited to Phoenix, the mayor of Kalamazoo told the mayor of Phoenix that they needed to give me the hardest projects to work on because otherwise I'd get bored and might not stay with the organization and I think as we work at improving our communities, making sure that we're doing the best to add value to make the community a better place and inclusive place for everyone to have an advantage is very important and my parents, even though they worked hard and raised seven children, were always involved in the community. I remember my parents being in charge of the PTA, my dad being a precinct committeeman, working for candidates that supported their values and were always engaged in the community and as a product of the 60s, I subscribed and believed in that too and I think there isn't anything that beats hard work and I would say that my focus in personal discipline, I'm a marathon runner and that takes, it's about 90% psychological and about 10% physical ability and so that type of discipline, focus and tenacity really have helped me be successful and also surrounding myself with the very best talent, some of the women or the women who stood up that I introduced when I began are some of the highest and best talent in the organization so having and surrounding yourself with the very best is important as well. Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Ms. Andrade, could you give us your views on what your skills are that have mattered in your position? Well, I think the fact that I'm not afraid to take a risk and I step out of my comfort zone often and I have faith and I'm grateful each and every day for this incredible life that I've been given for the family and friends and people that surround me to, you know, none of us get here by ourselves. It's people that we have that believed in you and I will tell you, I probably had more people that believed in me than I believed in myself and so for all those that are on my list that I thank every day, my biggest influencer was my dad. I saw him how hard he worked. He was a gardener and he would always tell me that it didn't matter that he was just the gardener but he exceeded everybody's expectations of his gardening and so I live and work by exceeding everyone's expectations and I always try to find solutions and I get involved in things that I can, that I believe I can make better and that's, you know, when I drive home and reflect on the day, I wanna make sure that I use God's gifts to the fullest and that makes me feel good other than the traffic as I'm reflecting, lately I'm having more time to reflect because the traffic is on the way. Ms. Andrade, thank you so much. Dr. Madsen, you said something a minute ago that I'd like to go back to for our next question. You mentioned that when it comes to being, what it means to become a leader, you reflected on that a lot. I was curious if that has a different meaning for a woman or if you had any challenges through your career because of your gender. You know, that's an interesting question and, you know, I think about, I guess I'm not the kind of person that has seen a challenge in a way that's been a barrier because of my gender. I would say if I've had barriers and I would use that word very loosely, it's mostly being younger. Like Cheryl, that when you're, a place in a high position of authority or responsibility at a younger age, that in and of itself is something that can cause your mindset to shift. So you do have to act with confidence, as Terry suggested, in carrying out that role and the responsibility and understanding that. But I don't see myself having experienced significant challenges because of gender. Now I am, was in a predominantly male-dominated field when I was a CFO, but again, I think like others have commented, working hard, being technically competent, being perceived as someone who's a value add. I found myself in a number of leadership roles where if there were challenges, I was oblivious to them because of gender. Maybe that's a blessing. Maybe it's a blessing. So I may be an anomaly in that regard, but I haven't really experienced that. Mayor, does anything that Dr. Madsen said about what it means to be a leader mean something different to you because of being a woman or have you faced challenges because of your gender? Which is by the way the same as Dr. Madsen. Well I would say for me, as far as leadership, and I haven't done extensive leadership studies or written academic reports on it, but as a student of life, I subscribe to just the concept of servant leadership. A leader serves their community. A leader should be themselves as bringing the team along and bringing the team together. I very much see myself in that role as mayor and formerly as council member and in the jobs that I've had where I supervise employees. So that's kind of my style. But I guess I would say since being in this particular position as mayor of our city, I think maybe I'm a little bit more conscious of that gender aspect than I have been in the past. I haven't viewed being a woman as being a bearer to me, achieving any of the goals that I've set for myself, but I believe that in this role as mayor, that I think a lot of people are excited to see a woman in the position because of course San Antonio, we were trailblazers. I mean, we had a woman mayor back before many other cities did, a person of mayor line of comperell. So people are excited to see a woman back in the seat, but I think people are conflicted sometimes about expectations. I had a student political observer say to me, you're small in stature, but people want to know if you're tough, are you gonna on the big issues or are you gonna be tough? And then sometimes when I am tough, that gets characterized in ways that I think if a man were tough, it wouldn't be referred to as vindictive, you know, or whatever. That's a pretty popular meme, actually. So, you know, but I don't spend too much time thinking about it, so I don't see it as a significant challenge and I hope that, you know, just by virtue of me being in the position of doing a good job that a lot of younger people, young ladies, especially would view, you know, the sky is the limit for themselves as far as there are opportunities to be leaders in non-traditional fields. Cheryl, I noticed you had a little reaction to that, too, about being tough and have you ever perceived? Well, first let me say, I think my reputation is greatly exaggerated, so. Both the good and maybe the not as good. But, you know, and maybe because I mentioned to my husband I was participating on this panel in celebration of Women's History Month and he said, are they trying to tell you you're historic? Because anything over 50 years qualifies. I would just, I have experienced it. I mean, there have been barriers, no question, as the first woman in every position that I've earned. There, people are always watching to see if the woman stumbles, can't do the job. And so, and maybe it's because of my age and I've been in city management for so long, so there have clearly been challenges. Sometimes things don't change. I was, I'm chairing the International City Management Association Strategic Plan Update and was in a meeting with the top 25 city managers of cities in the country in January over a weekend. Of the 25, there were two women in the room and, you know, I reflected on so much has changed and yet so much has not changed and there is still so much work to do and I think we as leaders of our respective organizations and can help by developing women. We have a women's mentoring program in the city. We're in our third year and I'm just thrilled with the quality and the women I'm getting to know in the organization that I might not have the chance to deal with on a regular basis because we have 12,000 employees. And identifying and helping people further develop and that's our responsibility to help do that. I mentioned that 40% of our executives are women and so we have in our leadership capacity, the opportunity really to help train and promote women and help them develop to be the best that they can be. So it's still tough out there. I'll say that. I mean, what we're dealing with right now, the mayor and I with regard to our public safety unions, a lot of B words are being used. I mean, I'll be really candid with you and I don't think that I don't feel that I would be treated the same if I were a man in this position. Please note that men in this position previously didn't take on this challenge either. So there are definitely barriers. I'd say I've been able to cross those but it's still tough out there. Thank you Ms. Scully. Ms. Andrade, would you like to weigh in on the challenges of leadership as a woman and whether you've faced any challenges because of your gender? I think back then when I was starting a business and I'd walk into a bank that asked me where my husband was, was he going to come in and sign the note and I'd say, well, he's working but not with me. So once again, I try to stay very focused on the goal and I don't let that influence me. I've always lived by, you don't have to like me, you just have to respect me and that's how I've worked and I think in all fairness, I think it's difficult. Sometimes, like Cheryl said, being the first woman in positions that we've earned, people don't know how to work with us. They haven't had to and so it's really not their fault. We just have to help them be comfortable. They don't know what we're going to do. They don't know whether we're going to cry or what. And once they see that, hey, it's great to have us, they appreciate us. And so in all positions, I've gained the respect but I've worked at and I've worked at making and also feel comfortable and I think it's the way but I'm of the belief that respect me and if you learned to like me, it's better but that's it and I think I've had more challenges being short. I was like, the mayor even kidded me about how short I was. I said mayor. Thank you, Ms. Andrade, thank you so much. That's not so much the gender but the height. And how about you, Teri? Have you experienced some challenges, gender related or what kind of leadership development do you think, what does it mean to be a leader in being a woman? Well, growing up, my mom used to tell me that I was named Teri because my dad wanted a boy. Okay. And as you know, Teri is a unisex name in a sense. So at times people before meeting me, they think, oh, well, you know, here's Mr. Williams or you know, Mr. Teri Williams. And then when they meet me, it's like, oh, okay, she's a woman. So I'm in the field and I've over the years throughout been in economic development for 27 years. So specifically with my time at Port San Antonio and Brooke City Base, I did a lot of traveling doing business recruitment, trying to bring new businesses to Port San Antonio and Brooke City Base. Found out in that field, there's more men than women. So it got to be a matter of proving yourself in that field, talking the lingo, if you will, talking the men talk in that field until there was a sense of, you know, comfort that, oh, okay, she's one of us, you know. So those experiences, I think were a little challenging, but once you get that comfort and it's like, okay, she knows what she's doing, you know, in certain industries, economic development is that industry. I actually took up golf. I'm not very good at it, but took up golf because that was the game that the men were playing. At IEDC, which is the International Economic Development Council, Texas Economic Development Council, there was always a golf tournament. And you knew if you wanted to do business, real business, you had to be out there at the golf tournament talking to folks. So some of those experiences, you know, were a little different. So you're saying that other than golf, when you get to talking to people, gender kind of goes away after a while. Yeah, yeah, that's a good thing. I have just a couple of quick more questions. We're getting a little short on time, but I wanted to know if you've, A, had any challenges balancing work and family? And if so, did that influence your career path? And what advice would you give to women who are seeking public service? Mayor? Well, yes, I'm always struggling to strike that right balance on with work and family, but I think it's important for each woman to decide what balance means for her. I think trying to live up to some ideal that someone else has created on bringing home the bacon, frying it up in the pan, and all of that together, taking care of your kids, you can't live up to what someone else's image of balance is. So I just tried to work with my husband who of course is extremely supportive. I wouldn't be able to be doing all that I am if he weren't as supportive to determine what balance looks like for us and carve out quality time with my daughter. I know that I don't spend as much time with her as I could if I weren't doing this job, but I also know that she's had some extraordinary experiences as a result of me doing this job and that she has an example to see of how you can get involved and engage in making your community a better place. And I think that there's tremendous value in that. Thank you, Mayor. Hope, how about you? It's hard. I mean, it's not easy. And I talked to women today that are going through the same thing guilt, but I will tell you what my son once said, mom, get over it. You were my best role model. And once he said that, it was like, oh, it's okay. It's not, you know, of course it's not the quality. It's the quality. I've learned to practice something and I'll share it with you is that I heard saying once that said be where your feet are. And so if I'm home, I'm home. If I'm with my grandsons, I'm with them. When I'm at work, I'm at work. And so, and that seems to be working for me. I'm able to relax a little bit when I say, I can't be everywhere. So I'm, so today, right this minute, I'm where my feet are with these incredible women. And what about your advice for women that are seeking public service? I mean, you can do it, but you're still gonna have all this, you know, my family. What's worked for me has been communication. I always make sure that I communicate with my husband about my schedule, my week. If we're having dinner and I'm supposed to take a call when the phone rings and he looks at me like, are you sure about that? I've already told him before we start dinner, I'm expecting a call. I've been waiting all day long. And if the phone rings, I'm gonna take that call. And he appreciates that. My children, the same thing. They know when I'm not available for holidays or spending time with them. So communication has been what's worked the best for me. All right, Dr. Madsen, could you speak to that issue of balancing family life and work and what would your advice be? Not just in that regard, but in any regard for women seeking public service? Well, I tend to agree with Mayor Taylor's assessment that no one should define what that means to you. I think that is a difficult burden that women place on themselves, working parents, working mothers place on themselves. For me, I don't think I ever lived by anything that I would even remotely call balanced, but I did try to prioritize what was important to me. And what I found worked for me was to set time constraints. So for this six month window of time, these are the most important things to me. And that would allow me to give myself permission to be okay with the house being dirty or to be okay with the fact that I wasn't going to cook a meal or to be okay with whatever. The laundry was gonna stack up or my kids are gonna do their own laundry. Whatever the case may be. So being realistic about those elements helped a lot. I will tell you like many women, I think I self-selected out of certain opportunities or certain roles just because I didn't feel like I wanted to do that at that particular moment in time. But I took on a lot of roles that were very high pressure, very demanding, my children, my younger son for a good two years called me work freak. Because the type of things that were on my plate were 24 seven and you have to learn how to live with that if those are the decisions you make and you figure out how to make yourself okay with that and not to be judged by someone else's definition of what you should or shouldn't be doing. I think in terms of entering public service, I absolutely advocate for service of oneself in areas that make sense to whatever your personal value system is or whatever issues are of importance to you and then finding a way to contribute whether it's your time or financial support. But time means a lot to a lot of individuals so you have to be able to balance how that fits with the rest of your goals and be very focused about that and encourage others to get involved if they can and be okay to tell them if you can't do everything. It's okay to say no. It's nothing negative or punitive. It's okay to say no. But I like your phrase about being where your feet are. I'm gonna use that. It's a good, it's a good. I wrote that down. Terri, tell us, tell our guests too about the feelings you had about balancing home, family, your work and what you would tell women wanting to be in public service. Some clues, some tips. Well, during the intro, I failed to mention that we have two sons, 23 and 25 years old. And during, we've been, and during our marriage, we had an interruption because of the closure of Kelly Air Force Base. Yes, I'm gonna tell that story. But my husband's job got transferred to Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah. So we actually made a conscious decision for him to go to Hill. And I stay here with our sons because of family support, because of the support of friends that were here. So he was eight years at Hill in Ogden, Utah, while we were here and he literally got back home because he's at Randolph now, but got back home the day before our youngest son graduated high school. So there was a lot of balancing going on between working with the, at the city of San Antonio, at Port San Antonio. However, I managed to make every basketball game, every AAU game, every football game and be the sideline coach as well. But with that, we're about to have two college graduates. We're about to have a daughter-in-law next year. So I think we probably did okay. Congratulations, that's a hard job. It is. How about hints for women who want to be in public service? Again, I would tell them to have a passion for what they do, have a passion for public service. A lot of times, a lot of us, it's not an area where you're going to be a millionaire, you know, or make a whole lot of money, but you get a lot of satisfaction by serving the public. So you have to have that, putting the public first type of attitude, making sure that the public that you serve are gonna be the beneficiaries of what you do. So going into public service, you have to have that desire, that passion and make sure that you put those that you are serving first. It's more of a 24-hour job, I bet. Yes. Cheryl, how about you? What balances have you had to achieve in your life with your family? And what do you think about women wanting to go into public service? Same thing? I think what was said about, it's different for each person and you have to decide for yourself. I think I have some balance. My husband might not entirely agree, but it has to be an individual decision and I think Terri just said, you know, she was able to go to those games and you work in what's most important and you have that in your schedule and you don't allow things to disrupt that to the extent that you can. In our jobs, we're 24-7 and so my whole life has been that way and my children understood that. They're now 30 and 28 and I think they've had great experience because of the kind of work that I've done. I also have a very supportive husband and we've been married for 40 years. He moved across the country twice with me for my job, quit his job and went back to graduate school when our daughter was born and if you think about that 30 years ago, that was pretty unusual for a man to do that so he's a little bit of a Renaissance guy and very comfortable with himself that he would do that and he keeps me grounded so when I come home and I'm upset about an issue, he brings me back to okay, here's what's important about it and I calm down and sometimes have a glass of wine and okay, it's okay then. But my kids really respect the work that I do. They don't necessarily want to do what I do but they're also involved in their community and I think have learned from both Mike and I and my daughter was interviewed recently where she works and said that I was her role model and I think as a mother there isn't anything greater than having one of your children say that and our son is getting married next year to a Texas woman who is also a very strong, accomplished woman so I think I did okay. I think it's a good situation and that's really what it's about. You wanna be a great role model to the people who are most important in your life, your family but also to the community and I don't wanna emphasize that when women achieve positions, it's up to those women to bring other women along and that's what we do. I just wanna mention when my kids were born, I literally worked until I was in labor with both of them. When my son was born, my second, I only took off two weeks of work and went back to work. I was city manager and when both kids were born, I remember asking my doctor at the time, will my son be okay? And he said, your son will be fine, it's you I'm worried about. And I don't recommend that for women. I mean I did that because at the time there weren't women in city manager positions and there was a different expectation and so I go out of my way to make sure that women who may even want to job share or wanna work in a part time way to keep them engaged with the organization, try to think of other ways that we can accommodate those schedules because women sometimes come in and out of the workforce and that's okay if that's a personal decision. So we as women leaders need to help those family decisions because it's not just the woman's responsibility, it's also the men's responsibility. Thank you, ladies. We have just a couple of quick minutes and I have one more question I wanted you to offer some of yourself to our audience and let them really get to know you. So real quick, what is your one bucket list item that you are so eager to do? That you haven't done yet. What's on your bucket list, mayor? Well, I saw that question on the list and I thought, oh my goodness, how would I answer that, there's so many things, but you know, I'd love to do a lot more travel than I have right now, I guess I would say that. I've also kicked around the idea, I can't say for sure if it's on my bucket list, but I have kicked around the idea for about 10 years going back to school for a PhD, so. See now for you, I thought it would be zip lining. I'm not that adventurous. Cheryl, how about you? Well, I want to whitewater raft the Colorado River and I've talked with friends, my husband really isn't interested, but I have talked with a few friends who would like to do it so we will do that eventually and put a group together to do that. That sounds amazing and fun, Terry. Well, talk about untraditional. For those who know me know one thing I like to do to relax and you might say, this is relaxing, I play poker at every casino that I can. I love it. So I would like to play in the World Series of poker. That's on my bucket list. I've actually played in the tournament at the Rio Rio. It was about 92 people. I came in seventh place and I also played in the tournament at the MGM Grand. I came in third place. So I'm getting there. So why did you think you had to play golf if you had this in your seat? Because those with money play golf. Those who want to give me their money play poker. Thank you, Terry. How about Dr. Madsen? What is your big thing on your bucket list? Well, I'd really like to take three or four weeks off and go touring in Italy and Mediterranean. Oh, fun. That's my bucket list, but I will say I've never taken more than two weeks off of work ever, including when I had my children. Oh my goodness, your whole career. That's amazing. And Hope, what about you? What's on your bucket list? We know you take your grandchildren to school so that was probably on there, but now that's realized. Some of my best memories are with my mother at her sister's farm. And that's why I grew up, or that's why I'm a morning person because we got up at 4.30 in the morning to get ready to go out to work in the fields and, you know. So I've always wanted to get to buy a little farm and go back and just sit outside in a rocking chair and just relive those great memories. And that means that I may have slowed down by then. I don't know when that will happen, but maybe that for me would be proof that I'm slowing down because those are the best memories with my mom. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight. This has been very fun and enlightening. And I really appreciate everyone being here. Can you all... Castro, stop in and visit us. We didn't acknowledge him, but he was here. Yes he was. You guys snuck up. Yes, and I was planning to acknowledge him at that time. Yeah, I saw him when I thought... Snuck in and snuck out. So once again, I would like to thank the members of the panel for sharing with us your inspirational stories and for serving as role models for other women and men. Thank you so much for being here. Eileen, thank you once again for being a wonderful moderator. It's always a pleasure. Thank you for having me. We do have a token of our appreciation for members of the panel and our moderators that they will be distributed at this time. In closing, I want to thank all of you for being here to be part of the program. We do have a reception, so please join us outside the auditorium for refreshments. Thank you all for coming.