Tracy Nowski, speaks tonight on women's leadership

Tracy Nowski, J.D., is the first speaker in the 2013-14 Distinguished Speaker Series sponsored by Cottey College's Institute for Women's Leadership and Social Responsibility.

Her address at 7 p.m. today, is titled "The Movement for Women's Leadership: Slaughter, Sandberg, and a New Path Forward?"

The event, to be held in the Missouri Recital Hall of the Haidee and Allen Wild Center for the Arts, is free to the public. The Center for the Arts is on the northeast corner of Austin and Tower streets in Nevada.

Nowski grew up in Toronto, Canada, where she attended a single-sex school from seventh through 12th grade. The opportunity to see first-hand what women and girls were capable of as scholars, leaders, and professionals had a lasting impression on her, and sparked her interest in women's rights.

Nowski pursued an A.B. at Harvard College in the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She completed a Juris Doctor. at the Yale Law School. As the chair of Yale Law Women, she helped lead a once-in-a-decade empirical study of the gender dynamics at the law school, as well as the organization's annual report on the family friendliness of private law firms.

For seven years, Nowski has served on the board of directors of Strong Women, Strong Girls, a national non-profit mentoring program for at-risk girls.