Women Leaders Share Insights Through UConn ELLEvate Panel

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ELLEvate Event Screen Shot
The panel, led by Laura Burton, department head and educational leadership professor at the Neag School, included Fany DeJesus Hannon, director of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC) at UConn; and Vonetta Romeo-Rivers, director of teaching and learning for Regional School District 10 in Connecticut.

The University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education collaborated with UConn Women and Philanthropy this past Thursday to host “ELLEvate: Supporting Women in Leadership,” a panel discussing women’s experiences in leadership roles.

The panel, led by Laura Burton, department head and educational leadership professor at the Neag School, included Fany DeJesus Hannon, director of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC) at UConn; and Vonetta Romeo-Rivers, director of teaching and learning for Regional School District 10 in Connecticut. Both Hannon and Romeo-Rivers are alumni of the Neag School.

Sharing How They Lead

For Fany Dejesus Hannon ’08 MA, who immigrated to the United States at the age of 20 from Honduras, many of the leadership strategies she has developed stem from her personal background and experience.

“I lead as a Latina,” said Hannon. “I come from a collective, loving family that values love, respect, and trust. I believe in the power of the ‘we’; I believe that I cannot do my job as a leader without my tribe, without my village, and I own that.”

The individualist mindset more typical of U.S. culture, she said, has challenged her in this way of thinking; however, Hannon’s childhood in Honduras instilled in her the power of collective thinking.

Hannon says she views her colleagues as her chosen family and stresses the importance of appreciating and acknowledging those who work and lead alongside you.

Many of Hannon’s messages were echoed by Vonetta Romeo-Rivers ’04 6th year, ’14 ELP. Romeo-Rivers also immigrated to the U.S., having been raised in Trinidad. In her current educational leadership role, she works to brings forth values of openness, honesty, and transparency that were instilled during her childhood. She encourages people to bring their whole self to work.

“Sometimes when you are that lone voice, that voice that is not typically represented in leadership conversations, it takes a certain type of courage and vulnerability to put yourself out there to ensure that those considerations are also at the table,” she said.

Learning and Remembering Your Why

Fany DeJesus Hannon.
For Fany Dejesus Hannon ’08 MA, who immigrated to the United States at the age of 20 from Honduras, many of the leadership strategies she has developed stem from her personal background and experience. (Photo courtesy of PRLACC)

During their leadership roles and professional careers, both Hannon and Romeo-Rivers remember their grounding “why.”

As a student at Smith College, Hannon says she did not have any Latinx individuals to look up to as role models, but she did have a strong mother who had imparted to her the value of education.

Hannon says the love and passion she has for her students allows her to work in an environment that she genuinely loves and to which has devoted her entire career.

“What motivates me, what gets me out of bed every day, is to see the transformation in our Latinx students,” she said. “I love them. They are the reason why I get up every morning to do this work; I love seeing them finding who they are.”

“What motivates me, what gets me out of bed every day, is to see the transformation in our Latinx students.”

— Fany Dejesus Hannon ’08 MA

Growing up in Trinidad, Romeo-Rivers was surrounded by a community and culture that valued education and teachers. She soon learned that being an educator was a job filled with honor and respect.

“It was part of my upbringing to see and feel that joy and love and appreciation for the profession, so that’s what I knew,” she said.

Like Hannon, Romeo-Rivers finds watching individuals grow and evolve one of the most beautiful parts of her job.

“I love educating, I love kids, I love seeing the shift, the growing; I love earning their trust, I love seeing them bloom and blossom and evolve as they grow, not only academically, but [as they] find out and figure out who they are,” she said.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Romeo-Rivers said she and her colleagues reminded one another why they were doing this work, and most importantly, for whom.

“When you remember for whom you are doing this work, that is how you push through the psychological weight of the invisible labor; that’s how you push through the self-doubt and the imposter syndrome,” she said.

Working Within a Male-Dominated Society

Despite the joys of working with students, both panelists shared, there are still many moments when, as women, they are forced to break barriers in order to be heard. They acknowledged the daily struggles of working a leadership role within a male-dominated society.

Vonette Romeo-Rivers.
Growing up in Trinidad, Vonetta Romeo-Rivers ’04 6th year, ’14 ELP was surrounded by a community and culture that valued education and teachers. She soon learned that being an educator was a job filled with honor and respect. (Photo courtesy of Regional School District 10)

“Within the past four years, someone said to me that I am not an executive leader, that I don’t know how to be one,” said Romeo-Rivers. “That person implied that I haven’t worked at that level of leadership before, and it’s not necessarily my fault that I don’t know how to be an executive leader.”

“There are so many times during the day that you have to re-center, that you have to take a breath, that you have not to be demeaned or diminished or muffled or silenced, and you have to find a way to navigate a system that may not want you there to begin with,” said Romeo-Rivers.

“You have to find a way to navigate a system that may not want you there to begin with.”

— Vonetta Romeo-Rivers ’04 6th year, ’14 ELP

Through such interactions, Romeo-Rivers says she has noticed the importance of learning what to take and what to leave, especially from those looking from the outside in.

“Thank God I didn’t have to depend on those opinions of those people to know my value and my worth to my profession and the career that I have dreamed of since I was a little girl in Trinidad,” she said. “Thank God I had things to anchor me, and it wasn’t that.”

When Hannon first began as director at PRLACC, she says she was often dismissed because of her age. Her willingness to be vulnerable and show emotion was also often a topic of discussion amongst her colleagues.

But it was during that first year that Hannon says she chose to define herself, rather than let others define her.

“I said to myself, I will lead the way that Fany DeJesus Hannon has to lead,” she said. “I embrace my vulnerability, and when it’s time to cry, I will cry.”

Instead of having to choose between openness and objectivity, Romeo-Rivers and Hannon stressed the possibility of embracing both at once.

“I can be both a vulnerable leader and strategic; I can be both outcomes-driven and still write handwritten notes to folks; I can still be brave enough and courageous enough to have hard and difficult, but necessary conversations, but I can still dress to the nines while I do that,” said Romeo-Rivers. “I can hold people accountable for our shared goals and move the needle towards those shared goals, but I shouldn’t have to worry so much about likability while I do it.”

View the event recording online.

What’s the IOC – and Why Doesn’t It Do More About Human Rights Issues Related to the Olympics?

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Editor’s Note: This article originally found on The Conversation, is co-authored by the Neag School’s Eli Wolff, answers five questions about the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and how they respond to human rights and other issues.

The International Olympic Committee, a nongovernmental organization based in Switzerland that’s independent of any one nation, was founded in 1894. It’s a group of officials who supervise and support the Olympics and set Olympic policies about everything from whether break dancing can be added as an official sport to what’s required for an athlete to compete on a team representing a country where they don’t normally reside. Because the IOC is often in the news, we asked two sports scholars, Yannick Kluch and Eli Wolff, five questions about what it does and why so many people want it to change how it responds to concerns about human rights and other issues.

1. What are the main things the IOC does?

The IOC coordinates what’s known as the Olympic movement, the technical term for the constellation of committees, federations, and other bodies that puts on spectacular sporting competitions every two years.

That includes overseeing the 206 national Olympic committees and 35 international sports federations. The IOC also supervises the specific organizing committees formed for every one of the Olympic Games, seven years before the competitions begin.

The IOC’s 101 members, many of whom are former athletes, meet at least once a year to make important decisions.

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They’re responsible for selecting where future Olympic Games will occur, electing their leaders, choosing new Olympic sports, and making amendments to the Olympic Charter. The IOC’s own officials select candidates for membership in the committee.

Thomas Bach, a German, has served as IOC president since 2013. He regularly convenes its executive board. He represents the IOC during the Games.

The IOC also oversees several humanitarian initiatives such as Peace and Development through Sport, the Olympic Refugee team, and the Olympic Solidarity program. The committee has observer status with the United Nations and promotes a worldwide symbolic ceasefire during the Games known as the Olympic Truce resolution.

Man next to Olympic flag.
Thomas Bach is the president of the IOC. (Eric Dubost/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

2. What’s the IOC’s mission?

The IOC has three main roles. The global nonprofit says “its job is to encourage the promotion of Olympic values, to ensure the regular celebration of the Olympic Games and its legacy and to support all the organizations affiliated to the Olympic Movement.”

In the Olympic Charter, the IOC goes into more detail about its principles, articulating the seven fundamental principles of “Olympism.”

These include placing “sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,” promoting the “practice of sport [as] a human right,” a commitment to political neutrality and shielding athletes from discrimination.

The IOC is also supposed to protect the ethics and integrity of the Olympic movement, prevent athlete abuse and harassment, and generally make competitions safe, fair, and accessible for all qualifying competitors.

3. How does the IOC get money, and where do those funds go?

About three-quarters of its funds come from the sale of the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games. It gets most of the rest through marketing deals. The IOC collected more than US $5 billion for the 2014 and 2016 Games, the most recent data it has made available.

Because the IOC operates as a nonprofit, its leaders do not manage this money as they might if it were a private company. Instead, the committee distributes 90% of its revenue to national Olympic committees, Olympic athletes, and other entities, reserving the rest of the money to cover operational expenses.

The IOC also provides half of the funds used by the World Anti-Doping Association, established in 1999 to research and monitor the use of prohibited medications and treatments by athletes. Governments provide the rest of the association’s funding.

Olympic athletes, especially those who compete on U.S. teams, get very low compensation for their participation in the Games, and they are limited in terms of their ability to earn money from marketing deals. Bach, although he is technically a volunteer, earns about $244,000 a year, and other IOC leaders are paid as well.

4. What are some of the controversies the IOC faces?

The IOC’s response, in 2014, to prove that the Russian government was sponsoring systematic doping of its athletes has led to widespread criticism for being too lenient and has sparked controversy ever since. To punish the Russian government, without sidelining all Russian athletes from the Games, the IOC permits them to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” without allowing the use of the Russian flag or anthem.

In 2022, doping remained a problem. That became clear when belated test results showed Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had used a banned heart medication several weeks before she competed in the Olympics. The IOC’s response to this news appeared to disappoint all sides.

A figure skater on the ice during the Beijing Winter Games, Kamila Valieva of Russia kept competing in Beijing after evidence that she had tested positive for a banned substance came to light.

Man next to Olympic flag.
Kamila Vaileva of Russia kept competing in Beijing after evidence that she had tested positive for a banned substance came to light. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Sport)

Separately, the IOC has failed to stop corruption in the bidding process for hosting the Olympics, a longstanding problem most recently exposed with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Olympic Games held in Tokyo five years later.

Human rights groups have expressed outrage over the IOC’s decisions that allowed China to host the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2022.

American sprinters Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos raise their fists and give the Black Power salute during the U.S. national anthem at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Bettmann/GettyImages
American sprinters Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos raise their fists and give the Black Power salute during the U.S. national anthem at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Bettmann/GettyImages

China faces widespread accusations, including from the U.S. government, that it oppresses Uyghurs in China’s western Xinjiang region. This abuse is increasingly considered to constitute genocide.

Many athletes and other people object to China’s repression of the Tibetan people. China has also drawn widespread criticism for cracking down on free speech in Hong Kong.

The United States and several other countries cited these concerns in announcing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Interestingly, the committee states that “at all times, the IOC recognizes and upholds human rights” on its website.

The IOC has also come under fire for its Rule 50.

Originally adopted in 1975 as Rule 55, it now states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” This is the rationale for why the IOC bars athletes from engaging in protests while they compete or during medal ceremonies.

Time and again the IOC has relied on Rule 50 to justify its commitment to what it calls “political neutrality” as a fundamental principle of Olympism – even when that commitment has contradicted one or more aspects of its mission.

5. Is the IOC neutral and apolitical?

Well, it depends on whom you ask.

“The position of the IOC must be, given the political neutrality, that we are not commenting on political issues,” Bach said when asked about the abuse of Uyghurs by China’s government at the outset of the Beijing Winter Games. “Because otherwise, if we are taking a political standpoint, and we are getting in the middle of tensions and disputes and confrontations between political powers, then we are putting the Olympics at risk.”

In 2020, likewise, Bach wrote that the Olympics “can set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another.”

Human rights experts and activists around the world, however, have called the IOC’s position to be apolitical a myth and urged the committee to take a stronger stance on human rights abuses.

Shortly before the Tokyo Games began, in the summer of 2021, more than 150 experts on sports, human rights, and social justice – including both of us – published an open letter. In it, we called on the IOC to demonstrate a stronger commitment to human rights and social justice.

“Neutrality is never neutral,” we argued. “As a reflection of society at large, sport is not immune to the social ills that have created global inequities. … Staying neutral means staying silent, and staying silent means supporting ongoing injustice.”

10 Questions With UConn African American Cultural Center Director

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Willena Kimpson Price in blue shirt with posters in the background.
As UConn’s director of the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center (AACC), Willena Kimpson Price ’90 Ph.D. has been instrumental in supporting UConn African American students’ higher education experiences for the past three decades. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)

In our recurring 10 Questions series, the Neag School catches up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to offer a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities.

As UConn’s director of the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center (AACC) and affiliate faculty with the Africana Studies Institute, Willena Kimpson Price ’90 Ph.D. has been instrumental in supporting UConn African American students’ higher education experiences for the past three decades. Price has steered the AACC to be recognized campuswide and throughout the United States as a university center that promotes an understanding and appreciation of the culture, history, and traditions of people of African descent.

Price’s professional education career began as a fourth-grade teacher in Atlanta, Georgia. She took a break from teaching to be a full-time stay-at-home mom, later she resumed her education career as a teacher in the gifted and talented program for the Dallas Independent School District in Dallas, Texas. Her career continued to blossom when she moved on to the Syracuse School District in Syracuse, New York, where she taught in the gifted program and became a school and then districtwide administrator, focusing on gifted and talented students for grades 2 through 12.

A graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, Price earned an MS in curriculum and instruction and a 6th year certificate in education administration from the State University of New York, and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from UConn’s Neag School of Education. Here, she explores her 30-year journey at the University of Connecticut, including her work with the AACC.

Q: What motivated you to pursue a Ph.D. in educational leadership with the Neag School of Education, and what was the focus of your dissertation?

A: I have spent my professional career as an educator. However, my greatest motivation is my calling to be a servant leader, and my love for teaching and learning was my motivation for pursuing a Ph.D. in educational leadership. My dissertation was on the Accession of African Women Presidents of Historically White Public Universities.

Willena Kimpson Price in a red outfit celebrating Kwanza.
Willena Kimpson Price speaks at the Annual Kwanzaa Observance Dinner in the Student Union Ballroom in 2012. (Ariel Dowski/UConn)

Q: How has the Ph.D. helped you in your role at the AACC?

A: Acquiring a Ph.D. in higher education is an extraordinary accomplishment, and it has given me a wonderful sense of accomplishment to be a role model for my students. Many are in the ranks of first-generation students. I am very proud that many of my students have pursued and are planning to pursue doctoral programs because of our example.

Q: What would you tell others who are considering pursuing a Ph.D.?

A: The best advice I can give is to be committed to excellence in all things, hard work, passion, and patience.

Q: Who was your favorite professor at the Neag School?

A: Oh, I love that question! My favorite professor was Harry J. Hartley, who served as the 12th president of the University of Connecticut. Hartley had served twice as UConn’s acting president, vice president of finance and administration, and dean of the UConn School of Education. Harry was a beloved university president and was an extraordinary university professor. He was a model of all the best the academy represents for students, faculty, staff, and alums.

Q: When you started in the AACC in 1993, what was your role then, and how has it evolved?

A: When I started at UConn in 1993, the AACC was in the basement of the old Student Union. Let’s just say our Center was not exactly a highly desirable space. We are grateful that over the years, our Center was relocated to the highly coveted space that was once the University of Connecticut Ballroom, thanks to the efforts of then-University President Philip Austin. It is a marvelously beautiful and well-appointed office.

My role has evolved to acquire collaborations and partnerships throughout the University over the year. One of the high points was when UConn conferred an honorary degree to the then-President of the Republic of Senegal, His Excellency, Abdou Diouf. I was the university host for the planeload of dignitaries who attended the Commencement Ceremony. I was also the university liaison to the Senegal Embassy, headed by Ambassador Mamadou Seck, in Washington, D.C. We also led university faculty, staff, community, and trustees to the Republic of Senegal. Our UConn delegation was honored to have a private audience with the President of Senegal. In addition, I was invited to have tea with the First Lady of Senegal in the Presidential Palace, the official residence of the President of the Republic of Senegal. It was quite a splendid time.

“We have to become better listeners and renew our individual and collective commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion issues.”

– Willena Kimpson Price ’90 Ph.D.

Q: Why did you decide to join UConn in 1993? How has it changed since then?

A: I am so proud to have been affiliated with the University of Connecticut family for many years. It was extraordinary then, and it became stronger and stronger through the years. We are a global institution that is recognized all over the globe for our excellence as a superior public higher education institution.

Three individuals, including Willena Kipson Price, gather at the African American Cultural Center wearing masks.
Willena Kimpson Price, pictured in the middle, gathers with an AACC student on the left and Angela Rola, director of UConn’s Asian American Cultural Center, on the right at the AACC’s welcome back dinner in September 2021. The welcome back dinner was the big kick-off to a year of community activities. (Photo credit: AACC)

Q: How has the AACC impacted the University and its community over the past 30 years?

A: The African American Cultural Center was established in 1968 to support African American students pursuing the highly coveted higher education experience. In 2018, we celebrated our 50th year of service to UConn, the state of Connecticut, and beyond. Our community represents the beauty of the vast African Diaspora. We have demonstrated, over the years, that we have supported our students in their adjustment to college life and the rigors of academic challenges. We promote the development of cultural awareness, academic excellence, social consciousness, and personal success. The African American Cultural Center is a warm, welcoming, and intellectually challenging environment that contributes to the vitality of the UConn campus for all students, faculty, staff, and alums.

Q: With the more recent prevalence of the Black Lives Matter movement, how has the AACC been able to help the discussion, and how can we continue to enable move this conversation forward positively?

A: Our AACC family has been engaged in a discussion about the Black Lives Matter movement for all the years of our existence. This is not a new discussion for us. We have been living it all of our lives. We have to become better listeners and renew our individual and collective commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion issues.

Q: The AACC recently kicked off Black History Month with a special event including renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and brother of the late George Floyd, Philonise Floyd. Why are these types of events important to the UConn community and what was the impact of the speakers’ comments?

A: The Opening Ceremony was wonderfully well received by our students, faculty, and staff. Attorney Benjamin Crump was here in person several years ago to talk about the Trayvon Martin Case. It was wonderful to have him back, although in the virtual setting. George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, was quite a splendid addition to the program.

It is critically important for us as a University community to observe Black History Month in the month of February although the AACC celebrates Black History Month every month of the calendar year. Our students were particularly moved by Attorney Crump’s longstanding commitment to Civil Rights issues and justice for all. Interestingly, as we were ending the virtual reception that preceded the program, Attorney Crump said that he was just informed of another killing by police in Minneapolis. We later heard that Amir Locke, a Black man, was fatally shot when police were executing a no-knock warrant in a homicide investigation. Students are very disappointed that these killings of Black men are continuing to plague the Black community.

Q: If you were to give advice to your younger self, what would it be?

A: The advice I give myself every single day is, “To whom is given, much is required!” and “Be anxious for nothing!”