Morning Panel

What does it take to get to the top?  How do we overcome obstacles, become great leaders and achieve our potential?  Connecticut women who are at the top of their fields will focus and discuss how they climbed to their present-day success.

Moderated by Janet Peckinpaugh

Leadership Panel Members

Judge Anne C. Dranginis recently retired from the Connecticut Appellate Court to become a principle at Rome McGuigan, P.C., in Hartford, CT.  She received a degree from Manhattanville College and a J.D. at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Judge Dranginis practiced with the firm of Rome and Case in Bloomfield, CT until 1977 when she became the first woman Assistant State’s Attorney for the Connecticut Superior Court.  In 1985, she was appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court and in 2000 was elevated to the Appellate Court.  Judge Dranginis served in all capacities as a trial judge.  She was the Administrative Judge in Litchfield from 1990-1994 and was appointed the Chief Administrative Judge for Family Matters for the Connecticut Superior Court in 1994.

Ellen is the artist and founder of the American Mural Project, a three-dimensional painting 120 feet long, 48 feet high, and up to 10 feet deep, conceived as a tribute to working Americans.

Ellen worked as a photographer for Sports Illustrated, People, and Road and Track. She married racing driver Sam Posey in 1979 and began painting full time in 1980. She has had shows in Connecticut, New York, and Paris and received commissions from Times Mirror Magazines, General Motors, CBS Television, Miller Brewing Co., The New York Times, and New York Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
 
In 1982, Ellen designed the first label for Newman’s Own and organized the printing of 10,000 bottles of salad dressing. She is still a consultant for the company, which now has 23 products.
 
Ellen began the study for the mural in 1998, after returning from a trip to Boeing’s 747 fabrication plant, in an effort to express the scale of the plant and the planes. 

As the state’s 24th Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Labor, Patricia H. Mayfield is dedicated to meeting the workforce needs of individuals and local business communities throughout the state.

A lifelong resident of Waterbury, Pat served in a variety of employment and training positions at the Labor Department from 1968 to 2003, when she retired. She returned to the 900-employee agency in May 2006 as Interim Commissioner and in February 2007 she was confirmed to serve in Governor M. Jodi Rell’s new administration.

Prior to returning to the Labor Department, Pat served as Operational Support Manager in which she was responsible for the administration and oversight of the federal Workforce Investment Act, the agency’s Rapid Response Team, the Equal Opportunity Program and the Migrant Seasonal Farm Workers Program. She also served on the Governor’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. During this time she represented the agency as a spokesperson for workforce policies and initiatives. Her experienced leadership, vision and dedication to influencing public policy were honed during her career as a public servant for the State of Connecticut.

Following in the footsteps of her parents, Commissioner Mayfield is committed to public service and social welfare and is dedicated to addressing complex issues that affect the lives of so many in our state. In March 2006 she received the prestigious Sojourner Truth Award from the Waterbury Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. The award, named after the 18th century slave, Sojourner Truth, is awarded to a woman who represents outstanding community service and is an advocate for women and helping them to succeed in building a stronger society.

It is the legacy of her parents to which she continues to give and her strong belief that one can make a difference if they truly care about the plight of the disadvantaged and their fellow man.

Sara Laschever is an author, editor, and cultural critic whose bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, The New York Review of Books, The Boston Globe, Vogue, and many other publications. Teresa Heinz Kerry is quoted as finding Sara’s ideas “enlightening, unsettling, and ultimately, inspiring”.  Her broad-ranging interests have led her to write about popular culture (she co-founded one of the first online cultural journals, millennium pop), science, academia, business, and women’s issues.

Ms. Laschever is the author of, Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation—and Positive Strategies for Change and Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want, both written with Linda Babcock. 

Sara’s lively, eye-opening talks about women and negotiation have become popular draws for corporate audiences, colleges, universities and women’s leadership groups nationwide. 

Sara Laschever earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) from Princeton University and her M.A. from Boston University. She was raised in rural Connecticut and currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.