International Black Women’s Congress 30th Annual Economic Empowerment Conference

The International Black Women’s Congress (IBWC) a non-profit, community based organization, headquartered in Norfolk, VA and founded by Dr. La Francis Rodgers-Rose, will hold their 30th annual conference September 19-21, 2014, at the Wyndham Virginia Beach Oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The theme for this year’s conference is “Black Women and Economic Empowerment: Rooted in Justice and Equality….” The goal of the three-day conference is to discuss ways in which to create economic development through the spending power that exists in the Black community. The conference will also address the issue of reparations and the fair distribution of goods and services.

Conference highlights include Six Plenary Sessions, Friday Networking Luncheon, ONI Awards Luncheon, Sunday Morning Brunch, Fashion Show, Morning Exercise and Meditation, Dramatic Presentation on Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and the African Marketplace.

Leading economists, lawyers, financial consultants, investment managers, entrepreneurs, sociologists, psychologists, ministers, and community organizers will participate. The conference will feature Elsie Scott, Ph.D., Director, Ronald Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center at Howard University; Bessie House-Soremekun, Ph.D., Director of the Civic Engagement and Entrepreneurship at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, IN; James Stewart, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Labor Studies, Penn State University and Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Ph.D., Professor, Community Justice and Social Economic Development, John Jay College, New York, NY and more than twenty other leaders in the field of economic empowerment.

IBWC, founded in 1983, is a global community of women of African descent, which seeks to bring forth exemplary models of African womanhood by defining themselves, embracing themselves and improving themselves through social, political and economic empowerment.

For additional information and registration for the 30th annual conference, call the headquarters in Norfolk, VA at 757-625-0500. Registration is also available online at www.ibwc.us. •