Fourth Annual Women Warriors Summit To Feature High Profile Speakers

When Brad Smith came from Silicon Valley California to accept an opportunity to serve as president of Marshall University, his wife Alys Smith, wondered what West Virginia would hold for her.  

A lot, as it turned out.  

But one idea she quickly latched onto was the idea of launching a women’s empowerment summit, similar to the Women’s Leadership Conferences former California First Lady Maria Shriver used to hold there. 

“It was an outstanding event with thousands and thousands of women, some of the top speakers like Oprah, Hollywood stars would be there,” Smith said. “And I could see the impact on all these women, not just what you learned, but networking and having opportunities to buy women-owned products and services.” 

Hosting such an event had been a back-burner dream for some time, she said -- Silicon Valley has a lot of conferences. 

West Virginia? Not so much. 

“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to start the summit because Appalachia doesn’t have conferences of this magnitude. And of course, Appalachia, because the Appalachian women are hungry for connection and the opportunity to think bigger,” she said. 

The first summits have featured high profile A-list speakers including Nicole Kidman, Hoda Kotb and Trisha Yearwood. 

On Friday the fourth annual Women Warriors Summit takes place at the Marshall Health Network Arena in Huntington – featuring 3-time Paralympic medalist, New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports Amy Purdy as the emcee and speaker, and actress, entrepreneur and advocate Brooke Shields as this year’s keynote speaker. 

“When we were talking about the topic for this year being the power of reinvention, I immediately thought about Brooke Shields because she started as a model and actress at a very young age. And then she actually left acting to go to Princeton. She’s a bestselling author and entrepreneur, and she’s talked about aging and beauty and identity and motherhood and postpartum depression, all these different stages of her life,” Smith said. “It seemed to be a perfect example of what we’re gonna talk about at the summit.” 

The Women Warriors Summit brings women from across Appalachia for what’s billed as a day of inspiration, education and connection -- and, something Smith called her secret sauce: practical tools, meaningful conversations, and powerful stories from trailblazing women who have embraced reinvention and leadership in their own lives. 

For more information visit WomenWarriorsSummit.com.