ACE Women's Network

With a grant from the Carnegie Corporation in 1977, ACE’s Office of Women in Higher Education (now ACE Leadership) founded the ACE National Identification Program (NIP), which is now known as the ACE Women’s Network. The purpose of the NIP was to address issues relating to women’s advancement in higher education leadership. It is a mission that is still relevant today, and one that is supported by our state networks across the nation. In 1977, California, New York, and Florida became the first states to create an ACE National Identification Program. Within a year, they were joined by Wisconsin, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. New Jersey followed shortly thereafter.

Five years later, the ACE Women’s Network became a state-based national program. The initial grant proposed creating state planning boards with representation reflecting the state’s higher education structure. A woman holding a senior-level administrative position at a college or university would lead the planning committee as the state chair. Working with a panel of advisors of men and women leaders within the state, the planning committee and state chair were expected to create effective strategies to identify and advance women into senior leadership positions within the state’s colleges and universities.

Over time, the state networks have developed organizational structures that best fit their particular state and their specific needs. Nonetheless, the structure of a planning board, a state chair, institutional representatives, and the support of college presidents remain the hallmarks of the ACE Women’s Network. The state networks are linked to one another through their affinity with the Inclusive Excellence Group and a national executive council composed of women executives who serve as both mentors to the state chairs and advisors to the staff.

Today, the Women’s Network Executive Council (WNEC) uses geographic locations to divide mentoring responsibilities for individual state networks among its members. The chair of the WNEC works directly with the director of ACE Leadership to coordinate activities. State chairs are also advised by college and university presidents who have agreed to serve as presidential sponsors for specific states.

In 1997, NIP was renamed the ACE National Network for Women Leaders in Higher Education. The office was renamed ACE Women’s Network in 2002.

For additional information, please send an email to WomensNetwork@acenet.edu.

• Identify women leaders (and those with potential)
• Develop their leadership abilities
• Encourage the use of those abilities
• Advance women’s careers
• Link them to other women and mentors
• Support women in mid- and executive-level positions (and women in leadership more broadly) 

The Steering committee is made up of:

• Laura Frost, Associate Dean and Professor, College of Arts & Sciences (Institutional Representative)
• Andi Clemons, Director, Academic Affairs, Office of the Provost
• Precious Gunter, Director, Ethics, Equity, & Compliance and Title IX Coordinator
• Tifarah Pardue, Coordinator, Innovative Education & Partnerships
• Jenny Manegold, Chair and Associate Professor, Management, Lutgert College of Business
• Waneka McFarlane, EO, Compliance & Ethics Coordinator III

ACE women’s network activities are open to all faculty and staff.