Building Bridges for Bi-directional Travel: Nicole Mpouli’s

Nicole Mpouli, Immediate Past Chair of our Lifelong Leadership and Learning Committee and newly appointed Chair of our International Relations and Membership Committees, gave a fascinating and actionable presentation on the first day of IGNITE 2026. Building Bridges: Women Leading Through Inclusive Networking, covered important ground.

Its focus was the concept of building and traveling on bridges: not the physical kind, the kind between people, especially women in the workplace. The kind that allows one woman to help another, or several others.

She focused on the BRIDGE Framework, a process she created as “a practical method for turning relationships into belonging, access, growth, generosity, and opportunity.”

The process encourages us to take specific steps in a prescribed order, using the letters of the word bridge to build bridges of inclusivity that benefit us all.

B = BELONG

Create spaces where people feel they matter and everyone is included. See people before positions. Notice who is missing. Create psychological and social space for their participation.

R = REACH

Intentionally connect beyond your normal circles. Cross generations, cultures, industries, and levels of influence.

I = INCLUDE

Move from simple physical diversity in the room to more voices included in the conversation. Invite people to speak, to be on committees and panels. Invite them into opportunities for growth, contribution, and advancement.

D = DEVELOP

Invest in people and relationships for their own sake, not because you do or might need them. A mentor is a coach, sponsor, teacher—someone who shares what they know.

G = GIVE

Lead with generosity before asking for anything in return. Give introductions, advice, time, visibility, encouragement.

E = ELEVATE

Use your influence to open doors for others. Don’t just mention them: celebrate them, recommend them, nominate them, speak their names in rooms they are not in.

Inclusive networking is not collecting business cards, LinkedIn connections, or searching for people who can help you.

Inclusive networking is asking:

• Who is not in the room?
• Whose voice is not being heard?
• Who deserves an opportunity?
• Who can I introduce?

The takeaway is that we, as women and especially as BPW members, should not be going out, whether to networking meetings, cocktail parties, work, or lunch with friends and asking for one favor, rather we should go out with the intention of making five introductions.

She encouraged attendees both physical and virtual to build a bridge before they left, but whether you were there in any capacity or not, it’s not too late for you to do it too.

First: Open LinkedIn and find some women whose names you have heard (or read about here).

Second: Choose one you’d like to know more about.

Third: Send them a message saying you met at the conference or have seen their name in the magazine or heard it in meetings or gatherings and you’d love to connect and explore how you can build bridges together.

Through this small action, we begin to turn inspiration into leadership.

You can see the entire slideshow here.

Lisa Dicksteen
NFBPWC Virtual

A Journey of Pain, Purpose, and Hope

When I first joined BPW, I carried a quiet hope that this would be a space where women could come together with dignity and work towards meaningful change. Over the years, I have experienced both the strength of this sisterhood and its challenges.

There have been painful moments that pushed me to my lowest point. In those dark times, two shining examples of leadership and empowerment stood out. One long-standing member resigned after 39 years in protest against how I was treated. Another international leader travelled across the globe to clarify governance matters. Their courage and compassion reminded me that BPW can be a place of integrity and genuine support.

At the same time, I have also witnessed the power of this organization on the global stage. I have had the privilege of speaking at parallel events during CSW in New York. These experiences showed me what BPW can achieve when we truly live our mission of empowering women.

I have found a seat at the table on many occasions, and I have been inspired by countless role models across the globe. On my recent trip to Taiwan, where I met over 100 people, surpassed itself in terms of hospitality, care, respect, love, and affection. BPW Taiwan created an unforgettable experience and priceless cherished memories, overcoming the language barrier with the language of human kindness and love — something rare and deeply inspiring.

Today, as Chair of the Gender-Based Violence Committee and NAC Training Coordinator, I continue this work with deep commitment. We are developing practical resources, such as the INFORM Guidebook, to support members in understanding and responding to gender-based violence. I am also focused on leadership development and succession planning, so that more women can step forward with confidence and purpose.

Looking ahead, my hope is that BPW becomes an organization where every woman feels safe to contribute, where gatekeeping gives way to genuine inclusion, and where contributions are recognised rather than diminished. I envision a BPW that focuses less on titles and more on impact where open dialogue is welcomed and succession is handled with care and generosity.

To the newer and younger members reading this: BPW needs your voice, your ideas, and your courage.

And to my sisters who have walked this path longer than I have: thank you for the legacy you have built. Let us honor it by passing it forward with trust and openness as architects of the future.

BPW has given me both pain and purpose. I choose to stay because I still believe in what we can become together.

Sujata Tiwari
Virtual

Engage with NFBPWC on Social Media

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Nancy Werner
Chair Public Relations
prchair@nfbpwc.org

Share your NFBPWC Magazine—share YOUR BPW

Our magazine is something to be proud of, something that lets others know who we are, what we stand for, and what we do—in short, it’s the perfect membership recruitment tool!

Let’s use it that way!

https://www.nfbpwc.org/emagazine

How?

1. Post this link to the magazine page of the NFBPWC website wherever you share about your local organization: on your website, on your Instagram, on your Facebook page, on your TicToc.
2. Add it to the end of your club’s email signature and your own.
3. Add it to all your personal social media accounts as well.

Nominations for 2026/2028 Elected Officers

In accordance with NFBPWC Bylaws, Article XVIII, nominations for elected office for NFBPWC 2026-2028 are now closed.

Nominations received by the published deadline are as follows:

President
Barbara J. Bozeman NFBPWC Virtual

First Vice President, Membership
Nicole Mpouli NFBPWC Virtual

Second Vice President, Advocacy
Barbara Davis California

Secretary
Nermin K. Ahmad New York City

Treasurer
Dr. Jo Naylor North Carolina

Young BPW
no nominations received

Nominations Chair
no nominations received

Required information to the Nominations Chair no later than the time the General Assembly and Biennial Conference general session convenes.

2026-2028 Nominations Form Link

Please contact me with any questions nominations@nfbpwc.org

Angie Jackson-Wilson
Chair Nominations
nominations@nfbpwc.org

Remembering All the Rosies...

The dwindling number of Rosie the Riveters like 104-year-old Roberta “Randy” Tidmore were recently honored in New Orleans. At 104 years old, Ms. Tidmore has outlived most of the people she served beside, worked beside, and volunteered beside.

She has lived through the Great Depression, WW2, the Cold War, and the dawn of the digital age. During her life she helped build bomber wings as a Rosie the Riveter, joined the Marine Corps during wartime, worked as a United Airline stewardess, worked at a tomato farm in Mexico, and spent decades volunteering in her community.

At the end of May, Ms. Tidmore was in New Orleans as one of 31 surviving Rosie the Riveters being honored during the National WWII Museum’s 2026 American Spirit Awards, a gathering that occurred as the country prepares to mark its 250th anniversary and as the number of living Americans who remember WW2 continues to shrink.

For Ms. Tidmore, the recognition is appreciated, but she is still puzzled by it. “I don’t know that we deserve all the recognition we’re getting… The majority of Americans were patriotic.”

That humility is a common thread among the women being honored. Many spent decades without public recognition for their contributions to the war effort, viewing their work not as extraordinary, but as necessary. Ms. Tidmore and fellow honoree, Elizabeth Tate never met during WWII, but together their lives show how the war pulled American women into jobs, training programs, and military service that had long been closed to them.

Ms. Tidmore built B-26 Marauder bomber wings before joining the Marines. Ms. Tate learned to read blueprints through wartime training programs before becoming a machinist producing parts for military ship building. Eight decades later, both are among the dwindling number of women who can still describe what it was like when an entire country mobilized for war.

From Bomber Wings to the Marines

Before becoming a Marine, Ms. Tidmore was one of millions of American women who entered the workforce during WWII to fill jobs left vacant by men deployed overseas.

After leaving nursing school, she followed friends to Rockford, IL, where she worked at the J. I. Case Company, a farm equipment manufacturer that had shifted to producing aircraft components for the war effort. Her job involved fitting metal gap covers over sections of the leading edge of the B-26 wings where the electrical equipment was housed, to help maintain smooth airflow over the aircraft. 

Six months later, she wanted to do more.

While passing through a bus terminal, she watched a group of Marines moving through the station and decided to enlist. “I thought they looked pretty good,” she recalled with a laugh.

She joined the Marine Corps in 1944 and trained as a motor transport operator, learning to drive and maintain military vehicles at a time few women were expected to work around engines, trucks, or mechanical equipment.

Looking back, Ms. Tidmore says the Marine Corps changed her life. “It taught me respect for other people. It taught me the chain of command.”

A Wartime Job That Built More Than Ships

For Ms. Tate, wartime work began with government training. She arrived in Washington through the National Youth Administration and Works Progress Administration programs.

There she learned to read blueprints, a skill she quickly excelled at according to responses shared to Military.com through her guardian. That skill opened the door to more advanced defense work.

from HyperScale Forums

After completing her initial training, Ms. Tate was given the chance to test for machinist positions. She remembered a trainer named Julio who helped guide her during that period.

Her daily work involved large tubs of metal pieces that workers machined into bolts and nuts for ship-building. Ms. Tate believes some of the work took place at Puget Sound, though she was not certain whether part of it also occurred at Hunter’s Point.

From the beginning, Ms. Tate understood the parts she handled were for the war effort. She was proud, her guardian said, to leave home to contribute to the country while providing financial support for her parents.

The job gave Ms. Tate more than a paycheck; it gave her a purpose. Eventually she saved enough money to help buy a modest home for her parents in New Orleans.

Women entered wartime jobs for different reasons, Ms. Tate said through her guardian, but many shared a great pride in helping the country. For her, that pride remains close to the surface.

Asked how she feels about being honored alongside other Rosies at the museum event, Ms. Tate became emotional. She said it brought back the same feelings she experiences while attending Rosie events in Richmond, California: pride in knowing that she and other women had worked hard and has been part of something special.

The Real Women Behind the Poster The public image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most recognizable symbols of American wartime labor, but Ms. Tidmore believes the poster can sometimes overshadow the women behind it.

“I think so, yes’,” she said when asked if the image has eclipsed real women. “So many women were working during WWII… everybody was working for the war effort.”

The work took many forms. Some women built ships, others assembled aircraft. Many filled transportation, logistics, and administration jobs that kept the military functioning. Women entered professions and industries that men had traditionally dominated.

Bonnie O’Leary
WA

Adapted from by Ryan Thomas LaBee’s article in Military.com, June 8, 2026.

BPW Founders Day: 107 years of Working Women Helping Women Work

We wish every BPW member glad tidings as we celebrate BPW Founders Day on July 16th – commemorating 107 years of working women helping women work.

The Membership Committee had their last meeting of the 2024-2026 term on June 15th. The Committee completed both the quarterly Board Report and the Biennial Board report collaboratively.

As we begin the final month of this term, the Membership Committee extends its thanks to all who have participated over the past 24 months.

Due to the Biennial, the Membership Committee will not meet in July.

VP Membership
vpmembership@nfbpwc.org

Are You Considering Attending the NFBPWC Biennial Conference in Person?

Your Legacy Committee has committed up to $1,000 for each affiliate (Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina, New York City, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virtual, and Washington) to help with travel and hotel expenses for two members in good standing who are attending the conference in person.

The money will come in the form of a reimbursement to the affiliate so they can disburse it to their members. See the ad on page 11 for more details.

Is your committee or affiliate in need of funding for a special event?

The Legacy Fund Committee is a standing committee designed to handle and disburse incoming funds from Heritage Clubs. Members are Deb Fischer (chair), Barbara Bozeman, Jo Naylor, Megan Shellman-Rickard, and Sandy Thompson.

Our purpose is to support BPW’s committee and affiliate activities. If you are planning something special and need little financial assistance, please email the committee for an application. An example of the form itself is on the next page for your review.

The current value (as of May 28, 2026) of our investment portfolio is $300,478.72. Of which, $10,000 has been transferred to checking per the approved 2026 budget.

Interested members who would like to serve on the committee, please send us an email.

May love and friendship keep your days bright!

Deborah Fischer
Chair Legacy Fund
legacyfundchair@nfbpwc.org

Mary Edwards Walker: America’s First Female Medal of Honor

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, America’s first female surgeon and first female Medal of Honor winner was born in November 1862 in Oswego, NY. She graduated in 1855 from Geneva Medical College in New York, just six years after Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from there as the first female doctor with a medical degree.

After college, Mary and her physician husband tried to open a medical practice in NY, which failed since the public did not accept a female doctor. Although she was not permitted to serve as a Medical Officer due to her gender. In 1863, Mary was certified as a US Army surgeon, treating wounded soldiers near the front-line battlefields such as Fredericksburg, VA, and Chattanooga, TN, during the Civil War.

In 1864, she was captured and held as a spy for four months by the Confederacy.

On November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson awarded her the Medal of Honor for that service. Although her medal was rescinded in 1917, it was restored in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.

After the Civil War, she was awarded a disability pension but was denied a military pension since she had never been officially commissioned as an officer.

She then became an advocate for women’s rights, including the right to vote.

She wore men’s clothing, saying it was less restrictive on the farm and the battlefield. She was arrested several times for her clothing choices and was not permitted to vote in 1871.

When the suffrage movement gained traction in the 1900s, she testified in the US House of Representatives in support of women’s right to vote.

She has been publicly honored twice. In 2023, Fort Hill in Virginia was renamed in her honor and in June 2025, her image was put on a quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program. The coin shows Walker holding her pocket surgical kit and wearing her surgeon’s pin and her Medal of Honor, which is also highlighted on its own within the design.

Bonnie O’Leary BSN, RN, LGBHC, LNC

Content from https://www.pcscoins.com/. Image from United States—Online Coin Club.

Online and Mobile Security Tips

I would like to thank the Federation for allowing me to serve as the Finance Chair for the last two years. It has been a rewarding and learning experience.

I received the following from the Bank of America and thought it was good information to share. Hopefully you will find it helpful.

10 Online and Mobile security tips As more people bank and shop online, proper internet security is more important than ever. There are a number of things you can do to stay safer online. Here are ten tips to help protect you and your money.

Use strong passwords

A strong password (one that is not easily guessed by a human or computer) will have eight or more characters, including letters, numbers and symbols.

Make sure to use different user IDs and passwords for your financial accounts and any other sites you use online.

Check out our best tips for creating a strong password.

Be mindful of the numbers you use. Don’t use any part of your Social Security number (or any other sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or birthdays) as a password, user ID, or personal identification number (PIN). If someone gains access to this information, it may be among the first things used to try to get into your account.

Look out for strange emails

Don’t respond to emails that claim to be from your bank (or any other company) requesting your account details. No bank is ever likely to approach you this way to ask for personal information.

Beware of email attachments

It’s never a good idea to click on email attachments or free software from unknown sources. You could end up exposing your computer (and the information on it) to online fraud and theft.

Keep in mind that links you receive in emails or in messages on social networking sites can be harmful or fraudulent, even if they appear to come from friends.

Watch how much you share online The more you post about yourself on social networking sites, the easier it might be for someone to use that information to access your accounts, steal your identity and more. Maximizing your privacy settings on social networking sites can also help protect your personal information.

Be careful about what and where you click

Look for security-enabled website addresses that start with “https” (the extra “s” indicates security).

These sites take extra measures to help secure your information. This is particularly important if you’re making purchases using your credit card.

If you receive requests for personal information while surfing the web, or calls for immediate action, these are almost always scams. If you suspect a link might give you a virus or steal personal data, don’t click on it. If the link was sent to you, talk to the sender directly to verify where it came from.

Secure your smartphone

Many mobile devices give you the option of locking your screen, which helps keep data stored on them secure. Depending on your phone, this can come in the form of a password, a pattern you draw on your phone’s touch screen, or even your fingerprint.

It may also be a good idea to add extra layers of protection to payment apps that you use.

Don’t keep sensitive information on your phone

Sensitive information includes your bank account numbers, identification information, passwords, and other personal details such as answers to your security questions.

Think before you download apps

It’s a good idea to review the privacy policy and understand what personal data an app can access before you download. It’s best to purchase or download apps from authorized stores.

Keep your technology up to date

Make sure to update your computer’s operating system, your internet browser, and the software on your mobile devices. Updates generally include the latest security patches.

Be sure to also use antivirus and antispyware software: These programs help find and remove malicious programs from your computer.

By following these online and mobile security tips, you can help protect your personal information from falling into the wrong hands.

If you suspect information related to your bank account has been compromised, contact your bank immediately for assistance addressing the issue.

Sandy Thompson
Chair Finance
finance@nfbpwc.org

Amendments for NFBPWC’s Bylaws, Policies and  Procedures, and Proposed Resolutions for the 2026 Biennial and General Assembly

The proposed amendments to the NFBPWC Bylaws and Policies and Procedures were emailed to each member on June 15, 2026. These proposed revisions will be presented for discussion and action during the Biennial General Assembly on Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Raleigh, NC.

Two Resolutions were proposed along with several amendments to the Advocacy Platform.

All submissions were prepared in accordance with established procedures and are being circulated in advance to ensure members have ample time for thoughtful review.

Please note that only members in attendance at the General Assembly may vote on the proposed changes.

We encourage you to read through the documents, so you are familiar with the proposals prior to the business session. Your preparation and engagement help support a smooth, informed, and productive process.

Thank you for your continued commitment to strengthening our organizational framework and upholding transparent, member-driven governance.

Angie Jackson-Wilson
Chair Bylaws & Resolutions
bylaws@nfbpwc.org

NFBPWC 2026 PROPOSED NATIONAL BYLAWS AMENDMENTS.docx

NFBPWC 2026 PROPOSED NATIONAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES AMENDMENTS.docx

PROPOSED JULIA K. ARRI RESOLUTION.DOCX

PROPPOSED RESOLUTION FOR NFBPWC.DOCX

REDLINED PROPOSED NATIONAL ADVOCACY PLATFORM EDITS 2026-2028.PDF

PROPOSED NATIONAL ADVOCACY PLATFORM 2026-2028.PDF