Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and several other former governors will be keynote speakers and panelists at the first-ever Conference of U.S. Women Governors, hosted by Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, in partnership with the National Governors Association.

The two-day event will focus on the challenges, rewards and opportunities that are encountered by women in executive leadership roles, how women can best encourage and prepare the next generation of female leaders, as well as leadership, common ground, and gender-relevant issues.

The two-day event, September 8-9, will feature:

— Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

— Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Gov. of Arizona Janet Napolitano 

— Former Cabinet administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and former Gov. of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman

— Former Gov. of Louisiana Kathleen Babineaux Blanco

— Former Gov. of Vermont Madeleine Kunin

— Former Gov. of Oregon Barbara Roberts

— Former Gov. of Massachusetts Jane Swift

Whitman and Napolitano, along with moderator Mary Kramer, group publisher of Crain Communications and GVSU Board of Trustees vice chair, will take part in a keynote conversation about leading change and forging common ground on Friday, September 8, at 7 p.m. in the Eberhard Center on GVSU’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus.

The conference will continue throughout the day on Saturday, September 9 beginning at 8:15 a.m. in the Richard M. DeVos Center on GVSU’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Granholm will provide the welcome address at 9 a.m. Blanco, Kunin and Roberts will lead a panel of pioneering women in governorships at 9:45 a.m.

Author Deborah Rhode will provide the Saturday afternoon keynote address about her book Women and Leadership at 1 p.m.

The event will wrap up with a Women Leaders of West Michigan Wheelhouse Talk, which will include Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place; Lisa Posthumus Lyons, Kent County clerk; Maria Cimitile, GVSU provost and vice president for Academic and Student Affairs; and moderator Megan Sall, assistant city manager of Wyoming and a member of the GVSU Board of Trustees.

A full schedule can be found online at hauensteincenter.org.

The event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is requested at hauensteincenter.org.