Power Surge: Power Up Conference Champions, Leaders Spark Connections for Leadership

Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead in her welcome speech at the Power Up Conference 2026.

There was certainly no power outage in this room. It was a power surge.

As Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference kicked off in Washington, D.C. on Women’s Equality Day, each of the hundreds of participants in person at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and virtually were plugged into the contagious sense of opportunity for leadership and change.

“We are creating this audacious movement in a manner of celebrating and moving towards women’s pay equity,” said Lily McNair, board chair of Take The Lead. “Let’s connect our intentions and audacity to create and bring the energy, voices and power around the world.”

Read more on keynote Margaret Atwood, panelists, breakouts and award winners in upcoming blog posts.

“Let’s connect our intentions and audacity to create and bring the energy, voices and power around the world.,” said Lily McNair @takeleadwomen board chair #WomensEqualityDay”

Serving as host to the conference with the theme, “Audacity: Leadership in Action,” Kelsey Nicole Nelson, award-winning sports broadcaster, FOX Sports Radio host, American University commentator, entrepreneur, and instructor at George Washington University, welcomed the eager crowd, introduced each Take The Lead leader, guest speaker on seven panels, and offered the land acknowledgment.

Throughout the day, the Goddess Voice of award-winning actor and activist Kathleen Turner, resounded throughout the conference room welcoming participants and announcing breaks and updates.

To kick off the day with energy and joy, Dr. Jen Nash, founder/chief insight officer of Shift Advisory, transformational strategist, and author of The Big Power of Tiny Connections, promised to demonstrate “how small interactions spark awesome outcomes.” Red and white balloons were involved in the jubilant exercise.

“Connection becomes so much easier when all of us are doing it together,” Nash said.

“Connection becomes so much easier when all of us are doing it together,” said Dr. Jen Nash, founder/chief insight officer @ShiftAdvisory, author of The Big Power of Tiny Connections #leadership ”

Take The Lead Leadership Ambassador Felicia Davis introduced Power Tool Champions at intervals throughout the day. Davis, a leadership and branding consultant whose work focuses on empowering women at the intersection of sovereignty, self-expression, and social justice, is also the founder of The Black Women's Collective.

“Power is not something we are given,” said Davis. “It’s something we have planned.”

Davis awarded Wonder Wendy Farrell, the founding chairwoman of 50 Women Can Lead The Change, as Power Tool Champion #4, for Embrace Controversy. “Look in your community and see who you can lift up,” Farrell said. “Not talking about something doesn’t make is less real. Information is power. “

Farrell repeated advice her mother had given her” “Even stone will give way to a steady drip of water.”

Davina Lyons, Founder of Rising Resilience Education and Consulting, won as Power Tool Champion # 5 as a change catalyst, for the tool, Carpe The Chaos. “It is never too late to begin again. My struggles become wisdom,” Lyons said.

“It is never too late to begin again. My struggles become wisdom. Chaos cannot cancel your purpose,” said Davina Lyons, #PowerToolChampion @takeleadwomen”

Offering a four-step process to find your purpose, Lyons said, first to reflect, then to identify what has changed, stand in you power and finally, emerge with intention. “Chaos cannot cancel your purpose,” Lyons said.

The winners of the 2025 Leading Man Award, W. Brad Johnson, PhD, clinical psychologist, author and the co-founder of Workplaceallies.co with David Smith, co-director of the Gender & Work Initiative at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, presented the 2026 Leading Man award to Dr. Justin Garcia.

Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute and the Kinsey Kelley Center for Equity in Business at Indiana University, is a “man who has exemplified specific commitment to expanding gender equality,” Johnson said.

“When we have some power, our job then is to empower others,” Garcia said.

Retired Major General Margaret (Peggy) Wilmoth, PhD, MSS, RN, FAAN, Power Tool Champion #6, the Truth Seeker, was the first Army nurse in 230 years to serve as a commanding general in the medical brigade. “If you don’t advocate for yourself, who will?” she asked the audience.

Launching the first panel of the conference, Women's Health Unfiltered: Sex & Leadership, Heather Florio, CEO of Desert Harvest and Take The Lead board member.

Cheyenne Hunt, executive director and co-founder of Reckoning Action, addressed the crowd with her own call to action. “We exist to be a rebuttal to a cultural resurgence of misogyny,” said Hunt. “There is institutional violence done to women every day.”

“Cheyenne Hunt, exec director and co-founder of @ReckoningAction :“We exist to be a rebuttal to a cultural resurgence of misogyny,. There is institutional violence done to women every day.”#genderequality #leadership”

Dr. Sophia Yen, MD, MPH, MSCP, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pandia Health, a company providing access to asynchronous telehealth and a pharmacy for birth control and peri/menopause. With gaslighting an ongoing recurrence in women’s health, Yen said, “It’s so important to fight for equality. You need the practice of asking for what you need and deserve.” She added, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”

“You need the practice of asking for what you need and deserve. If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” said Sophia Yen MD, co-founder of @PandiaHealth #womenshealth”

Eva Goicochea, founder of maude, an intimate wellness company, said, “I sit at the intersection of vulnerability and trust.”

Trust is important as a leader, said Garcia of the Kinsey Institute, who was honored earlier. “The power to connect in depth is a soft power. The notion of vulnerability, though, means you are giving someone the tools to let you down. There is a power and something audacious about being honest.”

There is also enormous power in curiosity, Garcia said. “It is one of the greatest tonics for the problems of today.”

Yen offered, “There is an intimacy between physician and patient. I’m there to apply my knowledge and evidence to help them make their lives better, with the guarantee of confidentiality.”

In agreement with the urgent necessaity of honesty in good leadership, Hunt said, “Intimacy is honesty. Being steadfast in your convictions, that is authentic. Be open and honest about your limitations.” She added, “Often women feel like they need to be fearless. In this moment, let go of that. And see what you can do to become fearsome.”

According to Hunt, “Together we are fearsome. We are a force they cannot stand in the way of.”

““Often women feel like they need to be fearless. In this moment, let go of that. And see what you can do to become fearsome,” said Cheyenne Hunt #powerUp2026 “Together we are fearsome. We are a force they cannot stand in the way of.””

Offering her welcome speech to the room, prior to her fireside chat with Margaret Atwood, iconic, award-winning literary giant and winner of the Leading Woman Award in 2026, take The Lead Co-founder and President Gloria Feldt seized the opportunity to offer her insights on power.

Read Glora Feldt’s full speech here

“We have been taught a conflicting lesson about power. Be ambitious, but likeable. In other words, have power. Just don’t let anybody catch you using it,” Feldt said. “Is that diplomacy or camouflage with good manners?”

She asked, “What could I do if I stopped hiding my power and fully embraced it? It’s critically important now. Because women are experiencing economic headwinds and pushback against hard won progress we have made toward equality in power, pay, and leadership positions.”

No one in the room—or experiencing the conference virtually—is willing to stand for that.

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com