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, vibrant 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 from around the world.”

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

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“Audacity is a bold action that challenges the status quo,” said Aly Palmer, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, performer, artist, activist, philanthropist and founder known for her work as a musician with the band BETTY.

In her welcome remarks at Take The Lead’s Power Up Dinner and Concert at The Square in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the all-day Power Up Conference, Palmer added, “Thank you for bringing your audacious and foxy power.”

Read more in Take The Lead in upcoming blog posts on the panels, breakouts and learnings from Day 2 of the Power Up Conference 2026.

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The impressive agenda for this year’s Take The Lead Power Up Conference, “Audacity: Leadership in Action” from in Washington, D.C. is filled with unique opportunities that can alter your leadership path whether you participate in person or virtually.

The conference on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, now in its sixth year, features 46 esteemed speakers across industries of finance, health, AI, entrepreneurship, caretaking, public leadership and workplace issues. It’s where you learn more and leave with a plan. It’s called Power Up because it is where you learn how to use the power you already have.

Read more in Take The Lead about Power Up 2026

These 13 carefully curated sessions include three moderated breakouts: Build Powerful Circles of Collaboration That Propel Your Career and Business; Authentic Leadership: Finding Your Voice Through Inner Development; and Making Connections.

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 In his line of work as Executive Director of The Kinsey Institute, and author of the new book, The Intimate Animal: The Science of Sex, Fidelity and Why We Love and Die For Love, Justin Garcia PhD, fields a lot of inappropriate, embarrassing questions at cocktail parties and events. He politely declines, saying he is a private person.

But what the award-winning researcher in evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, social science and human behavior at the world’s leading sexuality and relationship research center, does appreciate are other kinds of inquiries.

“The part I do think is an honor is when people come up to me with questions, wanting to know if they are normal. I realize they don’t know who else to ask,” says Garcia, 41, a married father of 11-month-old son, Nicholas, and Founding Co-Director of Human Sexuality and Health at the Indiana University School of Medicine who is speaking at this year’s Power Up Conference.

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“I am a fighter and if there ever was a time to fight, now is the time. And I know we will move forward to protect ourselves, our children and our communities in order to love this country and have it be the way it needs to be,” says Avis Jones-DeWeever, PhD,  Principal and Founder of Nouveaux Strategies.

A speaker at Power Up Conference 2026, Audacity: Leadership in Action, in Washington, D.C., August 26 on the panel, “Invest in Herself: Women, Money & Long-Term Success,” Jones-DeWeever previously served as the youngest ever Executive Director of the National Council of Negro Women.

What Jones-DeWeever, who launched her firm in 2025, says she plans to offer at the conference are her decades of experience in policy, social justice and strategic communications internationally at a divisive and disrupted period in American history.

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Many would agree the parenting process from birth to adulthood is not easy. Strategizing for equity as a parent and caregiver in the workplace is even more complicated, stressful and grueling for millions of American mothers, fathers, daughters and sons.

So Lauren Smith Brody, 48, journalist, author, caregiving activist, mother and founder, trademarked a phrase and declared the process of support her life’s mission: The Fifth Trimester.

“The idea was to address the corporate angle of motherhood, and it morphed into all moms and dads and all people providing short term and long term care. We are all in the Fifth Trimester,” says Smith Brody, the married mother of two sons, 15 and 18 years old, who is speaking at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference August 26 on the panel, The Power of Care: Women Leading at Work and at Home.

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 “Your phone could be the perfect place to get healthcare.”

Joanna Strober, CEO and co-founder of Midi Health, a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause, says years ago she had the realization that each phone carries the potential for better health. Strober is speaking on the panel, The Audacity to Thrive: Women Claiming Midlife Health & Power, at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference August 26.

“It is so hard to get in the car,” says Strober, 58, who also founded Kurbo, the first digital therapeutic for childhood obesity, that she sold to Weight Watchers. And it is so easy to get on the phone.

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