“Empowering Women and Girls” at the Marriot Hotel in Falls Church.
By Raif Karerat
The National Federation of Indian American Association (NFIA) will be conducting its fifth annual program on “Empowering Women and Girls, at the Marriot Hotel in Falls Church, Va., on Friday, October 9.
Organized by Angela Anand, chairwoman of the NFIA, the conference will be replete with speakers, entertainment consisting of a fashion show along with Bollywood dancing, and dinner.
Following the main program, a reception will provide opportunity to network with delegates from different states and local community leaders.
According to a press release, the “Women’s Conference program promises to offer a photo opportunity with guests, entertain and provide opportunities to network, and intellectually stimulate the audience.”
Distinguished speakers include:
- Jeniffer Klein, a senior advisor on Women’s Issues on Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, formerly with the State Department, Senior Advisor in the office of Global Woman’ Issues within the Office of the Secretary of State and worked on a range of foreign policy issues related to the advancement of women.
- Dr. Banahalli R. Ratna, Director, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering,Naval Research Laboratory.
- Sheela Murthy, a top Immigration attorney and Philanthropist, Co-founder with her spouse, Murthy Nayak Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women, children and immigrants in India as well in the United States
- Betty Bernstein zabza, Secretary of State’s office, Senior Advisor, Global Women’s Issues
She is an attorney and worked as a public defender for the District of Columbia City Council priot to Joining the Foreign Service.
- Xinyu Zhang, producer and host of Window on World, a popular local television program.
Youth speakers:
- Sareana Kimia, founder, youth for national change, bright lady very active in Politics.
- Shreya Bhatia, producer of a TV segment, Taal main Taal, trained by Bollywood playback singer Shankar Mahadevan and recently raised monies for Alzheimer patients
- Medha Reddy, active in school leadership, working on electing Delegate Aruna Miller
- Swetha Prabakaran, founder and CEO of web site, everybodycode now, honored at White House last month as “agent for change”