On Wed. March 1, Benilde-Saint Margaret’s held its first annual panel discussion to celebrate Women’s History Month. The EIB (Equality Inclusion and Belonging) Team sent an email to faculty and staff informing them that from 1:30-2:30p.m, they had the option to bring their students to the theater to attend the panel.

During the panel, BSM President Meghan DesLauriers hosted a discussion with Anne Marie Moore (‘81), Nadia Martyn (‘05), and Kathleen Coyle (‘03), the three alumni that spoke at the panel. They went into detail about what they do, their experience at BSM, and how being a woman in a male dominated work space has affected their careers.

Dr. Moore, is a sports medicine physician who spoke in detail about how she got to where she is now. Which included attending Marquette University and going through medical school through the University of Minnesota to pursue her speciality of studying family medicine and medicine in sports. On top of being a med student, she was a mom of three and spoke about the ways she would balance work and family.

Martyn is a General Counsel and Privacy Officer at the Insurance at Delta Dental of Minnesota who attended Boston College for undergrad and law school through the University of Minnesota. She spoke about what her experience has been being a working mom. She also told a story about when someone else took credit for all of her work and how it made her feel as though she didn’t have much of a voice because she’s a woman. “I hope that the women at BSM can know what’s possible for them in the future,” Martyn said.

Coyle attended Brown University and felt very passionate about the sports industry. This helped her to become a Director of the Premium Sales departments for the Minnesota Vikings. She has also worked with other professional sports teams including the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers. She made the decision to work with the Vikings since her home town is in MN and to help with the project of remodeling the NFL’s team stadium which today is known as the U.S. Bank Stadium.

Now that the event has taken place, it’s safe to say that this panel will continue for years in the future as a way to empower women at BSM, “We do hope that this will be an annual kickoff to Women’s History Month, because there are so many amazing alumni and I think we will never run out of strong women to tap into,” English teacher and member of the EIB team Katie Belanger said.