Marian Magazine - Marian High School

Alumnae TodayLunch With A Leader RecapMarian named the 2010-11 school year a Year of Leadership. The initiative focused onthe school’s commitment to empowering girls to succeed as confident, independent,thinking leaders.We are offering our students many opportunities to learn more about leadership.Since October, we have offered a speaker series called Lunch with a Leader, whichprovides opportunities to showcase the gifts and talents of our alumnae leaders inpresentations to Marian students, alums and community members over thelunch hour.Here’s a look at the amazing speakersfeatured this year.Sharon Slattery ’75was the Decemberspeaker who got theseries launched. Shespent 20 years withthe Federal Bureau ofInvestigation. Duringher career with theFBI, her positionsincluded investigator,liaison and trainerand manager at both the Washington DCHeadquarters and the Los Angeles FBI FieldOffice.Our January speakerwas Jen Lukas Landis‘90. Jen is a local artistwho created PincurlGirls, a project thatprovides artworkand products thatencourage girls of allages to love, expressand believe in themselves. The Pincurl Girlsproject includes self-esteem exercises, gamesand esteem building products.In February, we had two speakers.The first guest speaker wasD’Arcy Jensen ‘88 and she spoleto the sutdents via skype in NewYork. D’Arcy is the vice presidentand global creative directorfor LeSportsac, a leading manufacturer offunctional and chic handbags. She evenraffled off a new LeSportsac handbag fromthe upcoming Spring line to one luckyMarian girl!Award-winning OmahaWorld-Herald JournalistErin Grace ’91 alsospoke in February.Erin has worked asa journalist at theOmaha World-Heraldsince 1998, primarilyas a reporter. AfterHurricane Katrina she traveled to the GulfCoast and covered Nebraskans’ contributionsto the relief effort traveling on round-theclockSWAT and rescue missions with theNebraska National Guard and sleeping ona cot on New Orlean’s Canal Street. Shecurrently works part-time as a generalassignment reporter and occasionally blogsfor momaha, the World-Herald’s websitefor mothers. Erin is Marian’s 2011 Alumna ofthe Year Recipient.Jen Edney ‘01 spokein March. She is afull-time photographerspecializing inadventure photography.She photographedthe sailing adventuresof 16-year-old ZacSunderland, aCalifornia teenagerwho held the title of youngest person to eversail around the world, alone. This assignmentled her to different ports around the world,documenting his voyage. She is a certifiedscuba diver and is close to earning hercaptain’s license. She’s spent six months outof the last two years at sea, logging 60,000miles on the water.Jennifer Matt ‘86 was thesixth and final speaker forthe Lunch with a Leaderspeaker series this year. Asa woman entrepreneur inInternet Technology, herspecialties include Internetstrategy, business development and productdevelopment.Jennifer has been involved in more than fivestartups in Silicon Valley, along with holdingleadership roles in several large softwarecompanies. After serving as president of aglobal software company operating on threecontinents, Jennifer recently started her ownbusiness, Web2Print Experts, Inc., whichprovides strategic consulting and softwaredevelopment services. In the fall of 2010, thecompany won a major contract with the U.S.Department of Defense.Jennifer holds two bachelor’s degrees fromthe University of California, Santa Barbaraand a master’s from the Masagung GraduateSchool of Management at the University ofSan Francisco. She lives in San Francisco,Calif.10