Say hello to our WIPN Chicago chapter! Co-chairs and long-time friends, Jessica Fox and Ami Hindia give us insights into what factors help to make Chicago succeed.

• We are one of the oldest chapters of WIPN and we have always had strong women lead the charge in Chicago. We make each member feel heard. Each member matters. Each member can contribute. The co-chairs are merely the mediators for what the members in the chapter want to accomplish. It’s not about us, it has always been about the chapter and its members.
• One of the most important things is the mutual respect that my co-chair and I have for each other. We both work really hard in our careers and manage our families too. We know how much we each have on our plates, so when one of us is overwhelmed the other co-chair steps in to take care of what needs to be done. We both want to make this the most successful and largest WIPN chapter. We constantly connect on how to be relevant, different, and how to get it done.
• We respect each member, realizing that we all carry a lot in our lives and juggle so much while bringing our best selves to our careers. Therefore, if we do an event to have someone take time out of their day to attend, we want to make sure it is worth everyone’s time. Time is precious; and frankly, we don’t have enough of it.
• For successful attendance of our events, we email invites for our events not only to our chapter but we make sure it gets posted early on our website to attract non-Chicago members to want to attend, and then we also email our network of women who are not yet members of WIPN to garner interest in our events there too. We cast a very wide net. And, before the event, we reach out to each person who registered to make sure they know how much it means to us to get their support and attendance at our event so we have each person attend. Every action we do is intentional and carries meaning, and we hope our members sense that.
• Though we are WIPN Chicago, we are for everyone. If you take pride in who you are, what you do, what you represent, and how much you can conquer in a day and sit back at the end of the day and say wow, I can’t believe I got that all done, then we are for you. Because that is what Jessica and I do…we hustle. Every. Single. Day.
• We had grand plans for 2020 but those had to be reevaluated due to the pandemic only getting 1 in-person event in before the shutdown. It was important to us that the women in our network stay connected virtually and that we continued to provide a mix of personal development, networking opportunities, as well as a little fun for the ladies of the network, always rounding out the year by giving back to those in need. That trend continues in 2021. Ami and I kicked off the year with a chapter survey to assess what the ladies of our chapter wanted to see more or less of as well as the frequency of events desired. We are curating this year’s event schedule to meet the needs of the 65+ members (and growing) women of our chapter, and are always trying to think of ways to promote and invite the next generation of females in the industry to join our network.

WIPN Chicago members: Lyndsey Ferencak, Jennifer Grullon-Tomasino, Maria Malave, Jessica Ruggles, Calla Gorman, Jessica Fox, Jessica Johanson, Carrie Temkin, Geri Herro. Back Row: Kathy Tompkins, Stacey Schmid, Susan Gibbs, Katie Huckabay, Carrie Meyer, Maggie Coll, Maggie Younis, Katherine Tipper.

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