Updates

Forty women from across the NFL will take part in the inaugural Women’s Career Development Symposium March 18-19 in Boca Raton, Florida. This program, an iteration of the annual NFL Career Development Symposium, focuses on women who aspire to be football executives. The event features presentations, panel discussions, breakout sessions and networking opportunities with football executives and industry experts.

The speakers include Dolphins Executive Vice President of Football Administration Dawn Aponte; Bengals Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn; Chargers Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Jeanne Bonk; Detroit Lions Senior Vice President of Administration and CFO Allison Maki; CIA Counterterrorism Analyst Gina Bennett; Aspire Entertainment’s Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President Teri Wagner-Flynn; and American Express Executive Vice President and Corporate Controller Linda Zukauckas. Participants will also hear from faculty from both The Wharton School and Tuck Business School.

Program sessions include: “Meeting the Ever-Changing Challenges of the NFL,” “League Perspective,” “What the NFL and National Security Have in Common,” “How to be Impactful in Your Professional Development,” “Negotiation and Persuasion,” “Keys to Navigating Tough Environments,” and “Leading with Impact: How to Think, Communicate, and Lead Strategically.”

The steering committee for this year’s symposium includes Aponte, Blackburn and Bonk, along with NFL Director of Football Operations Matt Birk, Chief Strategy Officer of NFL Football Operations Kimberly Fields, NFL Director of Human Resources Sara Schultz and NFL Vice President of Labor Finance Christine Vicari. NFL Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Robert Gulliver and NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent direct this program.

Previous symposiums focused on engaging aspiring head coach and general manager candidates.

Before Super Bowl 50, the NFL hosted the first-ever NFL Women’s Summit: “In the Huddle to Advance Women in Sport” in San Francisco. At the summit, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the expansion of The Rooney Rule to include interviewing women for all open executive positions with the league.

Also at the summit, the NFL launched its Diverse Talent Community — an invite-only recruitment platform that encourages quality, dynamic candidates with diverse backgrounds to join its ranks through a shared talent acquisition database for human resources across the NFL and its 32 clubs.