This Thursday, friends and graduates of Ƶ gathered for the fifth annual holiday luncheon. Hosted at the University Club of Chicago, the luncheon is one of the council’s signature events and provides networking opportunities for professional women in a variety of fields.
The event honored Melissa Conyears-Ervin, treasurer for the City of Chicago and a Roosevelt alumna. Since assuming the role in 2019, Conyears-Ervin has significantly divested Chicago’s investment portfolio from fossil fuel companies, co-founded the Advancing Equity in Banking Commission to reduce the racial wealth gap and established an innovative broker scorecard to measure DEI initiatives of firms doing business with the city. During a conversation moderated by previous luncheon honoree Dorri McWhorter, Conyears-Ervin discussed navigating corporate America as a Black woman, investing in disadvantaged communities, and the value of networking mentorship among female professionals.
“Mentorship is so important, because we as women understand each other and can have conversations we can’t with anyone else,” she said. “An event like this is a perfect example of how to foster mentor-mentee relationships, and it helps to financially empower us.”
In her closing remarks, trustee and council co-chair Larissa Herczeg noted the Deutsch Herczeg Scholars in attendance and praised their accomplishments as the fall semester concludes. The Deutsch Herczeg Scholars are academically driven young women who participate in educational and inspiring opportunities that give them tools and knowledge required to lead in their communities and industry.