By Elisa-Marie Dumas, Director of Member Relations, FWE&E

As Haiti experienced yet another devastating aftershock today, I find myself feeling incredibly sad for the community that I had been so close to just a few days ago. My husband and I flew to the Dominican Republic for a belated honeymoon, returning the day before the quake hit. Although we did not visit the island of Haiti, we met several Haitians in DR, as well as many of the locals. In the US we complain about how horrible the economy was in 2009. Believe me, as bad as it was here, most of us are much better off than the majority of people in poverty-stricken countries. This was the first time that my husband had travelled outside of the US. As we walked down the street, what disturbed him is something I’ve seen many times around the world. Poverty was everywhere. Entire families live in cinderblock houses smaller than my living room. It’s heartbreaking that there are so few resources to help them. Despite their dire circumstances, these people are some of the most beautiful, generous, and kind people I’ve ever met. They don’t beg for food or money and don’t want charity. But they’ll do anything for the smallest amount of money that could equate to what your child might receive from the tooth fairy. And even though they have so little, they’re willing to share what they have with their neighbors. In that spirit of generosity, I hope you’ll help those who are happy with so little, when we are blessed with so much. I encourage you to support the Haiti earthquake relief effort any way you can. It’s easy. You can text the Red Cross at 90999 to donate $10, or you can go to their link to donate http://www.redcross.org/ For more ways to help, there’s a list of other organizations at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/.

FWE&E is in the final two weeks of planning for our major annual event – The annual Achievement Award Dinner. This year we are honoring Padmasree Warrior, the CTO of Cisco. The event will take place at the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City on September 30, 2009.

The theme of this year’s event is “Pearls of Wisdom” and was chosen specifically because it enables us to illustrate the qualities and diversity of the women leaders in our audience who inspire us on a daily basis.

Padmasree’s story itself is very inspiring. Moving to the U.S. from India with a one-way ticket and an attitude that failure was not an option, Padmasree rose to become the CTO of Motorola in an impressive 23-year career with the organization. Under her tenure, Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by President George W. Bush, the first time a company had received such a prestigious honor.

Now in her role as CTO of Cisco reporting to Chairman and CEO John Chambers, Padmasree holds a position of tremendous authority and influence over the future of an increasingly connected world, one where advances in technology are re-shaping how billions around the world live, work and play.

I have been personally honored to interact with Padmasree as we have been organizing this amazing event. What strikes me most about her is her incredible warmth and approachability, her quick wit, and her inclusiveness of others to help make a difference.

She is a strong supporter and actively works to engage more women in the fields of science and technology and hopes that her story will be an inspiration to the many women who see her and then feel “I could do that too”.

So today we launch the Pearls of Wisdom and begin our collection of other Pearls similar to Padmasree’s that we can share with our audience and the rest of the world.  I can’t wait to begin to collect the “Pearls” from the other experienced women leaders in our wonderful community.