Cordelia Heaney aims to improve visibility of Women's Center

Cordelia Heaney wants to make the Carolina Women’s Center visible.

Heaney discussed her ideas for the Women’s Center in an open forum Tuesday.

She is one of four finalists for the position of women’s center director. The other candidates are Shamecca Bryant, Rachel Seidman and Barbara Anderson, each of whom will hold an open forum later in November.

“I’m looking for someone who has an expansive and inclusive vision for what it means to be a feminist on this campus,” said Emily Burrill, a member of the search committee and assistant professor in the department of Women’s and Gender Studies. “The director of the Women’s Center is a role model on campus.”

The women’s center is one of 26 University centers and institutes that are being examined by the UNC Board of Governors for possible budget cuts or termination.

In August, the N.C. General Assembly mandated that the Board of Governors look at centers and institutes on campus and take away $15 million to redistribute to other UNC-system priorities.

“One thing I’d love to do is bring representatives from all the women’s organizations on campus together and have them talk about how they could collectively work to solve the problems they face,” Heaney said.

She is currently the executive director of Louisiana’s Office on Women’s Policy.

Her experience includes working for the Newcomb College Institute, the Tulane University women’s center.

“The programs that she ran at Tulane were excellent. There were weekly events and all kinds of incredible speakers,” said graduate student Steffani Bangel, who completed her undergraduate degree at Tulane University. “She brought women together from across campus at Tulane.”

Heaney said she would work to expand the center’s services and visibility on campus.

“I see the Carolina Women’s Center being a hub for faculty, alumni, students, staff and community partners,” Heaney said.

Heaney said her areas of focus for students would include career development, mentoring and salary negotiation programs to help close the gender pay gap.

“We’d focus on networking and mentoring to connect women to resources on campus,” Heaney said.

She added that she would also like to help the center start a dialogue about having more advocacy for staff.

Heaney said she hopes the center can maintain a gender-positive space and allow students, staff and faculty to learn from each other and the broader community.

“My goal would be that the center would be a place for all people, no matter how they express their gender identity,” she said.

university@dailytarheel.com