by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College will hold its fourth annual Women’s Equality Day luncheon and program, honoring a familiar face at KCKCC – Dr. Jacqueline Vietti.
The event is noon to 1:30 p.m. Aug. 24 in the Upper Jewell building on the KCKCC Main Campus, 7250 State Ave. It is free and open to the public.
Women’s Equality Day commemorates the granting of women the right to vote in the United States. First proposed in 1878, women known as suffragettes worked for more than 40 years to gain equal voting rights. Some would try to pass suffrage acts in individual states. Others organized parades, vigils or even hunger strikes.
After President Woodrow Wilson changed his position and started supporting a woman’s right to vote, other politicians soon followed his lead. On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was certified as law, and since 1972, every president has issued a proclamation for Women’s Equality Day.
“It’s important that we recognize the hard work it took to win the right to vote and continue to work diligently on the issues and inequities that women still face today,” said Jennifer Gieschen, coordinator of Women and Gender Advocacy at KCKCC.
Vietti, who served as acting president at KCKCC from July 2017 until June 2018, is a lifelong Kansas resident, born and raised in Eureka Kansas. She graduated cum laude from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in biological sciences in 1971. She later graduated with honors from Pittsburg State University with a Master of Science in Community College Teaching and received her doctorate in Adult and Occupational Education from Kansas State. She also participated in the National Institute for Leadership Development with the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges.
Vietti served as president of Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas, for 17 years before retiring in 2012. She then served as interim president of Emporia State University for six months in 2015 and as a consultant and facilitator for the Kansas Community College Leadership Institute. Past positions include coordinator of instructional projects, associate dean, dean of instruction and interim president at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas, and dean of arts and science/instruction at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri.
KCKCC’s Women’s Equality Day event is co-hosted by Women and Gender Advocacy Services of the Counseling and Advocacy Center, the American Association of University Women and the Intercultural Center.
For more information or to RSVP, contact Laquita English at [email protected] or by phone at 913-288-7640 or Jennifer Gieschen [email protected] or 913-288-7193.