During a 30-year career at DuPont that included traveling globally and living overseas, Sharon Kelly Hake had noticed a common thread when talking to women leaders.

“Women did not feel valued and they struggled to find their voice. These women were smart, experienced, and credentialed, yet they did not believe their ideas or contributions were valued. So, I began to think about what I could do differently to help women discover their value, find their voice and implement their ideas successfully,” Hake said.

Justifying your existence

She also remembered growing up as one of seven children, with each being asked by their father at the dinner table – “Children, what did you do today to justify your existence?”

Hake took the plunge and left DuPont to start Great Dames in the depths of the 2009 recession.

“My colleagues were surprised that I was leaving a great job at DuPont at a very difficult time during the recession. But we decided it was actually a very good time to launch Great Dames because so many women were looking for ways to transition their careers and find new opportunities. We attracted many women who wanted to make a change and find more purposeful work,” Hake remembered.

Key elements of Great Dames include its fall powerful conversations series, a competitive event with the winner having the most powerful idea getting $25,000 in cash and services, and peer groups that meet regularly.

“We know that women thrive when they are surrounded by other supportive women, so we designed a community that fostered supportive relationships based on trust,” Hake says. “We have so many stories of powerful outcomes that arose from a Great Dames relationship. Dames help each other discover their power and purpose; they listen and help clarify each other’s ideas; they hold each other accountable; they forge meaningful friendships that matter.”

https://delawarebusinessnow.com/2019/03/great-dames-tying-to-gather-a-common-thread-as-group-marks-10th-anniversary/

According to Hockessin resident Dr. Kimberly Nalda, one of the most important aspects of the Great Dames group is how it brings together women of all ages to empower each other.

“Great Dames is a unique group of dynamic women who come together to educate, inspire, challenge and support each other,” explained Nalda, a family medicine doctor. “It's more than just your typical networking group. Women in Great Dames are part of the group to authentically connect in friendship rather than get leads.”

One of the more innovative initiatives that Great Dames has brought to the community is the Remarkable Ideas Competition, which finds, funds, and supports women who have ideas that improve the quality of life and help people connect and collaborate with each other. Three years ago, Nalda first became involved with Great Dames through this competition, which draws women innovators from across the country.

For the 2016 competition, Nalda pitched the concept of Rekindle Family Medicine. She explained the concept:

“We can all agree that the practice of medicine has changed for the worse in the last 20 to 30 years, and many would blame the third party involvement of payers and insurers, and the increase in the administrative burden,” she explained. “This results in patient experience of rarely seeing their actual doctor and when they do, they get 8 to 12 minutes of their time. For every hour seeing patients, doctors spend two hours doing paperwork. Many doctors are leaving Delaware or the practice of medicine altogether. We have lost the personal connection with patients and lost the humanity of medicine.”