Foundational Pre-Conferences

The PAD and WCC Pre-Conferences warrant an additional registration fee for attendees and can be completed during your general conference registration.

Program Administration and Development (PAD) Pre-Conference

Thursday, November 13th, 2025 | 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. EST

Registration window for the 2024 PAD Pre-Conference is May 1st - September 15

The Program Administrators Caucus first met at the 1983 NWSA Annual Conference and became the Program Administration and Development Committee in 2006. The PAD Committee consists of women's studies program administrators (chairs, directors, coordinators) whose programs, departments or other academic units are member institutions of NWSA. This body is convened once a year for a Business Meeting at the annual NWSA Conference and is sustained by the PAD Community Hub. The PAD Committee is a standing committee in NWSA specifically designed to represent the interests and needs of administrators of women's studies programs and departments to the Governing Council of NWSA and to assist NWSA in meeting the needs of women's administrators and their departments and programs.

The first PAD Pre-Conference was held at the 2000 NWSA Annual Conference. The PAD Pre-Conference provides administrators with ideas, strategies, and approaches to both strengthen and grow WGSS programs in hard times. These include: supporting diverse leadership, building coalitions across campus and across town, fundraising, battling backlash, making external reviews successful, incorporating service learning requirements, and more.

In 2000, the PAD Committee initiated the Women of Color Leadership Project (WoCLP). The WoCLP is now jointly sponsored by the NWSA Women of Color Caucus (WoCC), Program Administration and Development Committee (PAD), and the Women’s Centers Committee (WCC) in conjunction with the PAD and WCC Pre-Conferences.

Women’s Centers Committee (WCC) Pre-Conference

Thursday, November 13th, 2025 | 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. EST

Registration window for the 2025 WCC Pre-Conference is May 1st - September 15

Beginning as the Women's Centers and Services Caucus, the Constituency's first meeting was at the 1984 NWSA Annual Conference, eventually becoming the Women's Centers Committee in 2006. The WCC held its first Pre-Conference at the 2002 NWSA Annual Conference. NWSA recognizes that "women's studies" is broader than what happens in the classroom as campus-based women's centers have a long history of working together with women's studies to transform the curriculum, the campus environment, and society at large. NWSA acknowledges women's centers as chief out-of-class feminist educators and encourages participation in the national organization.

The Women's Centers Committee of NWSA provides an opportunity for women's center directors, staff and others to gather and share information, ideas, challenges, successes and support through its Annual Pre-Conference. This space serves as one of coalition building, professional development, and alchemy as Women's Centers staff work to address socio-political issues that impact their sites of learning, the field as a whole, and our interpersonal lives.

Along with the the Program Administration and Development Committee (PAD) and the NWSA Women of Color Caucus (WoCC), the Women’s Centers Committee (WCC) jointly sponsors the Women of Color Leadership Project (WoCLP) in conjunction with the PAD and WCC Pre-Conferences.

Women of Color Leadership Project (WoCLP)