The first-annual women’s leadership conference will be held Saturday and will highlight dynamic women’s accomplishments in the professional world.

The conference, titled “Capturing Women’s Vision for the New Millennium,” will be held at the Molecular Biology building from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The opening keynote speaker will be Tahira Hira, associate vice president for Cooperative Extension Service. She will be speaking about women’s roles in the approaching millennium.

The luncheon keynote speaker will be Judith Conlin, director of the Department of Elder Affairs for Iowa. She was recently appointed by Gov. Tom Vilsack.

In addition to the lectures, there also will be five discussions.

Judy Dolphin, director of YWCA, said the speakers were chosen because they are “strong role models and dynamic leaders.”

Dolphin said the idea for a women’s leadership conference originally came from the YWCA’s Board of Directors.

YWCA Board of Directors representatives decided that if they could find a group of women to coordinate and plan the conference, YWCA would provide the structure and contacts for it.

“We really wanted the women to get involved and make a conference that they were interested in and that discussed topics that were important to them,” Dolphin said.

Residents of Oak-Elm Hall were chosen to develop the conference because Dolphin said they are active in the Iowa State community.

“These women have really jumped on it and taken leadership,” she said.

Kim Araya, hall director of Oak-Elm, said she is “honored that the YWCA chose us to help design the conference.”

Laura Bates, sophomore in speech communications, said she got involved with the conference because she thought it would be a good forum for women to communicate.

“We tried to find topics that were important to females our age that others would want to know about, too,” she said.

Bates also said she thinks the conference will be a good networking opportunity for the women involved.

Although this is a pilot program, organizers believe it will be successful.

“If this year’s conference goes well, we would like to make next year’s conference be a two-day event and be located off campus,” Araya said.