Administrator knows the feeling of being 'token'

Four of the most powerful women in Penn's administration have had to face the difficulties of being among the first minority women in their positions.

Yesterday afternoon, those women spoke about their success in the professional world as part of the 20th annual celebration of the Women of Color organization at Penn.

The event drew a crowd of about 30 attendees, all of them women and most of them women of color.

The four women came from different backgrounds, but all had impressive achievements in a world where they were often the first woman, minority or both to do so.

"It's tough," said Anna Maria Cobo de Paci, director of La Casa Latina. "At every institution at which I have served, I have been the token Latina."

De Paci said she was born in Ecuador and emigrated to the United States when she was five. After becoming the first member of her family to go to college, she worked at various universities before coming to Penn.

Lois Chiang, chief of staff to the Provost, was born in Canada to Chinese immigrant parents. She worked as a lawyer in a large Toronto firm for many years before switching to higher education.

Joann Mitchell, Penn vice president and chief of staff, started the Women of Color organization at Penn.

She said years of watching the television show Perry Mason inspired her to become a lawyer. She was only the second black woman to graduate from Davidson College, and after a few years of practicing law, she went on to work in higher education.

"Service to others is a higher calling," she said, a common theme among the women on the panel.

Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, vice provost for University life, has spent 29 years at Penn and previously served as interim president at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, a historically black college.

"Leadership, to me, is a service," McCoullum, another first-generation college graduate, said. "I have tried to stand for things that would be of service to children."

Luz Marin, the coordinator for the Women's Studies & Alice Paul Center for Research on Women and Gender, acted as moderator.

Mahlet Mesfin, a Engineering graduate student, was one of the few younger women to attend the event.

"It was nice to know that people in such high positions didn't get there directly," she said. "I think that our generation is going to face some of the same issues that their generation did."

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