Hobart and William Smith Colleges

2 April 2026 15 Years of PLEN at HWS

Special programming celebrates 15 years of the HWS chapter of the Public Leadership Education Network.

The HWS Chapter of the Public Leadership Education Network was founded on campus 15 years ago. The organization empowers women and people of marginalized gender groups to pursue careers in public policy.   

In a special anniversary event, PLEN hosted author Lydia Reeder on March 6 for a virtual conversation about her acclaimed book The Cure for Women.

Reeder’s narrative weaves together stories of trailblazing female physicians who fought for equal access to education and boldly challenged the harmful conventions of Victorian medicine. At the center of the book is Mary Putnam Jacobi, a pioneering doctor of the 19th century. Putnam Jacobi was a student of Elizabeth Blackwell, who in 1849 became the first female graduate of Geneva Medical College, the precursor to Hobart and William Smith.

“Putnam Jacobi’s connection to Elizabeth Blackwell made the discussion feel especially personal to the history of HWS, grounding a broader national history of women in medicine right here in the Finger Lakes,” says Hailey Galvan ’26, a member of the HWS PLEN Leadership team.

The event drew an interdisciplinary audience, with co-sponsoring departments including Biology, Public Health, Public Policy and Sociology. Several students were also given copies of the novel, generously donated by Geneva Reads, and invited to participate in a PLEN book club that created space for students to continue the conversation.

“PLEN’s mission to empower and engage women in public policy connects to Lydia Reeder’s biography about Jacobi. It’s about inspiring women to continue to chase our dreams no matter what the current social norms are,” says book club participant Hadley Blake ’29.

Also this semester, four members of PLEN traveled to Washington, D.C. during spring break to attend the organization’s Public Policy Seminar. There, they had the opportunity to attend workshops, network with policymakers and engage with leaders in the nation’s capital.

"(The seminar) helped me understand that careers and advocacy in policy are endless; change can be made on the ground floor of the Senate, but it can also be made through consulting, campaigning, diplomacy and grassroots organizing," says attendee Hayley Ross ’29.

“For these students, the seminar was more than a professional development experience but a reminder that history is not so distant,” Maegan Mahoney '26 says. “The same fight for equity that Mary Putnam Jacobi waged in the 19th century echoes in the halls of Capitol Hill today, and HWS students are now among those carrying it forward.”

The PLEN Leadership team includes Hailey Galvan ’26, Maegan Mahoney '26 and Olivia Purefoy '27.