Successful reunion held for Virginia Women's Municipal Institute graduates

In March 2025, twenty-one women from the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Virginia Women's Municipal Leadership Institute (VWMLI) cohorts gathered at the Virginia Tech Higher Education Center in Roanoke for the first reunion event full of connection and content.

On Thursday morning, Sara McGuffin, Immediate Past President and Reunion Coordinator, facilitated an elongated Connection and Reconnection Before Content session. While members of each cohort were familiar with one another, cross-cohort connections needed to be made. After lunch, Molly Harlow, Virginia Institute of Government Associate Director of Leadership Development, led a session entitled the Bold Ask and the Balance Beam. This focused on how to think about the balance

between work and non-work lives. Molly helped participants define the correct boundaries, and how they can negotiate to have their needs met. Afterward sessions concluded, participants attended a dinner reception for the reunion, coordinated by Angie O’Brien, Deputy City Manager for the City of Roanoke.

Friday morning’s Content session was a Human Resources Roundtable with

Thomas Bullock (VRSA), Lindsay Bunting Eubanks (Sands Anderson), and Ashley Reynolds Marshall (City of Charlottesville). This was a dynamic panel whose combined experiences across law, insurance, diversity and inclusion, and

ethics helped inform solutions to real-life, complex workplace challenges.