Letter from CWBA President Carime A. Lee: Shine Your Truth at the 48th Annual Convention!

Dear CWBA Members,

It’s that time of year again! The CWBA’s Annual Convention is an opportunity to connect, recharge and be empowered and inspired.  Now, more than ever, we need to take advantage of the opportunity to build a stronger community for the challenges ahead.  Join me for our second year at the Hythe in Vail, CO, for our 48th Annual Convention (May 16-18).

We are excited to launch our new leadership structure with the 2025-26 CWBA Board of Directors and Leadership Advisory Council (LAC). After several years of intentional engagement with current and past board members, and the help of the ABA Center for Bar Leadership, the Board of Directors created and approved a new and strategic leadership structure. This new structure reduces the Board of Directors from 45 members to 12 members and creating the new LAC. With this change we believe the leadership will be more tactical and focused at the Board level, and allow more space for Committee Co-Chairs to lead the committees with our members. We also took the opportunity to redesign committees to better reflect and refine their purpose.

I invite you to learn more about the new leadership structure and cast your vote for the 2025-26 leadership of the CWBA.  I am excited to support our President-Elect, Alison Connaughty, as she leads us into the next year.  The 2025-26 CWBA Board of Directors and LAC will be sworn in at the Annual Meeting Dinner and Passing the Gavel Celebration on Saturday, May 17th at 6:30pm by Court of Appeals Judges, the Honorable Jaclyn Brown and the Honorable Elizabeth L. Harris. Join me as I reflect on the past year before passing the gavel to Alison who will share her vision for the year ahead. After dinner, we continue our tradition of karaoke and dancing the night away!

When I shared my personal story at last year’s Convention, I aspired to inspire at least a handful of members to brighten their flame. We conclude the year with an even greater sense of urgency to Shine Our Truth and bring light to the darkness afflicting our nation.  With the theme for Convention, Be Bright: Build Bridges and Break Barriers  we hope to inspire women to lead in unprecedented times, to overcome whatever obstacle stands in the way of their goals and to be brave in the face of adversity.

If you’re a first timer at Convention, I hope to see you at the First Time Attendees’ Welcome lunch before the first session on Friday. We’ve carefully selected an amazing program for the weekend! We will kick off the weekend with a Friday workshop led by husband-and-wife team, Gail and Bruce Montgomery of ExperienceYes.  The dynamic duo will guide you through data-driven insights and strategies to build self-confidence in “Own the Room: Building Relationships and Self-Confidence.” Friday night is another amazing opportunity to be inspired during the Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award Presentation and Dinner where we will honor Judge Angela R. Arkin for her remarkable career and dedication to justice.  The rest of the weekend will not disappoint with dynamic speakers including keynote speakers Nhi Aronheim and Paula Boggs, an incredible panel of firsts featuring Judge Christine Arguello, Rep. Elizabeth Velasco and Enid Wade, and concurrent sessions with Tara Dunn and Kami Guildner that will give you tools to lead and influence in your career.  We will close out the day of programming by continuing to empower our members with our Roundtable sessions, “How to Be Bright, Build Bridges and Break Barriers,” which will feature an amazing group of women from our own community, each of whom will share their personal stories to help empower you to shine. On Sunday we will close out this impactful Convention with a special live session of “On What Grounds? Lighting the Path: Bar Leaders on Confronting Hate and Strengthening Justice and the Rule of Law” featuring leaders from our diversity and local bar associations and led by Regan Byrd, anti-oppression activist, speaker and trainer.  

I am extremely grateful to the 2025-26 Board and every volunteer that contributed to the CWBA’s mission this year. Collaborating with you all to advance women as leaders in the law has been an achievement I will never forget and an inspiration to keep shinning. Thank you also to this year’s Nominating Committee—assembled by President-elect Alison Connaughty and chaired by Hon. Kathryn A. Starnella– for recruiting and selecting the proposed slate of Board members, officers, and committee chairs.

If you have any questions about the Annual Business Meeting or election, please contact Executive Director Kim Sporrer at (303) 831-1040 or execdir@cwba.org. If you want more reasons to attend Convention or just want to connect, feel free to contact me at carimecwba@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support and your contributions to the CWBA! I look forward to celebrating with you at Convention!

Best wishes,

Carime Lee