Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts attended the first-ever Women Aspire, Respond, Engage Summit Nov. 7, where she heard professional women in a variety of fields tell stories of their success.

Roughly 300 women attended the conference at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, which featured panels from women in business, health and wellness, the arts and social and philanthropic entrepreneurs.

“It was inspiring,” Huybrechts said, “inspiring to hear these leaders speak about their work and about the potential for other women.”

Women A.R.E. has previously sponsored smaller salons featuring a single individual which Huybrechts has attended in the past.

The organization was founded in 2012 by Beth Friedman (Spencer ’09, Wesley ’12, Oliver ’17) and Angella Nazarian to bring together accomplished and influential women leaders to stir dialogue and bring about meaningful change, according to the organization’s website.

Andrea Ghez (Evan LaTourette-Ghez ’19), an astronomer and astrophysics professor at UCLA, and Barbara Natterson-Horowitz (Charles ’17), a faculty cardiologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA who wrote the book “Zoobiquity,” both spoke about their research between the panels, which Huybrechts called a “nice addition.”

“The [panel on] social and philanthropic entrepreneurs was the most interesting to me because women were finding really creative ways to give back,” Huybrechts said. “These four women had the resources to be able to do some good in the world and [found] extremely creative ways to do that.”

One story that stood out to Huybrechts was that of Alison Pincus, the co-founder and chief partnership officer for One Kings Lane, an online marketplace for home and lifestyle brands, which she launched after securing $4 million in venture capital.

“I saw in a couple of these young women our girls essentially, and I was inspired to think about the possibilities for our young women that were perhaps not there 10 or 20 years ago,” Huybrechts said.