True to Tri Delta tradition, we’ve thoughtfully curated an outstanding slate of speakers, engaging networking moments and fun, unforgettable activities—all created to deepen connection and enhance your Convention experience.
FRIDAY, JUNE 26, OPENING PANEL
This year’s Convention will kick off with our Women of Achievement Panel, moderated by Tri Delta CEO Mindy Tucker, Southern Methodist. Mindy will be leading several of our 2025 and 2026 Women of Achievement in a discussion around their professional impact and the role Tri Delta has played in their lives. Panelists include AnnaMaria DeSalva, William & Mary (2026), Julie Kincaid Hill, California/Los Angeles (2026), Sylvia Sydow Kerrigan, Southwestern (2025), Ashley Wilson McClellan, Southern Methodist (2026), Karen Lynch Parkhill, Southern Methodist (2025), and Jacqueline Reses, Pennsylvania (2025).
Established in 2000, Tri Delta’s Woman of Achievement title is the Fraternity’s highest honor. It recognizes alumnae whose leadership and service have made a lasting impact in their professions and communities and whose lives reflect Tri Delta’s core values of truth, self-sacrifice and friendship.
These women share a commitment to lead with integrity, serve with purpose and create a lasting impact wherever they are called. They have shaped boardrooms, communities, classrooms, companies and conversations with resilience, vision and heart.
SATURDAY, JUNE 27, KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Loretta Soffe, California/Berkeley
Author, Speaker and Executive Coach
Loretta Soffe spent 24 years at Nordstrom, rising from cashier to Executive Vice President overseeing a $2 billion business, all while building a 25+ year marriage and raising three children. After leaving corporate leadership, she founded a consulting practice, served as an independent board director and was a Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group’s Global Retail Practice.
In 2025, Loretta published “Balance Is BS: Your Roadmap to a Thriving Marriage, Grounded Kids & Career Success,” challenging the myth that women must choose between ambition and a meaningful personal life.
Today, Loretta coaches senior leaders and professional women on career growth, life transitions and redefining success—with the credibility of someone who’s actually lived it.
SUNDAY, JUNE 28, KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Cathy Guisewite, Michigan
Cartoonist and Author
Cathy Guisewite created the comic strip “Cathy,” which ran daily in nearly 1,400 newspapers from 1976 to 2010, launching at a time when there were almost no female voices on the comic pages. It became a deeply personal touchstone for women wrestling with a changing world, earning a National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award, an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program and the high honor of appearing on refrigerators across the land, right next to the food.
Along with the strip, Guisewite published numerous books and built her own merchandising company, licensing hundreds of “Cathy” products over the years.
Her latest book, “Cathy 50th Anniversary Collection,” is a sweeping retrospective of the strip from the very beginning—five decades of chocolate, bathing suits, mother-daughter dynamics and the messy, honest truth of being a woman trying to figure it all out.
Today, Cathy speaks with the warmth and wit that made her strip a cultural institution, offering audiences a mix of laughter, candor and the kind of hard-won perspective that only comes from 50 years of paying attention.