As a female entrepreneur, I am thrilled to be celebrating Women’s History Month alongside Cogent’s exceptional team of female strategists and our fearless female clients.
This year, our team has embraced Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day in unique ways. Cogent has been at the forefront of global communications, and since our inception, we forged an indispensable partnership with Meridian International Center. Meridian’s mission of global leadership, diplomacy and culture is so vitally important, especially in these critical times.
Earlier this month, Meridian partnered with the U.S. Department of State in support of the 16th year of the International Women of Courage (IWOC) Award. This award – presented today by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, First Lady Jill Biden and other officials – recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. As part of the programming around the award, members of Cogent’s exceptional PR and international teams were able to assist this year’s 11 honorees by conducting messaging and media training. The session prepared them to meet the public and reporters at upcoming events surrounding their award. The State Department commented that the training was “outstanding” and reactions from the awardees were overwhelmingly positive. One woman remarked that it was, “a very enriching and educational experience.” Our team could not be more proud to provide these women with the tools and training to continue to promote their efforts globally!
Hats off to the incredible women receiving this year’s IWOC Award who have overcome what many would deem as insurmountable odds to advance the roles of women in their respective countries. And many thanks to the U.S. Department of State for honoring these awardees, to Meridian for elevating their mission and to our Cogent team for helping them tell their powerful stories.
As we continue our celebration of Women’s History Month, here’s to all the strong, courageous women around the world – may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.
Kimberley Fritts is the founder and CEO of Cogent Strategies. For her complete bio, click here.
Cogent’s Will Bohlen, Shellie Purvis, Edda Collins Coleman and Missi Tessier provide media and message training to the distinguished recipients of the 2022 International Women of Courage Award. For a complete list of this year’s awardees, click here.