Waldorf Welcomes New Director of WWiL

By Erisha Menon

The Warrior Women in Leadership (WWiL), a program for the driven women leaders on campus has finally found a new director to lead the group. A minor change but a major impact.

Renae Littrell, is a former softball coach and faculty instructor at Doane University. She is now an assistant professor at Waldorf and teaches few different courses which includes Concepts of Wellness and Warrior Seminar. Her spouse also works in Waldorf as the Head Coach of the football team.

Recently, Littrell has taken the challenge to be the new director of the Warrior Women in Leadership program for the young women leaders here on campus.

“Having the opportunity to lead helped me to shape my own ideas about who I was as a person and who I wanted to be has given me the opportunity to provide service to others,” said Littrell.  She is also excited to have the chance to help and guide women to develop their own leadership style.

The Warrior Women in Leadership program started a few years ago, sponsored by Chantelle Cooley with the vision of empowering and fostering women leaders. WWIL has created a safe and brave environment for women being involved on campus and the community.

Throughout the program, these young women do not only learn about leadership skills but also an opportunity to find their identity in this world.

Littrell’s next step as the director is working on getting new students to campus for the fall. She is also working on developing the program after spring break. “My direction at this stage in the game is to help to develop, grow, and foster, our current program as it is, and to recruit new incoming women into our program moving forward into the future.”

Asmita KC, a warrior woman in the program said that this could be very beneficial in long term for the future women leaders. “This will create more structure and involvement by the women leaders especially for the community,” said KC.

Guzel Tuhbatullina, who joined WWiL last year said she is hoping for a positive change. “I don’t know what to expect but I am really glad.”

For the new leaders on campus next year, Littrell stresses on the different individuals as a leader. Providing women leadership roles from outside of Waldorf and giving them a chance to share their experiences is really important to Littrell.

“It is a multi-faceted leadership. It isn’t a cookie cutter leadership. It is to take a student from their freshmen year and help them figure out their own leadership style.”