Women leaders inspire and share their success stories

For decades, women have faced various challenges in male-dominated industries, including discrimination, lack of support, and biased attitudes. Despite these obstacles, many women have shattered the glass ceiling and emerged as leaders in their fields, paving the way for future generations.
When women leaders tell their own stories, they expand the possible narratives for other women and girls, something that City Councilwoman Marsha Silverman understands well.
“Sometimes you just have to open your eyes,” Silverman said as she moderated the fourth Female Firsts conference at City Hall on Tuesday. “Sometimes there are amazing gems and stories right in front of you that you wouldn’t even know exist.”
The event featured inspirational stories and sage advice from three highly successful women. Geraldine Hart, the associate vice president of public safety and community engagement at Hofstra University, was the senior supervisory resident agent in the FBI’s Long Island office, and the first female police commissioner of Suffolk County. Capt. Cynthia Robson is a master mariner, licensed to sail vessels of any tonnage on any ocean, and the first female master of a tank ship. She was also the first woman to command a ship through the Panama Canal, and is a professor at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Dana Arschin is the first storyteller at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, in Glen Cove, and a three-time Emmy award-winning journalist.
When the panelists were asked about creating their own opportunities instead of pursuing those that are already available, Robson recalled her first exposure to gender bias when she attended the Regional Science and Engineering Fair held in Houston at age 11. After learning about a maritime scholarship available from Texas A&M University to spend summer at sea aboard the Texas A&M Maritime Academy training ship, the Texas Clipper, she excitedly shared her dream to sail ships with one of the judges at the fair.

“I walked up to one of the judges, and asked, ‘How do I earn this award?’” Robson recounted. “He said to me, ‘The first thing you have to do is change your sex, because we’ll never allow women.’ It was at that point I knew that was what I wanted to do, to sail ships.”
Six years later, Texas A&M opened the scholarship to women to join the Corps of Cadets. She recalled, the judges never even approached her project. Although she was devastated by their attitudes, she wouldn’t allow herself to be ignored.
“I burst into the judges’ chambers and I said, ‘Where are those judges from Texas A&M?’” Robson recalled. “They said they picked someone, and I said, ‘No, you haven’t. You didn’t come to my project.”
When the judges did look at her project, they awarded her first place. Although she was offered an appointment to West Point, she knew she wanted to go to sea.
But throughout her career, Robson encountered numerous instances of gender bias, and was once told that being a female researcher on a ship was an “experiment.” She stressed that creating opportunities for herself rather than waiting for them helped her jump-start her career.
Asked about the skills she developed to succeed under pressure, Hart reflected on her transition from working with the FBI to the Suffolk County Police Department. She emphasized the importance of accessibility and authenticity in her leadership style, citing her open-door policy and her willingness to connect personally with members of her team, and to engage with officers at precincts.
When she worked with the FBI, she said, she had a couch in her office, and she people would lie down and tell her their problems. When she came to work for Suffolk County, she quickly realized that the communication style she had with her colleagues at the FBI wasn’t part of the Police Department’s culture.
“For me it was getting out there, literally going out to the precincts, meeting with the officers … any place that I could,” Hart explained. “I’d meet them in a parking lot, and we would just gather up in a circle. I would talk to them. I would explain to them that my door is always open.”
Arschin talked about her mentor, Emad Asghar, also her former boss at Fox 5, who saw her potential as a journalist, even as a rookie reporter at News12 from 2011 to 2016. He was one of her biggest supporters when she began telling the stories of Holocaust survivors. Arschin also reflected on her time with Andrea Bolendar, a board member from the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center , who advocated for her to become the center’s first storyteller.
“Take that mentorship from whoever you can get it, professionally or from within your family or friends,” Arschin said. “And decide which characteristics and which traits from each person you want to take along with you.”