New London — Patricia Russo, the executive director of The Campaign School at Yale, said during an event Saturday focused on increasing the number of women in public service that every woman is born to lead.

"You have a responsibility in this moment to raise your hand just a little higher than ever before," she told a roomful of attendees at the Women's Business Development Council offices in downtown New London.

While Russo said that might not necessarily mean running for public office — she herself is an example of someone involved in political campaigns — she encouraged women to find their leadership path.

The Campaign School at Yale, a nonprofit, held a one-day training, called "The Basics," for people thinking about running for office, working on a campaign, or becoming a more effective leader on an issue in their community.

The Campaign School at Yale, which started 29 years ago, is a nonpartisan political campaign training program whose mission is to increase the number of women in the political pipeline.

During the event, people learned about the dos and don’ts of politics and how to decide whether to run for office, public speaking, and fundraising, and heard from a panel of alumni. Russo said 35 people registered for the event.

Speech coach Gilda Bonanno said communication and leadership are skills that can be learned and improved. She told attendees that the nerves they feel before public speaking are a sign they care. She encouraged them to channel the people they are speaking on behalf of so they can overcome their fear and be the people's voice.

The Campaign School at Yale cited in a news release that in 2024, women lost five seats in the Connecticut General Assembly, where they hold 34.3% of the 187 seats, which is a lower percentage than the 35.6% of seats women hold in U.S. Congress. The organization said women of color are even more under-represented.

The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut for the second year provided funding for the event.

Maryam Elahi, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, which commissioned a 2018 report on The Status of Women and Girls in Eastern Connecticut, pointed to Iceland as an example of how women in political leadership addressed economic instability, child care and educational challenges and other issues.

"It's been proven that when more and more women are involved in politics, these issues come to the foreground, and solutions are put into place," she said.

Russo said the Campaign School at Yale is seeing more and more queries about its training from people of all parties, as more people realize that federal cuts are going to have a negative impact on their families and want to get involved in politics.

Russo said that 29 years ago, the median age of attendees was late 40s to early 50s and they were predominantly white women. Now, she said the the median age is 28-29 and the majority of attendees are people of color. She added that also more men are attending to work on political campaigns for female candidates.

Windsor Mayor Nuchette Black-Burke, who was one of the panelists and attended the Campaign School at Yale's five-day training last year, told The Day that some of the biggest challenges women face in running for office is that sometimes women don't like to ask for support for their campaigns and don't believe in themselves. She said there also are not many places that train women for public office.

She said the training gave her more tools to campaign, be more visible, and communicate her message.

She said that women of color are under-represented, and one of her goals is to encourage more women of color to run for office. She said they will find allies at the Campaign School and a place to elevate their voices.

Montville Town Councilor Kate Southard, who got involved in politics eight years ago and attended Saturday's event, said at least half of the seats in Connecticut should be held by women as women represent more than half of the population.

She said many people forget that women are a marginalized community, but it wasn't until the early 1970s that women could open a credit card in their own name.

Kathleen Mullen-Kohl, a Waterford Representative Town Meeting incumbent who is running for office again, said she attended Saturday's training to learn better ways to communicate her message about why she is running for office and to see what the town wants and needs from its leaders.

She added that it's important for more women to be involved in politics because they need to band together and show they are stronger together.

k.drelich@theday.com