Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue is opening its campus Friday for the second annual Women as Change Makers Conference, an event pairing students with women leaders from climate activism and the arts. The gathering, open to students, alumni, parents and the public, connects young women with professionals making an impact in their fields, and it arrives as the all-girls school builds out a broader push to put student voices in direct conversation with established ones.
Head of School Mary Rose Guerin described the conference as a chance to bring women across industries together to share their leadership stories with students, alumni, parents and other attendees, according to KING 5. Forest Ridge believes that seeing successful women leaders can help students envision themselves in those roles, Guerin said, adding that students need to see women doing important work in order to imagine themselves doing it too. The conference is designed to give students firsthand experiences from women leaders while elevating those women's stories, and Guerin said the school's broader goal is simply to help women elevate their own stories and voices.
Climate Organizer and Broadway Producer Headline the Day
Among this year's keynote speakers is Jamie Margolin, a climate activist who works to encourage young people to use their voices to create change, per the same KING 5 account. Margolin co-founded the global youth climate movement Zero Hour at age 15 and authored the 2020 activism guidebook *Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It*, which carried a foreword from Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, according to Hachette Book Group. She also served as a youth plaintiff in *Aji P. v. State of Washington*, a constitutional climate lawsuit alleging the state violated young residents' rights to a livable environment, as detailed by Climate Lit.
Guerin said Margolin helps young people cultivate their voices to make change, per the sponsor story's report. The second keynote speaker is Kaliswa Brewster, a 2001 Forest Ridge graduate who has gone on to work as a Broadway producer and actor. Brewster serves as Board President for Molière in the Park and was named to the Broadway Women's Fund 2026 “Women to Watch on Broadway” list, and she has co-produced major theater projects including *Cats: The Jellicle Ball*, according to Forest Ridge's own account. Guerin described both keynote guests as early-career women using their voices to tell important stories.
A Podcast Built to Make Room at the Table
Tied to the conference is The Longer Table, a new Forest Ridge podcast featuring conversations with influential women about leadership, opportunity and personal growth. Guerin explained the podcast's guiding idea plainly: when there is not room at the table, people should make it longer. The show's debut episode featured Shaney Fink, Seattle University's vice president for athletics, who was elevated to that role in September 2024 and elected president of the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association for 2025–2026, according to Seattle University. Fink joined Seattle U in 2016.
The podcast's second episode featured Jean Thompson, founder and CEO of Seattle Chocolate Company, which rebranded to Maeve in 2025. Thompson took ownership of the company after its original factory was destroyed in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, later building it into a social enterprise that donates 10% of its net profits to Girls Inc., per Forbes. She previously worked as a communications executive at Microsoft. Guerin said her conversation with Thompson focused on courage and pursuing one's passions.
A Sacred Heart School With a Century of History
Forest Ridge traces its roots to 1907, when it was established in Seattle as the Convent of the Sacred Heart, before relocating to its current campus on Somerset Hill in Bellevue in 1971, according to Wikipedia. The original Seattle school building was later sold to the Seattle Hebrew Academy. Today Forest Ridge is the only Sacred Heart school in the Pacific Northwest, linking its Bellevue student body to an international network of more than 150 schools across 41 countries, according to the school's own account of its mission from the head of school's office.
The school enrolls around 260 students in grades 5 through 12, per Wikipedia's entry on the school. Forest Ridge does not offer Advanced Placement courses, instead partnering with the University of Washington's “UW in the High School” dual enrollment program to award college credit, an approach that reflects the school's focus on real-world problem solving.
Building on Last Year's Debut
Forest Ridge describes the Women as Change Makers Conference as a campus gathering meant to connect high school girls with female industry leaders. This year's conference, scheduled for Friday, marks the event's second year and continues that effort to bridge secondary education with professional mentorship. Guerin said the school's broader aim is to encourage students to take on leadership themselves and to help others do the same, and that people should support one another and make room for everyone.
Interested members of the public can register for the conference on the Forest Ridge website, though organizers are encouraging advance registration since attendees must be assigned to breakout sessions. The conference is open to students, alumni, parents and the public, continuing the school's effort to extend its classroom lessons on leadership into a public-facing gathering on its Bellevue campus.
