Dr. Berenecea Johnson Eanes did not go it alone on her way to becoming the first woman president of Cal State LA. She had a handful of mentors who guided her along her journey.
Whenever she found herself in a difficult situation, insightful advice was just a phone call away.
“I have mentors about everything,” she said. “It means a lot to me to be able to call a friend. It’s like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You get one call, talk to somebody, and ask very specific questions. Tell them you need help.”
The key, she said, is to be a willing listener.
“You cannot have a mentor if you cannot be mentored,” she said. “I am the president of a wonderful university, but I call four or five people whenever I get in a bind. You can never get big enough to not be taught. Never.”
President Eanes dispersed the advice during a two-woman panel on the second day of the FEMME 2026 Power Confab Retreat celebrating Women’s History Month at The Langham Huntington hotel in Pasadena from Wednesday, March 18, to Thursday, March 19.
The retreat gathered more than 350 thought leaders, CEOs, C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, influencers, educators, leaders, and professionals from a variety of sectors and industries. It celebrated leadership, innovation, and the advancement of women across fields.
Eanes shared the stage during the “Fearless First Series: The Women Who Dare!” panel with fellow trailblazer Antonia Novello, who served as the first woman U.S. Surgeon General in the early 1990s. FEMME founder Sarah Ruiz Chavez served as moderator.
Eanes and Novello uplifted the audience, which included Cal State LA students and staff, with stories of being the first in their respective fields. The pair mentored from the stage.
Eanes said her first mentors were her mother Loreatha Johnson, father Frank Johnson Jr., and grandmother Rosie Hamiter, followed by the church leaders from the Witherspoon Presbyterian Church in her hometown of Indianapolis.
She also sent a shoutout to California State University Chancellor Mildred García, for whom Eanes served as vice president of student affairs while García was president at California State University, Fullerton.
Photo: Anna Sauceda, center, a Cal State LA alumna and FEMME organizer, welcomes Cal State LA students at the FEMME 2026 Power Confab Retreat in Pasadena on Thursday, March 19. (Credit: J. Emilio Flores/Cal State LA)
“You all know I am a president in a system that is led by the first Latina chancellor?” Eanes asked the audience. “She’s the ultimate mentor and the ultimate leader.”
Ruiz Chavez asked Eanes and Novello if as trailblazers they had ever taken a professional risk.
“I always tell my students, my mentees, and my family that risk-taking is about being bold,” Eanes replied. “Every day I wake up and do this job is a risk. It has been an amazing journey, and I would not do things any differently.”
For its fourth retreat, FEMME featured panels and talks covering topics such as money management, physical and mental wellness, new models of leadership, aging, sports, international leadership, storytelling in a technology-driven world, and more. It also included a pickleball session and the popular “Ask Me Anything Luncheon,” and then culminated with the FEMME Awards Gala.
“Every year it gets better and better,” said Anna Sauceda, Cal State LA alumna and event contributor. “We have birth something that is not only continuing to grow, but is in transition because of the world we live in. It is so necessary to try and encompass all that women are. I love celebrating every bit of it.”
Sauceda, president of the Associated Construction Services Group, and Luisa Acosta, Cal State LA associate vice president for University Advancement, arranged for Cal State LA representation at FEMME.
Among those in attendance from Cal State LA were Acosta; Blanca Martinez-Navarro, associate vice president of Student Affairs and Enrollment and dean of students; Jennifer Luo, assistant director of Educational Opportunity Program (EOP); Rosa Heckenberg, director of the Erika J. Glazer Family Dreamers Resource Center; and nine students representing EOP, the Dreamers Resource Center, and the Office of the Dean.
“This is an opportunity for our students to be in a space among individuals that may reflect their own identities, stories, and ambitions,” Martinez-Navarro said. “They are also able to network and build those webs of connections.”
Heckenberg echoed those sentiments. “Many of our students are first-generation,” she said. “It’s important we bring them to this type of setting because they see women who look like them, who can serve as role models. It really impacts their self-confidence, and they believe, no matter what they’re studying, that they can be successful.”
In addition to Eanes and Novello, the event’s featured guests, or “Illuminators,” included champion figure skater Michelle Kwan; journalist Soledad O’Brien; publisher Moira Forbes; actors Kim Coles, Melissa Villaseñor, and Esai Morales; musicians Sheila E., Suzette Quintanilla, and Evelyn “Champagne” King; scientist and podcaster Maya Shankar; celebrity chef Pyet Despain; and AARP executive Carly Roszkowski.
Novello served as the 14th Surgeon General under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton from 1990 to 1993. She was the first woman and first Hispanic to hold the position. She later held the position of Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006.
Eanes was appointed as the ninth president of Cal State LA by the California State University Board of Trustees in September 2023 and began her tenure in January 2024.
She previously served as president of York College, City University of New York, from 2019 to 2023. Prior to that, Eanes was vice president for Student Affairs at California State University, Fullerton (2012 to 2019), where she delivered leadership and oversight of myriad student success programs, as well as new campus infrastructure and the university’s strategic plan.
“It was important for us to be here,” Eanes said of the event, “because we have a large population of young ladies, but also a large population of students in general, who need this knowledge, this lifting up, this base of support. I’m really happy that we’re able to partner with FEMME.”
Photo: Cal State LA President Berenecea Johnson Eanes, center, and former U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello, right, discuss their roles as trailblazing leaders during a panel at the FEMME 2026 Power Confab Retreat in Pasadena on Thursday, March 19. FEMME founder Sarah Ruiz Chavez moderated. (Credit: J. Emilio Flores/Cal State LA)
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