Suzanne Hollander, an Associate Teaching Professor in the FIU School of Business’s Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate and the Program Director of Professional Development for the Office to Advance Women, Equity & Diversity (AWED), was an invited speaker at the U.S. State Department’s WeAmericas Initiative in November 2020.
Hollander gave a presentation on women in the workforce and women empowerment, including how to create more opportunities for women in business in Latin America, and on real estate and housing. “I’ve been teaching around the world, and what I’ve come to learn is that law and property rights are such powerful mechanisms to help give people freedom. Women need to have property rights and access to safe secure housing in order to have equality and options to advance.”
The U.S. State Department launched the WeAmericas Initiative in 2012 to support women’s economic advancement in the Western Hemisphere. The Initiative brings women from 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries selected by the U.S. embassy in their program to the US to learn about leadership and entrepreneurial business skills and to build networks.
Hollander was part of a roundtable discussion, with panelists from The Center for Peace and Commerce at the University of San Diego and The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation. The topic was academic programs at higher education institutions that influence entrepreneurship education for women.
The U.S. Department of State appointed Hollander to its Fulbright Specialist Roster as an expert in real estate, and Hollander has been awarded federal funds to travel to Latin America and begin researching the impact and influence of Chinese Investment in real estate and infrastructure. She has served as a visiting real estate expert attorney teaching comparative real estate law and how transparent legal systems create property value and promote democracy in Peru, Colombia and Brazil.
As a member of the AWED team, Hollander gives national and local speeches and trainings on strategies to advance and empower women in business, real estate and housing, and frequently touches on the topics of unconscious bias and intersectionality. She was recently a speaker at the Diversity Reception of the 2019 Annual International Council of Shopping Centers Attorney Conference in San Diego, the Urban Land Institutes Women’s Initiative, and the Bacardi’s Annual Women Symposium.
Nationally active on diversity issues, Suzanne is an Appointee to the National Diversity and Inclusion Task Force of Commercial Real Estate Women Network, an Advisor on the C.R.E.A.T.E. Wealth Network, whose mission is to provide quality commercial real estate investing education for all with an emphasis on uplifting other women leaders in the industry, and the National Women’s Investment Consortium. In Miami, she continues her work in diversity as an appointed board member to 100 Women in Finance Miami and Commercial Real Estate Women Miami.
