Background, Founders & Today’s Legacy
Capital Women’s Speakers Club of Washington, DC was founded in 1951 during a pivotal time when women were stepping into greater public leadership—and needed strong, confident voices to match their growing influence.
Its roots trace back to Jesse Haver Butler, an influential suffragette, lecturer, and founder of the Pulitzer School of Journalism at Columbia University. Her “Practical Platform Speaking” classes trained women to communicate with confidence in civic and public life and were endorsed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Later, Bess Truman hosted these classes at the White House.
In 1949, Hester Beall Provensen, a professor at the University of Maryland, began teaching what became known as the Capital Public Speaking Classes and later served as private speaking coach to Lady Bird Johnson.
On April 19, 1951, following a proposal by graduate Lonore Kiefer Kent Van Swearingen, the Capital Speakers Club was officially formed. Madame Herman (Anne) van Roijen, wife of the Netherlands Ambassador, was elected the club’s first president.
More than seventy years later, that same legacy continues—and today, it includes Heike Yates. Stepping into this historic speaking community places Heike in direct lineage with women who believed that confidence, leadership, and influence begin with a practiced voice. As a midlife mindset, fitness, and transformation coach, Heike carries that mission forward—helping modern women break through self-doubt, reclaim their strength, and use their voice with clarity and purpose.
From suffragettes and First Ladies to today’s change-makers, the message remains the same:
When women find their voice, everything changes.
