In honor of Women’s History Month, Maj. Gen. Marcia Anderson spoke Mar. 20 in a lecture titled “Leading with Integrity in a Diverse World.”

Anderson is a graduate of Creighton University and Rutgers School of Law and has been a member of the active military, as well as a citizen-Soldier, since she graduated from Creighton in 1979.

According to the US Army Reserve’s website, Anderson was promoted to major general in October 2011. She is the first African American woman in the United States Army Reserve to achieve this rank.

The focus of Anderson’s talk was the women in history who inspired her and made it possible for her to rise to her position, and the qualities that make her a good leader today.

Since being promoted to major general, Anderson said she has become much more aware of her situation as a minority in a leadership position. She has promoted women’s and minorities’ rights by speaking to as many groups as possible, organizing interviews and being a mentor to as many people as she can. Anderson emphasizes communication with all she meets in order to make that possible.

Maj. Gen. Anderson hopes to make herself accessible so that she can continue speaking to groups in the future, even if they have low budgets or a small community. By encouraging people to follow their dreams and giving them advice in how to be a good leader, she hopes that it will become more common to see women and other minorities in positions of leadership.

Anderson spoke in her lecture about what she wants to see in the future: people who “put no limits on their dreams, [a society with] no obstacles that keep them from those dreams, and no more glass ceilings to shatter.”