West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland is coming to West Virginia University Tuesday (April 11) to talk about the importance of voting and voter registration.

Her presentation,Power Up and Vote,will be at 7:30 p.m. in Room 101 Clark Hall on the Downtown Campus, and is being sponsored by WVU ’s Center for Women’s Studies in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. Voter registration forms will be available at the presentation.

In February 2005, Ireland started the new programVoting is Powerful (VIP)to increase voter registration across the Mountain State.

I want to make sure that the citizens of West Virginia have ample opportunity to register to vote,Ireland said at the program’s unveiling.Our office will be proactive in voter registration and educating citizens on the voting process.

A native of Charleston, Ireland is the first woman in the history of West Virginia to be elected to the state’s executive branch of government. A former public school teacher in West Virginia, she branched out into business, becoming the owner of Retirement Systems and Services, a pension administration and consulting firm in Charleston.

She was also vice president and head of the pension division in the Trust Department of the National Bank of Commerce in Charleston.

Ireland was the first woman ever appointed to serve on the City of Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals, and served on the Charleston City Council, the Public Safety Retirement Task Force of the Joint Legislative Committee on Pensions and Retirement, and as executive director of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board. In 2002, she became president and CEO of Jackson and Kelly Solutions.

She was sworn in as secretary of state on Jan.17, 2005.

For more information, contact Barb Howe, director of the Center for Women’s Studies, at 304-293-2339 ext. 1155 or Barbara.Howe@mail.wvu.edu .