Jean Patterson Boone, publisher of the Richmond Free Press, will be among a host of women panelists speaking at “Ascend and Lead: A Women’s Empowerment Forum,” sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at the museum, 200 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd.

The forum will include topics such as “The Struggle Is Real,” “Challenging Stereotypes, Setting a New Standard” and “Enacting Change.”

Mrs. Boone, who will be speaking on the panel “In the Black: The Business of Media,” will be joined by Karla Redditte, news anchor and reporter with WWBT NBC12, and Kelli Lemon, a social entrepreneur and consultant.

Other speakers during the daylong event will include state Sen. Jennifer McClellan of Richmond; Chief Lynette Allston, chair of the Tribal Council of the Nottoway Tribe of Virginia; Kristen Cavallo, chief executive officer of The Martin Agency; Melody Barnes, co-director of The Democracy Initiative at the University of Virginia; Ting Xu, founder and chairman of the board of Evergreen Industries; and Nancy Rodrigues, deputy directory of the 2019 Commemoration American Evolution.

Mary Margaret Pettway, chair of the Souls Grown Deep Foun- dation and a third-generation member of the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective, will be in conversation with Valerie Cassel Oliver, the VMFA’s Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, on “Quilting: From Pieces to a Whole.”

A box lunch is included in the ticket price of $20, or $15 for VMFA members.

Details and tickets: www.vmfa.museum or (804) 340-1400.