In its first event of the year, the U.S. Bank Women in Leadership program of the John Cook School of Business hosted Nancy Hightshoe, a former police officer who has lectured in the United States and 17 other countries on business as well as personal safety.

She spoke Wednesday afternoon in Cook Hall on personal safety, gearing her remarks toward women, but repeated that issues of personal safety affect both sexes.

“I want to see that people don’t get abducted,” Hightshoe quipped while introducing her general goals. She explained that she has a series of lectures for different groups, such as business travelers and children, but the speech she gave Wednesday was targeted at college students.

“They’re in a challenging time of their lives. They have their first taste of freedom, and they don’t have the support system (they are used to). That can sound (limiting), but if you’ve been attacked, it may sound like the best thing since sliced bread.”

“College population is different from other populations. New students realize they need to watch out for each other,” she explained. One other fact she stressed was that one in three women will be the victim of a sexual assault sometime in their life.

It was no surprise that Hightshoe, a member of the St. Louis Police Department for nine years and the architect of the St. Louis County Rape Squad, began her remarks with simple advice: “Think like a cop.”

Using that idea as a basis for much of her presentation, Hightshoe stressed the fact that most assault victims she worked with knew something felt wrong–had what she calls the “uh-oh” feeling–and did nothing for fear of seeming paranoid or being rude.

Police officers, she said, detect when things are not right and take action. Staying alert and not panicking is the main goal when you get that feeling, she said.

“I want you to be empowered when you walk out of here, to be stronger, more courageous, to be more sure of yourself,” Hightshoe said, while speaking of the window of opportunity every victim has in which to free themselves, “to know that you can handle things, because if you show self-confidence, you’ll also be more creative about the best way to handle a situation.”

“The feedback was very positive. I think she had a lot to offer, a lot of very valid information,” said Debra Faughn, Ph.D., director of the Women in Leadership program. “I thought it went very well.”

The program itself falls under direction of the Business School’s Emerson Center for Business Ethics, headed by Jim Fisher. It runs leadership programs–one for women and another called Service Leadership.

Women in Leadership, Faughn explained, used to be a tuition-paying program organized in a classroom setting, in which only graduate students could enroll.

Since she assumed direction a year ago last June, the program has expanded to include undergraduates and, for some select events like Hightshoe’s presentation, the public at large.

The program hosts five to seven events each year, the focus of most of them being speakers and a spring conference.

“The purpose is to really provide gender-specific business information to women who participate and also networking and mentoring opportunities,” Faughn said.

“Hightshoe’s experience was very impressive,” said one member of the program, freshman Melissa Mueller.

“The presentation was helpful. The thing that really stuck with me was that in every attack, there is a 20 to 30 second window of opportunity. Were I attacked, I’d remember that,” she added.