Nominees announced for YWCA Leader Luncheon
The YWCA Elgin is pleased to announce the nominees for the 32nd annual Leader Luncheon Awards to be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 7, at The Seville in Streamwood.
The Leader Luncheon is attended by hundreds of community leaders, businesses, nonprofit representatives and volunteers to acknowledge and honor women from Elgin and surrounding communities who have made significant contributions to the arts, business and professions, communications/technology, education, public service, social service, volunteer/community service and racial justice.
These outstanding women from the greater Elgin area were nominated by their colleagues and peers in the following categories:
• Margaret Hillis Award for the Arts: Elizabeth Bellaver, Darlene Hulin, Sandra Kaptain and Sue Ollman;
• Beatrice Dorsey Award for Business and Professions: Sybil Ege, Claudia Garfias, Nancy Guthrie, Sharon Konny, Dr. Dorothea Poulos, Wendy Romero and Kate Volarath;
• Marguerite Henry Award for Communication/Technology: Kari Christensen;
• Harriet Gifford Award for Education: Cindy Edwardson; Debra Lucchetti, Karen Oswald, Deb Perryman and Dr. Julie Schaid;
• Myrtle Spiegler Gerberding Award for Public Service: Miriam Anderson Lytle, Cristina Castro and Tish Powell;
• Marie Grolich Award for Social Services: Cathy Malkani, Vivian Maly, Maureen Manning-Rosenfeld, Bernadette M. May, and Brittney N. Walker;
• Marjorie Leonard Award for Community Service: V. Guadalupe Fonseca, Susan Ericson, Catherine M. Headley, Deirdre Higgins White, Mary E. Hyatt, Margaret Keen, Coral Reinert and Dr. Katie Storey;
• Racial Justice Award: Jane “Juanita” Barbosa and the Rev. Janie McCutchen.
Additionally, the YWCA Elgin announces with great pride that at this year's Leader Luncheon, there will be a namesaking presentation whereby its Racial Justice Award will be named after Betty Brown. The longtime Elgin resident is a community leader and activist who paved the way for the earliest racial equality movements in Elgin.
Breaking down racial barriers, she was the first black nurse to work at St. Joseph's Hospital in Joliet and the first black member of the Elgin Junior Service Board. As a working professional, Brown has had an exciting and varied career where she served as a public relations manager, wardrobe consultant, and a judge in the Miss America pageant and other pageants across the country. She now writes a signature column for the Elgin Courier-News.
In addition to her many accomplishments, she was named one of the “One Hundred Women of Destiny” selected by Marilyn Miglin & Associates. Brown received numerous awards for her civic work, the Altrusa Outstanding Woman of the Year, Outstanding Woman in Advertising, Elgin Cosmopolitan Club Distinguished Service Award, Elgin Image Award 1993, and the YWCA Margaret Henry Award. She was interviewed by the organization History Makers, the largest collected African-American oral and video history collection in the Library of Congress, where she was filmed in an interview documentary about her life. She was also recognized as a “Mentor of the Year” in Newsweek magazine in 1984.
Join in the celebration of these accomplished and inspirational women on May 7. Tickets are $55 or $50 for YWCA members. Leader Luncheon reservations can be made online at YWCAelgin.org/LL2015 or call the YWCA at (847) 742-7930. Sponsorship opportunities are available.