Eleven women will be honored as YWCA/BP Women of Achievement in upcoming ceremonies. The names were announced at a press conference on Sept. 16 at the YWCA's Anchorage offices.
The 2014 awardees are: Belinda Breaux, president of Breaux Leadership Solutions, an Anchorage-based consulting firm; Karen Coward, the retired director of community and public affairs for BP Alaska; Diane DiSanto, senior legislative aide for Senator Mark Begich; Anchorage Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson; Aurora Johnson, a dental therapist with Norton Sound Health Corporation in Unalakleet; Natasa Masanovic, chair of the Department of Languages at the University of Alaska Anchorage; U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski; Phyllis Rhodes, the retired executive director of Identity, Inc., a gay and lesbian community center in Anchorage; Gail Schubert, the president and CEO of Bering Straits Native Corporation; and Kate Slyker, executive vice president of Anchorage advertising firm Spawn Ideas.
In addition to those 10 women, long-time Anchorage community and political activist Ruth Sheridan was named as the recipient of the Arliss Sturgulewski Award. This is a special award, which is not presented every year, said YWCA Board President Carrie Lindow. She said the previous honorees have included the late Iditarod champion Susan Butcher and Sturgulewski herself.
The awards recognize the leadership qualities and community contributions of individuals and are "a way for women and girls to see women in their community as a moving force," said YWCA board member Betsy Haines, herself a Woman of Achievement in 2004.
The Women of Achievement awards have been given out for 25 years.The new inductees will raise the total number in the "academy," as Lindow called the list, to 301.
The 2014 recipients will be inducted at a ceremony Oct. 9 at the Hotel Captain Cook. The awards will be presented at the Discovery Theatre on Nov. 13. That event will coincide with the annual "Purse Auction" fundraiser. Tickets, available at centertix.net, are $75 and will be available starting Oct. 1.