New Rochelle’s VIP Country Club was the site of the Westfair Business Journal’s annual Women Innovators Awards on Oct. 26.
The event honored 23 women from across Westchester and Fairfield counties in a diverse range of professions who have gained prominence for leadership and creativity in their respective fields.
The honorees, nominated by their peers, were selected by judges Chereese Jervis-Hil, the CEO and founder of both Events To Remember and PR To Remember, divisions of her umbrella organization Events By Chereese Inc, and Deborah A. Tymon, senior vice president of marketing for the New York Yankees.
Providing the keynote address and presiding over the presentation of awards was Dr. Helen Rothberg, a professor of strategic management at Marist College’s School of Management, as well as a senior faculty member at the Academy of Competitive Intelligence and president of consulting firm HNR Associates. In addition to her extensive education and time in the business sphere, Rothberg is the author of the book “The Perfect Mix: Everything I Know About Leadership I learned as a Bartender.”
“Innovation means that you do something different with something that already exists,” Rothberg told the audience and honorees. “And women have been doing this from the beginning of time. They learned how to create shelter for their families with leaves and sticks. Our grandmothers could do 17 different things with baking soda.”
Rothberg mused on how the discoveries of women in the home, such as the many uses of baking soda or duct tape, were later adopted as official commercial purposes by the companies that made them. She also recalled how she first asserted herself in a male dominated field, a Manhattan basketball court where she had to employ “sh*t talk” to get the boys to acknowledge her and refuse to show weakness even after getting banged up while playing to make them respect her.
“Sh*t or fertilizer,” Rothberg added, “it’s a choice every woman sitting here in the front row has had to make. You either learn how to make things into fertilizer and make more with less or accept something you don’t like. And all of you learned how to recognize a need that needed to be filled and how you could do it differently.”
Bank of America served as the event’s presenting sponsor, and Arusyak Babayan, vice president and relationship manager for the Westchester branch, gave her regards to the honorees and praised the event for recognizing the work of extraordinary women.
Additional sponsorship was also provided by Burke Rehabilitation, part of the Montefiore Health System, Cuddy & Feder LLP, New England Antique Lumber, and Osborn Home Care.
The 2023 Women Innovators are:
Jessica Bailey, president and CEO of Nuveen Green Capital
Colleen Magliari Borrelli, vice president of patient experience at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital
Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson, partner at Thompson & Bender LLC
Lucia Chiocchio, partner at Cuddy & Feder LLP
Sobeida Cruz, founder and trustee of the Charter School of Educational Excellence
Mary Dobson, founder and CEO of LIFT Wellness Group
Joanne Dunn, executive director of the Youth Shelter Program of Westchester
Filomena Fanelli, founder and CEO of Impact PR & Communications
Jennifer Flowers, founder and CEO of Accreditation Guru Inc.
Lisbeth “Boo” Fumagalli, Bedford Town Clerk
Meg Glander, external affairs manager, Crown Castle
Patricia Guevara, partner at New England Antique Lumber
Cindy Kanusher, executive director at Pace Women’s Justice Center
Diane P. Kelly, president of Greenwich Hospital and executive vice President, chief nurse executive at Yale New Haven Health System
Marissa Madonia, business development executive of Corporate Audio Visual Services
Margaret Nunziato, executive director of Westchester Independent Living Center Inc.
Kecia Palmer-Cousins, CEO of Aero-Ba-Soul Inc.
Julia Riso Livingston, regional managing principal at Northeast of MKDA
Victoria Ronemus, attorney and partner at Fullerton Beck LLP
Lauren Rones-Payne, general manager at Million Air
Michelle Thomas, executive vice president at Osborn Home Care
Stacey Tompkins, president and owner of Tompkins Excavating
Pamela Tucker, chief marketing officer of Harrison Edwards
