WOMAN WITHIN INTERNATIONAL ROSE AWARDS
Woman Within Western USA nominates women from our region for the Woman Within Rose Awards. They are presented each year to women who have given their time and talents to provide opportunities for other women to discover the power of who they are. While many women in all Woman Within Regions live this mission, only a small number are selected for this high honor each year. Woman Within International selects one woman from our global community for this award each year.
2021 Marie Bice
The amount of time and energy that Marie has donated to our organization over the years is immeasurable…
• Before joining the board in 2014 as Vice President, Marie spent 10 years as the local area contact for the Los Angeles area.
• In December of 2015 Marie became President of the board, a position that she held for 4 and half years. During that time Marie helped our organization in countless ways.
• Since Marie became President we have added numerous ways for women to stay connected to the organization. We now hold regular post-Weekend Zoom calls for newly initiated women to help them transition back to their everyday lives after the transformative experience of a Weekend. For women who are deeply involved in the organization we hold regular Inside Scoop Zoom calls where women can connect with Board members directly and find out what is coming up in our region.
• Marie was hugely supportive of other women on the board and was enthusiastically supportive of initiatives like the very successful Circle Training Program. She was also one of the first Circle guides.
• In addition to heart centered contributions such as the Thursday night ritual handing over of control to the Team Leader and Weekend Leader, Marie’s sharp business mind has helped our region to adopt new technologies and business practices to ensure our financial health.
Congratulations Marie and thank you for all you have done for Woman Within Western USA!
2020 Cindy Christensen, 2011 Graduate
Cindy is the Community Contact for the San Francisco Bay Area and served on the Woman Within Western USA Board as Vice President from 2016-2018.
Cindy serves as a true spokeswoman for Woman Within. She is a connector and works hard at promoting Woman Within Weekends, hosting events, and is an active part of the community. Cindy is a Circle Guide and is an active mentor for new circles. She also served on the board as vice president for two years. Cindy has worked hard to promote woman within weekends and other events, including training others how to harness the power of Facebook. Cindy is a rah-rah-rah cheerleader for everything Woman Within. She will always go the extra mile to help out. She has had many roles in the organization and is there behind the scenes helping out.
In addition to being a fabulous recruiter for Woman Within, Cindy has introduced the WW community to other organizations that support prisons.
2019 Ann DiLoreto, Communications Director, 2014 Graduate
Ann enthusiastically joined our board as Director of Communications in 2016, despite living in the emerging region of Hawaii, where she served as President of Woman Within Hawaii. She generously devotes her library and information science talents to our website, social media, subscriber list, and merchandise. The result is a skillful and robust promotion of our region’s mission, vision, and activities.
2018
Carrie Bell, Awarded by Woman Within International
Woman Within International selected Carrie from our worldwide community to honor her for her service. She was generous and tireless with her professional writing and editing skills, produced incredible minutes and polished publications, greatly enhancing Woman Within Western USA’s professionalism She was actively pursuing Certification on the Facilitation track despite challenges with her health. How she embraced her truth and shared her journey in her book Grit and Grace, Fighting Breast Cancer One Step at a Time inspires us to be resilient and live our lives to the fullest. Carrie brought a high level of professionalism to the role of secretary on our Board and showed patience and professionalism in her role. She has been instrumental in helping to grow the Arizona Woman Within community. She was grounded, thoughtful an intelligent and always had something of substance to say. Carrie is a role model for grace and strength. It was a joy to staff with her and a pleasure to have her on our Board. Carrie died peacefully at home with her family by her side in Scottsdale, Arizona July 25, 2018. Find her obituary here.
Judy Rudin, Woman Within International Director of Engagement
Judy’s leadership and support for the hosts of Woman Within Open Circle have created a dramatic increase in Open Circles throughout the world. More Open Circles have led to more participants in our Woman Within Weekends and other programs. Judy designed Open Circle protocols and published an abundance of written resources. She also created an online Engagement Volunteer Circle where close to 200 women support and empower one another. Her passion is contagious. Her enthusiasm for encouragement, empowerment, and connection is boundless. We look forward to seeing her continue to inspire and engage women in connecting us through Open Circles across the world. Congratulations, Judy!
2017
Lia Barrad, September 2012 Graduate
Lia spearheaded a dramatic update to our website in 2015-2016. She worked tirelessly to give us many new features, including the ability to accept registrations for our Weekends and training workshops as well as staff applications, donations, and scholarship coupons. Lisa used web conferences and recorded videos to train board members to use and manage the new website. Once the site was launched, she taught our Communications Director take over her webmaster responsibilities. Lia gave countless hours of her time and demonstrated immense patience and kindness during this lengthy website update. One measure of her success was the two recent Weekend registrations that resulted simply from women visiting our website. That’s a first for us. Woman Within Western USA is grateful to Lia and is pleased to nominate her for this award.
2016
Lynn Seilo, Past President, August 2005 Graduate
Lynn’s primary goal for her three year tenure as President was to create financial stability. By the time her term ended in December 2015, the Region had become a place where Weekend site deposits could be made with confidence, and where the Board could budget for special programs, offer scholarships, and still maintain a reserve of surplus funds. Lynn served eight years on the Executive Board, as Secretary, Vice President, and President. Currently in her role as Past President, she is a trusted advisor to our Board of Directors.
Joanna Klein (formerly Joanna Stanfield), Circle Director, May 2010 Graduate
Joanna has worked tirelessly to develop a new system for establishing and nurturing Empowerment Circles across the Western USA Region. This effort involved several steps. Joanna created a new Circle Training Curriculum designed to teach women the skills to start and participate in a Woman Within Circle. In addition, she trained a community of facilitators throughout the Region who not only provide Circle Training workshops, but also serve as a local resources for women interested in joining and starting Circles. Joanna has served on our Western USA Board as Circle Director since 2012.
