NKY’s Catrena Bowman, executive director of the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission is among the eight Greater Cincinnati-area women selected as 2023 YWCA Greater Cincinnati Career Women of Achievement. The award recognizes outstanding role models for their leadership, vision and renowned professional success that also embraces the mission of the YWCA.
The women will be honored through a return to an in-person luncheon at the Duke Energy Convention Center set for May 10. Due to the pandemic, the honorees had been profiled in an hour-long televised and streamed broadcast for the past three years. The Career Women of Achievement event continues to be the single largest fundraiser for YWCA Greater Cincinnati, founded in 1868. Proceeds directly support YWCA community-wide programs in the areas of safety, racial justice and inclusion and empowerment and economic advancement.
During 2022 over 24,000 women, men, and children were assisted through direct services including community trainings and the 24/7 domestic violence hotline. Several community programs focus on racial justice and inclusion through direct service, issue education and advocacy.
“We are thrilled to be able to return to the luncheon format for the Career Women of Achievement,” says Co-Chair Amy Spiller, Ohio and Kentucky State President for Duke Energy. “The event is historically the largest business luncheon in the region, providing attendees and partners with significant networking and visibility.”
Says her Co-Chair Sonia Jackson Myles, Founder of The Sister Accord, “the women recognized each year by YWCA have always been catalysts for change in their companies and in the community. Each of these accomplished women has done much toward fulfilling the YWCA’s mission and have embodied the motto of “lift as you climb.””
Both women are past Career Women of Achievement honorees. They are part of 346 former Career Women of Achievement comprising a powerful academy of past winners.
Catrena Bowman is an ardent advocate for anti-poverty measures at local, state and federal levels, and has worked with Community Action for 22 years. In her role she develops strategic priorities for the agency’s 20 programs located in 25 counties covering Northern and Central Kentucky. A $26 million budget serves at least 30,000 families annually.
She is deeply committed to ending the cycle of poverty and injustice. In 2020 when a variety of national events erupted around the issues of racial injustice and equality, she facilitated numerous Northern Kentucky conversations about diversity and inclusion in order to promote sustainable change. She also held sessions to empower women at the agency’s Lincoln Grant Scholar House and at Lincoln Heights, an area in Covington often stricken with poverty and violence.
While she is consumed by her duties with Community Action, she tapped into her entrepreneurial spirit and love of fashion time to personally establish Inspired Fashion, a boutique committed to addressing the inner beauty of all women who walk through the doors. As the first downtown Covington boutique owned by a Black woman, Catrena wants all women to “feel beautiful and special.”
A former winner of the NKyTribune’s NewsMaker award, Bowman has also served as Board President, Southeastern Association of Community Action Agencies, 2021-present; Chair, Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee, Workforce Investment Board of Northern Kentucky, 2021-present; Chair, Northern Kentucky Chamber Women’s Initiative Annual Breakfast, 2021 to present, and Executive Committee member, Workforce Investment Board of Northern Kentucky, 2021-present.
Other Career Women of Achievement honorees are:
• Kelly Beatty, Chief Performance Officer and fintech giant FIS. She is the Fortune 500 company’s site leader in Cincinnati but is also responsible for driving strategy, accountability, and cost efficiencies for its more than 65,000 employees around the world. Her career spans over 20 years in the financial services sector and she has led successful global integrations of two multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, including the $43 billion acquisition of Worldpay by FIS in 2019. She is also a passionate advocate for women in finance and technology. cinnati American Heart Association, 2021
• Liz Carter, President and CEO, Scripps Howard Fund, was able to leverage resources at The E.W. Scripps Company to help members of the Scripps community during the height of the pandemic, including a COVID relief effort and employee relief fund. Other program provided local food pantry support up to $12,000 in 61 geographic markets where Scripps operates television stations, newspapers and other national brands, with thousands more raised by television viewers.
• Julie Holt, VP & Chief Nursing Officer, The Christ Hospital Health Network, has served in her current position overseeing 1,700 nurses and support staff covering 15 counties. Her duties also extend to monitoring performance and resource, management and improvement, goal-driven project leadership, regulatory compliance, strategic planning, lean process design, professional development, and interpersonal communications.
• Danya Karram, President & Co-Founder, Brilliant Advice, is a trailblazer, entrepreneur, collaborator, innovator, outsider. Danya Karram has created her own path as a Certified Financial Planner™ professional. She manages $100 million in client assets. In addition to her professional responsibilities, she volunteers to assist the underserved navigate their financial lives and works within our community to address societal problems by coming together in unity and peace.
• Alecia Townsend Kintner, President & CEO, ArtsWave, heads an organization that funds more than 150 projects and cultural organizations in the Tri-State. Due to her leadership Cincinnati was named a Top 20 “most arts vibrant region” in the country in 2020 and then again in 2022. Funding from ArtsWave made 162,094 arts education experiences possible during the last academic school year. Through her vision ArtsWave is now Ellequate certified. Additionally she developed programs promoting justice and eliminating racism and bigotry. Alecia called upon the region’s 30 largest arts organizations to develop and track their own board-approved DEIA plans, providing assistance as needed for board training.
• Charmaine McGuffey, Sheriff, Hamilton County, is a 36-year veteran of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Charmaine McGuffey is the first female Hamilton County Sheriff and just the third female sheriff to serve in Ohio. She is the Buckeye state’s first LGBTQ+ sheriff to be elected. Sheriff McGuffey presides over a staff of 900 with the third largest jail in Ohio. Upon election Sheriff McGuffey wasted no time in creating a division of community affairs. The division has a call center that received 36,000 calls for help in its first seven months of operation. She established a community advisory board with a diverse cross-section of community members to enhance transparency and communication. Sheriff McGuffey also added diversity to top leadership and ensured that signage and business cards boasted the Sheriff’s Office mission: protecting and serving Hamilton County with accountability, transparency, dignity and respect,
• Ndidi Unaka, M.D., Medical Director Quality Improvement & Analytics, Health Vine, Cincinnati Children’s is the author of over 50 articles and other publications. She is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Hospital Medicine. She has trained many of Cincinnati’s pediatricians through her role as associate program director of the Pediatric Residency Training Program from 2011-2021. That is just one of many hats she has worn at Cincinnati’s prestigious pediatric hospital. She is currently Co-Lead for the Health Equity Network (HEN) which supports 10 clinical teams seeking to eliminate disparities in child health outcomes by race, and or socioeconomic status. At the same time Dr. Unaka is medical director of a 48-bed pediatric unit with 100 staff members, the majority being nurses.
Judges for This Year’s Event Were:
• Chris Cicchinelli, CEO, Pure Romance
• Jodi Geiser, Retired Partner, EY
• Deborah Gentry Davis, Vice president of Human Relations, Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati
• Kala Gibson, Executive Vice President-Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, Fifth Third Bank
• Stephanie Headley, Senior Vice President North America Skin Care & Global Olay, P&G
To purchase tickets or secure a partnership visit www.ywcacincinnati.org/careerwomen.