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Recent Articles from Alissa Skelton
REBECCA McHALE
Some job applicants might have been intimidated by the opportunity to integrate three information systems into one due to a massive merger of Perspecta Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp.’s federal IT and mission support services and Peraton, a national security contractor. Not Rebecca McHale. Helping Peraton, which is set to move to Reston in September, undergo […]
JENNIFER WAKEFIELD
Jennifer Wakefield is on a mission to turn the greater Richmond area into the top midsize region in the U.S. for business. To accomplish her goal, she is laser-focused on persuading companies to relocate to the area. She aims to create enough jobs to encourage youth to stay, instead of moving to other cities to […]
BARBARA D. BOYAN
“I decided at age 10 that I was going to cure arthritis because my mother had it,” says Barbara Boyan, and, in the decades since then, Boyan has never really wavered in her search for treatments. Although Boyan holds a doctorate in biology, she early on saw the value of mastering engineering concepts so that […]
JANET GULLICKSON
Janet Gullickson initially didn’t think much about the importance of being named the first woman president of Germanna Community College in 2017, after having worked in higher education in Colorado, Minnesota and Washington state. “I just thought, ‘Well, women should be in these positions,’” she says. “It shouldn’t be a big deal, but I guess […]
LORI GARRETT
When Lori Garrett was studying architecture at the University of Virginia in the 1980s, she recalls, there wasn’t a women’s restroom near her classrooms. “That changed shortly after I graduated,” Garrett says. “But clearly, in the ’80s, it was very male-dominated.” Garrett went on to oversee the design of buildings at colleges and universities across […]
CAROLYN BISHOP
Virginia529 helps families in the commonwealth afford higher education for children by participating in long-term, tax-advantaged saving programs. And as chief operations officer of the independent state agency, Carolyn Bishop helps oversee its $60 billion in assets distributed across more than 2.5 million accounts. The job is about much more than just managing money, though. […]
SUSAN HORNE
From her local government service to building statewide networks of people and organizations, Susan Horne knows how to connect people. Horne has been involved in Lead Virginia since its inception — first as a member of its steering committee and as a board member and then as a member of its second class in 2006. […]
AMY McDANIEL WILLIAMS
In 2011, Amy McDaniel Williams learned she had breast cancer. The hard-driving finance lawyer realized she needed to slow down and take care of herself. “The diagnosis made me realize that every day is a gift,” she says. In 2015, she created a supportive fitness community for cancer survivors, launching Amy’s Army of Cancer Warriors, […]
TRACY FITZSIMMONS
Tracy Fitzsimmons thinks regionally. Through her involvement on GO Virginia’s Region 8 council, secretary of Loudoun Education Foundation and vice chair on the board of Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (aka Shentel), she has connections throughout the Shenandoah Valley and into Northern Virginia. She also focuses on regional connections in her role as the first woman president […]
KIM ROY
By age 10, Kim Roy knew she wanted to build skyscrapers. Now she leads Hitt Contracting, a $3.3 billion commercial construction business that builds structures across America. Roy is passionate about recruiting women into her firm to help diversify the next generation of leaders in her industry. Women comprise about 10% of the construction workforce […]
CATHIE J. VICK
Cathie J. Vick was the first woman to join the Port of Virginia’s executive leadership team eight years ago. Vick had no direct experience in the male-dominated maritime industry, so she almost didn’t apply for the job, but a male colleague encouraged her to try. “Just having my job is shattering the glass ceiling,” Vick […]
CONNIE CONNELLY O’BRIEN
Early in her career, a client at the ad agency where Connie Connelly O’Brien worked threatened to take their business to another firm. Determined to fix the situation, she spoke with the client and learned that they did not feel heard, and quickly offered a solution. “By really listening to the problem they were trying […]
DeETTE GRAY
DeEtte Gray began her career as a middle school math and science teacher in the late 1990s. Her passion for STEM education eventually led to her role at CACI, where she’s involved in modernizing government agencies’ operations. “One of my great experiences was integrating computers into the science curriculum, making the classroom more interactive and […]
BECKY BAREFORD
To become the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s chief operating officer, Becky Bareford had to embrace a paradox: She had to get “comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Her moments of greatest doubt also were her “greatest learning moments,” she says, and many learning moments later, she now oversees the bank’s $400 million annual operating budget and […]
JENNIFER TAYLOR
Jennifer Taylor’s birthplace of Middletown, Ohio, is the backdrop of GOP U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance’s 2016 book “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir about growing class divisions in the Rust Belt. While Taylor now lives in Northern Virginia and leads one of the largest regional technology trade associations in the nation, she honors her roots by […]
BRENDA ELLIOTT KARP
Brenda Elliott Karp is the first and only woman at The Breeden Co. in senior leadership devoted to real estate development partnerships. Being a woman in her industry is not easy, and Karp is determined to change that. To help level the playing field, Karp dedicates her life to mentoring women through the Commercial Real […]
WENDY HORTON
In March 2020, Wendy Horton arrived at the University of Virginia Medical Center to start her new job as chief operating officer at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven months later, she became the teaching hospital’s CEO. At 43, she oversees a medical center with approximately 700 beds and 9,000 employees. She credits her […]
IRMA BECERRA
“Prepare, prepare, prepare. Persist, persist, persist.” That mantra has carried Becerra, whose family fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba for Puerto Rico when she was an infant, to the presidency of Marymount University. “From immigrant to university president in a lifetime” is an extraordinary story, but one that she credits in part to the opportunities the United […]
LYNN CROWDER GREER
Lynn Crowder Greer has been instrumental in some of this country’s biggest legal mass claims resolutions. From 1990 to 2000, the attorney was part of the Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust, which obtained settlements for more than 200,000 women who had been injured by the contraceptive device produced by A.H. Robins Co., a Richmond pharmaceutical company. […]
DENISE VAUGHN
Twelve years ago, Denise Vaughn was struggling to balance work with the demands of raising a family. She felt like she was failing at both, so she resigned to take a less demanding job. The news reached the CEO of Ferguson, and he called her. She sobbed as she told him why she felt she […]
KATHRYN FALK
Kathryn Falk’s interest in politics led to her career in telecommunications. After working as a congressional aide, she saw women entering the cable broadband industry and realized she, too, wanted to join. “The industry is so unique because it’s not a utility. I mean, we think of it as a utility today, [but] it was […]
