Above & Beyond
The 2025 City & State Pennsylvania Above & Beyond
Giana Jarrah and Khine Zaw Arthur Ronald Gray
In conversation after conversation, one theme ran through among this year's Above & Beyond honorees: strong female role models, usually mothers. We heard about single moms who modeled hard work and resilience, women who inspired their daughters by going back to school, and more than a few grandmothers who defied generational expectations by leading in the workforce and in civic life. The results are clear among our 2025 honorees, who exemplify ambition, creativity and impact across sectors – and who take their own roles as mentors and models just as seriously.
Khine Zaw Arthur
Khine Zaw Arthur grew up in Myanmar, where her professor father chose her college and major – human security at the University of Tokyo – before her husband moved the couple to the United States.
But while men made those early decisions for her, Arthur’s mother, an English teacher-turned-government official, modeled female strength and resilience while raising four children. ”She never stopped working,” says Arthur, who now champions ambition as the CEO of Philadelphia’s Asian American Chamber of Commerce. ”And she never stopped empowering me to pursue what I believe.”
Living in Philadelphia may not have been Arthur’s choice, but now ”it is my second home,” she adds. ”I love my community here. I believe in making lemons into lemonade.”
America is where Arthur ultimately found agency. She divorced and remarried, had two children, and started several businesses – including a skincare line inspired by Burmese recipes – while becoming a leader in her adopted community. At the chamber, she highlights the importance of Asian American entrepreneurship: Although they make up only 8% of Philadelphia’s population, Asian Americans account for 11% of local small business owners.
”I have always had this urge to serve in any way possible,” notes Arthur. That spirit took root in Japan, where, as a student, she advocated for education access for female refugees. ”There are so many women in my position that were not so lucky as to turn their passion into profit,” she explains, ”or their education into a career.”
Donna Bailey
Over two distinct tenures and a variety of roles – including, for the past decade, as CEO – Donna Bailey has helped grow the City of Philadelphia’s Community Behavioral Health division into a critical resource.
Proud of shepherding the Medicaid-funded mental health and substance abuse treatment agency through the COVID-19 pandemic – ”my team really showed up, and didn’t miss a beat” – she has also maintained services despite ongoing labor shortages and low reimbursement rates.
A Swarthmore psychology graduate, Bailey earned a graduate education degree from the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in psychological services, yet found that clinical work wasn’t for her. ”I have a lot of respect for people who do that,” says Bailey, who also holds an MBA. ”But I thought I could be more impactful in systems work.”
That impact was evident when, as managing director for the city, she developed and managed the mayor’s homelessness initiative. Bailey also served as the state’s housing director within the Department of Public Welfare, and more recently oversaw integrated health services for Philadelphia’s Public Health Management Corporation.
As a woman, ”there aren’t a lot of us in these leadership roles, and it can be a little bit lonely,” Bailey acknowledges. ”But I’ve had the privilege of being connected to wonderful women leaders around the city, and we’re kind of a support group around the unique things we can track as women in these roles. Building that community has been really nice.”
Shannon Baker
If Shannon Baker hadn’t taken a summer job at Montana’s Glacier National Park, she might have had a political career in the nation’s capital. But she headed out West before heading to Washington, D.C. for a fall post-graduation job, ”and I fell in love and stayed,” says Baker.
In Montana, Baker put her Susquehanna University communications degree to work in a series of public relations roles. That ultimately led her back to the commonwealth and to Gatesman, the agency where she is now president.
”I feel fortunate that I get to travel to a lot of places because of my job,” says Baker. ”But I love coming home because of the kindness and the authenticity of the people here.”
Baker helped build Gatesman, a local ad agency when she joined, into a full-service communications and marketing firm, growing the staff from four to 65 people. ”One of the things I’m most proud of is building up that practice into what it is today, ” she says.
She is also keenly aware of being a role model. While plenty of women work in communications, ”we have very little representation in the C-suite,” says Baker, who was also the first female chair of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. ”Only 3% of creative directors are women, and less than 10% of agencies in the U.S. have female leadership.
”So the position I’m in now is something I take very seriously,” she adds, ”because I don’t want those numbers to persist into the future.”
Sandrea Mack Behrens
When she talks to disadvantaged young people training for entry-level IT jobs, Sandrea Mack Behrens recounts how, many years ago, she was in a similar position. ”So I understand what it’s like to move from a service industry into corporate America,” says Behrens, an associate director at Accenture in Philadelphia. ”But if you can’t see it, it’s hard to envision it. So I think it’s important to show folks what’s possible.”
At the nonprofit organization Tech Impact, which she calls ”the Accenture for nonprofits,” Behrens, a board member, inspires youth workforce trainees with insights from her own 20-year career. A former senior software engineer, she now counsels Accenture’s national clients on business practices across a variety of industries.
It’s a career she never dreamed of when she was a young mother, cobbling together odd jobs. Stumbling across New Jersey’s MOST (Minority Opportunity Skills Training) program, she was one of 25 out of 1,000 test-takers to receive IT training – and one of 10 selected to work for the state afterward.
Behrens jokes that her son, now a 37-year-old U.S. Air Force officer, is ”the best deliverable I’ve ever produced – two weeks late, but the quality was excellent.” As private industry has diversified, she is gratified to see more women and people of color finding opportunity through technology: ”So many folks out there have the ability to learn and to do well.” Her own story is the proof.
Laura Boyce
When the commonwealth invested $1 billion in its public schools last year, Laura Boyce, who had long fought for better education funding, was thrilled. But she wasn’t satisfied.
”We have an ambitious goal to make Pennsylvania the fastest-improving state in 4th-grade reading over the next 10 years,” said Boyce, who heads Teach Plus Pennsylvania, the state chapter of a national educator advocacy organization. To achieve this, Boyce is leading the Pennsylvania Literacy Coalition in its quest to secure $100 million to fund evidence-based materials and teacher training.
In addition to advocacy, she manages Teach Plus’ partnerships with local schools and its educator programs, including a policy fellowship for educators and a state-funded student-teacher stipend aimed at ameliorating the teacher shortage.
Born into a family of what she describes as ”preachers and teachers,” Boyce was drawn to education even before stints teaching in Camden and Philadelphia public schools (she holds a master’s in education policy from Penn). In the classroom, she saw firsthand ”that students are more motivated when they have agency – and with teachers, it’s the same way,” she says.
With two small children, including one entering kindergarten in the chronically underfunded School District of Philadelphia, ”these issues do feel very personal to me,” Boyce adds. That’s why, in between training for marathons, she is a Democratic committeeperson in South Philadelphia.
Her secret to getting so much done: ”I am very committed to sleep,” she says. ”Work hard, play hard – and try to stay organized.”
Beth A. Brennan
Ask Beth Brennan what she likes about contract lobbying, and she’ll wax eloquent about clients as varied as the U.S. Golf Association, the Community College of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Zoo. ”It’s such a wide range of topics,” says Brennan, a senior principal at Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies in Harrisburg. ”Every day is different. And our funding success keeps businesses and nonprofits in business.”
Brennan grew up in Harrisburg, where her father was an in-house lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Medical Society (he’s now retired, but the two still talk shop). ”I was born into it. I’ve always been in and around government,” says Brennan. After studying political science and English at Lebanon Valley College, she considered law ”for a hot second” before returning to the capital – and diving into advocacy.
Having lobbied at other prominent capital firms, including Wojdak and the Kinser Group, Brennan has a clear perspective on the government relations landscape – and how it’s changing. ”This is such a historically male-dominated field,” notes Brennan, who champions female colleagues with the Pennsylvania Association for Government Relations. ”Uplifting women in this profession is challenging. But it’s something I always keep trying to do.”
Kathleen Duffy Bruder
Through a career that has taken her from Harrisburg City Hall to the Capitol and spanned administration, lobbying and law, Kathleen Duffy Bruder has stayed grounded in the example her parents set in their cramped Bronx apartment.
"They taught me the value of hard work and being honest,” says Bruder, recalling how her mother worked her way through college in middle age. "And that has served me well.”
A lobbyist and practicing attorney, Bruder now chairs the regulatory and government affairs team at Saxton & Stump, the 10-year-old firm she joined five years ago. "The professionals in our group come from years of Pennsylvania politics, and everybody here is passionate about what we do,” says Bruder, who is proud of helping build both the team and its diverse client portfolio.
As an advocate, Bruder draws on her experience in government, which includes serving in then-Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration, where she played a key role in passing the 2013 transportation funding bill. A University of Scranton graduate, she practiced law before taking a job in Harrisburg, which introduced her to Pennsylvania Republican circles.
Bruder currently serves on the board of The Joshua Group, a Harrisburg nonprofit that funds youth programming. The cause is personal to Bruder, who grew up in modest circumstances and credits her success not only to hard work, but also to opportunities. "A lot of it is luck,” she says, "and blessings.”
Carolina Carabajal
It’s no small feat to build a home health agency from scratch, let alone garner top quality rankings within the first decade. But Carolina Carabajal, Moravia Health’s chief operating officer, has played an integral role in the Philadelphia company’s growth since arriving eight years ago – and she’s made it look easy.
The Honduras native was, after all, no stranger to difficult tasks. She moved with her family to Philadelphia at age 15, learning English and acclimating to a new culture while navigating adolescence. ”I think it just made me stronger,” says Carabajal. ”Of course, the language was a challenge – but nothing that I couldn’t do.”
Today, she credits her bilingualism for helping the company expand into Spanish-speaking communities in Southeastern Pennsylvania and beyond. Carabajal, whose previous roles were in business and accounting, has supported Moravia’s increasing service to thousands of Medicaid and Medicare patients across the commonwealth.
Along the way, Moravia has partnered with the Philadelphia Eagles and earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for quality. ”I think the biggest highlight, besides helping the community, is actually being part of the growth of this company,” Carabajal says.
Another thrill, she adds, is being part of a team that makes people’s lives easier by caring for patients at home. ”With our clients and caregivers, you literally build that bond. You get so connected that you feel like they’re your family,” says Carabajal. ”And that’s a highlight of your day.”
Michele Collins-Thibodeau
As a female casino executive, Michele Collins-Thibodeau exemplifies a distinctly modern vision. While her husband serves as their daughter’s primary caretaker, Collins-Thibodeau drives strategy at the Penn Entertainment empire, where she is a vice president as well as the general manager for the company’s Hollywood Casino Morgantown.
She is also completing her executive MBA from Villanova University, a milestone that ”has reinforced my dedication to seize opportunities and make a meaningful impact,” Collins-Thibodeau notes. That dedication was reinforced when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she took a hiatus to care for her ailing father. ”It made me understand the importance of being there for loved ones when they need you most – and of leading a life of no regrets,” she adds.
The Maine native joined Penn Entertainment nearly 20 years ago, bringing her marketing acumen to the successful launch of Massachusetts’ first casino – and securing financial returns as the company expanded throughout New England. She was promoted to assistant general manager at Hollywood Casino in Grantville in 2022 and, two years later, to her current role.
As she ascends to corporate leadership, Collins is mindful of her pioneering role as a woman in the historically male-dominated casino industry. She currently chairs Penn Entertainment’s Penn Women career advancement program, which provided 800 female employees with resources and networking last year. ”I’m proud to work for a company that is making significant strides to change the narrative,” she says.
Bernadette Comfort
A champion of women in leadership, a force in the Pennsylvania GOP and a trusted resource to legions of public affairs clients, Bernie Comfort credits her own parents for her civic dedication. ”My mother, who worked in health care, is the best example of a servant leader,” says Comfort, who has managed public affairs at Novak Strategic Advisors for a decade. ”And my father always said it wasn’t enough to show up; you had to participate.”
Comfort certainly does that. She was recently reelected vice chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, validating what she calls ”a really successful year, up and down the ballot.” At Novak, Comfort is known for her work on energy policy, representing a 22-organization coalition opposing new energy taxes. She is also the founding executive director of the Anne Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series, a 24-year-old political training program for Pennsylvania Republican women.
A Northeast Philadelphia native, Comfort grew up in the Lehigh Valley, studied politics at the University of Pittsburgh, worked in Indiana County and is based in Harrisburg. ”So I have a great appreciation for the differences and the wonderful assets throughout the commonwealth,” she says.
While her efforts have contributed to numerous GOP wins over the decades, Comfort – a longtime appointee to the Pennsylvania Commission for Women – says her dearest cause is championing women, and her most important role is mother to her 14-year-old daughter. ”I always joke that I’ll give up Anstine once I put her through the course,” she says.
Donna Cooper
Inspired by Gloria Steinem and Vietnam War protests on TV, Donna Cooper first stepped into activism in the fourth grade, organizing a sit-in to protest a prohibition on girls wearing pants at school. ”One of my girlfriends brought a guitar and we were singing in class, just like we’d seen on TV,” recalls Cooper. ”The principal thought the whole thing was adorable – and changed the policy the next day. So I learned by fourth grade that if you do a little bit of organizing, it can move the needle.”
Cooper has been moving the proverbial needle ever since – and she’s still mobilizing on behalf of children. Over 13 years at the helm of Children First, the nonprofit previously known as PCCY, she has grown the budget sevenfold, to $7 million, and spearheaded successful campaigns to pass lead-safety policy and subsidize early-childhood programs. Under Cooper’s leadership, the organization also championed Philadelphia’s landmark beverage tax, which funds free pre-kindergarten as well as community schools and recreation centers.
The Philly native has also served as the commonwealth’s secretary of policy, advocating for fairer school-funding formulas, and as deputy mayor under then-Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, running one of the country’s largest welfare-to-work programs.
But her current role is the one she’s most passionate about. ”We build broad, bipartisan partnerships that unite behind kids’ issues at the state and city levels,” says Cooper. ”And we continue to do that every day.”
Jennie Dallas
When Republican Sen. Dave McCormick pulled off a surprise victory last November, he had Jennie Dallas to thank for mobilizing more than 150,000 Latino voters throughout the commonwealth. ”It was a very tight race,” recalls Dallas, the Pennsylvania director for the LIBRE Initiative, a conservative Hispanic-focused organization backed by the libertarian nonprofit Americans for Prosperity.
”We went across the entire state and touched every county that had Latinos. We hit 50,000 doors and called 100,000 more people…And he won 40% of the Latino vote, which is really extraordinary.”
Dallas is betting that LIBRE’s center-right message will resonate with entrepreneurially minded Latinos like her. Born in New Jersey to Puerto Rican parents, Dallas moved to Pennsylvania as a teen and always knew she wanted to own a business. In addition to LIBRE and serving as first lady of a church, Dallas is the owner and publisher of La Voz Latina Central, Central Pennsylvania’s largest community newspaper.
She was the chair of the Hispanic Republican Coalition of Pennsylvania when LIBRE approached her last year. She liked that LIBRE is nonpartisan, with a platform organized around education, the economy, healthcare and immigration reform.
This year, she’s focused on championing the president’s tax cuts. ”I get my greatest joy from seeing people grow, achieve and be empowered,” Dallas says, ”and seeing hard work come to fruition.”
Becky Dawson
Becky Dawson’s career in epidemiology began, improbably, with an article in Cosmopolitan magazine. The 1999 piece, which detailed the cancerous fallout of an Ohio school built on a toxic waste dump, ”opened my eyes,” says Dawson, then an environmental science major at Allegheny College, where she is now an associate professor. ”It could have easily been here. My head was flooded with all of these questions about the connections to human health.”
A child of the Pittsburgh suburbs, Dawson went on to launch her career around the interaction of environment and cancer – and after a dozen years in Washington, D.C., returned to her home region to raise awareness of environmental threats.
In D.C., she had worked closely with local policymakers and ”saw the advantages of a local public health infrastructure,” she explains. ”Those are the people that are getting stuff done on the ground in communities – why shouldn’t we have that here? We have top institutions.” Yet many Pennsylvania counties lack local health departments, a situation Dawson has researched to determine the health consequences. For one, ”it was really confusing during the pandemic,” she says.
Those challenges fuel Dawson’s drive. Both in the classroom and at Meadville Hospital, where she directs clinical research, Dawson raises awareness about public health – and cultivates the next generation of epidemiologists. ”I can tell stories for days of the amazing work my students are doing to make the world a better place,” Dawson says. ”That’s what I’m most proud of.”
Rosemary DiRita
Growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, Rosemary DiRita was shaped by the values imparted by a tight-knit family and her Catholic education. ”I had wonderful examples of service from the sisters at Villa Maria Academy,” recalls DiRita of her all-girls alma mater. ”It was that idea of doing what you can to help others.”
DiRita has brought that ethos to her career – most recently at the Haverford Trust Company, which she joined in November. In her newly created role as vice president and philanthropic advisor, DiRita supports nonprofit clients through Haverford’s advisory services.
”Being part of an organization so committed to the Philadelphia region brings my career full circle,” reflects DiRita. ”You know, I’m from here. This is where I live now; my family is here. The opportunity to take my talents and help build local community is very special to me.”
After earning a master’s in social and public policy at Georgetown University, she stayed on to work in programming and later managed grants at Americorps. Among her most fulfilling roles, DiRita says, was coordinating volunteers to build houses at Habitat for Humanity of Metro Maryland.
Today, she volunteers with Villa Maria Academy and with the Chester County Fund for Women and Girls. ”Especially being the mom of a daughter, and aunt to a number of nieces, I feel passionately about encouraging girls and women,” she explains, ”to give back in the way that so many people have given and supported me.”
Leslie Elder
Expanding solar energy markets isn’t easy, but Leslie Elder was born prepared to fight.
Her grandmother crusaded for women’s suffrage, finally graduating from college in her 60s; her mother was prevented from becoming an architect because she was a woman, ”and consistently hit that glass ceiling,” Elder recalls. In a determined matriarchy, Elder might be the first ”to actually have been able to make choices out of freedom.”
She was born to hippies in Colorado, where her father was a mining engineer who protested the Vietnam War, and her mother fought for feminism. Activism came naturally to Elder, who says her early career included working ”to turn Colorado blue…and then once that happened, I was like, what’s next?”
Next was promoting renewable energy on the East Coast. Elder landed in Pennsylvania and ran a series of solar organizations, including the Energy Foundation, where, as Pennsylvania director, she organized a coalition of 100 organizations ranging ”from bird hunters to faith leaders” around a clean-energy strategy.
Since 2022, she has led policy and regulatory affairs for Summit Ridge Energy, the nation’s leading commercial solar developer. With a multi-state platform, Elder finally has the opportunity to build her coalitions on a larger scale.
”Being able to get the right voices around the table and do the hard work for good laws is what makes me really excited,” says Elder. ”Also, with energy, it’s never boring.”
Signe Espinoza
The last few years haven’t been easy for reproductive rights advocates. But Signe Espinoza, who took over leadership of Planned Parenthood’s Pennsylvania lobbying division in 2021 at just 26, brings youthful energy and a deep sense of mission to what she views as a long game.
”You know, this fight is so personal to me,” said Espinoza, who had an abortion in college – and a daughter two years ago. Her own single mother, who moved to Pennsylvania from Puerto Rico, ”raised five of us, balanced multiple jobs, instilled incredible values. And she was a Planned Parenthood patient. I was a Planned Parenthood patient.”
While the reversal of Roe v. Wade three years ago darkened the abortion-rights picture for Pennsylvania – which currently has just 17 abortion providers, down from 150 in the 1970s – Espinoza celebrates political wins like 2023’s election of pro-choice state Supreme Court Justice Daniel McCaffrey, and ongoing Democratic control of the state House. Her efforts also helped secure a measure ending state funding for so-called crisis pregnancy centers.
”Abortion continues to win, and to be a salient and a unifying issue,” says Espinoza, who accomplishes all this with a full-time staff of just three. ”A lot of that is because of the great work that we do ... with our coalition partners and supporters across the state who are sharing their stories, sounding the alarm, and continuing to create a sense of urgency in this moment.”
Amera Gilchrist
Amera Gilchrist’s groundbreaking career began on a Pittsburgh city bus, when her 3-year-old son choked on candy. A fortuitous bump in the road popped the candy out of his trachea, and the young mother vowed: ”I’ll never be in this situation again.”
Fortified with purpose, Gilchrist studied to become an emergency medical technician, then a paramedic for the city. For nearly 20 years, she served as the Pittsburgh Bureau of Emergency Medical Services’ first Black female district chief, overseeing day-to-day operations. By 2023, she’d climbed to the top of the ladder, becoming the first African American and the first woman to lead the bureau.
Gilchrist recently opened the department’s first EMT academy, offering paid, in-house training. ”When I went to EMT school, it was 40 bucks to get there, and I couldn’t even afford that; I had to get it from my parents,” Gilchrist recalls. ”I wanted to remove those barriers.”
Gilchrist named the EMT program in honor of Pittsburgh’s now-defunct Freedom House ambulance service, a pioneering African American initiative. She also revived the bureau’s community outreach programs.
”It’s funny how the trajectory of your future can change in a minute,” reflects Gilchrist of that long-ago bus ride (her son is now 30, and she has two teenage daughters). She takes none of it for granted: ”It’s been challenging as a woman. You have to work twice as hard to get half as far. I just work hard, and try to maintain a standard of excellence.”
Rachel Gleason
It’s not an exaggeration to say that for Rachel Gleason, the commonwealth’s energy crowd is essentially family. She grew up going to office picnics at the state Department of Environmental Resources, where her father worked, and she later interned at the state Department of Environmental Protection. For the past dozen years, Gleason has headed the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, representing 150 member companies.
”The people who work in this industry – they’re very dedicated and very passionate, really the salt of the earth,” says Gleason. ”A lot of them have been good teachers to me.”
There was a lot to learn: Pennsylvania is the nation’s third-largest coal-producing state, blessed with varied and abundant deposits. ”We also have the largest coke manufacturing facility in the nation, and our position on the East Coast for exports is very beneficial,” Gleason notes.
Carbon fluency came in adulthood, but young Gleason first learned politics from her parents (her mother, a teacher, was the school’s union representative). After studying political science at Shippensburg University, Gleason sharpened her legislative skills as director of the state House Majority Policy Committee.
Today, she works closely with state and federal offices, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In a shifting energy landscape, Gleason has often found herself advocating against rather than for policies – and frequently educates lawmakers on the importance of coal to Pennsylvania. ”It’s an easy case to make,” she says.
Monica Gould
In more ways than one, Monica Gould’s successful business was inspired by her family. She launched Strategic Consulting Partners 30 years ago as a young mother ”so I could be home with my kids when I needed to be,” recalls Gould, who traveled constantly in a corporate job.
With clients spanning the government, nonprofit and corporate spheres, Gould credits her success in part to the expansive outlook she inherited from her own parents – a German mother and Middle Eastern father who met in India and immigrated to the U.S. when Gould was a baby.
”My family’s cultures were so different, yet their values were the same,” reflects Gould. ”I saw when you bring differences together, but share a common vision, how powerful it can be – and how much more you can achieve together.”
That vision helped Gould grow from solo entrepreneurship to an international enterprise with nearly 100 employees. It’s a rare level of success for any business, let alone one that is woman- and minority-owned. And Gould readily confesses that she couldn’t have achieved it without support from the next generation.
One of Gould’s daughters, an attorney, handles the firm’s legal affairs and introduced its wellness portfolio. Gould’s other daughter led the outfit’s expansion into the Washington, D.C. market; the firm has scored contracts with the National Institutes of Health, the USDA and the U.S. military.
”We have a large and diverse footprint,” says Gould. ”But the work is similar – providing strategy so that organizations can move forward.”
Janelle Grissinger
Janelle Grissinger’s life is a testament to her determination. She travels the world, runs a successful business and nonprofit, and has grown children following in her career footsteps (one is a nurse, the other a travel professional).
It’s all the more impressive considering that Grissinger worked her way up from a childhood marred by poverty and abuse. ”Growing up to be someone who would have protected me as a child is definitely a driving force,” reflected Grissinger. Today, she raises $150,000 annually for The Heart of JCo, her foundation that supports underprivileged children, and left a nursing career to run her own travel agency, JCo Travel, which has grown to a staff of what she describes as 18 ”powerhouse women.”
As a mom, Grissinger helped pay for field trips and other extras for kids she knew couldn’t afford it. Eventually, she formalized her nonprofit, with travel suppliers as sponsors and initiatives like filling backpacks on Fridays with food for kids whose school meals might be their only meals.
Grissinger always remembers ”those adults that saw the potential and gave me a hand up,” she reflects. ”I really strive to be that for other kids.”
Laurie Grove
Laurie Grove loved her job as a national sales trainer for Marriott. ”It was a blast,” she recalls. ”But it was 100% traveling” – a lifestyle that didn’t work once her two daughters came along.
So Grove took years of successful sales experience and applied them to a project closer to home: launching the career services program at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, a two-year Lancaster public technical college.
Twenty years later, Grove is proud that 97% of Stevens graduates are employed or studying full-time within the first year after graduation – with 9 in 10 working in their field of study.
At Stevens, career services are an integral part of the education. From initial outreach to incoming students to check-ins each semester, Grove prompts students to consider, ”How do I take what I’m learning and relate it to my job when I leave?” After all, she was on the other side of that equation for years, recruiting for Marriott on college campuses. ”I realized those career services departments that made an impact ran their operations like a well-run sales force,” she says. ”That was language I knew.”
And those two little girls of hers? Both graduated from Stevens – the lone females in their male-dominated fields. Grove’s message to them, and other young women, emphasizes the distinct strengths she feels women bring to the workplace: ”Be strong, stay kind – and know you’re going to raise a team of future leaders.”
Elizabeth Preate Havey
Feet propped up, a very pregnant Elizabeth Preate Havey slumped at her office desk late one night 20 years ago, facing a quandary familiar to legions of working women. ”I just felt like this was not going to be able to continue,” she said of her promising but exhausting career in mergers and acquisitions.
In another era, Havey might have dropped out of the workforce to raise her children. But this was the 21st century – so when her firm’s Public Finance Department chair invited Havey to consider that specialty’s more predictable government schedule, she discovered a niche that has allowed both her family and her legal career to flourish.
Now a partner at Dilworth Paxson in Philadelphia, Havey helps municipalities, school districts and health systems get funding for capital projects like bridges or new hospitals. She is an increasingly influential figure in organizations like the Pennsylvania GOP, the Montgomery County Republican Committee and the Pennsylvania Society, where she is the immediate past president. Her work with the National Constitution Center, where she is general counsel, is ”maybe my favorite,” Havey says. She loves the center’s nonpartisan ideals, fostering an atmosphere where Republicans and Democrats on the board ”face issues respectfully … and have dinner together afterwards.”
Andrea Heberlein
As a social worker, Andrea Heberlein takes ”a very macro, system-level approach” to solving social problems. Case in point: As director of the Pennsylvania Early Learning Commission, she mobilizes business leaders around investment and advocacy for early-childhood programming.
”We have longitudinal studies that show that when we invest in our early learners, we reap benefits,” says Heberlein. ”Our business leaders recognize that those benefits affect their bottom line – and Pennsylvania’s economy.”
A few years ago, Heberlein partnered the state-sponsored commission with the Pennsylvania Chamber to study the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on child care access and, by extension, the Pennsylvania workforce. The result was a toolkit to guide employers in how to best support employees’ family needs.
”I take a lot of satisfaction in helping connect the dots to the way that policy either creates opportunities or creates barriers,” says Heberlein. She imparts this perspective to social work students at her alma mater, Millersville University, and has also worked on education as a vice president at the United Way of Lancaster County.
As the mother of a daughter, Heberlein is particularly attuned to the intersection of education and women’s well-being. Women disproportionately rely on child care to work, while most early-childhood educators are also female and struggle to earn a living wage. ”This is an issue that’s so critical, not only for women to advance their careers, but also to achieve a level of financial security,” she says. ”Let’s fix this.”
Hadijatou Jarra
From her native Gambia to the U.S. Air Force, healthy families and communities have always been physician Hadijatou Jarra’s mission. She’s currently helping launch Pennsylvania’s first community family-medicine residency, a partnership between Philadelphia’s Einstein Medical Center and Delaware Valley Community Health, the federally funded nonprofit where she is a faculty member.
After years of teaching medical residents at Jefferson, where she also trained, ”I wanted to go back into the community,” said Jarra. ”It’s amazing to me when young Black kids come into the practice and are like, ’Oh my God, you’re a doctor’ – just seeing the pride that they have.”
Jarra’s ”old school medicine” is inspired by the small-town physicians she grew up idolizing in North Carolina (her Southern mother met her Gambian father while volunteering there with the Peace Corps).
Inspired by her mother’s volunteerism, Jarra served five years as a military physician in her 30s. Now her daughter, an immigrant ”Dreamer” whom Jarra adopted as a 12-year-old, has followed the family example, serving in the U.S. Navy and doing research at the National Institutes of Health.
Having watched her field transform through innovations like telehealth, ”I feel my contribution is reminding (residents) of what medicine originally was,” reflects Jarra. ”That sometimes you have to step away from the electronics and just connect with your patients.”
Giana Jarrah
Like so many immigrants – in this case, from Syria – Giana Jarrah’s parents hoped their American daughter would become a lawyer or a doctor. Instead, she became something even more American: a wellness entrepreneur.
They needn’t have fretted. By age 24, Jarrah was successful enough to quit her engineering job and focus full-time on With Meraki Co., whose sales of feminine probiotic supplements tripled from 2023 to last year. The Allentown native has a winning formula, combining biomedical expertise and engaging social outreach, that showcases her own medical journey involving chronic urinary tract infections.
”My mentors were like, ’You should tell your story. It’s powerful,’” says Jarrah. So she did, posting a 2022 TikTok video that went viral: ”I didn’t even have a product yet, and everybody was joining the waitlist online.”
Jarrah’s motivation includes her mother’s years-ago struggle with an aggressive pre-cervical cancer. ”I was 16, and because my mom’s first language is Arabic, I went to all her doctor appointments,” recalls Jarrah, now 25.
On one of those visits, she met biomedical engineers working on novel devices ”and that was kind of an ’Aha’ moment for me,” she says. At Lehigh University, she studied biomedical engineering, which combines her love of science with creative potential.
”I understood female reproductive health in a way that I didn’t see that was out there,” explains Jarrah, adding that stigma, lack of education and lack of funding have hampered innovation. ”I knew that I could be the change I wanted to see.”
Lori Joint
The Manufacturer & Business Association has been an Erie staple for 120 years – and Lori Joint has been in charge for the last quarter of those. Joint, the organization’s CEO, joined the multi-industry organization in the 1990s, shortly after graduating with a political science degree from Gannon University. She has advocated for Western Pennsylvania’s corporate scene ever since – ”everything from a two-person pizza shop to the former General Electric,” as she puts it.
The past three decades have seen sweeping digital changes, along with globalization. ”But as we’ve celebrated our 120th year, we’ve gone through the archives,” notes Joint, ”and some of the things we were working on back then, we continue to battle today, such as regulations.”
To bolster her members, Joint coordinates training on topics like human relations and legal compliance, assists with health plans, and advocates before legislators. She is especially proud of launching MBA’s annual Manufacturing Day, an event that features former presidents, secretaries of state and even ”Shark Tank” personalities.
Now in its 12th year, Manufacturing Day draws 2,000 local students annually – the next generation of Western Pennsylvania’s workforce – to Erie’s Bayfront Convention Center. ”Businesses recognize the need to engage with high school students,” Joint says. ”It’s interactive and fun, and it really opens young people’s eyes.”
The Pittsburgh native has also made a point of programming women’s leadership events. ”Most meetings I’ve attended, it’s not uncommon to be the only female,” she reflects. ”Although I will say that is changing.”
Keisha Jordan
When Keisha Jordan raises money and coordinates school partnerships for the Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, she does so with a deep sense of mission ingrained by her own family.
”I know the sacrifices that my parents made for me,” says Jordan, a Philadelphia native whose family moved to West Chester for better schools. ”My father worked at Cheyney University his whole career to give us the best that they could. I really connected with that mission.”
After graduating from the University of Virginia and Temple University’s law school, Jordan practiced as an attorney before finding her professional home in nonprofits. Her first role was building the fledgling Philadelphia chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a national school choice organization.
Prior to her current role, Jordan served as chief people officer for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania. She joined the Children’s Scholarship Fund in 2020, growing it into an organization that serves 6,550 students with a $20 million budget and 150 school partners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan raised more than $1 million for families affected by a loss of income – and helped keep open the schools that would have closed without that tuition subsidy.
A turning point, says Jordan, was having her own children. ”It made me more even more dedicated, because I think every parent should be able to make these choices,” says the mom of teen daughters. ”Living out my personal values in the work that I do every day – it never feels like a job.”
Kimberly Kockler
Decades into her lobbying career, Kimberly Kockler still gets a thrill when a bill she’s championed becomes law. ”And I’m proud to say that any major health care legislation that has passed during my tenure has definitely had our imprint,” says Kockler, Independence Blue Cross’ longtime senior vice president for government affairs.
Kockler has advocated for the Philadelphia-based health insurer for a decade, during which time she has celebrated hard-won reforms around prior authorization and pharmacy benefit managers (”a very, very hot topic last session,” she says). She was one of the negotiators for the state’s groundbreaking autism coverage mandate – ”a hard compromise, again, but it definitely changed people’s lives,” Kockler says. ”We really are there for the benefit of our members, balancing all those interests – because health care impacts everyone’s life.”
Her Western Pennsylvania childhood was steeped in politics; Kockler’s mother volunteered for elections, while her father served as a town councilmember. After studying political science at Penn State, Kockler worked for both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature, seeing firsthand how disparate sides of an issue improbably can find compromise.
Now decades into her career, Kockler makes a point of mentoring women executives with America’s Health Insurance Programs and sits on the board of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children. ”I appreciate the role of being able to step back and share expertise with younger women coming up,” says Kockler, herself the mother of daughters. ”That’s very special to me at this point in my career.”
Kathryn Ott Lovell
In promoting Philadelphia and its upcoming celebrations for America’s 250th birthday, Kathryn Ott Lovell employs not only her civic and nonprofit expertise, but also what she calls her invaluable ”mom lens.”
”It’s such a unique perspective,” says Lovell of navigating the city alongside children. When she served as Philadelphia parks commissioner, for instance, Lovell noticed not only whether the grass was cut and the benches were plentiful, but also whether there were convenient toilets and soap in the bathrooms. ”And if it’s not a good enough program for my kid, it’s not good enough for any kid, right?”
With that in mind, Lovell is planning the semiquincentennial commemoration as CEO of Philadelphia250 and also leads the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation. The fourth-generation Philadelphian has devoted her career to the city, previously working for the city’s Mural Arts program and directing the Fairmount Park Conservancy.
More recently, she created a ”Rocky” day to celebrate the film’s Philly legacy, growing the event into this year’s weeklong festival. As always, she draws inspiration from her children – though, at 11 and 17, they’re now more likely to join her at Philadelphia Fashion Week than linger on the playground.
”Coming off the Eagles Super Bowl parade – that was so inspiring,” she says, adding that her goal is ”a whole year full of that feeling and that level of excitement.”
Marie Marino
When students at Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Nursing see Maggie, the school’s service dog, trotting down the hallways, they know Dean Marie Marino is nearby. ”She brings lots of smiles,” says Marino, who is also Jefferson Health’s vice president for nursing academic partnerships. ”And she’s a great connector.”
So is Marino, a self-described ”high-touch dean” who brings a hands-on approach and an emphasis on mentorship to the fast-expanding health system. Nursing was originally the suggestion of her practical-minded single mother, ”and it was the best, most magnificent career choice I could ever have made,” Marino says. ”I love the ability to be with humans when they absolutely need you the most – and to develop the next generation of nurses that will go on caring for those humans.”
The Long Island native began her career in pediatrics at Stony Brook University Hospital, eventually earning a doctorate and training at Harvard Medical School. For 25 years, she was a forensic medical examiner in New York’s Suffolk County, testifying in thousands of child sex-abuse cases.
Marino is especially proud of her service in the U.S. Naval Reserve Nurse Corps, which paid for her graduate education and ”instilled how important service connected students are to an organization,” she says.
She champions employees with military backgrounds and also mentors younger women. Mentoring ”needs to be a vital part of our culture,” Marino reflects. ”One thing women have to remember is to lift others as we climb.”
Rebecca May-Cole
In five years, a full 30% of Pennsylvania’s population will be 60 or older. Statistics like this are what drive Rebecca May-Cole’s efforts at the Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging, which she has directed for the past decade. ”Ultimately, we want to ensure that older adults are able to live in their communities, safely and with dignity,” says May-Cole.
Her organization represents the commonwealth’s 52 ”triple A’s” (area agencies on aging), fighting for financial resources as well as policy that preserves agencies’ local authority. May-Cole is also proud of strengthening the network’s organizational culture and coordinating mutual assistance among her constituent agencies.
Growing up in Rhode Island, she was close with her grandmother – ”a very strong, independent woman,” she recalls. ”I loved listening to her stories, and I named my daughter after her.”
Settling in the commonwealth after studying psychology at Messiah College, May-Cole earned a master’s in public health from Penn State and worked as a policy analyst at the state Health Department. She has also directed the Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition.
”I have always felt that you don’t have a right to complain if you’re not willing to try to make a difference,” says May-Cole. But advocacy can be tiring, so she relaxes with crochet. ”Policy change is really incremental,” she explains. ”But with crochet, you can see the finished product; there’s resolution. I don’t get that in my professional life all that much.”
AnnMarie McDowell
When a plane crash recently devastated a tight-knit community in Northeast Philadelphia, CEO AnnMarie McDowell made sure CORA Services was part of the response, coordinating programming for traumatized local youth.
It was an example of the way McDowell has positioned the human-services nonprofit as a steadfast partner to nearly 300 Philadelphia schools. McDowell joined CORA in 2002, overseeing programs and operations before assuming the top job 10 years ago. Since then, she has increased the budget from $10 million to nearly $40 million to expand in-school speech and occupational therapy, extracurricular youth programming and clinical care for behavioral health and substance abuse.
”We asked ourselves, ’Where are our sweet spots as an organization – things that, foundationally, we’re outstanding at?’” explains McDowell of her strategy. The result has been CORA’s growth into the charter school system, supporting children with special educational needs, and a license to provide students with intensive behavioral health services.
On weekends, McDowell decompresses on her boat and runs long-distance; this year, she plans to run three marathons. But her quarter-century at CORA is the longest-distance project of all. ”We’ve stayed focused on our mission, and made it more visible,” she says. ”And we’ve expanded to meet the needs of the communities we serve.”
Laura McHugh
Laura McHugh was destined for the armed forces: Her father was a Vietnam veteran, and her grandfather fought in World War II. ”And I come from a family of three girls, so with no boy to carry on that tradition, it was my responsibility,” she says.
Thirty-nine years into her military career, Major General McHugh has done the family proud as one of the highest-ranking members of the Pennsylvania National Guard, the nation’s third-largest. As deputy adjutant general for the Army, she is a state employee responsible for the operational readiness of 13,000 guard members.
McHugh grew up in ”your typical blue-collar Schuylkill County family” and joined the guard in high school, figuring the military would help pay for college. She worked in finance until, at a career crossroads, she decided to don the uniform full-time.
She calls her 14-month deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom a career highlight. She commanded a 159-member transportation company with 180 tractors and trailers – and brought them all home safely. ”It was an opportunity to really test the type of person that I am,” she says.
Back at headquarters in Fort Indiantown Gap, McHugh has developed a deep appreciation for the institution that is not only her professional home, but also a second family. ”The guard is so special because soldiers are not just soldiers,” she notes. ”They are teachers, welders, truck drivers, singers – just the gamut of our community.”
Marissa McWilliams
What makes Marissa McWilliams so good at her job? In a role that spans technology, business strategy and government operations, McWilliams thinks it’s her versatility that sets her apart at Deloitte, where she is managing director for government and public services.
Over the past quarter-century, McWilliams has transitioned from programming to business consulting and worked on both commercial and public-sector accounts. She has also established herself as Deloitte’s Philadelphia SAP specialist, employing that management technology to modernize and streamline government agency processes.
As you might expect from that résumé, McWilliams has frequently been the only female in the room. ”I’ve appreciated the opportunity to mentor junior women in these topics that might be more traditionally male – IT, military, government,” she says. Gender aside, the New Jersey native says consulting is ideal for people who like to learn constantly. ”It’s never stagnant,” she says of her work. ”You’re constantly learning, keeping up with all the innovations – and having to be a step ahead of them to help guide clients.”
Recruited into consulting out of Villanova University, McWilliams began at PwC, then known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, and worked at IBM before joining Deloitte in 2004. Shortly thereafter, she found herself working on a major project alongside the chief financial officer of a large company.
”I realized very quickly that at Deloitte, regardless of level, you could make a big impact – and be in a space that you might not expect to be in,” says McWilliams, aptly summing up her own career.
Adrienne Miles
Growing up, Adrienne Miles was extremely close with a grandfather who suffered from diabetes. She thought about becoming a physician or going into another health profession, but eventually channeled her nurturing impulse into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for health organizations.
”My main passion is helping the underserved population, whether that be addressing social determinants of health or helping people find sustainable careers that enable them to take care of their families,” says Miles, who currently manages diversity, equity and inclusion for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Corporate Construction division.
Miles’ own impact has been felt through initiatives like a health awareness series at the City of Pittsburgh’s senior centers, where she surveyed participants to determine neighborhoods’ health priorities. ”You could tell that the population was changing, because the requests and topics were more geared towards things like being a grandparent raising a child, or being a caretaker,” observed Miles, who used the data to help centers update their programming.
Recently, Miles has partnered with local educational and grassroots organizations to provide career exposure opportunities for disadvantaged youth. Her goal is to reduce recidivism by creating pathways for learning about careers in the construction trades within the community. Additionally, she has enhanced UPMC employee volunteerism by developing engagement initiatives, such as the Steam Weavers campaign, which aims to educate young people about careers in architecture and engineering.
With DEI efforts under scrutiny, Miles has worried about support. ”But I’ve been assured that we’re still staying the course,” she says. ”I’m still able to help the people. That’s what I love most about my job.”
Catherine Monte
Like a lot of former English majors, Catherine Monte dipped her toe into law in a post-college paralegal job. But instead of becoming an attorney, "I fell in love with research,” she recalls. "I discovered a real passion for the quick turnaround time for people who needed information.”
Monte has since built a quarter-century career at the firm of Fox Rothschild in her native Philadelphia, where she coordinates a half-dozen research teams that support some 1,000 attorneys through information around legal matters, risk mitigation, business competitors, technology and the data analytics that power cases.
"There’s so much that’s changed over the years in terms of technologies and client solutions,” says Monte. One recent solution involved producing a national dashboard so a client could keep tabs on its operations across states, with at-a-glance statistics on the status of cases.
Monte also serves on the board of the International Legal Technology Association, where she is involved with the Women Who Lead initiative. "I feel this is really important – making sure their voices are heard at the table,” Monte says.
At her dinner table, Monte is her family’s chief knowledge officer. "I’m the one who collects all the articles, clips out things, has a billion apps open,” she laughs. "And I’m the restaurant person.”
Yasmine Mustafa
When Yasmine Mustafa was a young restaurant worker, she wished she had a panic button to press when unscrupulous bosses tried to barter better shifts for sexual favors – and for silence around her undocumented status.
But there wasn’t a panic button, so Mustafa made one. Her startup, ROAR, sells wearable technology that alerts staff and security to workplace threats at the press of a button.
"The first time we heard a hospitality worker used our button and said we saved her life – that’s something I’m never going to forget,” says Mustafa. ROAR’s products have protected 4 million people, many of them frontline workers in fields like health care.
Mustafa’s drive is survivalist; technology and entrepreneurship are her weapons to fight back against what she calls "the birth lottery” she lost by being born to Palestinians in Kuwait. At 8, Mustafa came to America as a refugee, but a paperwork mixup left her undocumented.
So, like many an immigrant, Mustafa created her own opportunities. When she had difficulty figuring out the software for her first startup, she launched another venture, Girl Develop It Philly, that trains young women to code. "How do we use education and technology to help those born with circumstances beyond their control? That’s what fuels me,” says Mustafa, who studied business at Temple University.
"I cheated the birth lottery by even being able to come here,” she adds. "The day I became a U.S. citizen, I finally had a voice.”
Terry Mutchler
How many women have founded and run a state agency? Terry Mutchler has: She established the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records on her way to becoming one of the commonwealth’s foremost authorities on public data and legal transparency.
For the past half-dozen years, attorney Mutchler has chaired the transparency and public data practice at Obermayer Redman Maxwell & Hippel, counseling universities and corporations on protecting their records. She also crusades for the provision of data where it is legally available – including, recently, unveiling the inappropriately concealed records around a billion-dollar Penn State contract.
The youngest of seven, Mutchler grew up in what she calls an ”insular, blue-collar” Poconos community. Journalism, which she studied at Penn State, ”was a passport to a lot of places,” says Mutchler, who became the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree.
As a reporter for the Associated Press, her skeptical coverage got Mutchler banned from Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos. She also became the first female bureau chief at the Illinois State House, which led her to the University of Chicago Law School and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
Back home, she oversaw implementation of Pennsylvania’s 2008 Right to Know Law. Her cause, however, goes back much further. The Declaration of Independence complains that King George III distanced legislators from public records ”for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance,” Mutchler says. ”Since the beginning of this country, the founders were talking about fatiguing citizens into compliance – and I’ve seen this over and over again.”
Aaysha Noor
Barely 20 years ago, Aaysha Noor was a young bride studying in her native Lahore, Pakistan. Today, she is vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at Erie Insurance. ”It’s great to be working with a Fortune 500 company and their commitment to building an inclusive culture,” she says.
Noor resettled upstate a year ago, after establishing herself as one of the Capital Region’s most energetic civic figures. From 2020 to 2024, she headed diversity and inclusion for the Carlisle-based GIANT Company, spearheading a system-wide DEI strategy and launching an annual inclusion week and DEI summit.
Noor also brought her multicultural perspective to the Central PA Diversity Forum, the YWCA Carlisle and the PA Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Network; championing women is a cause she is passionate about. She has also served on the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission Task Force and on the Equity & Inclusion Task Force for the state Department of Education.
The Martin Luther King Day of Service especially resonated with Noor as a new American, and she has long been involved with Central PA MLK-365, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting service year-round. It’s an ethos she is eager to share in Erie, which has, in recent years, become a haven for South and Central Asian refugees.
”No matter where we come from, we have a common thread of humanity,” she says. ”Grounding ourselves in that humanity and building the community – that’s what really draws me.”
Nichole Parker
When Nichole Parker presented an economic impact study of Minnesota State University a few years ago, she won plaudits from the male economist who chaired the system’s Board of Regents. ”He said he was thrilled to see a woman presenting that data,” recalls Parker, an Erie-based economic consultant. ”And I was proud that other women could see themselves doing this kind of work – analysis and narrative-building around complicated topics.” Parker’s passion for policy was kindled during her childhood in an Erie union family. The first generation of her family to go to college, she earned a master’s in public affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.
Parker has analyzed topics as timely as U.S. Steel’s proposed merger and the impact of federal funding cuts on university research. Higher education is Parker’s specialty; longtime clients include the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington. She does pro bono work ”because research funding is very important,” she explains.
Recently, Parker’s post-college boss from a Pittsburgh consulting firm complimented her: ”Even though you’re my competitor, I’m proud of what you’ve done.”
”In this career, you can’t burn bridges – it made me feel great,” she says. ”Anytime you get a bunch of smart women in the room, things can happen.”
Kasey Paulus
Kasey Paulus has some thoughts on why so many nurses – like her – go on to lead health systems.
”One of the core skills as a nurse is your ability to assess and come up with a plan,” explains Paulus, now executive vice president and chief operating officer at WellSpan Health. ”Once you fine-tune that skill set, you can apply it to a variety of situations.”
That’s just what Paulus has done – including, before WellSpan, at Park Nicollet Health Services in her native Minnesota, where she started as a registered nurse and left as vice president and chief nursing officer. Paulus’ ambition was inspired by her own mother, a licensed practical nurse and volunteer EMT who returned to school for an RN degree.
Paulus arrived in York in 2021, as hospitals were feeling their way through the COVID-19 pandemic. ”The silver lining was that (the pandemic) became a catalyst for innovation – thinking differently around how we solve some of our most complex, longstanding challenges in health care,” notes Paulus, citing as an example the widespread rollout of telemedicine. ”That’s been really exciting.”
More recently, she spearheaded a partnership with the Jersey College School of Nursing, opening a branch campus at WellSpan to train the next generation – and combat the health workforce shortage.
”It’s a flexible program, making education possible for folks who maybe didn’t think it was possible for them to start a career in nursing,” says Paulus. And nobody knows better than she where that career can lead.
Heather Roth
At the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Heather Roth is a ”people person” with purpose.
”If I’m at a social outing, I’m not necessarily coming up and talking to people,” says Roth, the commission’s Harrisburg Regional director since 2013. But when she can leverage relationships to fight for the rights of Pennsylvanians, she speaks right up.
Witness Roth’s role in recent disability cases involving refusals to provide ”accommodations that were absolutely reasonable and necessary,” resulting in squandered life opportunities. Having secured one six-figure settlement already, she says, ”we’re actually changing policy, which will change folks’ lives.”
With the Mid-Atlantic ADA Leadership Network, Roth has coordinated ADA training throughout Pennsylvania. Two years ago, she organized the commonwealth’s first disability conference; the speaker was a college friend paralyzed in a shooting at an Altoona Sheetz during freshman year. Roth was moved by his struggles, and angered by the callousness of people who could have eased his path toward productivity but didn’t.
With that in mind, Roth’s current priority is community outreach. ”The commission is so invaluable, and I just wish more people knew they could file complaints if they’re the victim of discrimination,” she says. ”Especially in schools – we have a lot of students who don’t know who to go to. I always think, how can we get the word out?”
Jennifer Scott
Before Jennifer Scott found her niche in the grocery business, she tried nursing, then accounting, and finally went back to school for an MBA. ”I finally decided, ’I’m just going to study business and figure it out from there,’” says Scott. ”The MBA gave me the flexibility to possibly do anything.”
That flexibility has come in handy at The GIANT Company, where Scott is chief human resources and community relations officer, managing the people side of a company known for its long careers and neighborhood involvement.
The Capital Region native began her business career doing sourcing, first for Highmark and then for Ahold, another supermarket chain. ”I’m like, absolutely – I’ll go source corn or vegetables!” Working with private brands sparked her interest in category management, which she called ”a really awesome job. You’re dealing with the financials, with people, with customers.”
As chief of staff, Scott led a supply-chain overhaul that involved taking over management of GIANT’s warehouses from third parties. Her current role involves community-wide projects like organizing local food donations; a recent initiative supplied victuals to 170 schools in food-insecure neighborhoods.
”We’re constantly volunteering, making sure that our impacts are meaningful – and changing children’s lives, making healthier communities,” says Scott, who has served on her local school board for a decade. ”These things are passionate for me. It makes me proud to work here.”
Assata Thomas
It’s safe to say that most people who work in the reentry space probably don’t have firsthand experience with incarceration. Assata Thomas does, and her full-circle corrections journey has made her a uniquely effective reformer.
As executive director of the Philadelphia Office of Reentry Partnerships, Thomas has reoriented the agency toward service – opening the first Neighborhood Resource Center for reentering resonance and relaunching a case management program. Before, ”it was more of a referral office,” she says. ”But my philosophy is: How are we the lead agency for reentry – and we’re not doing direct services ourselves?”
Thomas grew up in ”a very strict Caribbean household” and started her career as a New Jersey corrections officer. So it came as a shock when, at 38, she had a felony conviction. In the years since, she has worked with the formerly incarcerated at a variety of reentry organizations ”because that’s who would give me a job,” she says.
With Philadelphia Fight, the nonprofit where she was chief community justice officer, Thomas hosted a 2018 prison summit that drew nearly 1,500 attendees. She also organized the first Philadelphia art gallery to showcase the work of incarcerated artists, with proceeds going toward a bail fund. More recently, she spearheaded a city microgrant program for grassroots reentry organizations.
”Supporting persons who have been disenfranchised by the criminal legal system – this is work that I’m fully invested in,” reflects Thomas. ”The passion is birthed out of my own story.”
Rita J. Toliver-Roberts
Trained as a counselor, Rita Toliver-Roberts has brought a nurturing approach to administration at Peirce College, the Philadelphia institution she has helped guide for nearly 30 years.
”From the very beginning, working with support services, faculty and administration, we’ve been truly able to live out the Peirce mission,” says Toliver-Roberts, now the school’s vice president for academic affairs and provost. While offerings have expanded, that mission remains ”providing access and completion opportunities for students.”
The South Jersey native started as a counselor at the college, which caters to adult learners. A decade ago, she was part of the team that built Peirce’s graduate program – ”a huge milestone,” she says, for a place many still remember as a junior college. (Toliver-Roberts herself holds a doctorate in education.)
More recently, she helped lead the online initiative that made Peirce one of the area’s first schools to offer fully virtual degree programs.
Toliver-Roberts says her career is as much about community as it is about education. It’s a spirit she has worked to cultivate at Peirce, as well as with the African-American Chamber of Commerce of PA, NJ, and DE, where she is a board member, and with her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
”It’s been a great journey,” says Toliver-Roberts. ”Now I not only have a seat at the table – I actually am able to move some of the chairs.”
Liz Triscari
Elizabeth Triscari was drawn to the law by both a sense of public mission and a talent for counseling others. ”I’ve always been someone people go to for advice,” says Triscari, now corporate counsel and a senior director at American Water. ”I like to solve problems.”
Triscari has done that as the state’s deputy small business advocate, handling utility matters with the Department of Community & Economic Development. She now brings that sense of mission to her private-sector role, reasoning that ”clean drinking water is something I can feel good about dedicating my time to.” At American Water, Triscari handles wastewater legislation as well as major acquisitions like, recently, the Butler Area Sewer Authority.
The Harrisburg native is also passionate about championing women in the legal profession. Long active with the Pennsylvania Bar Association, she has served on the Executive Council of the Commission on Women in the Profession. ”In the 27 years I’ve been practicing, I’ve seen a really welcome shift to realizing that women are whole people, with lives outside of work,” says Triscari, who has a 9-year-old son.
”Early in my career, I felt I had to hide family obligations, that they were perceived as weaknesses.” Today, ”I don’t hide the fact that I’m a mom. I celebrate it, and I ask my colleagues to do the same,” she adds. ”It’s important to make those soccer games or the kids’ musical. I can help be part of creating that kind of workplace – and that’s great.”
Leigh Ann Urban
In a way, Leigh Ann Urban’s civic-minded career is a tribute to her father, Stephen Urban, who was 29 when he was elected Camp Hill’s youngest-ever mayor. He raised Leigh Ann as a single father back when that was rare, ”always telling me I could do anything,” recalls the younger Urban, who now manages communications and community relations in Pennsylvania for Veolia North America. ”It was so neat, as a child, to watch him engage with people. I think that’s where I get my spunk and energy from.”
When Stephen Urban died of a sudden heart attack at 48, his daughter, then a 23-year-old University of Pittsburgh communications graduate, took over his private investigations business before following his example into civic life. As marketing director for Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District, she revived the city’s then-moribund St. Patrick’s Day parade and spearheaded Harrisburg Restaurant Week, now thriving in its second decade. Urban also managed communications for Lower Paxton Township and served a term on the Marysville Borough Council, where she created and chaired the Stormwater Authority.
Veolia, the water utility, allows Urban to continue her grassroots engagement. She recently partnered with the Salvation Army Harrisburg to sponsor rain-collecting barrels that water the organization’s vegetable garden, which feeds hundreds of clients.
Urban also coaches youth sports, channeling her father’s civic-mindedness. ”I love things that bring people together,” Urban explains. ”And I love Central Pennsylvania. It’s a great place to be.”
Michele M. Volpe
Michele Volpe still recalls the exhilaration she felt when, as a young hospital administrator, she found herself in a conference room with Penn Medicine’s physician-leaders. ”I remember feeling, ’These have to be the smartest people I’ve ever met,’” she recalls.
Before long, the Bucks County native had moved into administration on her way to becoming senior vice president and chief operating officer of Penn Medicine, the system where she has built her career.
Volpe has served as COO of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and as CEO of several other hospitals. But she is best known for masterminding the transformation of Penn Presbyterian from a community-based organization into a regional destination. ”It’s a high-end, high-acuity organization that is still community-focused,” Volpe of the $167 million capital expansion, which led to Penn Presbyterian being recognized as a Top 100 teaching hospital.
Now charged with systemwide operations, Volpe is working on the One Penn Medicine initiative, which aims to unify standards and practices across divisions. Decades in, she remains as energized as she was in that long-ago conference room. ”I’m not starry-eyed anymore, but all these years later, I still get that feeling,” Volpe says. ”It’s one reason that I have built such a long career here.”
Leslie Walker
Leslie Walker knows she is lucky to have a career supporting the Philadelphia institutions that are dear to her heart.
”I’ve been fortunate to work for three organizations I’ve always sort of been in love with,” says Walker. Since 2021, she has directed the Sixers Youth Foundation, a philanthropic arm of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.
Walker previously worked for the Free Library of Philadelphia, where she was chief of staff and interim director. ”Libraries are so important for communities,” she notes. ”There are amazing resources for everybody, and they’re free.” Before that, she spent five years at the Please Touch Museum, a family destination where she left as vice president for visitor experience and programs.
The Rutgers urban studies major began her career teaching preschool – but quickly realized her strength was in programming. She segued into nonprofits that centered around early childhood education, earning a master’s in training and organizational development from Saint Joseph’s University.
At the Sixers Youth Foundation, Walker manages an organization that has distributed $5 million in grants over the past decade, with $1 million committed last year. Most are three-year grants, allowing recipients to realize long-term projects like refurbishing schoolyards and ball courts.
”I know what it’s like to be on the other side of nonprofits – looking for grant dollars to be able to support these activities,” says Walker. ”It’s the kind of work that gets me up in the morning, just knowing I’m out there helping children and families.”
Emma Watson
Like many who grow up in Harrisburg, lobbyist Emma Watson was steeped in politics essentially from birth. That her father was a Penn State health education professor was significant, too: Today, Watson is known in the capital as a health policy expert, leading multi-state government affairs for the global medical device company Novocure.
”I saw my dad serve on community nonprofit boards,” recalls Watson. ”It was early exposure to the impact that patients and advocacy groups can have on legislative outcomes.”
She earned a master’s in public health from Temple University, then spent nearly a decade managing state government affairs for the American Cancer Society, leading a coalition of 70 organizations that successfully lobbied for Pennsylvania’s prior authorization reform.
”To have such a sizable coalition that was representative of the health care landscape as a whole, driving change that would truly benefit patients – and we’re all going to be a patient at some point – was really impactful,” she says.
Novocure, which specializes in oncology, presented another opportunity to advocate for cancer patients – but on a national scale, since Watson leads government affairs in all 50 states.
”The technology is so innovative,” she reflects. ”What’s exciting is advocating for funding for research and coverage of these new therapies.”
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