The 2023 Outstanding Women of Northern Kentucky will be honored at the annual luncheon on Thursday. Early registration is closed, but attendees can still go as walk-ins and pay for their tickets at the door. Doors open at 11 a.m. and the program begins just after noon.
The 39th annual event is hosted by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Women’s Initiative.
The awards will be presented at Turfway Park Racing & Gaming.
Committee chair Katie Meyer will open the program. Kathrine Nero will serve as emcee.
The 2023 Outstanding Women of Northern Kentucky honorees include:
Emerging Leader Honoree
Farduwsa Hassan
Nurse Practitioner Specialist and Owner, Leila Urgent Care
Farduwsa Hassan
Farduwsa Hassan is a nurse practitioner specialist primarily operating out of Northern Kentucky. As the owner of Lelia Urgent Care in Hebron, she strives to help the community with the various medical hardships they may face – a fact that was never more evident than during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her company provides numerous medical services including treatment of common ailments such as flu and respiratory issues as well as sprains, providing physicals for work and/or school, allergy treatments, and even telehealth services.
Outstanding Women of NKY Honorees
Christy Burch
CEO, The Ion Center for Violence Prevention
Christy Burch
Christy Burch is CEO of the Ion Center for Violence Prevention, an organization founded in 1976 with the “intention to provide services to survivors of power-based personal violence” in the Northern Kentucky, Buffalo Trace, and Greater Cincinnati areas. Christy has helped The Ion Center further that mission over the course of her 26 years with the organization.
Sarah Giolando-Matlin
Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, St. Elizabeth Healthcare
Sarah Giolando-Matlin
Sarah Giolando-Matlin is a Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for St. Elizabeth Healthcare, a five-hospital system in Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana. She is responsible for system-wide strategic planning, marketing, public relations, communications, government relations, community relations, volunteer services and auxiliary departments across the $1.2 billion healthcare system.
Vickie Henderson
Executive Director, Northern Kentucky Children’s Advocacy Center
Vickie Henderson
Vickie Henderson is the Executive Director of the Northern Kentucky Children’s Advocacy Center, a role which is the culmination of over 30 years of service as an advocate for children. Under her leadership, Northern Kentucky established the first child advocacy center in the Commonwealth. In addition to being the first forensic interviewer in Kentucky, Vickie was one of the founding members and first President of the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Kentucky.
Ash Norton
General Manager of Major Projects, Duke Energy
Ash Norton
Ash Norton has sought to positively impact the world from a young age, overcoming instability in her childhood to become a first-generation college graduate earning her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Business Administration from Thomas More University.
Henrietta Cleveland Inspiring Women Honoree
Carolyn Thomas Thompson
Insurance Agent at State Farm Insurance and St. Elizabeth Volunteer
Carolyn Thomas Thompson
Carolyn Thomas Thompson is an insurance agent for State Farm Insurance. Her title, however, is not just reflective of her job, but a family legacy of serving the community across two generations. Working with State Farm for over 30 years, she has spent the last 25 as the company’s agent in Williamstown. Born and raised in Grant County where her father was the town’s State Farm agent, Carolyn returned to Williamstown 25 years later to take over her father’s business upon his retirement. This also led to her getting involved in the community – with roles at the Williamstown Kiwanis Club and the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
Judith Clabes Lifetime Achievement Honoree
Lisa Desmarais
Retired from Kenton County Fiscal Court
Lisa Desmarais
Lisa Desmarais is a technology, finance and operations professional whose career has seen her work in many roles with different organizations and companies, providing excellent service along the way. Her professional roles included employment with the Kenton County Fiscal Court, the City of Covington, and as an adjunct professor in the Master of Public Administration graduate degree program at Northern Kentucky University (NKU).
Nancy Janes Boothe Scholarship Recipients
Terrie Lee Frasure
Gateway Community & Technical College
Terrie Lee Frasure
Terrie Lee Frasure has overcome adversity at many turns on her way to being honored as this year’s Gateway Community and Technical College scholarship award recipient. Raised solely by her grandmother, Terrie recalls years of seeing her grandparent struggle to provide the bare necessities for her and her sister. Despite rebelling and balking at authority by her own admission, she graduated high school, the first in her family to do so, “only through God’s grace and mercy” by “the skin of her teeth.”
Jenna Dunham
Northern Kentucky University
Jenna Dunham
Jenna Dunham is currently enrolled at NKU, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience. She plans to further her studies and pursue her Ph.D. in the field, focusing on research in the realms of addiction, stress, obesity and mood disorders. This builds upon more than two decades work with individuals to improve health and fitness, an outgrowth of her personal passion for studying habits and promoting behavior change leading to improved health outcomes.
E. Holly Jenkins
Thomas More University
E. Holly Jenkins
E. Holly Jenkins is a 2020 graduate of Thomas More University (TMU) where she earned her degree in business management, she received her BA in Ethical Leadership in 2022. She is now studying for her master’s in Ethical Leadership at the university. She is also the CEO of Restart Your Life, Inc., a coaching firm specializing in personal and professional development. Her passion for her work reflects the incredible journey that has led her to this point, which shines through in each project she pours her energy into.
Additional information about the Outstanding Women of Northern Kentucky awards, past honorees, and more, can be found online at www.nkychamber.com.
Sponsored by St. Elizabeth Healthcare, the awards were established in 1984 when the late Nancy Janes Boothe, first lady of Northern Kentucky University, suggested the community should have a way to recognize women. The first events were sponsored by The Kentucky Post and a coalition of NKU and Thomas More College and community-minded businesses to honor NKY’s women of accomplishment. The recognitions have continued uninterrupted since then.
The Outstanding Women of Northern Kentucky steering committee, working with the Chamber’s Women’s Initiative, is responsible for selecting the winners of the awards.
Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
