Virtual event raises more than $475K

By Juliette Coulter

Texas Women’s Foundation (TXWF) held its 42nd annual Leadership Forum and Awards Celebration (LFAC), presented by AT&T, on April 29. The Foundation honored five Maura Women Helping Women recipients and two Young Leader Award recipients who have made positive impacts in the lives of women and girls. The keynote conversation featured Adriana Gascoigne, author of “Tech Boss Lady” and founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, interviewed by AT&T’s Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations Marachel Knight. 

After the compelling talk, the honorees and TXWF leaders and supporters participated in leadership forums with event attendees. LFAC netted $475,000 to further the mission of Texas Women’s Foundation.

Co-chairs Jana Etheridge, senior vice president, chief of staff and customer office, Financial Services, Capital One, and Hattie Hill, president and CEO of T.D. Jakes Foundation, welcomed everyone and discussed how difficult the pandemic has been on women, particularly working moms who have had to balance work, school, child care and family duties — if they had a job where they could work from home. 

Brenda Jackson, Leadership Awards Selection Committee co-chair, gave a history of the leadership awards. 

A. Shonn Brown, chair of the Texas Women’s Foundation’s board, introduced three of the award recipients. 

• Maura Award recipient Trisha Cunningham is leading in calm and in crisis as the president and CEO of North Texas Food Bank by leading a staff of 180 that helped serve 97 million meals in 2020.

• Rani Puranik, Maura Award recipient, is an intrapreneur and global change agent as co-owner and Global CFO of Houston-based Worldwide Oilfield Machine and leading supporter of an Indian school. 

• Young Leader Award Recipient Kim Roxie is an entrepreneur and catalyst for women of color as founder and CEO of LAMIK Beauty that caters to multicultural women. 

Co-chair Hattie Hill introduced the two award recipients:

• Maura Award recipient Judy Treviño is paying it forward as executive director of CCVI Ministries, an international nonprofit organization that is transforming the lives of people and the community.

• Cheryl Polote Williamson, Maura Award recipient, is helping people find their power through their purpose as founder of Soul Reborn and Cheryl Polote Williamson LLC.

Co-chair Jana Etheridge introduced two award recipients: 

• Young Leader Award recipient Diana Mao is transforming women from victimized to victorious as the president of Nomi Network, whose mission is to eradicate human trafficking.  

• Jin-Ya Huang, Maura Award recipient, invests in women as the founder of Break Bread, Break Borders that empowers refugee women economically through the storytelling of cooking, food and culture. 

Jennifer Biry, chief financial officer of AT&T’s Warner Media business and presenting sponsor, introduced the keynote speaker, Adriana Gascoigne and Marachel Knight. 

Marachel Knight moderated the discussion with Adriana Gascoigne and asked her questions about her life, career and advice. Gascoigne, who has often been the only female and woman of color at many start-up companies gave the following advice:

• Leadership starts at the top. 

• Resiliency is an important quality in starting a business. 

• Find your passion and purpose. 

• Find the right partners and the right funding sources.

• Don’t be afraid to take risks. 

Roslyn Dawson Thompson, Texas Women’s Foundation president and chief executive officer, thanked Gascoigne and Knight. 

Following the event, attendees selected one of the breakout Leadership Forums for a discussion with the award recipients. 

More information can be found at txwfleadership.org.