Position: President and CEO, Iowa Women’s Foundation Hometown: Gladbrook, Iowa Family: Husband Troy, two adult children Education: Bachelor’s in sociology from Central College, master’s in public policy from University of Northern Iowa Hobbies: Reading, visiting bookstores Anyone who is deeply involved in addressing the child care crisis in the state Read more…
By Suzanna de Baca, president and CEO, Business Publications Corp. “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed. But when we are silent we are still heard, so it is better to speak.” Audre Lorde As a young woman, I was often hesitant to Read more…
By Emily Kestel, Fearless editor The majority of Americans believe it’s more likely that self-driving cars will be a normal mode of transportation before women make up half of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, according to a recent survey. There’s good reasoning behind their thinking. As of May of Read more…
By Suzanna de Baca, president and CEO, Business Publications Corp. What do Microsoft, Estée Lauder, JPMorgan Chase and General Motors all have in common? No, it’s not their industry or customer base. One feature these Fortune 500 companies share is that they all have female chief financial officers. For much Read more…
By Suzanna de Baca, president and CEO, Business Publications Corp. I recently attended a reunion of my MBA class in October, so it seemed like a synergistic and wonderful coincidence that in the following weeks, two young women separately reached out to me for letters of recommendation to local MBA Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Mayada Alwan is a senior at Valley High School in West Des Moines, where she is a founding member of RISE, a student club that mentors refugees and immigrants. She and her family are Sudanese, and immigrated to the United States from Lebanon. She is Read more…
By Emily Kestel, Fearless editor The Business Record’s Fearless initiative is celebrating its second birthday this year. We remain steadfast in living up to our goal of empowering Iowa women to succeed in work and life through our articles, stories and community events. At its core, Fearless aims to amplify Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Courageous Fire is a social entrepreneur and owner of Courageous Fire LLC, a company that educates the community about domestic violence, and the founding executive director of Courageous Access, a nonprofit that provides direct services to survivors of domestic violence. The following story has been Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Upon summiting the Vinson Massif in Antarctica on Dec. 28, 2021, Jen Loeb became the first woman from Iowa to climb the “Seven Summits,” which are the highest peaks on the seven continents. She lives near Marengo. The following story has been formatted to be Read more…
As told to Emily Kestel Denise O’Brien is an activist, organic farmer and co-founder of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. She lives on a 17-acre farm in Cass County with her husband, Larry Harris. The following story has been formatted to be entirely in her own words, and has Read more…