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Join us March 5 when we welcome St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman as he presents “The State of The City,” an update on the activities, events and latest happenings that affect not only the citizens of St. Petersburg but the entire Tampa Bay Region. Of particular interest to the Business and Professional Women, Mayor Kriseman will address the local economy and upcoming opportunities for all of us to participate in the future of St. Petersburg for the remainder of his term and beyond.

Please join us on February 6 as we welcome D YaeL Kelley who was recently named the MUSE Visual Arts Award winner for 2020 by the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance.  The MUSE arts awards shine a spotlight on special people who inspire and guide St. Petersburg as a true City of the Arts.  Please join YaeL as she shares why  the Arts  are so important to the health and success of the community.  She will share her journey and how St. Petersburg has risen  to become an international arts destination.  YaeL shared this quote ““My grandmother taught me that I am a part of my community, that the health of that community depended upon me and that my identity was not who I claimed to be, but who claimed me. We are who we are through every connection we have made or will make.”   I hope you can join us for this enlightening discussion.

D YaeL Kelley lives and works at her studio in the Artist Enclave of Historic Kenwood in St. Petersburg, Florida.  Her eclectic heritage influence her current explorations.  YaeL was born in Ohio and grew up in Florida, where she sold her first work at age 14.  She has since lived in England, Arizona and Texas.  While in England she attended Suffolk College of Art and Design.  She has worked in the visual arts, in museums and in the theatre.  Her career spans more than 40 years as a professional painter, arts advocate and certified instructor/demonstration artists for several major arts manufacturers, which include Crayola Crayons, Winsor and Newton, and Daler Rowney.  She is a past president and artist in residence of the center for Contemporary Arts of Abilene, past vice-president of the Texas Visual Arts Association, served the city of St. Petersburg on the Arts Advisory Committee and the Mayor’s Transition Team for Arts and Culture.  She is a founding member of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance.  YaeL has enjoyed many solo shows and group exhibitions throughout her career and is represented in St. Petersburg by Red Cloud Indian Arts Gallery.  Her paintings are in collections internationally.

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Please join us on January 16^th as we welcome Tom Magoulis, the Executive Director of the new Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.  This new gem is planned to open in early 2020 and will be a welcome addition to the booming St. Petersburg Arts scene.  From collection and storage of the art to the upcoming grand opening of the museum, Tom will share the museum’s journey and how they ended up in St. Petersburg.

A little bit about the Museum

The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement will showcase a world class collection of art objects consisting of furniture, metalwork, lighting, ceramics, pottery, wood block prints, photography, fine art and other decorative works that date back to the 1900-to-1930. This historic movement, a reaction to the industrial revolution, dangerous factory working conditions, inferior mass-made objects, and a renewed appreciation of handmade art using natural materials, dramatically changed design philosophy and the way craftspeople worked.

After more than 20 years of collecting world-class art objects from the Arts and Crafts movement in America and founding the nonprofit Two Red Roses Foundation to house the collection, Tarpon
Springs businessman and art collector Rudy Ciccarello is finally realizing his dream to make this amazing collection available to the public.

The five-story, 144,000-square-foot museum along the 300 block of Fourth Avenue North will be the first of its kind in the country and the largest in St. Petersburg.

The approximately $90 million museum will feature more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space, temporary exhibition space, a 100-seat auditorium, a resource library, children’s education center, as well as a graphic studio and darkroom facilities for educational programs. Also included is Ambrosia, a 200 plus seat destination restaurant, a café, retail store, event ballroom and private art gallery designed for weddings, corporate events, and private parties.

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Kelly Sciba will be visiting our local BPW luncheon meeting on Thursday, December 5 as we participate in the series of public forums that are being conducted around the state n Florida’s diverse regions and communities to talk to women about the challenges they encounter in their everyday lives. The 2019 Voices of Florida Women Listening Tour is a coordinated partnership with local commissions for women and other organizations from the panhandle to Key West to hold community conversations in their communities. Community Conversations will be scheduled throughout the state until the end of 2019. Here’s our chance to join in.

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Lorrie Lykins, Vice President of Research at the Seattle-based Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and Editor of The SheSuite™, an ongoing series of in-depth interviews with women executives, will address the issue of gender pay equity and its implications as an economic issue. A thought leader, speaker, and researcher on the topic of gender equity, Lorrie has worked in the field of human capital research for a decade, beginning with the Human Resource Institute, and has published numerous articles, playbooks, case studies, editorial features, and whitepapers on topics ranging from corporate volunteerism to women in leadership, learning and development (L&D), talent management, and talent acquisition.

An award-winning writer and former correspondent with the St. Petersburg Times, Lorrie’s work has been featured in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She is a contributing author to the best-selling books ASTD’s Foundations of Talent Development: Launching, Leveraging, and Leading Your Organization’s TD Effort (2018), The ASTD Leadership Handbook (2010), and Red, White, and True: Stories from Veterans and Families, World War II to Present (2014).

Lorrie is a graduate of Eckerd College and Queens University of Charlotte and serves as an adjunct professor in the adult education program at Eckerd College. She is based in New York City.

We’re delighted to welcome renowned author, Fawn Germer, to our September Luncheon meeting where she will discuss the principles of her latest book, Work-Life Reset.

If Fawn Germer didn’t live by the Japanese proverb, “Fall down seven times, get up eight,” she probably would have given up years ago, when a bad boss told her she’d never be more than she was right then – a reporter.

She showed him. Fawn is a four-time Pulitzer-nominee and the best-selling author of nine books, including an Oprah book. She has keynoted all over the world and is one of three women on the prestigious “guru list” of the best global leadership speakers. Her first book was rejected by every major publisher in the U.S., but Fawn persevered until it was a bestseller. She wrote 28 letters to Oprah’s producers, but none of them worked. It was the 29th that scored her the windfall of an Oprah book.

Fawn personally interviews the most accomplished leaders and trailblazers of our times for their strategies and stories. Combining their wisdom with her inspiring personal experiences has made her one of the most beloved, uplifting and funny keynote speakers in North America.

Fawn has headlined leadership events for Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co., Cisco, Walmart, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, State Farm, Novartis, Accenture, Deloitte, GlaxoSmithKline, Goldman Sachs and dozens of others on the Fortune 500 list… Meeting planners regularly turn to Fawn because she knows how to reach inside of the people in the audience and pull out their best.

She is currently working on her tenth book, which teaches why some careers go the distance and others sputter out. For the project, she has interviewed more than 200 top CEOs, startup geniuses, organizational experts and professionals.

Fawn is a daring outdoor adventurer and she has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to live fuller, more meaningful lives. She is widely recognized as one of the world’s go-to voice on work-life balance, showing that we make choices in life, and those choices have consequences. She recently delivered a TEDx talk on the topic of personal reset for a happier, more balanced approach to life, work and stress.

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Talking about sensitive social issues, such as unintended pregnancy, can be tough. Knowing the facts can help in conversations with those unsettled by topics like teen sexuality or abortion. Amy Weintraub, Reproductive Rights Program Director for Progress Florida, will lead a discussion on the state of women’s access to reproductive health care, including abortion care, in Florida and nationwide. She will discuss recent activities in Tallahassee and Washington as they relate to reproductive rights and what we could face in a post-Roe world.

Amy Weintraub is the Reproductive Rights Program Director for Progress Florida and is a leader on the statewide Floridians for Reproductive Freedom coalition. She was one of the leads for Women’s March St. Pete 2017 and is an active with the League of Women Voters, the National Organization for Women, and the South St. Petersburg Democratic Club. A seasoned organizer, Amy has worked most of her adult life identifying, educating, and activating citizens toward social justice. Prior to moving to Florida in 2015, Amylived in her home state of West Virginia where she led efforts within organizations such as WV FREE (West Virginia Focus: Reproductive Education and Equality), Covenant House of WV, and Planned Parenthood. Amy lives in St. Petersburg with her spouse and two children.

Join us on Thursday, July 18 when BPW welcomes Cathie Perkins to our luncheon meeting to discuss how to prepare our businesses and our homes in the event of an emergency.

Responsible for emergency preparedness countywide, Cathie will share with us important information regarding resources that are available to us throughout Tampa Bay.  Click Here to Make your Reservation Today. 

BPW is delighted to welcome back renowned journalist Margie Manning on June 6 to speak about the media’s portrayal of women.  The visibility of women in leadership roles has long been touted as a key to getting an equal number of seats at the table. With national campaigns among advertisers such as the #SeeHer initiative, is any of it working to help women achieve equity in the workplace?

Margie Manning started her journalism career as a radio news reporter in St. Louis, before putting down her microphone and picking up a pen to work at the St. Louis Business Journal. Unable to resist the call of warm weather and beaches, Margie took an entrepreneurial detour to run an ice cream shop in Treasure Island with her husband. Before joining the Catalyst, Margie spent 14 years at the Tampa Bay Business Journal where she wrote about business successes, failures and the exciting world of innovation and start-ups. Her writing coaches are Bonnie the Dog and Coffee the Cat.

BPW welcomes Renee Dabbs for our May luncheon meeting.  She is the principal and founder of Renee Dabbs, LLC, a management consulting firm that focuses on helping organizations become metrics focused on their key deliverables. Her clients include national corporations, education, associations and not for profits. She provides sustainable operating expertise on subjects including sales, fundraising, marketing, new business development, governance, membership development and team development.

For ten years Renee served as the Victory Group, Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer, senior producer and client coordinator. She directed and managed day to day operations, facilitated major client interface and acted as the firm’s primary field producer for VGI television, radio and films.

Prior to joining The Victory Group Renee was an executive at Procter and Gamble where she led a $220 million dollar business. She worked in sales, human resources, logistic and marketing over her 16-year career.

Renee resides in Tampa, Florida where she is active in the community and sits on the boards of University of Florida Alumni Association, Girl Scouts and the Florida Holocaust Museum as well as volunteers with other organizations. She is the founder of WeWill Tampa Bay a non partisan political symposium for women and a board member of the Women’s Exchange.

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