CHAMPIONS

of Working Women

Photography by Diane Parks

When it comes to challenges women face at the workplace, Chattanooga reflects the country as a whole, according to Kristi Haulsee, vice president of member-investor services for the Chattanooga Area Chamber.

“We have scores of extremely successful businesswomen,” Haulsee says. “Still, the 2000 census showed that women in Hamilton County earn just 69 cents for every dollar men earn. Across Tennessee only seven percent of corporate board seats are held by women. And, like their counterparts around the country, women who want to go into business for themselves here rarely have female angel investors to fund their enterprises.”

Because the Chattanooga area economy is stronger when more people have the ability to reach their full potential, the Chamber established a series of awards recognizing the strength, leadership and courage of area businesswomen.

The Chattanooga Nautilus Awards honor women who succeed in business and individuals who inspire women to achieve their goals and who work on behalf of women’s issues. The awards also recognize outstanding female high school students who have already begun to prepare themselves for traditionally male careers. The 2008 Nautilus Awards will include a new award, The Stargazer, which will honor a woman, 25 years of age or older, seeking to advance her career by earning a college degree.

The Nautilus series includes the ATHENA Award, which honors an individual demonstrating notable professional achievement and community service while assisting women in their attainment of professional and leadership potential.

One of the city’s most beloved educators, 2007 ATHENA Award recipient Rickie Pierce has served GPS for 25 years, influencing and mentoring some 2,500 students, many of whom have become business women.

Her innovations as associate head and upper school principal include establishing a voluntary career mentorship program matching GPS seniors with local professional women. “The program begins with a kickoff luncheon in October,” Pierce says. “During the year the girls visit their mentors, complete reading assignments and meet with young alums in their fields of interest.”

What’s more, all students undergo a career inventory in the middle of their junior year and during their three individual conferences with Pierce each year, all upper school girls discuss career goals and preparation.

Pierce’s activities on behalf of the community are equally impressive and, in some cases, groundbreaking on behalf of women. She was the second woman president of the Downtown Kiwanis Club, the first, and for many years, the only woman on the Stadium Board and the second woman to chair the administrative board of First Centenary United Methodist Church.

Her pioneering roles notwithstanding, Pierce says if she were graduating from high school today she would choose the very same path she took years ago. “I have no doubt I would be doing exactly what I’m doing,” she says. “It is a calling.”

Pierce, whose office is cluttered with mementoes from admiring students, is pleased that the ATHENA Award was presented to a professional in education. “In many ways a school is a business,” she says. “We have the most important end-product of all. I was happy to accept on behalf of all the other educators who should have shared in the award.”

Navigator for Entrepreneurship Award honoree Sheila Boyington and her husband, Dane, rolled the dice when they quit lucrative jobs to found Thinking Media™. The risk paid off handsomely. After first year sales of $18,000, the company moved into the black and, thanks in part to Boyington’s entrepreneurial skills, racked up sales in excess of $3 million for 2006.

Boyington developed Thinking Media’s two chief products – KeyTrain™, a series of courses that improve the basic workplace skills of students and workers, and Character.Ed.Net™, an Internet-based tool providing students with age-appropriate practice addressing nine character traits. Both tools have gained a national reputation and served millions of individuals.

The Navigator Award also acknowledges the recipient’s efforts to develop her support staff into office management and to provide single women employees with opportunities to grow in their jobs, make incomes sufficient to support their families and achieve a balance between home and work in their lives.

Boyington’s civic involvements include organizing events to introduce Indian culture to the community, serving on the board of the Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute and leading the Girls Inc. board’s search for a new executive director of the organization.

“I have worked hard to be a role model to show my daughters, Priya and Nisha, that they can achieve anything they want if they work hard enough,” says Boyington, whose accomplished mother was among the first women of Indian descent to immigrate to the U.S. in the 1950’s. “I try to encourage everyone around me to achieve.”

The Lightkeeper Award recipient, Dr. Charlotte Boatwright was recognized for her tireless efforts to increase awareness of domestic violence among people who work in the legal, educational, healthcare and spiritual fields.

The founder and president of the Coalition Against Domestic and Community Violence of Greater Chattanooga, Inc. also carries her message to the business community. “Abuse is so costly,” Boatwright says. “The lateness to work, absences, lack of productivity. And sometimes women have to flee and leave their job altogether. Abuse is very much an economic issue.”

Boatwright, who spent 35 years in the healthcare field as a registered nurse teacher and a hospital administrator, found a new direction for her life after one of her daughters was a victim of abuse. “I didn’t have a clue about abuse,” she says. “I attended conferences, talked to experts and read extensively. I realized that people needed to be aware of what abuse looks like, how to recognize it and what to do about it.”

A registered nurse and licensed professional counselor with a doctorate in health services administration, Boatwright founded the coalition in 1993. Today she delivers programs to 5,000 people a year, sometimes making three presentations a day. Until 2006 she was unsalaried; now she takes pay for two days of her long work week.

Over the years Boatwright created the Chattanooga Family Justice Alliance, a collaboration of more than 70 entities which provides a coordinated community response to family violence. And she supervised the implementation of the law enforcement/prosecution task force that operated from 1997 to 2001 in Hamilton County.

Nowadays she is working toward creation of a one-stop shop for abuse victims. “The facility would provide legal services, healthcare, job training, child care and transitional housing so the victims would have time to develop skills that will allow them to stand on their own two feet and get on with their lives,” Boatwright says.

The Lightkeeper for 2007 conducts a ministry by serving on the Crisis Response Team and Diaconate Formation Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. She teaches a contemporary issues course each year in the Episcopal Diaconate Curriculum and conducts seminars for clergy and congregations of all faiths.

2007 Nautilus Award
Recipients and Finalists

The ATHENA Award recognizes the recipient’s professional achievements, community service and efforts to help women achieve career goals and leadership skills.

Recipient
Rickie Pierce, associate head of Girls Preparatory School.

Finalists: Sheila Boyington, president of Thinking Media; Beverly Inman-Ebel, CEO of TLC, Talk Listen Communicate.

The Navigator for Entrepreneurship is presented to a female business owner who encourages work-life balance among employees, displays a pioneering spirit of entrepreneurship and serves as a role model for other women.

Recipient
Sheila Boyington, president of Thinking Media.

Finalists: Julie Higgins, CEO of Vizion Resources and All-American Schools; Marcia Martin, owner of The Glass Doctor.

The Lightkeeper makes significant contributions to issues affecting women and/or girls through grassroots efforts conducted tirelessly over many years without public fanfare.

Recipient
Dr. Charlotte Boatwright, founder and president of Coalition Against Domestic and Community Violence of Greater Chattanooga, Inc.

Finalists: Marj Flemming, founder of LaunchPoint Leadership; Sandra Johnson, founder and CEO of Regeneration.

The Pearl of Promise is presented to a female junior or senior high school student with a strong scholastic aptitude in science and math, leadership skills and a defined career goal.

Recipient
Hannah Shadrick, Girls Preparatory School.

Finalists: Julie Pelham, Soddy-Daisy High School; Elizabeth P. Russell, Girls Preparatory School.