WV Living magazine honors 2018 “Wonder Women”

WV Living magazine will honor its fifth-annual group of Wonder Women with a luncheon at the Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston West in South Charleston on Monday, Oct. 1 at 11:30 a.m.

The fall issue of the magazine, on sale now, features more than 50 women from around West Virginia who are making their communities, their state, and their world a better place to live. Honorees include:

  • Beri Fox, president and CEO of Marble King
  • Ivin B. Lee, Charleston’s first black female police officer, the city’s first-ever female detective, the state’s first female police chief, and the former executive director of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission
  • Emily Lilly, the first female National Guard soldier to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School
  • Jessica Lynch, a motivational speaker, mother, teacher, and former POW
  • Nina Denton Pasinetti, longtime artistic director of the Charleston Light Opera Guild
  • West Virginia teachers, who are 75 percent female, held a statewide strike to fight for better pay and benefits and inspired other teachers throughout the country in world

The list also includes a posthumous honor for Charleston philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum, who passed away in July.

“This class of Wonder Women inspires me and gives me great hope for the future of our state,” says WV Living Publisher and Editor Nikki Bowman. “After reading about each of these strong and influential women, one thing is for sure—we get things done. These women are movers and shakers, decision-makers, givers, and doers, and they are moving our state forward. We hope this issue inspires more women to step into leadership roles, reach back, and bring others along.”

Syndicated columnist and author Linda Arnold, founder of the Arnold Agency will serve as keynote speaker at the luncheon.

Prior to the lunch, at 10 a.m., the West Virginia University Business Center will provide inspirational sessions to help attendees start and grow a business. Speakers will be Sara McDowell Page of The Media Squirrel and Shelby Hicks-Merinar of Steptoe and Johnson.

Following the lunch at 2 p.m. there will be a “Super Women’s Power Panel” featuring some of the state’s most successful and influential women business owners: Angie Cowger, co-founder of The Custard Stand; Cheri Satterfield, president at Tuscan Sun Spa and Salon; Robin Hildebrand, founder of Blue Smoke Salsa; and Arria Hines, president and CEO of Allegheny Science and Technology.

WV Living is a publication of New South Media, a media company headquartered in Morgantown.

For more information, contact managing editor Zack Harold at 304.993.4025 or zack@newsouthmediainc.com.