Congratulations to our 2nd Annual Diva Visionary Award winner, Kristina Leonardi!
Heartfelt congratulations to Kristina Leonardi, founder of The Women's Mosaic, a nonprofit dedicated to providing,
"education, inspiration and motivation for women to rise up and rock the world!" Very powerful words from a very powerful Diva Visionary.
And congratulations to YOU, Diva Nation. Without your continued support and participation, we might never have met Kristina and our other finalists.
Our judges faced a mighty challenge as they carefully considered each candidates' merits. Though Kristina ultimately reigns supreme, we strongly believe
that everyone who joined us on our quest for female excellence should jump up and celebrate. Viva Visionary Divas!
Sponsored by: &
Kristina Leonardi, Founder, The Women's Mosaic
Now is the time for women to come together to rise up and rock the world! I have dedicated the last six years of my life to making that statement a reality by founding The Women's Mosaic (www.thewomensmosaic.org), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that educates, inspires and motivates women to express their full potential in all areas of life.
Through providing a variety of unique educational programs, TWM seeks to create positive social change on personal, local and global levels by helping women embrace who they are and what they can do with their lives. Our programs offer relaxed, stimulating, supportive environments that enable women to reach across borders and cultures, allowing them to recognize, refine and reactivate their individual and collective power and place in the world. We’ve offered over 80 unique programs for more than 2000 women to learn more about themselves and the world around them. We have dispelled prejudices and stereotypes of race and religion, and have expanded women’s horizons through a variety of multicultural and personal growth events – from panel discussions to film screenings and ethnic dinners and workshops, thus allowing women to interact and connect with each other in informal yet structured ways and expanding their horizons both locally and globally, and generating awareness about women’s issues both here and abroad.
I have done some extensive travelling in the past, but since starting the organization it has been challenging on all levels to get away anywhere, as I have poured my heart, soul and finances into the organization. I truly believe that uniting and empowering women is the only way to change the world and am sincerely and passionately doing my part to make that happen.
Nathasha Alvarez is the perfect person for your diva contest. Her friends call her the little Latina Diva on Wheels! She is a bit over 3 feet tall and uses a manual wheelchair due to her disability. Nathasha was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, brittle bone disease and has had several operations and literally over one hundred fractures before the age of 12. Now at the age of 36, she is a reading and language arts middle school teacher, a consultant for a paratransit company that transports people with physical disabilities and an advocate for the physically disabled.
Luce Bealieu walked away from the high-powered corporate design world and has never looked back. A Montreal-based graphic designer and strategist, Luce aggressively reinforces her vision for a 100% sustainable world -- both in form and function -- and particularly as it relates to the advertising, fashion and design industries.
In 2004, Luce launched Article, under which she works as a design consultant and develops her line of eco-design products. In 2006 she launched Posch, a line of chic shopping bags crafted from discarded bedsheets. And more recently, Luce has brought out a hot line o...
Barbara Bender Breck, Episcopal Priest. Mom & Daughter
Barbara Bender Breck:a widow, a daughter's Mom, a caregiver to an elderly ailing Mom and an extremely caring soul for many children and adults in the San Francisco Bay Area communities. Beginning her working career as a corporate lawyer and realizing that she was giving out way too much advise for the fees that the law firm was charging, B3 (as we call her) listened to her calling, and departed law to become an ordained Priest in 1993.
This voracious believer in giving back to the community is the Pastor at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Fremont, CA, and amazingly finds time for unending...
Michelle inspires me with the simplest of actions. A newlywed who moved to Alaska (thousands of miles away from all friends and family), Michelle soon found herself in a military community, expecting her first child, with a husband in Iraq. Embracing her new “Alaskan family,” Michelle was writing a weekly column entitled “Until They Come Home,” depicting the everyday life of the homefront heroes (the families of our soldiers), working at the local TV station, being a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and taking on the role of Volunteer Coordinator at her church.
“Thank you for giving me my life back.” These words grace a thank you card that hangs on a bulletin board next to the desk of this nominee who is far more than a visionary; she is an inspiration whose positive influence permeates the community. I am nominating Mari Garner for the Diva Visionary award. Her infectious spirit and positive energy started with a spark: one boot camp, one park, two instructors. The spark was stoked to a flame that has grown to five boot camps, four parks and over forty instructors. In just sixteen months, she has had 1,177 boot campers that have taken her progr...
Alice Hiatt is an extraordinary woman. Humanitarian, mountain adventurer, educator and healer, this Visionary is all heart- and soul. Raised in southern California and originally a “surfer chic,” Alice’s early work as an Acupressurist took her around the world on cruise ships. In her career as a Psychiatric Nurse, she saw and implemented the benefits of combining Western and Eastern Medicine long before it was a trend. The mother of two grown sons, Alice divides her time between teaching healing work at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley (where she developed various program curriculum and d...
Janet Lane is a truly giving and caring person. I first met her when she joined the board of the Davis Community Meals organization that provides meals, housing, and services to the homeless and needy people of Davis, California and surrounding areas. I have since had the pleasure of getting to know her better when we have served together as volunteers at the Cold Weather Shelter. Janet truly wants to help others and puts their best interests first. When faced with a decision, Janet tries to gather information and then decide, not just based on cold, hard facts . . . but with a compassionate a...
Katherine Leatherman, General Manager/Acting Executive Director
Kathy Leatherman has worked in our facility for over 25 years. She began as a clerk, moving up into accounting, and then eventually covering every aspect of our office and currently has become the Acting Executive Director for a Waste Water Treatment Plant in Monmouth County, NJ. Since starting her position she managed to find time to get married to a wonderful man, help raise step-children as well as grandchildren while having her own 2 beautiful daughters. Kathy has also taught in her church Sunday School as well as volunteer in church. I myself have been in her employ for almost 5 year...
Jane Leu has dedicated her career to helping immigrant and refugee professionals get back into the careers they had before they came to the U.S. Six years ago she started Upwardly Global in our kitchen and she now has a staff of 13 on both coasts dedicated to making a lasting and meaningful social impact. Jane is a visionary because she is also persuading Fortune 1000 companies to reconsider how they recruit, interivew and retain diverse candidates. Jane isn't satisfied with finding jobs for a few hundred people - her goal is systemic change and she won't stop until she gets there.
Janelle Lin, Nonprofit Executive/Managing Director
Janelle is the ultimate diva visionary. In college, Janelle mentored a Nigerian orphan living in South Central L.A. She took this girl under her wing, helping her to instill self confidence and willpower. Seven years later, her mentee is in college, inspiring other women with her story. Since that experience, Janelle has made it her mission to empower young people and give them access to opportunity. To that end, Janelle has held a myriad of positions to further her impact on the community, including working for the Mayor of Los Angeles, serving as Director of LA’s BEST (the nation’s lead...
My mother is the most selfless person I know. She would sacrifice everything for her children. She hasn't taken a nice vacation in 15 years. She goes camping with her friend and their dogs every summer, but can’t afford more than that. Two kids are financially unstable and can barely make the rent, and my brother and I live with her because we can't afford to move out. She is constantly lending money that she can't afford to give just so her two kids can keep their heads above water. She gives herself no luxuries in life. She only provides the bare essentials so she can give her kids everyt...
I Nominate myself for many reasons. I am a 28 year old Residential Counselor who has a very busy life and would love to win this contest to collect my thoughts and get realize I am here and what are somethings I enjoy because at this point I put everything I like and want to do aside. I work from 11 to 7 as a residential counselor for the Behavorial Health. Then Take my sister to work before 8 am and drop my 2yr old neice off at day care. Sometimes I don't have certain days off at my second job so it would be everything that I said thus far sleep for 30 min then go work at "DOTS" which is a...
Lindsay is a born “doer”….high energy, lots of personality, very independent and full of piss and vinegar! The later is tempered with a great deal of innate love and a sense of charity for human kind. Her tenacity and determination has made her a survivor as she has had to survive and put into perspective, much pain and suffering in her short life. A female child who chooses to assert herself in effort become her own unique person in spite of what life throws her way, in my mind, is truly a visionary.
She launched herself into the "work world" at the young age of 12, and since has run thr...
Keri is the noblest person that I have ever had the privilege of meeting. She grew up in a small city in the heart of America's Midwest but was never afraid to stand up for what she believed in – no matter who she might offend. Her feelings about racial equality and animal rights didn't fit the mold down there but she made sure that people heard her voice.
When I met her, in college, I asked her what she wanted to do with her life. She took a moment to collect herself and said, "I'd like to be a Mother," with a sincerity that told me it was a position she was used to having to defend....
Before my mother had reached the age of 24, she had lost both of her parents to cancer, her brother to suicide, and a marriage to her partner’s adultery. Yet, her faith maintained unwavering optimism for the future, and she’s made it. She is an inspiration, and that’s not even the half of it.
She has raised five daughters, a feat in and of itself. We are independent, proud, and truly enjoy one another’s company. We span ten years, have all attended or are currently attending accredited universities, and are an industrial engineer, a fifth grade teacher, a fundraiser, a human resources speci...
Six months after 9/11, Sophia Omar returned to her native Afghanistan for the first time in 23 years. Omar used her own money to start a 2-room medical clinic in Kabul, and convinced her brother-in-law, who was then a physician in Pakistan, to come run the clinic. Later, Omar recruited additional resources from Rotary International, CURE, and Assist, enabling the clinic to expand and become the largest hospital in Afghanistan.
Omar knows how to inspire others and manages to leverage existing organizations to get things done. When one of her customers told her that the Rotary Foundation is d...
I would have to nominate my 25 year old sister Andrea. She had her son at 17 years old, yet she has defied the odds in her life. She refused to be a statistic, and through hard work and dedication she went on to college and obtained not only her bachelor's degree but also her master's degree in education a few months ago. It was during her time in college that she caught the travel bug! She started to participate in "alternative" spring break programs where her travels are not only a vacation-time for her, but also a chance to travel to countries that are in need of some kind of help, so s...
I am nominating Sony Stark (aka Pilot Girl) for her courage and talent and dedication to helping others.
Sony had a comfortable position as a videographer with a television station in New York. When the station made drastic staff cuts and, at the same time, gave enormous bonuses to management, Sony quit to travel the world with her video camera.
From the townships of South Africa, which she visited with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to the villages of the Shudra and Dalits ("untouchables") of India, Sony has used her talents as a writer and videographer to shed light on social injustice and to...
GAIA–San Francisco was founded by Cheri Sugal, a leader in international rainforest conservation. For the past decade, Cheri has worked in more than 25 countries with indigenous people, governments and local landowners, helping to create more than 100 million acres of new protected areas world-wide. She firmly believes that the most important political and moral problem of our time is the the possible loss of half of all species on earth by the end of this century (EO Wilson) and, that the same time, that it only takes a few people with passion and commitment to turn the tide.
