The Greater Boston Chamber Women's Network was pleased to honor eight outstanding female professionals as part of the 2010 Pinnacle Awards.
Lifetime Achievement
Mary Richardson
Anchor
WCVB-TV’s Chronicle
Mary Richardson is co-anchor of WCVB-TV’s "Chronicle," the nation’s longest-running, locally produced, nightly newsmagazine. She came to New England in 1978 to become the first female in Boston to co-anchor an 11 o’clock newscast, on the former WNAC-TV. Richardson quickly established herself as one of Boston’s most popular local television personalities, and joined WCVB in 1980 as a news reporter and anchor. She began as co-host of Chronicle in 1984,
and her award-winning work on the show has taken her from “The Main Streets and Back Roads of New England” to her ancestral Ireland, the Great Wall of China and Castro’s Cuba. For a decade, Richardson co-hosted the annual Holiday at Pops! concert from Symphony Hall and the popular Pops Goes the Fourth! celebration from the Hatch Shell on the banks of the Charles River. A volunteer with Horizons for Homeless Children, Richardson also contributes her talents to Boston Healthcare for
the Homeless and the Inner City Schools Foundation.
Achievement in Entrepreneurship
Beth Tucker
President
KNF&T
Beth Tucker is one of the founders of KNF&T Staffing Resources, an organization committed to building strong relationships with business leaders within the Greater Boston community while continually emphasizing the values of female leadership and professional commitment. The leadership of Tucker and her business partner, Jeanne Fiol, has consistently placed KNF&T among the Top 100 women-led businesses in Massachusetts and the area’s largest temporary placement and minority/women-owned
firms. Her commitment to excellence in her work and passion for community service have resulted in the development of a charitable gift giving fund on behalf of KNF&T’s clients, with a mission dedicated to women and children in transition.
Achievement in Management, Private Sector
Fredi Shonkoff
Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Inc.
Fredi Shonkoff is senior vice president, corporate relations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Inc. She sets the community strategy for the organization, directs its charitable giving, volunteer effort, and supplier diversity program, manages corporate governance, and serves as corporate secretary for the company's board of directors. As part of a broader set of activities to improve the quality and safety of health care in Massachusetts, Shonkoff leads two collaborative
initiatives aimed at hospital trustees and the public. She also serves as the company’s liaison to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, which she helped create. Shonkoff is a former chair of the Chamber’s Women’s Network.
Achievement in Management, Government
The Honorable Therese Murray
President of the Senate
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
In three years as President of the Massachusetts State Senate, Therese Murray has succeeded in driving a number of legislative initiatives. Under her leadership, the legislature passed “Education Reform II,” a bill that will allow for more innovation, creativity, and successful new approaches to learning in our public education system. She oversaw passage of a major transportation reform bill that streamlined state agencies and eliminated millions of dollars in waste and
inefficiencies. Murray was also the sponsor and key driver of a landmark health care bill designed to expand access and modernize the state’s health care delivery system. Before she was elected President by her colleagues, Murray served as chair of the Senate Committee on Ways & Means.
Achievement in Management, Non-Profit
Lyndia Downie
President & Executive Director
Pine Street Inn
Lyndia Downie, president and executive director of Pine Street Inn, celebrated her 25th anniversary at Pine Street in 2009. Downie began as an administrative and clerical assistant, and has held positions at nearly every level of the organization. As a result of her leadership and vision, Pine Street is now the largest developer of affordable housing in the region. Downie helped increase affordable housing by 60 percent in her nearly 10 years as president, and her collaboration
with other key agencies and the City of Boston has resulted in a three-year, 21 percent decrease in the number of chronically homeless people living on the streets of Boston.
Achievement in the Professions
Sharon Inouye, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
Director, Aging Brain Center, Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife
Dr. Sharon Inouye holds the Milton and Shirley F. Levy Family Chair and is professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is currently director of the Aging Brain Center, Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, where she translates theories of clinical investigation into practical applications that can be used to improve the quality of life for older persons. Dr. Inouye’s research has focused on delirium and functional decline in hospitalized older patients,
resulting in over 150 publications, including more than 110 peer-reviewed original articles to date. She now plans to examine whether delirium leads to permanent cognitive impairment, as a potentially reversible cause of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Excellence in Arts & Education
Renée Landers
Professor of Law
Suffolk University Law School
Renée M. Landers is professor of law at Suffolk University Law and the faculty director of the school’s Health and Biomedical Law Concentration. A graduate of Radcliffe and Boston College Law School, Landers has worked in academia, private practice, and government. She serves as vice chair of the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct and previously served on the Supreme Judicial Court’s committees studying gender bias and racial and ethnic bias
in the courts. Landers also served as president of the Harvard Board of Overseers. In 2003, she was the first woman of color and the first law professor to serve as president of the Boston Bar Association.
Emerging Executive
Tiziana Dearing
President
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston
Tiziana Dearing is president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston, one of the largest providers of social services in Massachusetts. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Prior to joining Catholic Charities, Dearing was executive director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University. For a decade before joining the Hauser Center, Dearing consulted to senior managers in nonprofits and corporations. In 1997, she started her
own consultancy, working with nonprofits and specializing in strategy development and implementation, executive decision making and coaching, and large and small group facilitation. Her clients represented organizations both local and international, academic and non-profit, and with budgets ranging from 1 to several hundred million dollars.