2011.05.26 > For Immediate Release
contact: Wendy Townley - University Relations
phone: 402.554.2762 - email: wtownley@unomaha.edu

UNO Chancellor to be Honored by Women's Center for Advancement June 7

Omaha - The Women’s Center for Advancement (formerly the YWCA Omaha) Tribute to Women event will honor 11 outstanding women and University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Chancellor John Christensen and the university with the Outstanding Community Leadership award.

The event will be held Tuesday, June 7, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the CoCo Key Convention Center, 72nd and Grover Streets.

“Each year we honor a person or company who has shown great leadership on behalf of women in our community with an Outstanding Community Leadership award. This year, we are honoring Chancellor John Christensen and UNO for the Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women,” said Dr. Natalia Peart, president and CEO of the new Women’s Center for Advancement. “Since 1972, UNO has brought the importance of issues that impact women to the forefront of campus and community life. Chancellor Christensen has also provided his leadership and support in the more recent Voices Against Violence Coalition and the Violence Prevention initiative at UNO in partnership with Alegent Health and Catholic Health Initiatives."

The 2011 Annual Tribute to Women honorees are:

Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede
Executive Director, United Methodist Ministries

Mary A. Balluff, M.S., R.D, L.M.N.T.
Chief, Community Health & Nutrition Services, Douglas County Health Dept

Anne Branigan
Senior Vice President, Greater Omaha Chamber

Carol Gendler
Owner, Marathon Realty

Freddie Gray
Omaha Public Schools Board of Education

Mary Hawkins
President, Bellevue University

Ruth Henrichs
President & CEO, Lutheran Family Services

Susan Jacques, G.G., F.G.A.
President & CEO, Borsheims Fine Jewelry and Gifts

Adrian Minks
Vice President Essential Services, OPPD

Andrea Skolkin
CEO, OneWorld Community Health Centers, Inc.

Gail Werner-Robertson
President & Founder, GWR Wealth Management

Emily Cunningham Kozlik, former CEO of the former YWCA Omaha (1978-1999) is the Honorary Chair for the event.

Event sponsors include: Alegent Health, Borsheims Fine Jewelry & Gifts, Cox Wireless, Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Pinnacle Bank, Creighton University, First National Bank, GWR Wealth Management, Lozier Foundation Marathon Realty, Methodist Health Systems, Metro Magazine, Mutual of Omaha, OPPD, Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., SAC Federal Credit Union, Simmonds Family Foundation, Union Pacific and Valmont Industries.

For table and ticket purchase information, contact WCA Development Director Mary Beth Steele (402-345-6555 or marybs@wcaomaha.org) or visit www.ywcaomaha.org.

The Women's Center for Advancement's mission is to help women and their families build lives of strength, growth and self-sufficiency. Together with our volunteers, we serve more than 20,000 community residents each year through our agency based programs, crisis hotline, workshop, as well as school based, shelter based and outreach services.

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The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraska’s metropolitan university. The core values of the institution place students at the center of all that the university does; call for the campus to strive for academic excellence; and promote community engagement that transforms and improves urban, regional, national and global life. UNO, inaugurated in 1968, emerged from the Municipal University of Omaha, established in 1931, which grew out of the University of Omaha founded in 1908.