April Spotlight

Area women making news

YWCA honors women of achievement 

The YWCA Lower Cape Fear handed out its thirty-third annual Women of Achievement Awards last month at a ceremony at the Wilmington Convention Center.

The winners (shown above) are JENNIFER KRANER (Arts), KIMBERLY BANKSTON (Business), JULIE-ANN SCOTT-POLLOCK (Education), BONNIE MONTELEONE (Environmental), HEATHER DAVIS (Health and Wellness), and SONALI BATISH (Public Service).

ASHANTI GIBBS received the Rachel Freeman Unsung Hero Award, and RHONDA BULLARD- DUTTON received the Social Justice & Community Empowerment Award. The Trailblazer Award went to LAUREN HENDERSON, and REBECCA CLARK earned the Volunteer Award.

Judge ROBIN WICKS ROBINSON took home a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In the Young Leader Category for area high school seniors, winners were BRIANNA CUNLIFFE, MARY GRAYSON KOONCE, and WALLACE ROBINSON.  

 

Wells named CHHS Assistant Dean

ASHLEY WELLS is serving in the role of assistant dean for community engagement at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.

In the role, Wells leads efforts to foster and maintain community and industry partnerships, develops a professional development continuing education model, and provides strategic direction for the Center for Healthy Communities and FuseCR, according to college officials.

“It is extremely exciting to imagine all of the creative growth opportunities for partnering with the community to impact health and wellness,” Wells says, “as well as the opportunities to collaborate across the college units and the UNCW campus at large.”

Wells, a Georgia native, joined CHHS with fourteen years of experience. Most recently, She served as project coordinator for the Protecting Strong African American Families Project, a preventive- intervention research trial funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted through the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia. 

 

Phelps receives award from support group

The WILMINGTON CHILDHOOD CANCER SUPPORT GROUP recently gave JENIFER PHELPS the group’s Compassionate Caregiver Award.

The support group is made up of sixty local families that have a child diagnosed with cancer. The award recognizes local providers who have gone above and beyond in caring for their children, officials say.

Phelps, who is board certified as a psych-mental health nurse practitioner, founded Healing Partnership, a group of practitioners offering support to those facing cancer, chronic illness, and chronic pain.

She also helped create the first Wilmington Cancer Moms Retreat Weekend, during which participants attended therapy sessions focused on caring for themselves and also tackling many of the emotional issues surrounding a childhood cancer diagnosis.

“Many of the ‘Cancer Moms’ from the support group have benefited from therapy with Mrs. Phelps. They are grateful for all the ways she has helped them to manage the stress of caring for a sick child,” Wilmington Childhood Cancer Support Group officials say. 

 

The links awards scholarships

The Wilmington chapter of THE LINKS, INCORPORATED held its forty- eighth annual Fine Arts Brunch last month at the Hilton Riverside Wilmington under the theme of “Building a Healthy Legacy Through Education.”

The event speaker was public health official CAMARA PHYLLIS JONES, past board president of the American Public Health Association who has worked for the CDC.

As part of the brunch, the group also awarded two, $1,000 scholarships based on academic achievement and service in the community to local nursing students ALEXIS TIARRA BROWN (above) and TIA RICHARDSON.

Brown is a junior at University of North Carolina Wilmington and has volunteered on missions to Vincennes and Haiti. Richardson is a senior at North Carolina Central University and volunteers at Duke University and UNC Hospitals.

The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation made up of nearly 15,000 professional women of color in 285 chapters. The Wilmington chapter is “deeply committed to supporting the community that we serve, providing over 11,000 hours of service annually, and we wanted the audience to leave more aware of the health issues that often affect minority communities,” the chapter's president WANDA SLOAN says about the event.

 

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