IWA WOMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE (WEX) PAST HONOREES

2024: Dr. Sandi Lam, a highly respected leader in the field of pediatric neurosurgery, is Division Head of Neurosurgery at Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital and Professor of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She has impacted the lives of countless children and their families. Bringing unparalleled medical expertise, innovative interventions, and a renewing sense of hope to complex medical challenges, Dr. Lam's contributions are multi-disciplinary and far-reaching in scope, both here in the U.S. and abroad. Outside the U.S., Dr. Lam has been a powerful force, building sustainable pediatric neurosurgery collaborations in Africa and Asia.

2023: Katrina Adams was honored for her many achievements within the world of tennis that have impacted organizations worldwide. She was the 1st African American to lead the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the 1st two-term Chairman and President of the USTA, and the 1st former player to hold that honor. Under her direction the USTA has reached several major milestones that launched an unprecedented outreach into underserved communities. Adams currently holds many positions: Vice President of the International Tennis Federation, Chairman of the Billie Jean King Cup Committee, Chairman of the Gender Equality in Tennis Committee, and Executive Director of the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program, continuing her legacy as an agent of global social change.

2022: Nancy Economou, Founder and CEO of Watts of Love, a global nonprofit bringing people the power to lift themselves out of the darkness of poverty through solar lighting and financial literacy training. Watts of Love was founded in 2013 when Nancy went on a business trip to the Philippines and saw the devastating effects of kerosene after seeing a child’s face burned. Nancy set out to bring her patented solar lights to the nearly one billion people living in the darkness of poverty and teach financial literacy to change communities. Over the last nine years, Nancy has delivered solar lights and the Watts of love program to 52 countries, giving 77,554 lights, and changing 542,878 lives forever.

2019: Amy Maglio, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Global Education Project (WGEP). WGEP is an international NGO focusing on girls’ education and gender equality. Amy’s broad goal is to enroll every girl in Africa in school. Instead of the traditional top-down, big development approach, WGEP operates on micro-levels within communities to provide girls with the tools necessary to enroll and excel in school.

2018: Shermin Kruse, Director of RefuSHE and co-founder and director of Pasfarda Arts and Culture Exchange. Shermin focuses on strengthening cross-cultural understanding and the empowerment of refugee women and children. RefuSHE is the international center formerly known as Heshima Kenya. Pasfarda Arts and Culture Exchange promotes understanding between Iran and the United States through the arts.

2017: Kimberly Jung, CEO and Co-Founder of Rumi Spice. Kimberly is an Army veteran and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After serving in Afghanistan and earning her M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, she began a mission to cultivate peace in Afghanistan by partnering directly with Afghan farmers to grow exceptionally high quality saffron and export the precious spice to customers around the world.

2016: Vicki Escarra, Global CEO of Opportunity International. Opportunity International is a non-profit financial services organization for the poor, and Vicki leads a network of 30,000 donors. They help 14.3 million clients in 24 developing countries work their way out of poverty. More than 95 percent of the loans are to women, who would otherwise have little access to financial services, because of legal and cultural gender inequities.

2015: Karen Koning AbuZayd, Former Commissioner of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. Karen’s work focused on the refugee issues in the Middle East, Bosnia, and Africa. She began her career in the Sudan in 1981, dealing with Ugandan, Chadian and Ethiopian refugees fleeing war and famine. From 1991 to 1993 she directed the South African repatriation operation and the Kenyan-Somali cross-border operation. She was Chief of Mission for two years during the Bosnian war and for five years she was based in Gaza as the Under Secretary-General as UNRWA Commissioner-General helping Palestinian refugees.

2014: Sheila Roche, International Marketing, Communications and Advocacy Consultant. Shella launched the (RED) AIDS organization in 2006 for its founders, Bono, and Bobby Shriver, to help provide a sustainable flow of private sector funds to fight AIDS. To-date, (RED) has generated $250M+ and is the largest business sector contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

2013: Catherine Bertini has devoted her career in the last 25 years to public policy activity organizations related to food and agriculture throughout the world. She is the former director of the United Nations World Food Programme, a faculty member at Syracuse University, and holds 12 honorary doctorates.

2012: Connie K. Duckworth, Trailblazing business leader and founder of ARZU STUDIO HOPE, an organization empowering women, families, and communities in Afghanistan through its unique social business model.

2011: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President for Global Corporate Citizenship at Chicago-based Boeing Company. Anna led a network of U.S. and international community investors to address the needs of selected communities around the world.

2010: Marjorie Craig Benton, Lifelong activist working on behalf of women and children and for community development. Marjorie also worked extensively on arms control and disarmament. Among numerous civic posts, she served as Ambassador to UNICEF, and is involved with Partners in Health, which seeks to raise the standard of care for the poor worldwide.

2009: Major L. Tammy Duckworth. Senator Duckworth is an Iraq War Veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms.

2008: Bliss Browne M.Div. Founder and President of Imagine Chicago; founding partner of Ubumama, a global and arts-based maternal health initiative.

2007: Funmi Olopade, M.D. Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. Funmi is a breast cancer specialist and a 2005 MacArthur Foundation fellow. She is also the Associate Dean for Global Health and Walter L Palmer Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Human Genetics at the University, and she is the director of the University’s Cancer Risk Clinic.

2006: Mary Margaret McCarthy, J.D. Attorney representing asylum clients and trafficking victims from more than 90 countries; head of the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center.

2005: Adele Simmons, Ph.D. Global Philanthropy President; former President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

2004: Georgie Anne Geyer, Foreign correspondent; syndicated columnist; television analyst; author.

2003: Cheryl I. Niro, J.D. Founder of the National Center for Conflict Resolution Education.

2002: Nina Nathan Schroeder, Co-Founder of the Tibetan Alliance in Chicago; advocate for children in the Chicago Public School system.

2001: Jeanne L. Nowaczewski, Director of the Public Education Project and Staff Counsel for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest; founder of The Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago.

2000: Ronne Hartfield, Arts educator; multicultural education specialist; author.

1999: Janet Davison Rowley, M.D. Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics, and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago Medical School.

1998: Eva L. Maddox, Co-Founder of Archeworks, an alternative design school; president of Eva Maddox Associates, an interior design and architecture firm.

1997: Stephanie Pace Marshall, Ph.D. Founding Executive Director of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

1996: Mary Zimmerman, Artistic Associate at the Goodman Theatre and the Lookingglass Theatre.