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The Women Making a Mark program celebrates the contributions and successes of women in metro Atlanta who have made a significant impact in our community. These honorees are committed to their profession, their community, and to helping Atlanta and its citizens. They exhibit tireless dedication, strong leadership, and impassioned goodwill. Past honorees make up a diverse group of business executives and owners, entrepreneurs, Supreme Court judges, doctors, lawyers, philanthropists, mayors, senatorial candidates, nonprofit leaders, and community volunteers.

2021 highlights video

2021 HONOREES

Women Making a Mark: Mini’imah Shaheed

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In 2012, Mini’imah Shaheed had the unique opportunity to design a school for which she would serve as founding principal.
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Women Making a Mark: Lauren Spanjer Bricks

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On April 1, 2020, Lauren Spanjer Bricks’s world changed in an instant. That day, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration granted an Emergency Use Authorization for a COVID-19 PCR test developed by Ipsum Diagnostics, a Sandy Springs–based company that Bricks co-founded in 2016.
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Women Making a Mark: Angelica Hairston

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From Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” to Beyoncé’s “Black Parade,” music has long served as an outlet for those advocating for social justice.
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Women Making a Mark: Mary Chatman

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Whether entering a boardroom or counseling a young employee eager to make an impression, Dr. Mary Chatman always hears her late father’s voice: “Be your best self, look the part, and never hide.”
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Women Making a Mark: Amy Dosik

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Amy Dosik has remarked that she 
has one son—and 36,000 girls. As the chief executive officer for Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, Dosik’s mission is to help develop competence and confidence in thousands of local girls, so they’ll thrive 
in college, a career, and community life.
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Women Making a Mark: Laura Rittenberg

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Laura Rittenberg’s passion for real estate began 40 years ago, and she can’t imagine doing anything else.
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Women Making a Mark: Michele Stumpe

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Michele Stumpe’s list of charitable contributions and professional accomplishments is so lengthy, it reads like fiction, but the truth is that she’s built her life around making a difference.
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Women Making a Mark: Ilham Askia

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Roughly 80 percent of Americans charged with a crime cannot afford a lawyer and put their fate in the hands of a public defender. These court-appointed advocates typically face staggering caseloads and an entrenched culture of expediency.
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Women Making a Mark: Holly Ranney

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It all started as an ordinary Sunday in church for Holly Ranney and her husband, Peter. At the time, they didn’t know the church service would change their lives.
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Women Making a Mark: Lindsay Caulfield

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If you’ve noticed the “Heroes Work Here” billboard overlooking the Downtown Connector, you’ve seen the handiwork of Lindsay Caulfield, chief marketing and experience officer for Grady Health System.
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Women Making a Mark: Wendy Stewart

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“I want to live in a city where everyone can succeed,” says Wendy Stewart. As the Atlanta market president for Bank of America, Stewart is in a unique position to help encourage that success, a responsibility she takes seriously.
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Women Making a Mark: Gulshan Harjee

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Settling into the stable life of a primary care physician, with conventional hours and well-insured patients, just wasn’t in the cards for Dr. Gulshan Harjee.
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2021 presenting sponsor

2020 event video

Atlanta magazine is pleased to share the special virtual awards ceremony which brought together the 12 deserving women who have been selected as honorees for the 2020 Women Making a Mark program.

> Watch the video here

meet our past honorees

Women Making a Mark: Kathy Colbenson

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Lessons learned early in life are often the ones that stick. That’s certainly true for Kathy Colbenson, president and CEO of CHRIS 180, a behavioral health and child welfare organization.
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Women Making a Mark: Virginia Hepner

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“I’m not an artist at all,” admits Virginia Hepner, “but I’m the best audience member.” Growing up in a tiny Arkansas town of 500 people, Hepner, 63, had an uncommon exposure to the arts.
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Women Making a Mark: Lori Lane

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Lori Lane, senior vice president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia, lives and breathes real estate. “I’ve always been that kind of person that my work is my social life,” she says.
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> View all past honorees here

about women making a mark

We are pleased to continue a program we began many years ago, Women Making a Mark, to spotlight exceptional women each year who have left—and continue to leave—their mark on so many.

These honorees are committed to their professions and their community. They exhibit tireless dedication, strong leadership, and impassioned goodwill. The objective of Women Making a Mark is to celebrate the contributions and successes of metro-Atlanta women and to recognize the impact they are having on those around them. Click here to view a list of every Women Making a Mark honoree, past and present.

Atlanta Magazine
Since 1961, Atlanta magazine, the city’s premier general interest publication, has served as the authority on Atlanta, providing its readers with a mix of long-form nonfiction, lively lifestyle coverage, in-depth service journalism, and literary essays, columns, and profiles.

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