Miami-Dade to recognize 17 outstanding women

BY LAURA PHILLIPS

Miami-Dade Parks will honor 17 outstanding women for their contributions to the Miami-Dade County community at the 12th annual "In the Company of Women" awards ceremony on Wednesday, Mar. 29, 6:30 p.m., at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, 3251 S. Miami Ave.

Pioneers recognized for blazing new paths for women include: Marilyn Hoder-Salmon, PhD, dedicated educator and founder of Women Studies at Florida International University; Enid Pinkney, president of Dade Heritage Trust, founder of the African American Committee for Dade Heritage Days and the City Cemetery Commemorative Service; Leah Simms, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and the first black judge in Florida, and Nilsa Velazquez, president and founder of KIDCO Child Care Inc., an organization that provides day care service for children of low-income families in the Wynwood community.

Honorees include Joy Bruce, MD, professor of Pathology and Neurosurgery for the University of Miami School of Medicine, who helped found NANAY Inc. (National Allegiance to the Needs in Aging Years) and the first Asian community center in Miami-Dade County; Evelyn Cohan,

chairperson of the board of Mental Health Association of Miami-Dade County Inc. and supporter of A Women's Place, a day care center for homeless and at-risk women; Maria Garza, director of the South Dade Skill Center, a federally funded program designed to assist farmworkers in gaining vocational skills, high-school diplomas and employment, and Dorothy Powell Lee, president of the Miami/Bahamas Goombay Festival and a volunteer committee member for the event for more than 30 years.

Others are Gepsie Morisset Metellus, an advocate on behalf of the Haitian community and director of Public Affairs for the Office of Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler; Edith G. Osman, president of the Florida Bar and the second woman in the history of the Bar to be elected to that position; Pamela A. Stack, director of the Save A Life Campaign, advocacy for domestic and workplace violence intervention programs; Rosetta J. Vickers, founder and director of the Zeta Royal Community Center in Liberty City, a non-profit, charitable organization that provides after school tutoring, activities for senior citizens, and special programming for teens and "Wages" mothers; Nancy Rivera, Program Administrator for the Open Door HIV/AIDS project at Community Support Services of South Dade Inc., and Shaloma Shawmut-Lessner, vice president of Development for the National Women's Political Caucus as well as founder and president of the Florida and Dade County Committee for Abolishment of Corporal Punishment in Schools.

Posthumous honors go to Elaine Gordon, a passionate feminist and state legislator who campaigned for issues involving children, health care, mental health and women's rights; Nora Swan, former president and co-founder of the Miami Film Festival, and Girthia Williams-Hart, long-time educator, esteemed as one of the first teachers selected to help open Charles Drew Elementary School in Liberty City.

Admission is $25 per person (includes hors d'oeuvres and entertainment). Tickets are available at the door.

For more information call the Miami-Dade Parks Communications Office at 305-755-7800 (V/TDD).