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YWCA Announces 2016 Milestones Honorees
Sojourner’s Truth Staff
The YWCA of Northwest Ohio
has announced its 2016 Milestones Honorees and, in doing so,
has reached its own milestone – for the first time in the
21-year history of the awards, three of the seven honorees
are women of color.
This year’s honorees are
Baker O’Brien for arts, Kathleen Zouhary for business, Julie
Rubini for education, Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson for
government; Pam Oatis for the sciences, Celia Williamson,
Ph.D for social services and Adrienne Green for
volunteerism.
Hicks-Hudson, Green and
Williamson are African American.
Hicks-Hudson, a native of
Hamilton, OH, who arrived in Toledo after earning a
bachelor’s degree from Spelman College and a law degree from
the University of Iowa, has long been involved in government
service – both on the city and state level – in a variety of
positions.
She won election to Toledo
City Council in 2011 and while serving as president of that
body was thrust into the mayor’s office upon the death of
then Mayor D. Michael Collins in early 2015. She won
election in her own right this past November with a vote
total exceeding that of the second and third place
candidates – both former mayors – combined.
Green, a native of Washington, DC who earned a degree in
industrial engineering from North Carolina AT & T, is an
operations leader in building solutions at Owens Corning.
She relocated from New York to Toledo over 10 years ago,
where she had led the project management group in Research
and Development for Johnson & Johnson.
During her time in Toledo, Green has been a ProMedica Toledo
Hospital Board member, a Read for Literacy executive board
member and has been an active member in other women
organizations (The Toledo Chapter of the Links, vice
president for Membership; Zonta International, Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority, Incorporated). She is a lifelong volunteer
for Habitat for Humanity and past board chairman for the
local affiliate.
Green is currently chairman of the United Way of Greater
Toledo Women’s Initiative, an affinity group for the
local chapter since 2001 that mobilizes women to become
leaders, philanthropists and advocates on issues concerning
women and children.
Celia Williamson, Ph.D., University of Toledo associate
professor of social work, has made it her life’s work to
educate the community about the dangers of prostitution and
the way children and women are victimized by the cycle of
violence and drug addiction.
The research of the former social worker, who graduated from
Woodward High School and earned degrees in social work from
UT, Case Western and Indiana University, resulted in the
formation of Second Chance in 1993, an outreach program to
assist the victims of prostitution.
Her efforts have included working with the Ohio State
Trafficking Commission and developing statistics for
trafficking victims, creating a prevention video and
curriculum for use in schools and agencies that assist
children and serving as the chairman of the Lucas County
Trafficking Coalition.
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Celia Williamson, Julie Rubini, Kathleen Zouhary, Mayor
Paula Hicks-Hudson, Pam Oatis, Adrienne Green
Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson
Adrienne Green
Celia Williamson |
