Did you know that The Chicago Network members have included:
A B C D - E F - G H J - L M N - P R S T - Y
A
Roula Alakiotou
• First woman Architect to be appointed to the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals.
•
First woman Architect to become the designer of the largest Greek
Orthodox Monastery in North & South America, located in Kenosha,
Wisconsin.
Ellen Alberding
• First woman Trustee, Investment Committee Chair, and President of the Chicago Park District Pension Fund.
Jean Allard
• First Chair of The Chicago Network, 1979.
• First woman Partner, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal.
Susan Anderson
• First person nationally to begin local consumer TV investigative unit, "Factfinder," which won several national awards.
• First woman to win a Chicago Emmy for investigative reporting.
Phyllis Apelbaum
• First woman to receive an Illinois Commerce Commission Authority license, setting a precedent for other women to get licenses.
• First Chair of the Affirmative Action Board for the City of Chicago
Nina Appel
• First woman Dean of a Jesuit law school, Loyola University Law School
B
Joan Baratta
• First woman Senior Vice President at any of Chicago's major banks, Harris Bank.
• First Network member to hire another Network member
Carol Ross Barney
• First woman recipient of the Francis J. Plym Traveling Fellowship in Architecture, 1982.
Emily Barr
• First woman President & General Manager of an ABC-owned television station, in Raleigh-Durham, NC, 1994-1997.
Grace Barry
• First woman Executive Director of The Economic Club of Chicago.
Yasmin Bates
• First woman appointed Regional President at Harris Bank.
• First African-American woman appointed Executive Vice President at Harris Bank.
Joan Beck (dec.)
• First woman Op-Ed Columnist for the Chicago Tribune, 1975
• First woman member of the Editorial Board, the Chicago Tribune.
Carol Bellows
• First woman in the nation to be President of a state bar association – Illinois State Board Association, 1977 - 78.
• First woman State Delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates.
Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias
• First Latino to serve as an Illinois Cabinet Member.
Gail Koziara Boudreaux
• First woman Board Member, Genzyme Corporation.
• First Dartmouth Alumnus (male or female) to receive the prestigious NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.
Carol Moseley Braun
• First woman Senator elected from Illinois.
• First African-American Democratic Senator.
Violetta Kapsalis Buhler
• First woman Officer of the Midwestern Regional office, Fannie Mae, 1989.
Anne M. Burke
• First woman to serve as a judge on the Illinois Court of Claims.
• First woman to serve as member of the Board of Admissions to the Bar.
Virginia Butts (dec.)
• First woman Vice President Public Relations of a major daily newspaper, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News, 1974.
Jane Byrne
• First (and to date only) woman to serve as Mayor of Chicago (April 16, 1979, to April 29, 1983).
C
Zerrie Campbell
• First woman appointed President of Malcolm X College, 1992.
Deborah Card
• First woman President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, 2003.
Ellen Carnahan
•
First woman to receive the Illinois Venture Capital Association
Fellowship Award, given to a member of the industry who best
personifies the qualities which the industry wants to project.
Mary Ann Childers
• First woman to anchor a No.-1 rated 10:00pm newscast on ABC Channel 7
Janice M. Christiansen
• First woman Chairman of the
Illinois Manufacturers’ Association
Gale Cincotta (dec.)
• First woman elected President of a Saul Alinsky-style community organization.
• First woman Executive Director of national organizing and issue resource center, National Training and Information Center.
Madeleine Condit
• First woman in the MIT Urban Executives Program.
Colleen Connell
• First woman lawyer named as Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois.
Susan Crown
• First woman Director, Illinois Tool Works.
Joy Cunningham
• First African-American woman to become President of the Chicago Bar Association.
• First African-American member of senior management for Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Barbara Flynn Currie
•
Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives in 1997, the
first woman to hold the post and the highest ranking woman in the
Illinois General Assembly.
D - E
Susan Davis
• First woman to create a national publication for working women, The Spokeswoman, 1969.
• First person to create a national by-invitation only network of venture capital investors.
Deborah DeHaas
• First woman Chair of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Nancy S. Donovan
• First woman Director of a publicly held securities firm, Dean Witter Reynolds.
Connie Duckworth
• First woman Sales/Trading Partner in the history of Goldman Sachs.
• First alumna to give Wharton Business School's commencement address, 2003.
Evelyn Echols
• First woman to open a commercial travel agency in New York City, 1951.
•
Opened the first international travel training school in the United
States Ð Echols International Travel School, in 1962, with offices in
Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco and 12,000
graduates in Chicago alone.
Christine Edwards
• First woman General Counsel on Wall Street, Dean Witter (later Morgan Stanley), 1990.
• First woman Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Morgan Stanley.
Betty Elliott (dec.)
• First woman President of the Chicago Chapter of The Financial Executives Institute.
F - G
Kristine Fallon
• First woman Delegate to the Illinois Council of the American Institute of Architects.
• First woman to win the Ed Forrest Award for Excellence in Design/Construction Automation, 2001.
Cheryl Francis
• First woman Officer of FMC Corporation, 1993.
• First woman on the Boards of Lands' End and Morningstar, 2001 and 2002, respectively.
Janet Froetscher
• First woman President & CEO, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.
Rita Fry
• First woman to head the Cook County Public Defender's Office, the second largest public defender office in the United States.
Dorothy Fuller
• First recipient of the Woman of the Year Award, Illinois Scholarship Pageant.
• First woman Executive Vice President, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.
Karon White Gibson• First nurse to incorporate a home care agency, Independent Nurse Practice of Illinois, 1973.
• First person to be named Southtown Economist Newspaper Woman of the Year.
Ellen Gordon
• First woman in the candy industry to receive the Kettle Award, the industry's highest award.
Ilene S. Gordon
•
First woman Board Member, Zenith Electronics, Outboard Marine Corp,
Sunstrand Corp., United Stationers and Arthur J. Gallagher.
• First woman Officer, Tenneco’s Packaging Corporation of America.
Hannah Holborn Gray
• First woman provost at Yale and as the first woman
president of the University of Chicago.
Karen Greenbaum
• First woman President of a business unit, Marsh & McLennan Companies.
H
Veronica Hagen
• First woman President of a business unit, Alcoa.
Nina Hancock
•
First woman-owned interior design firm to be awarded the largest
interior design contract by Massachusetts General Hospital for the
Ellison and Blake Buildings.
• First generation Lithuanian woman to found an interior design practice in the United States.
Kathy Hopinkah Hannan
• First woman Area Managing Partner, KPMG.
Joan Hall
• First woman Chairman, American Bar Association Section of Litigation.
• First woman member, Illinois Sports Facility Authority.
Sophia Hall
• First woman Presiding Judge of a Division in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
• First woman Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Division, Circuit Court of Cook County.
Christie Hefner
•
First woman to receive the Executive Leadership Award from the National
Society of Fundraising Executives, largely in recognition of her work
to raise $30 million to build the CORE Center, an innovative HIV/AIDS
clinic and research facility in Chicago.
• First woman elected to the Chicago chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO).
Eileen Henderson
• First woman Vice-President of Finance, Akzo-Nobel Inc.
Barbara Hill
• First woman President of Illinois Association of HMOs.
• First woman President of Rush Prudential Health Plans.
Margaret Hillis (dec.)
• First woman to lead the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Leslie Hindman
• First woman to open a major auction house in the United States.
Betsy Holden
• First woman to co-chair a major corporation, Co-CEO, Kraft Foods, Inc., 2001-2003.
Liz Hollander
• First woman Commissioner of Planning in Chicago.
• First woman member of the National Academy of Public Administration from Illinois.
Mary Ann Hynes
• First woman to make the list of five highest executives, IMC Global.
• First General Counsel, CCH, the premiere legal publisher.
J - L
Valerie Jarrett
• First woman Chair, Chicago Transit Board.
• First woman Chair, Chicago Stock Exchange.
Diane Legge Kemp
• First woman Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Barb Klein
• First woman Chief Financial Officer for two Fortune 500 companies, Dean Foods and CDW Corporation.
Susan Steves Keiser
• First woman to join LaSalle Bank's Executive Committee.
Kaarina Koskenalusta
• First woman President and Chief Executive Officer, The Executives' Club of Chicago.
Ruth Kretschmer
• First woman President, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission.
Mary Laraia
• First woman Director, Cook County Capital Development.
Stephanie Ann Lenway
• First woman Dean, College of Business Administration at UIC.
• First woman President, the Academy of International Business.
Sandra Beach Lin
• First woman Board Member, WESCO International.
Ann Marie Lipinski
• First woman Editor, the Chicago Tribune.
Jorie Lueloff
• First woman TV anchor in a major U.S. market (WMAQ, Channel 5)
and the first woman commentator on Chicago television.
M
Eva L. Maddox
•
First woman and first designer to receive the University of
Cincinnati’s Alumni Award from the College of Design, Architecture,
Art, and Planning.
Lisa Madigan
• First woman elected Attorney General in Illinois, 2002.
Sylvia Manning
• First woman Chancellor at UIC, 2000.
Stephanie Pace Marshall
• First and only (Founding) President, Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA).
• First woman to serve on the Board of Tellabs, Inc.
Marilyn McCoy
• First woman Vice President, Northwestern University.
Margaret McCurry
• First woman Chair, The American Institute of Architects National Committee on Design.
Kathryn McIntyre
• First woman to receive the Bermuda Insurance Institute Lifetime Achievement Award.
• First woman to be presented the Goodell Award by the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc., 1989.
Carla Michelotti
• First lawyer to become the Chicago Advertising Woman of the Year, 2003.
• First lawyer to become the chair of the American Advertising Federation (AAF).
Goldie Wolfe Miller
• First woman Vice President, Arthur Rubloff & Co. Real Estate.
• Owned largest woman-owned commercial real estate company in the country Ð Goldie B. Wolfe & Co.
N - P
Lynne O'Shea Nellemann
• First woman to head the Trademarks and Patents Committee, Procter & Gamble.
• First woman Corporate Officer and first woman Vice President, International Harvester.
Georgia Ricci Nelson
• First woman power plant Manager in the U.S. for Edison Mission Energy.
• First woman Director, Cal Mat Corporation and Tower Automotive.
Dawn Clark Netsch
• First woman to win statewide office in Illinois.
• First woman Comptroller and first woman to run for governor of Illinois.
Nancy Pacher
• First woman attorney at Katten, Muchin & Zavis.
• First woman to join the editorial staff of Illinois Real Estate Journal.
Teresa L. Pahl
• First woman Executive Vice President, Rollins Hudig Hall Company.
• First woman to head international brokerage operations in commercial insurance industry.
Maria Pappas
• First woman elected Treasurer of Cook County, 1998.
Sheila Penrose
• First woman Chairman, Jones Lang LaSalle.
•
First independent woman Board Member for three different public
companies: Jones Lang LaSalle, Nalco Chemical and eFunds Corp.
Jane Pigott
• First woman Department Head and first woman on the Executive Committee, Winston & Strawn.
Betsy Plank
• First woman elected President of Public Relations Society of America.
• First woman Department Head, Illinois Bell.
Marilynn Preston
•
Created and still writes the longest-running fitness column in the
country, Energy Express, syndicated nationally by Tribune Media
Services, since 1976.
R
Dominique Raccah
•
First woman to Chair the Book Industry Study Group, the U.S. book
industry's leading trade association for research and supply chain
standards and policies.
Maribeth Rahe
• First woman Member of Harris Bank Executive Management Committee.
Anna Rappaport
• First woman Managing Director, William M. Mercer, Inc.
• First person to be named Employee Benefits Professional of the Decade by WEB, (Women in Employee Benefits).
Dale Anne Reiss
• First woman to run a national accounting firm, Kenneth Leventhal, in a major city, Chicago, 1985.
Judith Rogala
• First woman to start up a world wide cargo airline.
• First woman known to be appointed to 10 company positions never before held by a woman.
Desiree Rogers
• First woman President of both Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.
Hannah Rosenthal
• First woman to be Executive Director of a national Jewish organization – the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, 2000-2005.
• First Executive Director, Wisconsin Women’s Council, 1984-1992.
Ilana Rovner
• First woman to sit on the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
• First woman Deputy Governor and Legal Counsel to a governor of Illinois.
Ellen Rudnick
• First woman Division President, Baxter Healthcare.
S
Lucy Salenger
• First Director of the Illinois Film Office.
• First recipient of the Chicago Women in Film Award.
Gloria Santona
• First woman General Counsel, McDonald's Corporation.
Terry Savage
• First woman Member / Trader, Chicago Board Options Exchange.
• First woman Board member, McDonald’s Corporation.
Linda Searl
• First woman to chair the Chicago Plan Commission.
Karla Scherer
• First woman to lead and win a proxy contest for control of a New York Stock Exchange company, 1988 - 89.
Elaine Schuster
•
First lay woman appointed Superintendent of Schools for Archdiocese of
Chicago, largest non public school system in the United States, 1991.
Susan Sher
• First woman Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago.
Adele Simmons
• First woman Senior Officer, Princeton University.
• First woman President of one of the Top 10 U.S. Foundations, The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Wilma J. Smelcer
• First woman Executive Vice President, Continental Bank.
• First woman Chair, Bank of America, Illinois.
Toni Smith
• First U.S. woman Partner, SpencerStuart.
• First woman President, Mid America Club.
Debra Snider
• First woman Partner in the corporate department, Katten, Muchin & Zavis.
• First woman General Counsel, Heller Financial, Inc.
Salme Steinberg
• First woman President, Northeastern Illinois University.
• First woman Chair of the board of trustees, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.
Pamela B. Strobel
• First woman Vice President, Commonwealth Edison.
• First woman Director, IMC Global.
Ella Strubel
• First woman on Management Operating Committee, Kraft, Inc. (Prior to acquisition by Philip Morris).
• First woman Chair, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
T - Y
Sheila Talton
• First woman to lead a network integration technology company, Unisource Network Services.
Judy Barr Topinka
• First woman elected to the House and Senate from her district.
• First woman elected Treasurer of the State of Illinois, and the first person to hold that job for three consecutive terms.
Pam Turbeville
• First woman Executive Officer and first woman Senior Vice President R. Grace.
•
First woman recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award of the College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona.
Pam Walter
• First woman Chair of the Board of Governors, Metropolitan Planning Council.
• First woman Member of the Management Committee, Gardner, Carton & Douglas.
Julia Weertman
• First woman Chair, School of Engineering, Northwestern University.
• First woman to receive the Von Hippel Award, the most prestigious award of the Materials Research Society.
Pat Werhane
• First woman to have an endowed chair at the University of Virginia's business school, 1993, still the ONLY one.
Donna Williamson
• First woman Corporate Officer, Baxter Healthcare and first woman, Senior Vice President, Caremark.
• First woman Director, AG Edwards.
Cheryl Wilson
• First woman Partner, Coopers & Lybrand, Chicago.
• First woman Audit Partner at any of the Big 8 accounting firms in Chicago.
Jill Wine-Banks
• Only woman Watergate Special Prosecutor.
• First woman General Counsel, U.S. Army.
Alison Winter
• First woman to become Chair in the 110th year of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, 1998.
Linda Wolf
• First woman to be appointed Chairman and CEO Leo Burnett Worldwide.
Corinne Wood
• First women Lieutenant Governor of Illinois and highest ranking woman Illinois State official.
• First Republican woman candidate for Governor of Illinois.
Patricia Woodworth
• First woman Budget Director, State of Michigan, State of Florida and State of New York.
• First woman Executive Vice President or CFO, Art Institute of Chicago.
Alberta Wuerfele (dec.)
• First woman Officer and first woman Senior Vice President, American National Bank & Trust Company of Chicago.
• First woman member, Financial Executives Institute.
Addie Wyatt
• First woman Vice President, United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
Kathleen Yosko
• First woman Chairman, American Medical Rehabilitation Provider's Association, 2007.
• First woman Chairman, American Rehabilitation Association, 1995.
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