West Chester/Liberty Chamber Alliance honors Women of Excellence
WEST CHESTER TWP. – For the past two decades, women who make an impact in their community have been a focus of the West Chester/Liberty Chamber Alliance.
That tradition continues Friday when 10 women who have made a positive difference are honored through the chamber’s Women of Excellence program.
“Many great traits have been expressed about this year’s class – self-confident, highly productive, caring, true to oneself, and proud,’’ said Joe Hinson, the chamber’s president and chief executive officer. “It is our chamber’s honor to recognize these wonderful women along with presenting the Ethel Moritz Scholarship to a deserving woman who is seeking to further her education.”
Women are selected based on their contributions to business, education, culture, philanthropy, and service. Since the program’s start in 2002 start about 170 women have been honored.
The banquet and program begin at 6 p.m. at the Cincinnati Marriott North in West Chester Township.
Here are the honorees.
Leah Aguilar
Aguilar is an advocate for those often forgotten, Aguilar played a major role in launching the Neighborhood Bridges program in the Lakota schools. It provides items including diapers, washer/dryers, calculators, and bed frames. She also works with Kinship Connections, a support system targeting grandparents and other relatives caring for minor children.
Mary Jo Bicknell
Preserving the history of West Chester Township is Bicknell’s passion. She serves as president of the West Chester/Union Township Historical Society. She was instrumental in the rehabilitation of the Station Road Schoolhouse which has been turned into a history center. Bicknell is a board member for Citizens for Historic and Preservation Services and a member of the Butler County History Collaborative.
Erin Cox
A mother of five, Cox has also hosted six children over the years, working through non-profit groups. When her children were young, she worked with Lakota groups to start a program providing snacks to underserved children at school. During summers, she worked to provide food to the children. Cox has assisted women escaping abusive relationships and has opened her home to support recovering drug addicts. Four years ago she started a business dedicated to teaching women safe motorcycle riding skills with more than 500 served.
Christine Martin
A district chair for the Ohio Healthcare Volunteer Management Association, Martin has volunteered her time in several venues. For the past decade, she has worked in the Volunteer Services department at West Chester Hospital. Each week Martin teaches preschools with cerebral palsy about God at Center Pointe Church. She also volunteers to help new mothers at Pathway to Hope, after she left a paying role there. That led her to create the non-profit Underpants for All, which delivers underwear to those in need around the world.
Caroline McKinney
A Liberty Township resident, McKinney has served as the township’s first and only economic development director since 2007. In that role, she has been involved in major projects including the Liberty Way interchange, Liberty Center, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Liberty Campus, including the first pediatric Proton Therapy Center in the country. Outside of the office, McKinney serves as the chairman of the Travel Butler County board, is a member of the West Chester/Liberty Chamber Alliance board, serves as a mentor to Lakota’s INCubator program and volunteers at St. Susanna Catholic Church and Fenwick High School
Kira Murphy
A counselor at Lakota Central High School, Murphy was a founding member, and current board member, at Free Throws the Kids. The organization delivers care packages to families at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center year-round and provides the salad bar at Ronald McDonald House. Before becoming a counselor in the Fairfield and Lakota schools, the West Chester Township woman worked eight years as the assistant director of Big Brothers Big Sisters. She has also served as a victim advocate at a domestic violence shelter. Over the years she has volunteered at Cinderella’s Closet and Crossroads Church in Mason, organized canned food drives at Serve City, and participated in RASKALS, Random Acts of Kindness Affecting Local Seniors.
Lina Patel
Professionally, Patel is an associate director for Accenture, where she helps clients improve processes and implement solutions. In the Mason Schools, she became a project manager to help implement the Objectives and Key Results operating system. Outside of work she serves as a chairwoman on the Mason for Kids Committee and is a committee leader for the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Committee. Patel is a board member for the Mason Schools Foundation and Junior Achievement. A second-generation immigrant, Patel was the first in her family to graduate from college. She helped her father open a free hospital in India, in the village her family is from.
Patricia Plavko
A corporate attorney with Frost Brown Todd LLP, Plavko has been a volunteer and board member of Shared Harvest Foodbank’s board of directors for nearly 10 years. She briefly served as chairman, during which the board was restructured and the first strategic plan was created, leading to the completion of the organization’s Hunger Awareness Center. She was named to Super Lawyers magazine’s list of rising stars in Ohio for 2022 and 2023. She also does pro bono legal work.
Sapna Susarla
A Community Dedicated Relationship Banker manager for Huntington Bank’s southern Ohio/Kentucky region, Susarla assembled a team she mentors to help the bank’s outside partners, customers, business bankers and real estate workers. As an Indian American Susarla works to incorporate diversity into the workplace, break down cultural barriers in the community, and volunteers with several groups. Among them are Pelotonia, the Indian-American Chamber of Commerce, Hindu Society of Greater Cincinnati, and the West Chester/Liberty Chamber Alliance. She also assists local Bhutanese refugees.
Sang Tran
A refugee from war-torn Vietnam, Tran’s transition to southwest Ohio was facilitated by Price Hill’s St. Lawrence Parish and its families. Since then she has paid that kindness forward. A pharmacist by trade, she has joined her husband in the management of West Chester Dentistry, spearheading the Give Kids a Smile Day. Free preventative dental services are provided to underprivileged children. Tran has also opened her home to organizations seeking venues for fundraising events.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: West Chester/Liberty Chamber Alliance honors Women of Excellence
