Publishers Award

Queen Stewart

A diagnosis of breast cancer is, of course, life changing. But for Queen Stewart, the most significant changes after her diagnosis are those she made for herself – and then shared with others. “I did an Instagram post when I was leaving chemo,” she says. “In the post, I’m like, ‘If you guys see me posting poetry, or if I’m singing – I’m going to do things that make me happy now.’ I thought to myself, ‘What would you like to do?’ and then I just started to do a lot of cool things.”

Queen was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer the day before her 36th birthday. At the time, she was an attorney who had just started her own law practice and was married with 2 young daughters. She underwent grueling treatment for almost a year and is now cancer-free.

Today she continues to live the life she created during treatment: one that is energized, full and happy. Through her new brand, Create Urgency, Queen has been essentially teaching, encouraging and supporting people to chase joy. And she’s leading by example. Since her diagnosis, Queen has recorded an original song, built a stand-up comedy career, made a documentary about her movement to create urgency and built her own business. She hosts meet-ups, organizes retreats and shares her experiences of creating urgency.

“I asked a room of people recently, ‘When was the last time you felt full of joy?’” she says. “That stumped people. But once you have joy, it’s different. There’s gratitude. And that doesn’t mean people don’t get frustrated or angry or stressed, because I do, but I don’t stay in those places very long.”

Queen’s documentary, “Sense of Urgency,” has been shown at a number of film festivals and won Best Documentary at Queen City film festival. And now, she’s a Woman of Excellence.

“Even with this honor, Women of Excellence, when it’s over, I can’t forget about it or put it in a box,” she says. “I have to take it in, think about the moments and the memories and hold onto them. Because it’s easy to just put it down. I think it’s healthy to bask in everything you do.”

Game Changer

Vivian Coley

It really does take a village, and Vivian Coley, a Captain in the Camden County Police Department, is taking the concept to a new level.

Vivian heads the department’s Village Initiative, which takes a community relationship approach to keeping Camden’s residents safe. The initiative started with curfew nights, where officers would patrol the streets between 10 pm and 6 am, and pick up anyone under 18 who was breaking curfew. But there were no handcuffs involved, just a ride back to the station where a guardian was called for a ride home. 

It’s since grown into a robust unity policing effort, hosting programs like basketball with officers on Friday nights, bingo with seniors, and on-call social workers responding to emergencies alongside officers. It’s all to foster trust between officers and residents.   

“You can’t arrest your way out of a situation,” Vivian says. “Our main concern is the sanctity of life, and regardless of what anyone is going through, we are told to remain calm, deescalate, put yourself in that person’s shoes and slow everything down.”  

In her nearly 30 years in the Camden Police Dept., Vivian has always used empathy and connection in her work, even when that wasn’t the status quo for officers. So she’s grateful – if not a little surprised – that empathy is now the driving force of an entire police department. And she gets to help lead the change. 

“I live in this city,” she says. “And a lot of people have horror stories about their past experiences with law enforcement. I feel like it’s my duty to try to change that narrative.” 

Vivian is doing just that, and the results speak for themselves. Violent crime in the city has dropped by 50% in a decade. But that doesn’t mean the department’s efforts will slow down. 

“I hope people know we’re there to always support you, not to challenge you,” she says. “I hope the community knows it’s us, it’s not them against us.”

 

Leadership

Jennifer Dubrow Weiss

For Jennifer Dubrow Weiss, leadership is having the courage to keep going. 

Jen, who is CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey, oversees 1,600 employees and a handful of agencies under the JFSNJ umbrella. “What I love about the Federation is that we’re able to see needs in the community and respond. When there were people in need of food, we opened a food pantry. When people were in need of socialization for their senior loved ones, we opened a lifelong learning program. We adapt to the needs of the community.”

“All of this was built on values and on passion,” she adds. “I feel it’s our responsibility to take care of one another.”

Jen and her team established JFed Security to protect the local Jewish community, and the Aleph Home Care and Aleph Adult Day Center to provide expansive services to older adults. The addition of those senior services changed the organization’s blueprint.  

“We needed a stepping stone for caregivers who couldn’t just drop mom off at the JCC. They needed a place where they could know she would be socializing and getting whatever care she needed with supervision.”  

And Aleph Home Care offers live-in care and caregivers trained in Alzheimer’s and dementia care. 

Both programs generate revenue for JFSNJ to fund other crucial programs, something the Federation had never done before. 

“It changed our mentality, nonprofits never really thought like this,” Jen says. “As a leader, you have to take some chances, listen to all sides and be decisive. But if you can get in touch with your own value system, you’ll never go wrong.”

Lifetime Legacy

Kendria McWilliams

When Kendria McWilliams took the helm at Maryville Addiction Center, it was on its way to closure.

But that was 14 years ago. A lot has changed. Including the name. 

“First and foremost, we serve humans,” says Kendria, CEO of the recently renamed Maryville Integrated Care. “And to serve humans, you’ve got to use the human approach. Our mantra is, ‘I come to Maryville not to serve myself, but to serve our patients.’” 

Those patients come to Maryville for help with addiction, mental health and other physical and mental conditions. But while providers start with treating the condition, they go on to treat the whole person. That may include boosting their self-esteem, helping them find housing and assisting them with a job search, says Kendria. “We want everybody to engage with services that will enable them to lead a longer, healthier life.”  

Under Kendria’s leadership, Maryville has added an inpatient site, two new outpatient sites, programs tailored to marginalized communities including LGBTQ+ and non-English speakers, and preventive, educational programs for South Jersey communities. Last year, Maryville’s budget had grown to nearly 5 times the size of the one in place when Kendria took over. They now serve over 7,500 South Jersey residents.

It hasn’t been easy, but Kendria and her team have built a new and improved Maryville over 14 years. One that was earned with dedication and a culture of trust, and one that Kendria will leave in her team’s capable hands when she retires this September. 

“Maryville is a confirmation that people who have an incredible dedication to the mission and compassion for the work will find a way to continue to grow, to serve and to have an immensely valuable impact on the community,” she says.

 

Inspiration

Stephanie Morrison

Stephanie Morrison starts most days the same way – with a hug from her Aunt Fran who tells her, “I love you.”

Stephanie has been Aunt Fran’s caregiver since she decided to drop everything – she was a public defender in Nashville, her dream job – to help her family.  

Aunt Fran lives with Williams Syndrome, a genetic condition that affects a person’s development and requires lifelong care. Stephanie’s mother took over the role of caregiver after Stephanie’s grandmother died. Stephanie saw the toll that responsibility was taking on her mom and decided to step in.

“It was the hardest, easiest decision of my life,” Stephanie says. 

Stephanie and Aunt Fran have not only built a daily routine, they also started a podcast about Fran’s life with Williams Syndrome, and wrote a children’s book. When Stephanie married her husband Scott, a special education teacher, Aunt Fran walked down the aisle with Stephanie’s mother in her own gorgeous white gown.

“Aunt Fran won’t get to do everything in life, and I wanted her to have that moment where she felt like a bride,” Stephanie says. 

Today, Stephanie shares caretaking duties with her husband and her mom while she runs her nonprofit, Giving Connection.

Giving Connection acts as a search engine to connect people with free resources. She built it with her experience as a public defender in mind, when she would talk to her clients about their case and they would instead bring up immediate needs, like food for their kids or a wheelchair – those were top priority on their list of worries. 

“My days were really spent with frantic searches,” she says. “I loved that human connection part of the job, but it was both the best and hardest part of the job.” 

Today, Stephanie’s life is nothing like what she imagined as a law student – when she dreamed of becoming a public defender – but it’s turned out to be her perfect life. 

“If someone were to say to me, ‘You only have a year left to live,’ this is exactly what I want to be doing,” she says. “There’s no other job that could give me this type of joy and fulfillment. I think sometimes that comes to you later in life, and I feel very grateful that I can say that right now.” 

 

Woman to Watch

Yashaswi Parikh

When Yashaswi Parikh’s younger brother, Om, was put on hospice, she had turned 18 the day before. 

Om was 13. 

Om died a few months later, a full three years after being diagnosed with brain cancer. And two weeks later, Yashaswi logged on to interview for a spot in Rowan University’s dual BS/DO major program. 

Soon after, she was accepted, ready to pursue the goal she’d dreamed of since she was little: becoming a pediatrician. 

“I think caring for human beings, and especially caring for children, is a privilege,” she says. 

“When my brother was diagnosed, it kind of shattered the rose-colored lens I had of a magical field where you go to the doctor and then you get better. That’s not the case. But it still doesn’t take away from the meaning of being able to provide that care, even if you know the outcome isn’t necessarily what everyone’s hoping for.” 

As a third-year medical student at Rowan-Virtua SOM, Yashaswi is training to put that positivity and optimism – which she learned from her brother – to work as, hopefully, a pediatric oncologist with her own practice. 

She’s done all of this while helping her parents run the Om Foundation, which hosts events and raises money to support pediatric cancer research, sponsors students to pursue medical and research careers, and spreads the positivity, kindness and optimism that was Om’s signature feature.

“My brother always had such a positive attitude,” she says. “We had a lot of people, even his classmates, writing us letters before and after he passed saying what an impact Om had on them.” 

The Om Foundation has raised $150,000 for pediatric cancer research and this will be the 8th year of the Om Memorial 5K, where the family expects about 2,000 people of all ages to show up and run to spread a little kindness and optimism. 

“My brother had the mindset of ‘No matter what, I’m gonna kick cancer’s butt,’” Yashaswi says. “Even though physically, he’s not here, I think, in a way, he is still kicking cancer’s butt. Because year after year, people are showing up to raise money for pediatric cancer and uphold that fight.” 

 

Business Excellence

Benita Cooper

Benita Cooper sees architecture differently than most people. 

“At the scale of everyday living – of somebody at a fridge and being able to turn around and have the perfect countertop next to them and the coffee pot happens to be in a little nook that just makes one moment of their every day better – that is making a difference,” she says, “At the most seemingly insignificant, tiny, everyday scale, good business is still about making a difference.” 

Benita was only 28 when she started her own architecture, design and construction firm, Benita Cooper Design, at her dining table in Philly. And only 29 when she started her nonprofit connecting seniors with younger generations to tackle loneliness, called The Best Day of My Life So Far. 

In the years since, she and her team have expanded operations to Haddonfield. She’s won several architecture awards, has spoken at industry conferences and started her own custom furniture business. 

In her day-to-day work, Benita sets an example for young women, especially young Asian women who might not realize they can have a role in the architecture field – women make up only 27% of licensed architects in the U.S. But she also takes a proactive role in the fight to raise that number, teaching STEM classes for young students at local libraries and schools. 

“I can’t have a career as a woman in a minority, in a male dominated field, and not do something for the next generation of girls,” she says. “For me, it’s a requirement.” 

Then there’s the small scale, where Benita changes the lives of people with something that seems as simple as a nice home. “I have this sense of purpose that buildings mean more than just the building,” Benita says. “It means better quality of life for the people who use the building, who live in the building, and better communities for the places that the buildings exist in.” 

“I can only do as much as my company can touch,” Benita adds, “but if I’m doing it right, that ripple effect can be large. It can be powerful. It can bring communities together.”

 

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Photography by David Michael Howarth
Shot on location at Collingswood Ballroom
Styling by Sarah Gleeson

Hair for Kendria McWilliams, Yashaswi Parikh and Aunt Fran was done by Krystle Tucci of Soffiato Via.

Hair for Benita Cooper and Stephanie Platt was done by Megan Jaffe of Soffiato Via.

Makeup for Kendria McWilliams, Benita Cooper, Stephanie Platt and Aunt Fran by Victoria Wiley of Soffiato Via.

Makeup for Jennifer Dubrow Weiss, Queen Stewart, Vivian Coley and Yashaswi Parikh by Vanessa Lopez.

 

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Special thanks to our Women of Excellence Selection Committee

 

 

How honorees were selected: Earlier this year, readers nominated women they knew who were making a remarkable difference in their community or workplace. Our selection committee of prestigious leaders reviewed the nominations and selected women who exemplified what it means to be excellent.

 

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