Mayor G.T. Bynum today recognized the eight Pinnacle Award winners for 2024, and the winner of the Anna C. Roth Legacy Award at a news conference with the Tulsa Women’s Commission and YWCA Tulsa.
The Pinnacle Award winners are Susan Neal, Arts and Humanities; Dr. Martha Zapata, Community Service; KKT Architects, Corporate Champion; Molly Jarvis, Corporate Business; Dr. Ebony Johnson, Education; Lorena Rivas, Entrepreneur; Anne Bogie, Health & Wellness; Brandi Payton, Rising Star; and Gail Lapidus, Anna C. Roth Legacy Award. *Biographical information about each honoree is included below.
“Our Pinnacle Award winners are extraordinary women who have demonstrated leadership in our community,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “As Mayor of Tulsa, I am grateful for their service as professionals and volunteers, working to make Tulsa a better place.”
YWCA CEO Julie Davis added that each honoree exemplifies YWCA’s mission of eliminating racism and empowering women in our city: “The women we are honoring represent the Tulsa community as a whole - resilient, innovative, and community-centered,” Davis said. “We are excited to elevate their accomplishments at this year's Pinnacle Awards.”
In late September, Pinnacle Awards nominations were opened for community members to nominate women in one of eight categories. After the nomination window closed, a selection committee scored nominations in each category with the highest scoring individual winning the award. The Anna C. Roth Legacy Honoree does not come from nominations and is instead selected by a YWCA Tulsa committee comprised of Board of Directors members and senior leadership.
All nine honorees will be celebrated at the annual Pinnacle Awards, set for Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Cox Business Convention Center in downtown Tulsa. The event honors the investment that women are making in our city and financially supports the work of YWCA Tulsa to empower women and eliminate racism.
Pinnacle Awards sponsorships and tickets are available now. For more information, contact Kyle Rutledge at krutledge@ywcatulsa.org.
*Biographical information:
Susan Neal – Arts & Humanities Honoree
Susan Neal has been a force for change in Tulsa for decades. She served as Vice President of Downtown Tulsa Unlimited for seven years in community and economic development and as Executive Director for Mayfest for four years.
In 2002, she successfully ran for District 9 City Council, serving two terms while also serving as the Director of Jumpstart, at the Community Service Council. This work led her to serve on Mayor Kathy Taylor’s Management Team as Director of Community Development and Education, which she continued for Mayor Dewey Bartlett.
In 2010, Neal joined the University of Tulsa, where she serves as Vice President of Public Affairs. In addition to this role, she also serves as Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum and the Helmerich Center for American Research.
She has successfully led a capital campaign for the $139 million new Gilcrease Museum, which is funded with a combination of voter-approved city funds and private support, and is expected to be complete by the end of 2024, with opening set for 2026.
Dr. Martha Zapata – Community Service Honoree
Dr. Zapata, a naturalized citizen from Colombia, is the founder and executive director of The UMA Center, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities through culturally responsive educational programs, workforce development, and advocacy. The organization she started with her stimulus check and one volunteer (herself) now employs eight full-time and four part-time people plus ten volunteers, including Board members.
UMA Tulsa played a crucial role during the pandemic, educating and vaccinating the Hispanic community against COVID-19. The organization, which reaches over 60% of Hispanic/Latinx people in Tulsa, provides health screenings, cardiovascular disease prevention programs, nutrition workshops, and health literacy education free of charge. UMA also trains community members in Mental Health First Aid and helps certify bilingual people as Peer Recovery Support Specialists.
In 2021, Dr. Zapata spearheaded Tulsa’s first entrepreneurship education bootcamp in Spanish in partnership with Tulsa Tech and 36 Degrees North. In 2023, Dr. Zapata started La Colmena/The Hive, an entrepreneurship boot camp and ecosystem for Latinas. Both programs have trained over 82 Hispanic small business owners and entrepreneurs. Recently, Zapata led the creation of the new Tulsa Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (TAHCC) to advocate for business owners and entrepreneurs, primarily English Language Learners, immigrants, and refugees. The new Chamber of Commerce will serve over 300 business owners with education, resources, networking, and advocacy.
KKT Architects – Corporate Champion
KKT Architects, founded in 1989, is proud to be a woman-owned company, led by President and CEO Sarah Gould, and is a signer of the City of Tulsa’s Pay Equity Pledge.
Over 50% of KKT employees are women. KKT is also proud to have all five generations of the workforce collaborating in their firm. For the past 2 years, KKT scored “Strength” in all five pillars (Community Outreach, CEO Commitment, Diverse Suppliers, Diverse People, Internal Policy) of the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s Mosaic Inclusive Workplace Index Report.
KKT serves more than 135 organizations across northeastern Oklahoma through financial support, board service, and volunteering both corporate and personal time. They also work closely with many non-profit boards and other community-focused endeavors to visually represent their fundraising goals, empowering them to expand community services.
Molly Jarvis – Corporate Business honoree
Molly Jarvis is a Cherokee Nation citizen and was born and raised in Tulsa. She now serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cherokee Nation Cultural & Economic Development.
In her multifaceted role at Cherokee Nation Businesses, Jarvis remains a stable beacon of inspiration through her creative forms of leadership. Her work is focused on the preservation and promotion of the history and culture of the Cherokee people accomplished through marketing the tribe’s cultural tourism program, Cherokee Film and economic development activities in the reservation.
For over three decades, Jarvis has been a steadfast leader in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program, where she has had a front-row seat to the transformative power of one-on-one relationships and the benefits that positive mentorship can have on a young person.
Molly Jarvis's vision is both clear and ambitious: she aspires to forge a Tulsa that is healthier, safer, and more robust, leaving an indelible legacy that will benefit generations yet to come.
Dr. Ebony Johnson – Education Honoree
A lifelong Tulsan and career educator and leader, Dr. Johnson currently serves as the interim Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, the largest school district in the State of Oklahoma, educating nearly 34,000 students at 77 schools across Tulsa. She is a proud graduate of Tulsa Public Schools.
Dr. Johnson is an experienced educator and transformational leader who started her career at Tulsa Public Schools as a classroom teacher at Monroe Middle School in 1999. She then served as a school leader at Academy Central Elementary, Central Junior High, Central High School, and McLain High School, where she implemented strategies and best practices that resulted in school turnaround.
In 2017, she stepped into the role of Executive Director of Student and Family Support Services. She oversaw key initiatives resulting in a 27% decrease in out-of-school suspensions systemwide, district-wide adoption of SEL-integrated instruction, and implementation of restorative practices as part of the district’s behavioral interventions.
In 2020, she was named as Tulsa Public Schools’ Chief Academic Officer providing strategic oversight for special education, multilingual learning, services to immigrant and refugee learners and families, curriculum and instruction, early childhood education, and student and family support services including mental, social, and emotional health. Dr. Johnson also serves as an adjunct professor in the College of Education at the University of Oklahoma.
Lorena Rivas – Entrepreneur Honoree
Originally from Mutual, Okla., Lorena Rivas is the daughter of two Mexican nationals who have paved the way for her to continually serve and represent her community. Rivas is CEO of Rivas & Associates, an immigration law firm that serves immigrants all over the United States. To further assist her clients, she recently opened the Colegio de Suenos (College of Dreams) that offers English as a Second Language (ESL) and citizenship courses to individuals seeking to become citizens of the United States.
As an attorney, Rivas has long been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and Oklahoma Bar Association. Much of her company centers on the legal representation of individuals who are facing the numerous and complicated immigration laws of the United States in affirmative and defensive cases. She is the past chair of the immigration law section for the Oklahoma Bar Association.
Rivas and her law firm, Rivas & Associates have made an indelible mark on Tulsa through their impactful work and entrepreneurial spirit. Rivas’s vision and determination led her to establish a small firm that has since blossomed into an enterprise employing over 100 individuals, with an impressive 95% of them being minority women.
Anne Bogie – Health & Wellness honoree
Diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, and then dealing with the pain of losing her mother to the same disease, Bogie decided to leave corporate America and join Oklahoma Project Woman (OPW). OPW provides access to free breast health care to facilitate the early diagnosis of breast cancer and decrease the mortality rate for uninsured women with limited income.
When Bogie became executive director of OPW, then known as Tulsa Project Woman, she worked with several clinics and five hospitals to provide free mammograms, biopsies, and cancer surgeries to women in the Tulsa area.
Oklahoma Project Woman has grown to work with more than 125 clinics and 65 hospitals. They help care for individuals in all 77 counties across the state. All healthcare partners have agreed to accept OPW's reimbursement and not bill any patients. Not even a single penny. Oklahoma Project Woman provides free mammograms to over 4,000 Oklahoma women each year.
Brandi Payton – Rising Star
Brandi Payton is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Hopi descent. After graduating from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, Payton began working as a staff nurse in the cardiovascular unit at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Oklahoma Health and Science Center, and her master’s in health care administration from Oklahoma State University. She is currently working toward her Doctorate of Health Care Administration.
In 2013, she joined Cherokee Nation Health Services as a Quality Management Nurse. Within two years, she was promoted to Clinic Administrator to help open the Cooweescoowee Health Center in 2015. She oversaw a $4.2 million investment in CHC to help expand primary care and dental services.
Payton is an active member of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma, serving as the Tulsa chapter president. She was elected to the state board in 2021. She was part of Leadership Native Oklahoma in 2018 and, more recently, commissioned by the Board of County Commissioners as a Commissioner to the Greater Tulsa Area Indian Affairs Commission.
Gail Lapidus – Anna C. Roth Legacy Award
Gail Lapidus is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Family & Children’s Services, (F&CS) a trusted Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) and Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) provider in Tulsa County. Founded in 1921, F&CS provides a broad array of specialized mental health, addiction and family services for under-resourced adults and children. F&CS also provides recovery treatment services for those battling mental illness and addiction, strengthens individuals and families in crisis, heals children who have been abused or traumatized and provides professional internships for graduate students.
Lapidus started her career at F&CS in 1974 and became the agency’s CEO in 1986. Since that time, the agency has grown significantly and operates over 64 programs with a budget of $153 million and over 1,200 employees. Lapidus is a licensed clinical social worker who holds a bachelor’s degree in social work (1973) and a master’s degree in social work (1979) from the University of Oklahoma.
She was honored by the School of Social Work for her exceptional contributions to her field. In 2017, Lapidus was honored as top 100 social workers. In 2015, she received a Distinguished Alumnae Award from the University of Oklahoma, College of Arts and Sciences. In 1997, Lapidus was awarded the inaugural inductee into the University of Oklahoma School of Social Work Hall of Fame for outstanding leadership in professional practice.
Lapidus has received numerous other honors and awards. In 2016 she was awarded a League of Women Voters, Madam President Award. The previous year she was honored with an outstanding women’s leadership award from Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, a historically Black international sorority and The Woman of Moxie Award by the YWCA. Earlier honors and awards include Woman of Distinction by the Tulsa Business Journal, One Award from the Oklahoma Center for Non-Profits, the Pinnacle Award from The Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women and the Tulsa Women’s Foundation, the Newsmaker Award from the Association for Women in Communications, and the Non-Profit Management Excellence Award from The Support Center of Oklahoma. She also received honors from the Schusterman Family Foundation, Zarrow Families and the Mental Health Association in Tulsa for her longtime commitment and innumerable contributions to mental health in our community.
History of the Pinnacle Awards
The Pinnacle Awards, established in 1987 by the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women, celebrate women’s significant contributions to Tulsa. Partnering with YWCA Tulsa’s Women of the Year event since 2015, the awards recognize exemplary leaders committed to professional success and community service. Over 35 years, the Pinnacle Awards have honored more than 200 women, amplifying their voices and applauding their achievements.
About YWCA Tulsa
YWCA Tulsa is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. With a rich history of service spanning over 100 years, YWCA Tulsa remains committed to fostering a more inclusive and equitable community.
About Tulsa Women’s Commission
The Tulsa Women’s Commission advocates for and advances the status of women in Tulsa by promoting policies, programs, and initiatives addressing the unique needs and challenges faced by women in our city.
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