Remarkable Women 2010

Lifetime Achievement

Virginia Patterson, Businesswoman

Virginia Patterson has been making her indelible imprint on the Boulder community since 1942 when she moved here to attend the University of Colorado.

In addition to starting and running a successful business, The Printed Page bookstore, she served as chairwoman of the Boulder County School board for 10 years, and she is active in the Boulder Rotary Club, Boulder Community Hospital Association and many other organizations.

She was instrumental in founding the Downtown Boulder Business Association and Downtown Boulder Inc. She also had a major hand in helping create the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder.

She started (and is still active in) a ministry serving CU students through her church; helped found one of the three licensed and accredited infant/toddler day-care centers in Boulder; and the list goes on.

In 1995, Patterson was elected to the Boulder County Business Hall of Fame.

Lifetime Achievement

Linnea Simons, Attorney

Linnea Simons is recognized as an excellent attorney providing the “legal backbone” for many area businesses, but she also has been deeply involved in community activities and initiatives.

She retired April 1 from Caplan and Earnest LLC, a law firm in Boulder, but continues to serve on the board of the Boulder Chamber. She is a member of the city of Boulder’s Economic Vitality Advisory Board the Boulder Business and Professional Women’s Association.

She was a key founder of Naturally Boulder, an economic-development organization that supports the growing natural products and healthy-living sector.

Her viewpoint, legal expertise and mentoring have been invaluable to her clients.

Simons has been in-house counsel for US West and Qwest Communications, as well as general counsel for Terranext, an environmental services subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Rail Corp.

Her areas of emphasis have included real estate and environmental law, business transactions, intellectual property and telecommunications.

Arts and Culture

Helen Forster, eTown

Helen Forster is a 30-year veteran of stage and film. She is a gifted singer, actress and radio producer. She is co-founder and co-host along with her husband, Nick Forster, of the nationally syndicated public radio program eTown that is recorded live in the historic Boulder Theater.

 She is a talented editor and producer who for 19 years has transformed the live two-hour eTown show into an hour-long radio program heard on almost 300 public and commercial stations nationwide and abroad.

 She supports musicians worldwide and contributes to making the world a better, greener place. For several years she was co-owner and co-producer of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, an annual music event with international acclaim.

 She is committed to using music, her work and life to create a greener world, forging vital links between and among community members in the process. Her consistent message is “Get involved. Get inspired. You can make a difference.”

Behind the Scenes

Susan Ruh, Rally Software Corp.

Susan Ruh’s creative efforts behind the scenes saves money for Rally Software Corp. in Boulder while creating a friendly atmosphere for its 165 employees.

Rally Software has a training facility where it conducts many meetings for small and large groups. To save money on catering, Ruh goes to the grocery store before each meeting to set up a table of orange juice, yogurt and pastries, saving the company thousands of dollars every month.

 In the past year, employees had 17 babies. Ruh spearheaded the effort to create “new parent” rooms where nursing moms can pump, or someone can bring their baby in and work, if needed. To save money, she asked folks to bring in their old baby gear, keeping the cost of creating the rooms to only $575.

She also organizes a company ski day – arranging buses, helping people carpool, buying and serving food and drinks and keeping the event running smoothly.

Community

Diane Stow, Re/Max Traditions Inc.

Diane Stow has been in business for more than 20 years as a well-known Realtor and has been very active in community and professional affairs.

She is president of the board of directors of Longmont Community Justice Partnership, formerly Teaching Peace. She also serves on the board of A Woman’s Work in Longmont.

Stow has co-chaired the Capital Campaign Committee of the Tiny Tim Center in Longmont, which raised more than $3 million to build a new facility for the preschool for children with disabilities. She has served on the boards of Tiny Tim, Rotary and many other civic and professional boards.

She has done hands-on volunteering with the Longmont Clean-Up Fix-Up campaign by painting houses and cleaning houses and yards. Additionally, she sponsored a concert with all of the proceeds – $3,500 – going to the Safe Shelter for battered women. Being active in Rotary, she hosted 11 foreign-exchange students.

Corporate

Alene A. Campbell, MicroPhage Inc.

Alene A. Campbell has used every rung on the corporate ladder in her ascent to become a chief executive officer in the bioscience industry.

Campbell is CEO of Longmont-based MicroPhage Inc., which develops diagnostic products for bacterial identification and antibiotic testing.

Campbell joined MicroPhage in 2008 as chief operating officer, directing finance, research and development, manufacturing, quality assurance, human resources and product development.

She served as vice president of corporate development at Myogen (now Gilead); general manager of RPI/SiRNA (now Merck); executive vice president, CFO, and vice president marketing and sales of ChemTrak, overseeing its initial public offering, manufacturing scale-up, product launch and strategic partnering; and vice president of Hana Biologics (now BioSante).

MicroPhage’s chairman, R. Gary Mesch, who heads an all-male board of directors, applauds Campbell’s experience and successful history.

Enterprise

Debi Baydush, BSW Wealth Partners

Of the 24 wealth-management firms listed in the Boulder County Business Report’s 2010 Book of Lists, only one was founded by a woman – Debi Baydush.

The growth and evolution of her firm, from a one-woman startup – Baydush Investments- to a firm of 14 professionals managing $600 million on behalf of 150 clients -BSW Wealth Partners – is largely a story of  Baydush’s  tenacity, entrepreneurial drive and compelling vision.

Baydush pioneered a business model on aligning her firm with the interests of clients, offering independent advice on a strictly fee-only basis, and with an uncompromising focus on transparency and the highest standards of client care.

Serving as BSW’s chief investment officer for more than 17 years, Baydush steadily has guided the firm’s investment policy and helped broaden its capabilities, while also leading its major strategic efforts, all with a refreshing blend of intense ambition for the organization, personal humility and professional will.

Family-Owned Business

Linda Snyder, Snyder Jewelers

Linda Snyder has run Snyder Jewelers in Longmont solely as a single mother for several years, carrying on her father’s fine tradition of customer service, friendship and professionalism.

The jewelry store was established in 1948 by Hobart Snyder who turned it over to John Snyder. Lynda Snyder is carrying on the family tradition of honesty, integrity, expertise, high-quality workmanship and high standards of excellence.

Lynda Snyder also is an asset to her community for not only providing a trusting environment to find fine jewelry, but she also is fully committed to her own volunteer work.

She is on the board of directors for A Woman’s Work, a  nonprofit organization in Longmont, which helps women in crisis. Through her leadership, Snyder Jewelers supports more than 30 nonprofit organizations in the Longmont area.

She has been able to strike the fine balance between being a successful businesswoman and a committed and involved parent.

Government and Public Service

Dorothy Rupert, Former Colorado state representative and senator

Dorothy Rupert has dedicated her life to equity and justice. Rupert worked as a teacher and then counselor in the Colorado public school system for more than 35 years.

In the 1960s, she was struck by the number of youth suicides and embarked on a crusade to assure that the needs of young people were being met by society.

In 1966, Rupert was part of the group that started Attention Homes, which operates as one of Boulder County’s oldest nonprofit organizations. It provides residential treatment, counseling and safe shelter to youth.

At age 60, Rupert ran for public office and spent 14 years in the Colorado Legislature (1986-2001), serving eight years in the House and six years in Senate.

As a liberal Democrat, she focused on services for women and children, access to health care and education, the environment, prison reform, civil rights, the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered community, hate crimes and crisis intervention for youth.

MENTOR

Teresa Ewing, Boulder Nonlinear Systems

Teresa Ewing is an electrical engineer who takes the time to encourage young women to pursue a career in science and technology.

She is a mentor for a local high school robotics club, Team 1619, Up-A-Creek Robotics, which is part of the national nonprofit organization FIRST, or First for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

She helps students enter robotics competitions that encourage them to understand the value of science and technology in society, to have fun creating something, to experience a competition just like a sporting event, and works directly with students to teach good engineering practices.

Mentoring FIRST involves hundreds of hours a year. Ewing has participated for several years as an electrical and software mentor, and while valuing all students, she has worked to encourage more participation by female students and shows deliberately to all students that woman can be involved in science, engineering and technology.

Science and Technology

Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women & Information Technology

Lucy Sanders is the co-founder and chief executive of the National Center for Women & Information Technology in Boulder and also serves as executive-in-residence for the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

She has worked extensively in research and development and executive positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs and Avaya Labs for more than 20 years, where she specialized in multimedia communication and customer-relationship management. In 1996, Sanders received the Bell Labs Fellow Award, and she has six patents in the communications technology area.

In 2004, Sanders was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Engineering at CU. In 2007, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

She has served as conference and program chairwoman for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and the Information Technology Research and Development Ecosystem Commission for the National Academies.

Rising Star

Michelle Gaffney

Diagnosed with severe scoliosis in 2006, Michelle Gaffney, now 15, underwent four surgeries in 2007 and 2008. She is now back playing her piano for the Boulder Youth Symphony.

Gaffney is giving back to kids at The Children’s Hospital on a regular basis with her “Comfy Kids” project. She has sewn and distributed hundreds of pillows to kids at the hospital. She collects materials for the pillows from merchants and makes the pillows on her sewing machine.

Once she has 135 to 150 pillows, she distributes them to in-patients. She distributed pillows on the day prior to her last surgery.

She is on a youth-grants committee at the Community Foundation that annually distributes $15,000 to nonprofits.

The committee of teenagers researches submissions and awards grants.

Gaffney is in a certified nursing assistant program, attending nursing classes in the morning before attending Boulder High. Her goal is to become a physician and surgeon.

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