Women Who Light the Community winners named

BOULDER — The Boulder Chamber has announced this year’s recipients of the Women Who Light the Community awards.

The winners are:

• Jan Berg, an independent business consultant. In 2011, Berg joined the board of directors of Cultivate — formerly Boulder County Care Connect — an organization helping seniors reconnect and contribute to their communities. As chair of the organization, Berg helped navigate an organizational transition that allowed Cultivate to overcome several challenges and paved the way for future growth and sustainability.
• Carol Driggs, strategic staffing manager for Colorado at Northrop Grumman. Driggs leads an initiative to increase Boulder’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) within local schools, institutions of higher education and the community.
• Connie Minden, co-founder of Ramble on Pearl, a nonprofit that creates pathways to employment for adults with developmental disabilities. At Ramble, apprentices with developmental disabilities are provided on-the-job training within a retail clothing boutique while developing skills and aptitude for future employment.
• Carmen Ramirez, founder of Resiliencia para Todos/Resiliency for All, a collaborative project with the city of Longmont and other local municipalities as a result of the 2013 Boulder County flooding. The project worked to identify barriers and create bridges among the Latino population, community resources and local governments. Ramirez also serves as board member emeritus of the Latino Task Force of Boulder County and serves as a fellow with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leaders, a two-year program aimed at creating a global network of leaders focused on resolving issues of race, changing demographics and globalization.
• Kirsten Wilson, founder of the Rocks Karma Arrows multi-media theater, which explores Boulder’s history through the lens of race and class. Wilson’s aim in establishing the theater was to allow people to see the patterns of bias in our past to better prepare for a more-inclusive future. That led to formation of Motus Theater in 2011, which became the start of One Action-One Boulder, an arts-based, communitywide conversation initiative. Wilson’s work includes a bilingual production in which Latina immigrants perform stories of challenge, resilience and courage, as well as a production featuring local law-enforcement leaders reading autobiographical monologues of undocumented youth leaders. 
• Cante Waste Win Zephier, a Niwot High School student who will be honored as 2018’s Emerging Youth Leader. Zephier is co-president of the Northern Colorado United National Indian Tribal Youth Council, serving Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties. The council was formed in 2015 to foster the spiritual, mental, physical and social development of American Indian and Alaska Native youth. In 2016, Zephier spearheaded a forum on the Harmful Psychological Impacts of Native American Mascots on youth. She also worked on a Native youth project to a bring leadership and cultural revitalization summit to the Denver area, which led to a $30,000 grant competition funded by the Rose Community Foundation. Zephier is also an accomplished violinist with the Longmont Youth Symphony, holds a Black Belt in Tae Kwan Do and plays basketball for Niwot High School.The award ceremony will be 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oreg Ave. in Boulder. Cost to attend is $55 for chamber members and $75 for non-members. Tickets are available here.

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