Emily Couric Leadership Forum

The mission of the Women's Leadership Forum is to encourage all women to adopt an active role in government, public issues, and policy debates affecting their communities; and to inspire young women to pursue activities which will enable them to become effective leaders. Toward these ends, the Emily Couric Leadership Forum recognizes the recipient of its Woman of the Year Award and the student winner of its Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship.

The Woman of the Year Award beneficiary offers the keynote address at an annual luncheon and presents the Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship to an outstanding female high school senior selected for demonstrated leadership in her school and community. All high schools in Albemarle County and Charlottesville are invited to nominate a candidate.

The Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship has been awarded since 2001 to the following outstanding young women:

• 2001 - Heidi Swan, Miller School
• 2002 - Elizabeth Ochs, Charlottesville High School
• 2003 - Katie Reid, Charlottesville High School
• 2004 - Anna Gulotta, Charlottesville High School
• 2005 - Carla Rood, Western Albemarle High School
• 2006 - Alia Stewart - Silver, Tandem Friends School
• 2007- Lucie Rhoads, St. Anne's Belfield School
• 2008- Kayla Hansen, Miller School
• 2009-Emma Yackso, Charlottesville High School

The Woman of the Year Award acknowledges an exceptional woman who exemplifies leadership in her profession and her community, with Emily Couric herself receiving the first honor in 2001. Subsequent recipients include journalist Katie Couric, poet laureate Rita Dove, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, author and attorney Caroline Kennedy ,Donna Brazile, Lesley Visser, Erin Gruwell and Kimberly Dozier.

Emily Couric, 2001 Woman of the Year
Emily Couric served as a two-term Virginia State Senator and as General Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia. A writer and journalist by profession, she was a member of numerous community organizations including the Charlottesville School Board.

Katie Couric, 2002 Woman of the Year
Katie Couric served as the longstanding co-anchor of NBC’s Today show currently anchors the CBS Evening News. Her professional achievements include six Emmys, an Associated Press award, a National Headliner award, and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award.

Rita Dove, 2003 Woman of the Year
In 1993, Rita Dove was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States, the youngest person and the first African-American to receive this highest official honor in American letters. She earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and is now the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Sandra Day O'Connor, 2004 Woman of the Year
Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman named to the Supreme Court of the United States, and served as an Associate Justice 1981 to 2006. She previously worked as a deputy county attorney in California, as assistant attorney general in Arizona, and as an Arizona State Senator for multiple terms.

Caroline Kennedy, 2005 Woman of the Year
Caroline Kennedy is Vice Chairman of the Fund for Public Schools in New York City, which creates and develops public-private partnerships to support public education. She is an attorney and the author/editor of bestselling books on topics ranging from poetry to American history.

Donna Brazile, 2006 Woman of the Year
Donna Brazile was the first African American to lead a major presidential Campaign and contributes as a print television political commentator. She chairs the DNC's Voting Rights Institute and is managing director of Brazile and Associates LLC.

Leslie Visser, 2007 Woman of the Year
Leslie Visser today is lauded as arguably the finest and most versatile female sports writer and broadcaster in history. She is the only sportscaster, male or female, who has worked on the network broadcast of the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open and World Figure Skating Championship.

Erin Gruwell, 2008 Woman of the Year
Erin Gruwell currently serves as President of the Freedom Writers Foundation, a non-profit organization, striving to positively impact communities by decreasing high school drop out rates through the replication and enhancement of the Freedom Writer Method. Erin's student journals and her narrative text is collected and published in the Freedom Writers Diary - How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves & the World Around Them.

Kimberly Dozier , 2009 Woman of the Year
Kimberly Dozier, an award winning news correspondent with a strong interest in the Middle East. Her recently published memoir, Breathing the Fire, Fighting to Report and Survive the War in Iraq, details her inspiring recovery from the car bomb that hit her team while covering a 4th ID patrol in Baghdad in May 2006. She now covers the White House and Pentagon as a general assignment reporter for CBS's Washington, DC bureau.