ECLF in the News and Press Releases
2024 Women’s Leadership Award Winner: Judy Woodruff
At the annual luncheon on April 30th, the Emily Couric Leadership Forum will present the Women's Leadership Award to Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent of the PBS NewsHour.
Judy Woodruff is an Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist and the Senior Correspondent for the PBS Newshour. As the former Anchor and Managing Editor of the PBS NewsHour, she and the late Gwen Ifill were named the first two women to co-anchor a national news broadcast. Her five-decade career, covering politics and twelve presidential elections, led her to launch in 2023 “America at a Crossroads”, a two-year reporting project to understand America’s political divide.
Invitations will be mailed on March 18, 2024, with online sales starting March 22nd.
Second Annual Emerging Leader Event
In September, the Forum invited 30 young women and about the same number of outstanding local women leaders for informal conversation in our Second Annual Emerging Leaders Roundtable brunch. Our goal for this event, and for the mentoring relationships that it initiates, is to inspire leadership among young (10th and 11th grade) women from first generation and underrepresented communities. By engaging with local women leaders, we hope these young women will recognize their personal leadership potential.
The young leaders were nominated by their school counselors, and each received the book You Got This! Unleash Your Awesomeness, Find Your Path, and Change Your World by Maya S. Penn. In addition, two book scholarships (donated anonymously) were awarded, and a delicious lunch was provided by Pearl Island. We hope to repeat this event in Fall 2024 and adding a few more meetings with each year's young leaders.
Emily Couric Leadership Forum Board welcomes new member, Llezelle Dugger
Llezelle is the elected Clerk of Court for the City of CharlottesvilleCircuit Court. She began her first term on January 1, 2012, and started her second term on January 1, 2020. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Public Defender for the City of Charlottesville and the County of Albemarle from 2000 to 2011. During that time period, she also served as an elected Member of the Charlottesville City School Board from 2008 to 2011. Llezelle received her J.D. from the College of William & Mary School of Law and her B.A. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. She and her husband, Alan, have been married for over 30 years and have two daughters, Lauren and Allison.
2023 Leadership Award Winner: Sandra Wicks Lewis
Sandra Wicks Lewis (UVA ‘72, UNLV ‘90), Investment Advisor/Banker; Philanthropist; One of the “Charlottesville Twelve”
Announcing 2022 Scholarship Award Winners
Kaymin Hester of Charlottesville High School will receive this year’s $50,000 Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship.
The winner of the 2022 Joshua J. Scott Merit Award ($38,000) is Katharina Ravichandran of Albemarle High School.
Emily Couric Leadership Forum in the news: UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, NBC29 and The Daily Progress.
2022 Leadership Award Winner: Sonja Hoel Perkins
Sonja Hoel Perkins (Albemarle High School, UVA McIntire ’88), Venture Capitalist and Founder of The Perkins Fund, Broadway Angels, and Project Glimmer. Featured in Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley’s Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime.
Announcing 2021 Scholarship Winners
The 2021 Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship Winner is Aditi Prakash from Albemarle High School, and the 2021 Winner of the Joshua J. Scott Merit Scholarship is Rachel Field from Monticello High School.
Lucia Hoerr, merit award winner in 2019, is in the news again for her Backpack Buddies program and her heart for helping others. A nonprofit company, Backpack Buddies provides backpacks and school supplies to kindergarten through 12th-grade students in need in Charlottesville and throughout much of Virginia. Read about it here.
Emily Couric Scholarship winner from Miller School of Albemarle - Talia Prosper. Press from Miller School of Albemarle. Editor’s Note: When the Emily Couric Scholarship program began, the top award was $3,000 to Heidi Swan, who was the first winner of the scholarship in 2001. It remained at this level for 3 years. Kayla Hansen from the Miller School received $20,000. In this, the 20th year of the Couric scholarships, the Board opted to award $150,000 total in scholarships with $10K being the award given to Talia Prosper.
More about Vivienne Shields from St. Anne’s-Belfield School here.
ECLF Winner’s Mission to Improve Mental Health. Read more about Isabelle’s mission and background from NBC29.
Emily Couric Leadership Forum awarding $150K in college scholarships. Press from NBC29.com.
Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship Winners in Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Announcing Scholarship Winners
The 2020 $50,000 Scholarship Winner is Isabelle Pardue of Albemarle High School and the 2020 Joshua J Scott Merit Award Winner is Taylor Mills from Murray High School. Read more here.
Virginia General Assembly Commends Zyahna Bryant
2019 ECLF Winner, Zyahna Bryant, was just commended by the Virginia General Assembly. The Joint Resolution can be read here.
2019 Women’s Leadership Award Winner: Dr. Deborah McCauley
Dr. McCauley is a wildlife veterinarian and social entrepreneur. She founded VIEW (Veterinary Initiative for Endangered Wildlife) in 2012 in response to a critical, missing piece in wildlife conservation-- wildlife health, which is now often a greater threat than poaching and natural habitat encroachment. Press release.
Emily Rafferty: 2018 Women’s Leadership Award Winner
Emily Kernan Rafferty, President Emerita of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, started at age 25 and served for 40 years at the Museum, as chief of institutional advancement, Senior Vice President of External Affairs, and as President from 2005 to 2015. Press release.
2017 Women’s Leadership Award Winner: Val Ackerman
Val Ackerman leads the Big East Conference as Commissioner of ten universities. Ackerman earned a law degree from UCLA and served as special assistant to National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern. She later became Vice-President of Business Affairs for the NBA. She was named the first President of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1996. Press release.
For press inquiries, please contact Ann Taylor via email.