On a very personal level, my two daughters inspire me daily. One is an environmental policy expert and the other is a cancer researcher. Their commitment, integrity and concern for the planet and humanity is humbling. Thank goodness we have smart young women like these leading us into the future. I’m also inspired by Nancy Ronquillo, the Executive Director of Children’s Home + Aid of Illinois. A passionate advocate for children and families, a superb communicator and executive manager, she personifies the many complimentary strengths of successful women leaders.

One woman who inspires me is Kellie Garrett, a Senior Vice President at Farm Credit Canada. Kellie consistently shows up as her authentic self, whether it is through giving back to the community, leading her division, speaking at conferences or providing guidance and coaching to employees. She lives and works according to her personal values and is open to growing and changing. She is not perfect and doesn’t claim to be, giving those around her permission to be themselves. She recognizes that she has a powerful presence and role, and has found a way to make others feel comfortable while not holding back her true self. As a female senior executive, she is a model and inspiration to other female leaders in finance, agriculture and beyond.

Ann Richards is my inspiration. Not only did I hear her deliver the keynote address at the 1988 DNC, the same year I first entered politics. I was also priviledged to hear the late Texas governor address my American Express corporate convention in the late 90’s in her home state. I was so inspired how she overcame so many obstacles including poverty, divorce, alcholism and osteoporsis to lead the state of Texas and the rest of the country. In her corporate address, Ann spoke holistically about how she invented herself (including going to “drunk school”)and gave wonderful suggestions for future leaders (e.g. hire someone smarter than you…and don’t be threatened.) I was also touched about how she managed to balance work and family. I miss Ann and am so touched that she entered my life.

My source of female inspiration rocks. Literally. She’s Joan Jett.

Made famous by the rock ‘n’ roll scene she’s still a big part of, the venerable JJ also actively dedicates her time and fame to support her political views, the protection of animals and our planet. It amounts to a long list of interesting accomplishments in just 50 years—and a picture of sheer determination.

Power accomplishments:
• Answers to the following titles: Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter, Producer, Actress and Activist
• Started her own record label (Blackheart Records) because no one would sign the band
• Openly supports the US Armed Forces and has toured the USO for 20 years
• Made Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 greatest guitarists of all time (ONLY other woman to do this: Joni Mitchell)
• Ranked #32 on VH1s Greatest Women of Rock ‘N’ Roll
• Holds the first Gibson Electric Guitar designed in conjunction with a female artist (Joan Jett Signature Melody Maker)
• Created a :30 second PSA for PETA in 2008

“I love sports. I love animals. I love kids. I want to save the world. So how do I combine all those things? I don’t know.” — Joan Jett

None of us really know how to do it all, but Joan’s tireless efforts inspire me to keep trying.

I am inspired by my mother, Sandra Creaney. As a three time cancer survivor she inspires me to never give up on making yourself the best person you can be. She is an eternal optimist, leader and influencer. When not working as a ultrasound technologist, she spends her time supporting and entertaining the people around her on a daily basis. I am thankful and inspired to be a better person because of her influence and support.

I have to join Erin Creaney in recognizing my mother, Catherine Brohan. She devoted her life to helping others as a career social worker. She taught the deaf, cared for the elderly and advocated for employment of the disadvantaged. As if that’s not inspiring enough, she was a workplace pioneer. While a devoted wife and mother of five, she ascended to the highest ranks of management in a time when women were rarely even considered for such posts. She blazed the trail for me and I am truly grateful. Today, she lives with me and my family where she shares her wisdom and protects the confidence of her young grandsons. I could not be more proud.

Honore Woodside, DDS, is my hero. Honore lives life fully and joyfully; leading in her profession, contributing selflessy to ADA International causes, an avid competitive sailor, and a tremendous friend. Honore changed my life when she “used me as an orthodontia test subject” many years ago. I will always be grateful for having this gracious, dynamic lady as an example of personal and professional empowerment.

My inspiration? Sharon Murray Chleboun. A career-woman before it became the norm, traveler extraordinaire, to become a mother was her greatest decision. A hard worker and quiet inspirer, she has yet to realize the true power of her words. Friendly and approachable, without a word spoken – she welcomes strangers to open up to her, and friends she keeps close for a lifetime. Through life’s biggest challenges, she helps all to focus on a glass always full. A ferocious motivator for people to be their very best, she’s often the quiet hero in the crowd. A great observer and the strongest of women.

The woman who helped shape me into the woman I am today is my Mom. She’s my best friend (next to my husband). She has always been there for me, through the ups and downs. She has given me some great advice throughout my life. She called me the other day and said “I just learned this at my age, so I wanted to share it with you now, so it doesn’t take you your whole life to learn it”. Just things like that, mean the world to me.

A woman who has earned my respect and admiration is Dr. Carole Noon, Primatologist. In 1997, she began a sanctuary in Fort Pierce, FL for 21 chimps ‘retired’ from the Air Force space program.She has never received federal or state funds. Several years ago she was chosen by the owner of a failed scientific facility in New Mexico to gain the release of over 250 chimps. These chimps were also former Air Force test subjects, and were kept in solitary, small, windowless cells. Dr. Noon designed a comfortable trailer to transport 10 chimps at a time to FL. (Each chimp even has it’s own window seat!)Once an abandoned 200 acre orange grove she transformed into a paradise of 12-3 acre islands, connected by rope bridges and hurricane-proof buildings. Many of these chimps have never touched grass, felt the sun on their face or wind through their fur. To learn more, go to the web site: http://www.savethechimps.org

Diane Farrell was the director of the Young Adult Program at Thresholds, a psycho-social rehabilitation agency. At that time I was a resident manager of the agencies’ group home for psychiatric adolescents, my first job after graduating from college. Diane loved the Young Adult Members of the program and was a tireless advocate on their behalf. These young people faced not only the challenges of adolescence but also the challenges of their disorders. Diane used humor, grace, discipline and unconditional love to guide them to independence. For me she was part supervisor, part mentor, part friend and part mother. The lessons I learned from Diane helped shape the woman I am today.

Who would have ever thought my flaky, bratty little sister could become the one who inspires me? My sister, Nina Fleming, has grown into one of the strongest women I know. For over five years, she faced the daily challenges of her husband’s fight with cancer and raising their young daughter. She showed tremendous strength and grace in dealing with the hope and the hopeless, the treatments and their side effects, keeping things together at home, and trying to keep life as normal as she could for Dan and Rachel. Last summer when Dan lost his battle with cancer, Nina handled that loss and all the changes in Rachel’s and her life with strength and dignity. I know it’s been hard for her, but she makes a real effort not to let life get her down. Every day she inspires me with her positive approach to life and her desire to face the challenges on her own (and win!).

“Well, knowledge is a fine thing, and mother Eve thought so; but she smarted so severely for hers, that most of her daughters have been afraid of it since.”

Before Gloria Steinem, before Linda Ronstadt, before the many women’s advocates who influenced my opinions and behaviors as a girl growing up in the 70’s, there was Abigail Adams. A woman for whom I’ve formed a profound respect after reading more about her life and times in David McCullough’s book about her husband, John, our second President. She must have been something.
Smack dab in the midst of the chaos of forming a new nation, there was this “home schooled” intellect with an amazingly open mind. Her well-formed and oft-expressed opinions on women’s rights, the scourge of slavery, ethics, morality and compassion for those less fortunate played a huge role in the foundations of our government.

By all accounts, she was formidable. Beloved by George and Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Hancock, a multitude of Revolutionary Leaders and those she met in London and Paris. Left behind to run the family farm during John’s long stints as Ambassador, Vice President and President. Moving from her town to various homes within the States and Europe. Living in comfort and through poverty. Her unwavering support for her husband and devotion to her extended family. And her dignity and strength throughout her own, and her family’s many illnesses.

Her husband admired her greatly, and relied on her counsel. In a letter to physician and friend Benjamin Rush who wanted to reform education by dispensing of the teaching of “outmoded languages”, John Adams wrote, “Mrs. Adams says she is willing for you to discredit Greek and Latin, because it will destroy the foundation of all pretensions of the gentlemen to superiority over the ladies, and restore liberty, equality, and fraternity between the sexes”.

One wonders – what if she had been our Second President. Breaking the barriers that still hold on today, back in 1797?

The woman who inspires me is my friend, Cynthia Baratz Gayle.

Cindy and I were introduced by her father, whom I had known through work, in 1983 when she was moving to Chicago to take a new job. He thought the two of us would hit it off, and he certainly was right. God bless Mort.

Cindy lived in Chicago for less than two years, but we formed a lifelong bond while she was here. Do you think it was because our theme song was “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper? Parties, Cubs games, drinks after work. Typical single-gals-in-their-late-20s kind of stuff.

But it was after she moved to New York, got married, had children and started her own business that our bond and friendship reached new levels—even though I remained in Chicago. And, it is this period that remains inspirational to me in three ways.

First, Cindy made me a true part of her family by asking me to be Godmother to her children and including me in family reunions and events. She, her parents, her siblings, her husband and her children welcomed me, Auntie Sue, with open arms at all times. That has inspired me throughout the years to see how friends truly are the family that you can choose for yourself to provide love and support.

Second, Cindy showed me how much sense it made to work with your friends and have fun doing it. She had started her own business and asked me to join her when I was doing freelance writing in the early 1990s. We had a wonderful time as business partners over the ensuing 10 years, happily combining business with pleasure when I would fly to New York for meetings around her dining room table and then a weekend of leaf-peeping or hiking along the Hudson River. I am continually inspired by this to bring that sense of trust and camaraderie to the corporate workplace. And, I still have my eye on becoming business partners with some of my dearest friends at some point in the future when everyone’s cogs to do so fall into place. There is no better way to work than with people you trust, laugh with and love. She also introduced me to the idea of how business should—and can—support charitable work. I have since been more open to how to meld for-profit business with not-for-profit enterprise and hope to follow in her footsteps one day in making it happen in my own way.

Finally, and most importantly, I am inspired to be as good a friend as I can be because of Cindy. She knew me better than anyone on the planet, was able to get me to open up and talk like no one else and gave me great advice. Even more to her credit, she stayed my friend and continued to love and care for me, even when I was too preoccupied with life and work to do the same for her.

You might have noticed that I’ve been speaking about Cindy in the past tense. And that’s because she died at the young age of 50 in 2003, following an illness that had persisted for more than a decade and put indescribable stress in every way possible on her and her family. Because I have regrets about our relationship in her last few years, my friend Cindy inspires me every day not to repeat those mistakes with the people I care most about. She is and always will be my inspiration to be the best friend I can possibly be, to cherish my friends as family, and to work with people I love and care about–doing good work not only for the business, but also for others.

God bless Cindy.

My dear friend since 7th grade, Helen White, inspires me every day. She survived ovarian cancer after her two daughters were born and went on to turn her life around as a result of the harrowing experience.

She has since decided to ditch her teaching career and get certified as a personal trainer. Helen has made health and fitness her life. She also began offering free to training to cancer survivors, trains marathon runners, and runs a successful personal training business.

Helen has now run as least 5 marathons and is about to do her 3rd Iron Man Triathlon. She should be an inspiration to us all.

You’ve never met anyone who loves life as much as she does. When you ask her a simple question about how it’s going, her answser is always “Excellent!” with a huge smile on her face.

I wish we could all be more like Helen.

The person who inspires me the most is my sister, Kirsten Powers, who works as the Development Director at Metropolitan Planning Council in Chicago. She has always demonstrated strength and perseverance, which I have benefited from emulating. After receiving a fellowship to study Public Policy at the University of Chicago, she began working in a high-pace, high-paying job, but left that all behind to follow her true passion – working in the development office for a nonprofit organization. She became an environmental advocate while at Openlands, and now heads up the Development department at MPC, working to improve the quality of life for all of us in the Chicago area. Meanwhile, she is raising 2 bright and promising young girls and supporting her husband’s efforts to start his own business. I marvel at her capabilities, work ethic, and generosity – which inspires me to aim higher as well.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! – Maya Angelou

My inspiration to seek and do my best comes from Maya who came to live with us when she was only 17.

Maya was raped by her uncle and had to leave her parents’ home to save them the embarrassment of an unwed mother in their family. She worked odd jobs while she waited for the baby and arrived into our lives with a construction team working on my parents’ home in a fruit orchard.

One day on the job Maya took a break from the construction job to find a spot among a cluster of bushes and deliver her baby all by herself. When she returned to her construction job an hour or so later with her daughter in a sling on her back, my parents were convinced that Maya needed a better life. I managed to convince them that we needed Maya’s help full-time in our home and that evening Maya and Yasmin came to live with us for the next five years. Maya helped my mother with household chores and errands and cheerfully juggled evening school and raising Yasmin.

Maya saw the world as only opportunities and possibilities. That she did not dwell on her misfortunes or the cruelty of her past and instead sought fun and laughter and excitement in all that she did… continues to inspire me to this day. That she raised her daughter to seek the positive and possibilities in all that comes her way… has become my way of life and outlook.

I wish Maya’s sense of appreciative grace, strength of focus and fortitude on every woman juggling work and family …for an amazing sense of peace and wellbeing and the quiet sense of accomplishment

Instead of listing a great woman I admire I’d just like to give all the inspired women on this blog a quote which has always inspired me.

“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women” — Madeleine Albright

It’s true women can be so cruel to one another. This starts at such a young age in school — lunch table cliques, sorority cliques — and gets even more painful as we get older. We feel inferior to each other and many times act very competitive with each other.

This quote may seem harsh but I like it’s core message. We women need to stick together. We need to support each other, console each other, coach and mentor each other.

I think about this quote when I see someone struggling professionally or dealing with tough personal times — it reminds me to go an extra mile for her. To stop and give that woman a little more attention and hopefully a hand up. Hopefully it will be a fun something that sticks in your minds too.