Women of Achievement

One hundred and fifty guests crowded into the Cabrillo Pavilion for the 17th Women of Achievement Awards lunch organized by the Association for Women in Communications Santa Barbara.

The fun fest, co-chaired by Brooke Holland and Judith Smith-Meyer, featured Dr. Nancy O’Reilly, founder of Women Connect4Good, and honored five visionary women – JoAnne Wasserman, veteran conductor of the Santa Barbara Choral Society; Melinda Palacio, tenth Santa Barbara Poet Laureate; Frances Moore, co-founder and artistic director of the Ring Shout Project; entrepreneur and graphic artist Adriana Arriaga; and Teresa Kuskey, founder and CEO of the La Boheme dance company who gave a short, but impressive feather-filled performance.

Caroline Feraday, a host on KCLU-FM radio and regular contributor on outlets in the U.K., Australia and Turkey, was emcee.

Among the supporters were Laura Capps, KEYT-TV reporter Tracy Lehr, Lisa Osborn, Rick Oshay, Kate Smith, Ana Papakhian, David Bolton, Barbara Burger, Marybeth Carty, and Gretchen Lieff.