21 professional women from the Mahoning Valley have been nominated 2011 ATHENA Awards

May 17, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

For the 19th year, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and The Vindicator will honor professional women in the Mahoning Valley on Thursday at the ATHENA Awards.

This year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Daisy L. Alford-Smith, CEO of the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio, will present to the Mahoning Valley ATHENA program, one of the five largest in the country.

Here are the nominees:

Rev. Kathryn T. Adams has served as the director of Protestant campus ministry at Youngstown State University for 15 years. Adams founded “To Russia With Love” in 1996 to improve quality of life for orphans in the former Soviet Union. Since then, the organization has provided necessities to orphanages through 16 mission trips around the world and has raised $200,000.

Jennifer Arnold is president and co-owner of J. Arnold and Associates, Business Lenders of America and a Brightstar Health Care franchise in Florida. At J. Arnold, she oversees operations and more than tripled the company’s gross revenue in two years and garnered numerous awards for the firm, including YSU and the chamber’s 2009 Pinnacle Award for revenue growth. She is treasurer for the Republican Party of Columbiana County. In 2010, Arnold was named one of the Mahoning Valley Professional Club’s 40 under 40.

Since starting as a teller in 1977, Deborah J. Brown has risen through the ranks to become First Place Bank’s corporate vice president and retail-branch manager. Brown has received numerous customer accolades throughout her 34-year career and earned the Branch Manager of the Year award in 1994.

In 1999, Martha Bushey became the first female partner in Manchester, Bennett, Powers and Ullman’s then-127 year history. Bushey leads the firm’s health-law section and was instrumental in launching the law firm’s subsidiary, Commerce Title Agency of Youngstown, of which she serves as president. The company has written more than $30 million in policies.

As an attorney with Henderson, Covington, Messenger, Newman and Thomas, Anna Ciambotti handles the firm’s probate and family-law cases, areas she excels in perhaps because she brings with her a 30-year career as a high school teacher. Ciambotti runs her own private practice, started in 1987, where she concentrates in family, juvenile and probate law.

Orthopedic Nurse Manager Joanne Grace has 34 years of service at ValleyCare Northside Medical Center. Her dedication to Northside has garnered accolades for the hospital, most recently placing it in the top 5 percent in orthopedic care in the U.S. Grace developed the Minority Community Outreach Program to educate the African-American community on arthritis and degenerative joint disease and treatment and has spoken on those topics at a variety of community events and health fairs.

Barbara J. Hierro’s 20 years of accounting and customer- service experience fuel her efforts not only as director of business operations at Comprehensive Psychiatry Group, but also in her volunteering. In three years since joining Comprehensive Psychiatry Group, her efforts have helped the company grow from 20 to 28 employees and acquire a large clientele.

As assistant superintendent and director of community services for the Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Kristine Hodge has aided in improving and expediting case-management services for clients and streamlining operations for the organization. Under her direction, the community-services department grew from 11 staff members in 2003 to 34 in 2010. In two years, she eliminated the case- management waiting list, and in 2007, secured 37 fully funded individual option waivers, giving individuals who had been on the waiting list 12 years the opportunity to receive in-home care and other services.

Sharon Hrina, vice president of Akron Children’s Hospital’s Mahoning Valley Enterprises, has been active in local health-care leadership for more than 40 years and was instrumental in the development of the hospital’s full- service, 32-bed, free-standing hospital with a 24/7 emergency room. With her guidance, the dedicated pediatric surgical unit was built at the Beeghly campus in 2010. She has been recognized by the Ohio Nurses Association’s third district, which has awarded her the “contributions to nursing award” every year since 1994. She was YSU Department of Nursing’s 2010 alumnus of the year.

Dr. Cryshanna Jackson, an assistant professor in YSU’s political science department, is the youngest member of the department, as well as its only female and African-American professor. As the department’s urban-internship coordinator, Jackson developed a collaboration between YSU and Kent State University’s internship programs.

Lois Koval, a financial adviser for Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, worked her way up from entry-level sales associate to one of the most- knowledgeable experts in her industry. In 2009, she earned the chartered retirement-planning counselor designation, a title accompanied by highly specialized training and expertise. Wells Fargo has awarded her with the recognition of excellence for her leadership in customer service.

As medical director of the internal-medicine clinic and the ambulatory-care center at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Dr. Cynthia Kravec treats patients and improves hospital operations but also shapes future physicians. She has increased patient volume and reduced wait times, thereby improving client satisfaction. She has been leading the implementation of a multimillion-dollar electronic medical-record system. Kravec was named one of Mahoning Valley Professional Club’s 40 under 40 in 2007.

Since Shelly Laberto took the helm as general manager and community marketing director for the Boardman/Poland Chik-fil-a in 2003, sales have increased 95 percent, and the location has secured a spot in the top 10 percent of the company’s operations. She was recognized as Employee of the Year in 2006 and 2008 and was selected to lead the Northeast Ohio marketing seminar in 2009.

As a civil-engineering and technology associate professor and coordinator at YSU, Carol Lamb serves as both instructor and positive example for women in male-dominated industries. Since she took the position and began promoting the program, enrollment has increased by 35 percent. In 2008, Lamb was appointed adviser for the YSU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

In 2008, senior pastor Rev. Amariah McIntosh became the first woman to lead Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Through her visionary leadership, she resurrected the ministry, which was prepared to shut its doors before her efforts to effect change. She is also the current president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.

As vice president and chief instructional officer of Turning Technologies, Dr. Tina Rooks has developed a number of products designed to help educators maximize student learning and improve K-12 performance. With more than 15 years’ experience in education, Rooks has been working alongside the U.S. Department of Education to implement assessment strategies in schools.

D’Nelle Seiple, the Youngstown Central YMCA’s youth league sports director, continually has increased participation in youth leagues, growing the facility’s youth basketball league in particular into the largest of any YMCA in the nation.

Gina Shutrump, a managing broker with Howard Hanna Real Estate, has been instrumental in bringing prosperous developments into the Mahoning Valley through her 17 years in the real-estate industry. After merging her own successful real-estate firm with Howard Hanna, she successfully courted Starbucks, leading the company to establish its U.S. Route 224 location. Shutrump is a part-owner of Weight No More in Canfield and is a fundraising advocate for Akron Children’s Hospital of Mahoning Valley.

Since joining Huntington National Bank in 2006, Vice President and Relationship Manager Christine Wray has been responsible for providing personalized financial services for more than 260 high-net-worth clients. Huntington has recognized Wray for her accomplishments in areas such as new-client enrollment, customer-loan production and peak performance.

As a licensed real-estate agent for Burgan Real Estate Ltd. and president of the Youngstown- Columbiana Association of Realtors, Joan Zarlenga has been committed for 22 years to selling homes while fostering community spirit. Ranked in the top 5 percent of Mahoning County real-estate agents, she has earned four Ohio Association of Realtors President’s Sales Club awards of distinction for $5 million in sales. She was nominated for the Youngstown- Columbiana Association of Realtors’ 2011 Realtor of the Year award.

Lucille Zinz, Park Vista Retirement Center’s director of dining services, has extended her commitment to the nutrition of her patients to the surrounding community. The OPRS Corp. honored Zinz in 2010 with the Best Practice Award for her development of the Pureed Appeal Program, which offers nutritious and appealing pureed foods to patients with this dietary need. She also developed medically prescriptive diets for the Trumbull Mobile Meals program, where she has volunteered for more than 20 years, currently serving as vice president.