Thursday, May 17, 2018 6:00 p.m.
This year’s very special Spotlight program celebrates 20 years of the Front Royal Women’s Resource Center and highlights passionate women leaders in Warren County. The Women Rising panel discussion will highlight some of the inspiring women in our community as they tell their stories of both triumph and challenge. Our panel will consist of three women Emily Marlow Beck, Linda Poe Glavis and Dr. Judith James. Please mark your calendars to be a part of this important event that celebrates the achievements of local women and will help propel FRWRC to another 20 years of empowering women to change their world. Moderator, Eka Kapiotis. Opening remarks with JoEllen McNeal and closing remarks with Kat Perkins Laky.
2018 Spotlight Honorees
EMILY MARLOW BECK
Emily Marlow Beck is the President of Front-Royal based Marlow Automotive Group, which includes dealerships in Front Royal, Winchester and Luray, Virginia. Beck has been a member of the Lord Fairfax Community College Foundation board of directors since 2013. She also serves on the board of directors for First Bank and the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association and is active in the Front Royal Rotary Club. She is a graduate of Warren County High School, the University of Virginia, and the American University Washington College of Law. Before returning to the Valley, Beck spent several years practicing law in the Washington, D.C. area. During that time, she was a partner at Hudson Cook, LLP, a nationally recognized law firm that specializes in consumer financial services law.
LINDA GLAVIS
Linda Glavis serves as a Supervisor for the South River District. Born and raised in Warren County, she has resided in the South River District for the majority of her life. Glavis received her B.S. in business administration from Marywood College in Scranton, PA and took graduate level courses at National Judicial College in Reno, NV. Mrs. Glavis, who retired in 1996, worked a combined twenty years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the Director of the Warren and Rappahannock County offices (now known as Farm Service Agency), and an additional six years with the USDA in Washington, D.C. as a Hearing Officer, Review Officer, and Branch Chief of the National Appeals Division.
Now that she is retired, Mrs. Glavis enjoys arts and crafts, painting, woodworking, and picture-framing. She resides with her husband, George, who works at the State Department in Washington, D,C, and is a firm believer that there is no better place to live than Warren County.
DR. JUDITH R. JAMES
Dr. James is a member of the Founder’s Society at Mills College (Oakland California) and the co-Chair of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Chapter of Coming to the Table www.comingtothetable.org. As a result of her involvement with Coming to the Table, she is also a member of the Warren-Page County Branch of the NAACP in Northern Shenandoah Valley.
Her goals are to serve and forge partnerships between and among organizations focused on healing racial hatred and discrimination by bringing African Americans, White Americans and others to the table of love, forgiveness, compassion, transformation and reconciliation.
A current resident of Strasburg, Virginia, James is a native of Oakland, California, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology at Mills College; a Master’s degree in Education Administration at Holy Names University and the doctorate in Organization and Leadership in Higher Education Administration at the University of San Francisco.
Professionally, Dr. James has acquired an extensive background in organization and leadership in higher education administration, community engagement, and workforce development based on progressively responsible positions at the national and state levels, and on college and university campuses.
JOELLEN MCNEAL
JoEllen McNeal is the co-founder of the Front Royal Women’s Resource Center in Front Royal, Virginia which she ran for 19 years. As part of the FRWRC, she initiated the Dare to Dream Grant program that has supported over one hundred women to pursue their dreams of moving forward in their lives. In addition she served as President of the Blue Ridge Arts Council and is currently writing newsletter articles for the House of Hope.Ms McNeal received her B.S. from Montana State University, a B.A. from Evergreen College in Washington State and an M.Ed from Colorado State University.
She is a native of Montana and a former high school English teacher who also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and recruiter. Through her interest in dance and movement she has been a fitness instructor and a massage therapist. She is an aspiring poet and a passionate believer in lifelong learning.
KAT PERKINS LAKY
Front Royal Women’s Resource Center Dare to Dream Recipient Kat Perkins Laky is a mental health professional works for Family Preservation Services as a therapeutic day counselor. She earned her master’s degree in crisis and trauma counseling from Liberty University. “In our world today that is filled with so many traumas and crises, which I have experienced myself, I have been able to not look at myself as a victim but a survivor and in the present I am able to pay it forward. This has been very important to me since I have had some amazing strong women build me up and give me advice to help with my process on moving forward to accomplish my goals and shoot for the stars,” Laky says. “I was afforded two wonderful scholarships from the Front Royal Women’s Resource Center that helped me financially with my school tuition to fulfill my dreams. The women supporting the FRWRC women are not just ordinary women, they are women that I will forever be grateful for and in the present day feel blessed to call my friends.”
Kat is a mother of two beautiful daughters Lyza and Brooke, and daughter Emely in heaven. She is a wife to her supportive husband Brian, and a MiMi to her handsome grandson Schuylar.
EKA KAPIOTIS
ModeratorEka Kapiotis is an internationally recognized Cranio-Sacral Therapist, Reiki Master Teacher, educator and Certified Martha Beck Life Coach. She was instrumental in bringing bodywork to the area, developing and managing the massage therapy and Reiki programs for Valley Health. She has taught Reiki to over 300 people locally.
Eka was delighted to find the Front Royal Women’s Resource Center in its infancy and served as treasurer for eight years, radio show host for six and now enjoys hosting the monthly WomanGathering. Like the FRWRC, she is committed to empowering her clients to change their world. In addition to her unique bodywork practice, she runs DreamWeaver business coaching groups and coaches individuals, offers private and group nature retreats, and participates in Dolphin-Assisted Therapy programs.
When she’s not playing with dolphins, Eka lives in a little cottage on top of a mountain that she shares with her husband, Kevin Connor, their pound-puppy, Lucy, and lots of birds and squirrels that keep them entertained.