WEST PALM BEACH - Three women who have distinguished
themselves as professionals, as leaders and as community
servants have been chosen by Executive Women of the Palm
Beaches to receive its 2012 Women In Leadership Awards. Rena
Blades, Dorothy Bradshaw and Dr. Maureen Whelihan will be
recognized at the annual Women In Leadership Awards Luncheon
on May 3 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
Additionally, in honor of the organization’s 30th
anniversary, Executive Women will present an Inspirational
Leadership Award to Cynthia Allen Gracey, a Delray Beach
attorney and longtime advocate of women’s rights.
Journalist, author and television personality Joan Lunden
will be the keynote speaker.
The Women In Leadership Awards honor women in three
community sectors -- volunteer, public and private -- whose
talents and qualities have an impact in their business and
charitable activities. They may be unsung heroes who give
extraordinary effort to worthy causes, entrepreneurs who
translate their enthusiasm and concepts into successful
businesses, or public servants who understand the meaning of
service and deliver it with pride and excellence.
Executive Women’s mission is to promote the professional and
personal advancement of women through networking and
resource sharing and by helping them to develop and realize
their potential as leaders. Proceeds from the luncheon
benefit EWPB’s scholarship and grant programs that are
administered through its charitable foundation, Executive
Women Outreach.
Honored in the volunteer sector, Bradshaw is Procurement
Bureau chief for the South Florida Water Management
District. She has served as president of the Boys and Girls
Clubs, on the board of Junior Achievement, on countless
projects for the American Lung Association, as co-chair and
chair of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, and
more recently as chair of the 2010 Walk To Defeat ALS and
the 2011 Heart Walk. She’s also on the board of the West
Palm Beach Library Foundation, the Women’s Chamber of
Commerce and Speak Up for Children.
Honored in the public sector, Blades has been CEO of the
Palm Beach County Cultural Council since 2004. She has
overseen its unprecedented growth, securing new grants and
funding for arts education and the strengthening of cultural
organizations throughout the county, expanding services to
artists and spearheading the Council’s move to new
headquarters in Lake Worth. She also has served as a board
member and treasurer of the Florida Cultural Alliance, a
member of the Palm Beach County Six Pillars Community Plan
committee, a member of Palm Beach County’s Overall Economic
Development Program Committee (2006-10), the West Palm Beach
Downtown Master Plan Advisory Committee (2006-09) and the
Capital Campaign Committee for the Center for Creative
Education; a grant panelist for the Bank of America
Neighborhoods for Excellence program (2007), chair of the
Palm Beach County Economic Summit Quality of Place Committee
(2005), co-chair of the Resource Development Committee of
Palm Beach County School District’s Arts in Education
Comprehensive Plan (2005-06) and a volunteer at St. Mark’s
Episcopal School, 2005-2011.
A practicing gynecologist in West Palm Beach, Whelihan,
nominated in the private sector, is only the fourth woman to
serve as president of the Palm Beach County Medical Society
(2009). She co-founded the society’s Services Project
Access, a program that coordinates voluntary physician and
hospital care, diagnostic services and medication assistance
for low-income residents. Since 2005, Project Access has
donated more than $8 million in care to help more than 5,500
residents. She serves on the board of the International
Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, co-chaired
Lupus Foundation’s Models of Success, and was named the
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s woman of the year in 2003
for raising $50,000 in eight weeks.
In recognition of her lifelong example and service to Palm
Beach County, EWPB will present its founder and first
president Cynthia Allen Gracey with its Inspirational
Leadership Award. Despite dealing with CMT, a lifelong
neuromuscular disorder, Gracey has raised two sons, served
as a caregiver to her parents and other family members,
practiced law and been visionary community activist.
For information about sponsorship opportunities to support
EWPB’s programs or to purchase tickets to the luncheon, call
(561) 684-9117, email
info@ewpb.org or visit
www.ewpb.org.