{"id":154281,"date":"2026-02-13T12:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154281\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:30:26","slug":"history-fort-lauderdale-and-galleria-fort-lauderdales-women-trailblazers-champions-of-change-broward-county-2026-reception-at-galleria-fort-lauderdale-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154281\/","title":{"rendered":"History Fort Lauderdale and Galleria Fort Lauderdale\u2019s \u201cWomen Trailblazers: Champions of Change – Broward County\u201d 2026 Reception at Galleria Fort Lauderdale Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

History Fort Lauderdale<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Galleria Fort Lauderdale<\/a>\u00a0will honor six impactful women who lead our community during its\u00a0\u201cWomen Trailblazers: Champions of Change – Broward County\u201d<\/a> ticketed reception benefitting History Fort Lauderdale set for 6 p.m. on March 26, at Galleria Fort Lauderdale (2414 E. Sunrise Boulevard). The reception will be hosted by radio personalities\u00a0Julie Guy\u00a0and\u00a0Tamara Gant.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s honorees are\u00a0Mary Adams,\u00a0principal consultant and owner of The Employee Relations Group;\u00a0Monica Cepero,\u00a0county administrator at Broward County Government;\u00a0Genia Duncan Ellis,\u00a0president and CEO at Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale, Inc.;\u00a0Kristina Hebert,\u00a0president and CEO of Wards Marine Electric;\u00a0Suzanne Higgins,\u00a0director of development at Henderson Behavioral Health\u00a0and\u00a0Dara Levan,\u00a0author, speaker, and board member of Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital Foundation\/Memorial Foundation.<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s History Month celebration will kick off a special photo exhibit highlighting these women alongside their groundbreaking historical female predecessors who helped to pave the way for our community. The exhibition celebrating their achievements will be on display through April 19.<\/p>\n

Past pioneering women counterparts to be highlighted in the photo exhibition include\u00a0Louella Snyder\u00a0(1875\u20131969), a Fort Lauderdale resident since 1910 who later founded and served as president of the Wells-Snyder Paint Company with M.W. Wells serving as secretary-treasurer;\u00a0Virginia Clements\u00a0(1914\u20131995), a member of the Junior League, and the first board chair of Henderson Behavioral Health who was instrumental in the organization\u2019s establishment along with other roles in civic and cultural organizations;\u00a0Ellyn Ferguson Walters\u00a0(1927-2012), a 41-year tenured teacher for Broward Schools, major fundraiser and executive chair of the African American Research and Library Center, founder of the Sistrunk Festival and 1999 Urban League plus Kathleen C. Wright Award-winner;\u00a0Eva Oliver\u00a0(1883-1964), first president of the Woman’s Club, chairman of the Port Everglades naming committee, historian, author, philanthropist and suffragist;\u00a0Anne Kolb\u00a0(1932-1981), first elected woman chair of the Broward County Commission, environmentalist, conservationist (1978 Florida Wildlife Conservationist of the Year) and namesake of the Anne Kolb Nature Center; and\u00a0Charline Skogsberg\u00a0(1906-1999), a Broward County pioneer and daughter of Captain Charles Skogsberg, a keeper of the House of Refuge (U.S. Government life-saving service stations\u00a0for\u00a0shipwrecked sailors in Florida), a kindergarten teacher, Trinity Lutheran Church organist and Broward Marine at Bahia Mar employee.<\/p>\n

All honorees will become part of History Fort Lauderdale\u2019s permanent exhibition space devoted to telling our stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

History Fort Lauderdale and Galleria Fort Lauderdale\u2019s \u201cWomen Trailblazers: Champions of Change – Broward County\u201d 2026 is sponsored by UKG, Rick Case Automotive Group, BBX Capital, Henderson Behavioral Health,\u00a0SunSentinel,\u00a0City & Shore PRIME\u00a0magazine, Gulf Stream Distillery, P.F. Chang\u2019s, Dillard\u2019s and GPR | Goodman Public Relations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tickets for the March 26 recognition and benefit reception honoring today\u2019s leaders\u00a0are $50 and are available at\u00a0bit.ly\/HFLWomenTrailblazers2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information or to join this event as a sponsor, call (954) 463-4431 or visit\u00a0historyfortlauderdale.org<\/a>.\u00a0Additional information about Galleria Fort Lauderdale is available at\u00a0facebook.com\/GalleriaFtLauderdale<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0www.galleriamall-fl.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"History Fort Lauderdale\u00a0and\u00a0Galleria Fort Lauderdale\u00a0will honor six impactful women who lead our community during its\u00a0\u201cWomen Trailblazers: Champions of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-154281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}