SMC Recognizes Pioneering Women in the Community

03/04/11 — Luncheon and Awards Tie in With College's Mission of Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Spartanburg, SC - Spartanburg Methodist College celebrated the accomplishments of women in the local community with its first Pioneering Women Luncheon on Friday, during which eight awards were presented.

Approximately 100 attendees from across the Upstate community attended event which served as a kickoff event for the college's centennial celebration.

"This is a great way to celebrate the accomplishments of the women in our community, along with SMC's centennial and its mission of service, and Women's History Month all at the same time. It's also our way of saying 'Thank you' to these women and to all women who help make the Upstate such a wonderful place for our families and communities to thrive," says SMC alumni director Leah Pruitt.

Awards and recipients included:

  • Media Award -- Dr. Keisha Kirkland, a meteorologist at WYFF News 4
  • Education Award - Melissa Andrews, guidance counselor at Chesnee High School
  • Public Service/Government Award- Hope Blackley, Spartanburg County clerk of court
  • Alumna Award - Jessica Mack, a 2009 graduate of SMC
  • Mission Work Award - Lou Landrum, director of the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen
  • Philanthropy Award - Charlotte Ellis, a Spartanburg County pediatrician
  • Political Leadership Award - South Carolina House district 36 representative Rita Allison
  • Business Leader Award - Susan Bridges, chief executive officer of Security Finance Corporation

The featured speaker for the luncheon was Deb Sofield, Sofield is president of her own Executive Speech & Presentations Coaching Co., which trains women and men for success in speaking, presentation skills and message development in the U.S. and abroad.

Sofield is a former member of the Greenville, SC city council. She is also a visiting professor, teaching public speaking at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government - Women in Public Policy Program, the Woman's Campaign School at Yale University (where Sofield is President of the Board), the University of South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Thurmond Institute's Self Civic Fellows program Ethics in Government program at Clemson University. Sofield also works with the International Republican Institute of Washington, DC teaching, Communications Training for Civil Society in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Spartanburg Methodist College is in its 100th academic year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment.  More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.

For more information, contact Brian Fulkerson, director of public information, at (864) 587-4254 or publicinfo@smcsc.edu