Meet the 2024 Enquirer Women of the Year (2024)

The Enquirer| Cincinnati Enquirer

The Enquirer is proud to announce its Women of the Year honorees for 2024.

Since 1968, The Enquirer Women of the Year awards have been bestowed annually on women who make Cincinnati a better place through their passion for serving the community. This year's class includes women who have worked to improve children's literacy, to fight hunger and cancer, and to supports local arts.

Jeanette M. Altenau

Jeanette M. Altenau is the director of community relations and government affairs at TriHealth. In 2016, she launched Men Wear Pink Cincinnati, part of a national effort by the American Cancer Society to involve male community leaders in raising funds and awareness to fight breast cancer. Altenau, an ACS board member, has served as chair of Men Wear Pink Cincinnati since its inception, and this year the campaign is poised to cross the $2 million threshold in funds raised to help those facing a cancer diagnosis obtain the resources and support they need throughout their journey.

From support services within TriHealth to creating experiences for families and caregivers, Alteneau is always thinking of ways to ease the burden of cancer for those going through what could be their most difficult time in life. Other boards Altenau serves on include the Blue Line Foundation, Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Arts Association, Interact for Health, The Library Foundation of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio Cancer Research and Spirit of Cincinnatus.She has formerly served on the Board of Directors for Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Union Bethel, Crayons 2 Computers, Freestore Foodbank, Marvin Lewis Community Fund, Neediest Kids of All, Patty Brisben Foundation for Women’s Sexual Health, Queen City Foundation, St. Ursula Academy and WAVE Foundation at the Newport Aquarium. She served as a national Special Contribution Fund Trustee for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and on the NAACP Image Awards committee for nine years.

Robin Burrow

In October 2022, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and his parents, Robin and Jimmy, started the Joe Burrow Foundation with a focus on helping children with mental illness and those who are experiencing hunger or food insecurity. In almost two years under Robin Burrow’s leadership, the foundation has raised more than $2 million to fund and support dozens of nonprofits doing the work in these two areas in Cincinnati.

Burrow is a recently retired middle school administrator who worked in the Athens, Ohio, area where Joe attended school. She now splits her time in Cincinnati and in Athens. Tapping into her experience in early education, Burrow drives the foundation’s work in providing children access to food, school supplies and counseling. Nonprofits supported by the Joe Burrow Foundation include the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, the Children’s Home of Cincinnati, From Fatherless to Fearless, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, Kenton County Schools, La Soupe, The Partnership for Mental Health, University of Cincinnati Foundation, and Your Store of the Queen City.

Julie Grady Heard

Julie Grady Heard retired in 2017 from Cintas after a five-decade career as a human resources executive. She quickly “unretired” to take on the role of the Cincinnati Opera’s first director of diversity, equity and inclusion, preceding the creation of similar positions at peer organizations in the industry. Along the way, she has been a prolific community volunteer.She was a stage mom when her daughter attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts; she served on the board of the YWCA, providing leadership in their efforts to address social justice issues and support women; she mentored young people through her engagement with INROADS; and helped to create professional opportunities for them as a board member of Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates and the Ohio statewide board of Jobs for America’s Graduates.

Heard advocated for equality in her role as the Ohio chairman and chapter president for the American Association for Affirmative Action. She also served as vice chair of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity. For the Cincinnati Opera, she has been a longtime and enthusiastic champion of the organization through her roles as an attendee, donor, Guild member, Guild president, and trustee.

Julie Richardson

Julie Richardson is a tireless volunteer who for the last five years has focused on hunger and food insecurity through SugarCreek, the food manufacturing company she owns with her husband, John Richardson. Julie Richardson forged a partnership with La Soupe – a Cincinnati nonprofit that bridges the gap between waste and hunger –to distribute its meat products to get protein to people in need on a vast scale. She is on the boards of the Sam Hubbard and Joe Burrow foundations to connect funds with resources to get food to children and families. Richardson also has chaired and hosted record-breaking fundraisers for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, La Soupe and Kindervelt.

Keke Sansalone

Keke Sansalone, an attorney and former adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati, has been involved with many civic organizations, including the Junior League of Cincinnati, but her primary focus is children. According to her nominators, Sansalone’s great gift is “creating ways for children to engage with their community, arranging for them to actually participate in the culture that this great city can offer, and maybe seeing themselves having a role here as they grow up.” To that end, Sansalone has been a driving force behind the Adopt-A-Class program at the Cincinnati Academy of World Languages, recruiting people from all walks of life show students the opportunities that surround them.

Other organizations she has served include: Cincinnati Parks Foundation, where she twice chaired the Hats Off Luncheon; Cincinnati Ballet, where she co-chaired the Victoria Morgan 20th Anniversary Celebration; Playhouse in the Park; Cincinnati Woman’s Club; University of Cincinnati Breast Cancer Advisory Board, HolyTrinity Saint-Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, where she has taught Sunday School; and past chair of the American Heart Association Heart Ball.

Lisa Sauer

Lisa’s Sauer’s commitment to the region goes far beyond her tenure as an executive at Procter & Gamble. For more than a decade, she has been a leader on ArtsWave’s board as a member of the executive committee, board chair, chair of community investments and grantmaking and is now an integral part of the planning for ArtsWave’s centennial anniversary in 2027.

As co-chair of the 2024 ArtsWave Campaign this past year, Sauer helped establish and, more importantly, realize a path for raising the most money ever, anywhere, by a community arts campaign. In addition to many leadership roles at ArtsWave, Lisa is the current chair of the CVG Airport Board and, as a Covington resident, she is an active member of the Northern Kentucky community. With art, architecture, and livable spaces as among her passions, she is the founder of Progress with Preservation, which worked with government, private, business and nonprofit stakeholders to preserve and raise awareness for Northern Kentucky’s beautiful historic architecture.

Kristen Erwin Schlotman

Kristen Erwin Schlotman has served Film Cincinnati for more than 20 years, first as a volunteer and now as its executive director. The nonprofit she leads to attract film and movie productions to Cincinnati isn't paid by the productions and relies on private and public dollars to accomplish its mission to attract, promote and cultivate film, television and commercial productions in the Cincinnati region. Her efforts helped lift Cincinnati to rank 11th-best city in America to live and work in film, according to Movie Maker magazine.

Schlotman convened film groups in Cincinnati to collaborate under a program called “Film in Cincinnati: Live.” These groups – including Cindependent Film Festival, Over-the-Rhine Film Festival and Women in Film –collaborate on programming to grow the talent pool for film in Cincinnati and to engage film enthusiasts with programming. Schlotman also volunteers for causes near and dear to her heart, including Dress for Success Cincinnati and YWCA Greater Cincinnati.

Kim Sims

In 2021, amid concern for pandemic learning loss, Kim Sims had a vision to create a program to bring literacy support for area students. A lifelong educator, Sims approached the Oak Hills Alumni and Educational Foundation for funds to support her vision of “stories on wheels.” She purchased a used school bus and transformed it, collaborating with mechanics, artists and contractors to create a magical space for reading. Only six months passed after that initial presentation until the Oak Hills Book Bus was on the road and operating. Today, the bus travels to five elementary schools and numerous community events year-round. The program has given away over 30,000 books for children to build their own personal libraries at home.

Barbara Turner

Barbara Turner in 2020 became the first woman and person of color to serve as president and CEO of Ohio National Financial Services. After stepping down in 2022 when the company was acquired by Constellation Insurance, Turner launched her foundation, BT RISE, to help others – particularly women and individuals from underserved communities –access the resources required to achieve financial security and independence.

As CEO of BT RISE, she leverages her corporate and community leadership experiences and deep financial services industry expertise to help others in numerous ways, including providing college and leadership development scholarships, advisory services, business plan reviews, financial grants to promote entrepreneurship and business growth. She has served on several area boards, including the United Way Greater Cincinnati, Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio and WCA Greater Cincinnati. She is currently the co-chair of the capital campaign for the YWCA Greater Cincinnati to build a new domestic violence shelter and to support their racial justice programming.

Pam Weber

Pam Weber, a real estate executive with PNC, shares her professional talents as a mentor at the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Center, where she has worked with countless students and earned the center’s Distinguished Service Award in 2020. In 2015, she joined the board of Easterseals (now Easterseals Redwood) and made in immediate impact. According to her nominators, Weber’s ability to connect Easterseals to other community partners was instrumental in “spreading the word” about the critically important work Easterseals does for the people it serves. One such connection was the Cincinnati Museum Center, where there is now an adult day employment program for people with disabilities who enhance the community with their work while becoming productive, fulfilled citizens. Weber recently co-chaired the Easterseals’ Power of Work / Power of Purpose capital campaign, which raised $30 million to transform the organization’s Walnut Hills campus and increase the endowment.

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