The United Chambers of Commerce announces Inspirational Women of the San Fernando Valley

LOS ANGELES - March 29, 2016 - PRLog -- The United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley has selected five honorees as the 2016 Inspirational Women of the San Fernando Valley sponsored by Wells Fargo. The event in its second year seeks to recognize women who have inspired, achieved and made the San Fernando Valley a better place.

The committee sought ought nominations from a wide array of industries. The committee consisted of members of the business and non-profit community, in addition to government agencies. The committee received 59 nominees and selected 5 honorees.

The 2016 honorees are Carolyn Blashek of Operation Gratitude, Susan DuBrin of West Valley Medical Partners, Ginny Hatfield from Valley Glen Neighborhood Council, Veronica Padilla of Pacoima Beautiful, and Deanna Thomas of the Young Ambassadors Leadership. Brief bios below.

The honorees will be recognized at a lunch on May 5^th at the Hilton Woodland Hills. The lunch is open to the public and the United Chambers welcomes sponsors. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Women's Business Center a SBA program operated by the Valley Economic Development Center to promote the creation and growth of businesses by women and minority entrepreneurs.

"The valley is full of inspirational women flying under the radar. We had 59 nominees that were all worthy of being recognized.", said Vahid Khorsand, United Chambers board member and founding chair of the event. He added that after feedback from last year, this year's event will include words of inspiration from each of the five honorees. "We're also excited to announce that Macy's will be partnering with us and providing free make overs and items for honorees" said Mr. Khorsand.

Daniella Guzman, anchor of NBC4 Southern California, will serve as the emcee and face of the event. Ms. Guzman's experience as a female anchor and career in journalism offers inspiration and will be an added voice for the event.

Those interested in attending or more information can contact the United Chambers directly at 818-981-4491 or contacting Marian Jocz at marian@unitedchambers.org

The United Chambers represents 32 organizations and 21,000 businesses in the San Fernando Valley and region.

Sponsors to date include BWS Financial, Inc., Law Offices of Mark Levinson, Valley Economic Development Corporation, Hilton Woodland Hills/Los Angeles, Providence Health Services, Metropolitan Water District, Macy's, Horace Heidt Estates, and the Valley Economic Alliance.

Carolyn Blashek is the founder of Operation Gratitude, a non-profit sending thousands of care pages to soldiers overseas. She found herself face-to-face and teary eyed with a soldier due to depart for a war zone in 30 minutes, distraught and breaking down. His mom had died, his wife had left him, and he was still mourning the death of an infant child. "He needed to find a reason to survive, and he didn't have one," she said. The care package idea came from the way she used to mail comforts of home to her children away from home. On the day war in Iraq broke out in March 2003, she sent four packages. It became a weekly challenge to find addresses and distribute packages. "Before I knew it, my house was filled with donated items."

Susan DuBrin is an Encino Chamber past president, chair of the Health Wellness Committee, and founder of Disaster Preparedness Committee. Facilitated partnerships since 1999 with the Red Cross, Providence Health and Services and Children's Hospital Los Angeles to host numerous Blood Drives. With Providence, in 2006 she began discussing a community disaster plan. West Valley Medical Center was chosen as Providence Tarzana Hospital's back up location in case of a major disaster. Working with the doctors at West Valley, they began taking emergency medicine courses at UCLA, Children's Hospital, and the Grossman Burn Center. Based on this work, Sue co-founded the Encino Disaster Preparedness Committee which sponsors CPR and CERT classes throughout the Valley, and has established a disaster plan for businesses and residents of the Encino community.

Ginny Hatfield's commitment to the San Fernando Valley is also highly revered in her own community. In 2003 she was a founding member of the organization committee that worked to certify Valley Village as a Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. Shortly after certification Ginny was elected as a charter Board member, and has been re-elected to the Board 7 times, and has served for 13 years as Vice President. One noteworthy achievement is Ginny's work to establish a student seat on our Board in 2008. Each year Ginny and her Elections Committee recruit a rising senior high school student to serve for one year as part of our Board.

As the head of Pacoima Beautiful Veronica Padilla works to develop a community of leaders, engaging youth and adults in activities that give them the tools they need to better their lives and their communities. Her goal is to improve the welfare of people by creating equitable, healthy and safer communities. Some major projects that the organization has created under her leadership include the development of Bradley Plaza, a project in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation that transformed an under-utilized street to a vibrant public space adjacent to the San Fernando Gardens public housing development; the development of the Pacoima Wash Natural Park.

Deanna Thomas is currently an Academic Advisor to graduate and undergraduate students at DeVry University, where she finds great joy in pouring into lives of others. She is also pursuing an MBA, which she is slated to complete in December 2016.  Young Ambassadors is now a comprehensive, 3 month mentoring and STEM training program that features community service, career perspectives and college tours, an etiquette day and financial literacy training.  YALA is a program that affirms the significance and confirms the potential of young black boys and helps them understand that their greatness, partnered with responsibility, fosters leadership and excellence.