Mark your cal­en­dar for the 14th Annual Madam C.J. Walker Busi­ness and Com­mu­nity Recog­ni­tion Awards Lun­cheon! We are excited to have a native of Oak­land and the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary for Civil Rights, Rus­s­lynn Ali, as our keynote speaker and the oppor­tu­nity to honor four amaz­ing women who are lead­ers in the cor­po­rate, pub­lic and pri­vate sectors.

Secure your place today by pur­chas­ing an indi­vid­ual ticket for $150 per per­son. Click our Donate but­ton and indi­cate the name of the attendee on the Pay­Pal checkout page.

If you are inter­ested in spon­sor­ing please down­load our Spon­sor­ship Let­ter and Spon­sor­ship Invoice. For fur­ther ques­tions con­tact Cathy Adams of CDA Con­sult­ing Group at (5l0) 653‑4085 or cdagroup@aol.com.

Keynote Speaker:
Rus­s­lynn Ali, Assis­tant Sec­re­tary for Civil Rights, U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. Pres­i­dent Barack Obama nom­i­nated Rus­s­lynn Ali as assis­tant sec­re­tary for civil rights at the U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion on March 18, 2009, and she was con­firmed by the U.S. Sen­ate on May 1, 2009. As assis­tant sec­re­tary, Ali is Sec­re­tary Duncan’s pri­mary adviser on civil rights and respon­si­ble for enforc­ing U.S. civil rights laws as they per­tain to education—ensuring the nation’s schools, col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties receiv­ing fed­eral fund­ing do not engage in dis­crim­i­na­tory con­duct related to race, sex, dis­abil­ity or age.

Madam C.J. Walker Cor­po­rate Award:
Robin Wash­ing­ton, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, CFO of Gilead Sci­ence. At Gilead Sci­ence, Robin Wash­ing­ton cur­rently over­sees the Investor Rela­tions depart­ment, the Global Finance and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­ogy organizations.

Madam C. J. Walker Entre­pre­neur Award:
Denise Con­ley, Prin­ci­pal and Owner of Con­ley Con­sult­ing Group, one of few Black, female-owned, real estate eco­nom­ics firms in the country.

Madam C.J. Walker Pio­neer Award:
The Hon­or­able Teresa D. Cox, was appointed by the US Com­merce Sec­re­tary Gary Locke and United States Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ambas­sador Ron Kirk, to serve as a trade advi­sor, work­ing on small and minor­ity busi­ness initiatives.

Madam C.J. Walker Advo­cacy Award:
Car­olyn Rus­sell, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of A Safe Place (ASP), Oakland’s first shel­ter for bat­tered women and their chil­dren, Car­olyn Rus­sell has become a pio­neer in the move­ment of domes­tic violence.