Long Island Fund for Women & Girls

Long Island Fund for Women & Girls

Announces 2006 “15th Anniversary” Breakfast

September 12, 2006, Bethpage, New York – On Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at the Crest Hollow Country Club, the Long Island Fund for Women & Girls (LIFWG) will mark its twelfth annual Women Achievers Against the Odds Breakfast, and celebrate a fifteenth anniversary milestone of awarding cumulatively $1,000,000 in grants to the Long Island community. The event will draw over 700 prominent members of Long Island’s business, not-for-profit, education, entrepreneurial, civic, government, and philanthropic communities. The event is the Fund’s major fundraising activity of the year, and its purpose is twofold: The venue for recognizing women who have realized their goals in spite of daunting odds, and for awarding grants to not-for-profit organizations which benefit women and girls and their families in the region. The Fund’s grant making provides seed money to grassroots organizations in their quest to create programs that advance advocacy, equity and opportunity for women and girls on the local community level. The program topics range from healthcare, to childcare/parenting, student and adult education.

Five honorees, all of whom exemplify achievement in the face of obstacles, will be recognized. They are: Evelyn Berezin, Sharon Cates-Williams- Chief Information Officer and Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology for Suffolk County, Amy Hagedorn- Community Activist, Kathryn Morrissey- President, AT&T Wholesale Businesses and Diana Sierra- Young Woman Achiever for Excellence in Peacemaking, from Northport High School.

LIFWG is pleased to announce The Roslyn Savings Foundation as its’ Premier Sponsor.  Breakfast sponsorship and LIFWG Calendar Journal Ad opportunities are still available. For information about sponsorships, placing a LIFWG Calendar Journal Tribute, breakfast tickets and to learn more about the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls, please visit the Fund’s website at www.lifwg.org or call 516.622.3863. Additional information about the Fund and the 2006 honorees follows.

The 2006 Honorees
 
Evelyn Berezin

In a world where artificial intelligence is so commonplace as to be taken for granted, we forget that without people like Evelyn Berezin, computers would still be in the dark ages. She entered the field when it was in its infancy and remains on the cutting edge of computer technology.

Ms. Berezin graduated from New York University with a degree in Physics, where she did post graduate work, holding an Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship. In 1951, she entered the computer industry as a design engineer. Working for both the US Government and private companies, she was responsible for the design of numerous computer applications including the first bank pass-book system, the first stock quotation system, and the first airline seat reservation system. At Digitronics Corporation, she designed the first commercial high-speed digital data communications terminals and the first on-line racetrack pari-mutuel system. In 1969, Ms. Berezin founded the Redactron Corporation, which designed, developed, and manufactured electronic word processing systems sold worldwide.

Ms. Berezin is a director or trustee of several non-profit institutions. Among these are the Stony Brook Foundation, the Brookhaven Science Associates (manager of Brookhaven National Laboratory), the Boyce Thompson Institute, a private agricultural biology research institute and the Board of Overseers of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of New York University.

Ms. Berezin holds Honorary Doctorates from Adelphi University and Eastern Michigan University. She was awarded the Long Island Distinguished Leadership Award; in 1975, she was named to Business Week’s list of “Top 100 Business Women in the United States”. 

Sharon J. Cates-Williams

Sharon J. Cates-Williams is the Chief Information Officer and Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology for Suffolk County. A graduate of Baruch College, Cates-Williams served for 16 years as vice president in the Global Technology division at Lehman Brothers in New York.  After Sept.11th, she entered the public sector. She became the first African American Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology of the Town of North Hempstead where she orchestrated the implementation of Long Island’s first 311 non-emergency constituent response system. Her selection in 2005 as Chief Information Officer for Suffolk County distinguished her as the first African American woman CIO in County history and the highest-ranking African American woman in the Steve Levy administration.  She is currently leading the bi-county initiative to provide wireless broadband access to all of Long Island. With more than 20 years experience providing vision, strategy and solutions for business, her strong religious foundation has been the key to her success.  A cancer survivor, Ms. Cates-Williams continues to give back to her community.  She is actively involved with women’s education programs and participates in mentoring events for young girls. She is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the National Council of Negro Women. She was recently named one of Long Islands Top 50 Women and is a past recipient of the March of Dimes Women of Distinction Award.

Amy Hagedorn

The LIFWG is proud to present the Community Service Award to Amy Hagedorn in recognition of her years of dedication to the Long Island Community.  Amy personifies the ideal of women’s philanthropy.  Not only has Amy given tirelessly of herself, she established the Horace Hagedorn Foundation in 2005 to honor her late husband.  A modest, unassuming woman with a wide range of concerns, Amy Hagedorn is the consummate community activist.

Amy is the President of the board of Sustainable Long Island, a regional non-profit organization that promotes economic development, environmental health and social equity.  She serves on the advisory board of the Long Island Community Foundation, where she has been donor-advisor to the Horace & Amy Hagedorn Fund for the past ten years.

Amy also serves on the boards of Hofstra University, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System and the Partnership for After School Education. She is a member of the Nassau County Planning Commission.

Amy Hagedorn is retired from a twenty-three year early childhood teaching career, having initiated Pre-kindergarten programs at St. Aloysius Church in Great Neck in 1973 and at the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park public schools in 1985. Amy was graduated cum laude from The Baruch School at the City University of New York and earned a masters degree at Queens College, also CUNY.

Kathryn Morrissey

Kathryn Morrissey, President, AT&T Wholesale, is responsible for directing international sales and sales operations for AT&T’s wholesale organization that operates from more than seventy countries. Morrissey also oversees the buying and routing management of international voice services for the consumer, business and wholesale units within AT&T. 

Ms. Morrissey joined AT&T in 1980 as an account executive.  Her business acumen and managerial skills led to a meteoric rise through the ranks of the company.  In 1996 she became part of the wholesale organization when she was appointed director of sales for the newly created systems integrator segment. In 2000, she assumed responsibility for the domestic wholesale sales organization and in 2002 was named President of Global Wholesale Services, responsible for an integrated domestic and global sales organization. In 2005, with the merger of SBC and AT&T complete, Ms. Morrissey was named President of Wholesale. 

A native of New York City, Ms. Morrissey graduated from St. John’s University with a B.A. in History, and earned an M.S. in Education from Hofstra University and an M.B.A. in International Marketing from St. John’s University.

Ms. Morrissey was the recipient of the Academy of Women Achievers Award in 2000.  She was accepted into the David Rockefeller Fellows Program for 2003 and received the ACE of Spades recognition award from the AT&T ACE Partners Program in 2005.  In 2006, St. John’s University conferred the Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of outstanding personal or professional achievement.

Ms. Morrissey and her husband reside in New York City. 

Diana Sierra

“I am Seventeen, female and wish to test my boundaries, to give a voice, dignity, to those who have been denied it. Life starts now,” writes our Young Woman Achiever for Excellence in Peacemaking, Diana Sierra.

An honor student in the rigorous International Baccalaureate Program at Northport High School, Diana ranks 19th of 529 students.  She has distinguished herself through her academic excellence and through the contribution she has made to her community.  Chosen as the only student representative from her school to the Town of Huntington Anti-Bias Task Force, Diana assumed a leadership role.  She helps to organize the Task Force’s Common Ground Day that promotes understanding and cooperation among Huntington’s diverse population.  We are proud that our Young Woman Achiever has a keen understanding that mutual respect and tolerance is the foundation of a peaceful society.

Diana’s other extracurricular activities demonstrate her commitment to her community.  She has tutored migrant workers; raised funds to benefit abused children, reached out to the elderly and pitched in to paint a mural to beautify an old building near the Huntington LIRR station. 

Diana was born in Colombia and immigrated to the United States when she was five.  She watched her mother extricate herself from an abusive relationship and struggle to support her family.  Rather than succumb to the family’s difficulties, Diana has used her considerable intelligence, talent and energy to improve our world. She writes. “… No woman should be denied the opportunity to better herself and voice her opinions. … My mother’s sacrifices will not go unnoticed. As a woman, a Hispanic, and as my mother’s daughter, it further motivates me to work hard and make something of myself.”

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About LIFWG

Founded in 1991 by a network of women from business, the professions, not-for-profit and philanthropic communities, the Long Island Fund for Women & Girls encourages women to act as philanthropists and provides seed money to initiatives that benefit women and girls. Hundreds of programs across Long Island have been nurtured by this support, ranging from programs designed to promote equal opportunity in education, to advocacy that addresses gender-related issues and civil liberties and those that advance women’s health and safety. In turn, the LIFWG enjoys sustaining support from many Long Island individuals and corporations. 

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Sylvia Claase
Development Associate
Long Island Fund for Women & Girls
1055 Stewart Avenue
Bethpage, New York 11714
516.622.3863
email: sclaase–AT–lifwg.org