Learn More About Our 2020 Luminary Award Nominees!
Luminary Awards are going virtual this year so make sure you save the date for October 15th from 12:00-1:30PM to join us in celebrating our seven incredible nominees for our either the Shining Star or Visionary Awards. Read on to learn more about these amazing ladies!
Shining Star Nominees
CyndiLou Foster, Homewood Suites by Hilton – Harrisburg West (High Hotels)
CyndiLou is the Director of Sales and Marketing for the High Hotels, Ltd. Harrisburg West campus; represents (3) award-winning properties, including the TownePlace Suites by Marriott, Hampton Inn by Hilton and Homewood Suites by Hilton. She has worked in some form of hotel sales & marketing and/or event planning for 30+years. As a proven leader in her field, CyndiLou has been called upon to open multiple new hotels in the region and is used as a strong resource for her successful sales and leadership best practices. CyndiLou has been an active participant of Cumberland County Economic and Development Corporation, Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau, West Shore, East Shore and Lancaster Chambers, VHH, MPIMP, and PASAE. In addition to these professional organizations, CyndiLou takes great pride in volunteering much of her free time with the Children’s Miracle Network, American Cancer Society, Ronald McDonald House, Young Women’s Futures Symposium, FBLA, and as a past Board member and Membership Committee Chair with the Hershey Partnership Chamber of Commerce. CyndiLou enjoys every opportunity to network and develop relationships with the area businesses and those people coming to the region for business or leisure travel. She actively pursues every opportunity to mentor and coach new talent in the industry and pass on her tenured experience, passion, and journey of successes. She attributes her career success to her #1 job of being a Mother. She strives to provide the best for her son, being a role model for a positive work ethic and overall compassion for others.
Barrie Ann George, Safe Harbour, Inc.
Barrie Ann is originally from Easton, PA. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Government Administration and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Shippensburg University. Though she began her career in Economic Development, she realized her true passion is working in the Human Service field. During her 30-year career in human services, Barrie Ann has worked at the United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County in community building and early childhood education advocacy as well as at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region, last holding the position of Cumberland County Director. She currently serves as the Director of Development and Communications at Safe Harbour. Barrie Ann is a proud 2017 graduate of Leadership Cumberland. Barrie Ann has an extensive list of community volunteerism. Most notably she served as President of the Carlisle Kiwanis Club in 2015-16 and currently serves as Club Secretary. She also volunteers with the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Cumberland, the Cumberland County Commission for Women and Success By 6. She has been married to Joseph George for 28 years. Sharing a passion for the arts, together they have been writing the Fine Arts columns for The Sentinel newspaper and the Dillsburg Banner newspaper for the past 7 years. Barrie Ann and her husband have two children; Trent, who is a social worker, and Sydney, a freshman at Millersville University.
Kayla Murr, Best Western Plus Harrisburg – Mechanicsburg (Areya Management)
Kayla was born and raised in Maryland up until her high school years by a single mother who took care of her and her sister. Being the eldest and seeing how her mother struggled with income and supporting her sister and herself; she knew she needed to work hard to be able to help her family. After moving to Pennsylvania, Kayla was old enough to start working and acquired small jobs as a waitress. After she graduated high school, she secured a position as a front desk agent at a local resort while going to community college. Kayla then attended Shippensburg University where she studied and received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and worked at two local hotels as a front desk agent. In her senior year of college, Kayla became a Revenue Administrator for her current employer, Areya Management, who is the management company for the hotels she worked at in Shippensburg. Just a year after she joined Areya Kayla received a promotion to add operations and properties where she is the revenue manager to her job. Kayla is currently the youngest in the Corporate Office along with being the only female. The goals she has set for herself is to continue with the growing company so that she can later support those who took care of her when she was younger.
Alexandria Resetar, AmeriChoice Federal Credit Union
Alexandria is the Marketing Specialist at AmeriChoice Federal Credit Union. Alex began working for AmeriChoice in 2007 in various roles until taking on the Marketing Specialist role in 2016. As the Marketing Specialist, Alex is responsible for maintaining the AmeriChoice website, social media and blog, planning the signature AmeriChoice events, along with working with local schools and organizations to bring financial literacy to the community. Alex is part of the multi Award winning team at AmeriChoice that has been recognized for their work in Financial Literacy. She is passionate about helping those in her community gain a better understanding of their finances so they can reach their goals. She is active within the Credit Union community, recently attending the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Conference in Orlando in the “crasher” program, a leadership course designed for Young Professionals within the Credit Union Industry. Alex also serves on the board of the Harrisburg Chapter of Credit Unions and the CrossState Credit Union Association Emerging Leaders Council, along with the West Shore Chamber’s Business & Industry Night Committee. A lifelong resident of the West Shore, Alex graduated from Cedar Cliff High School and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications from Elizabethtown College.
Visionary Nominees
Kate Deringer Sallie, Pillar+Aught
Kate is optimism and strength. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better, more qualified advocate for you and your best interests. Kate takes a big picture look at every situation and aligns the details accordingly. This is especially important as an expert in lending law and business reorganization. With an extensive background in bankruptcy and corporate finance law, Kate has notable experience in Delaware and Pennsylvania representing debtors and secured creditors in bankruptcy cases, sales, structured liquidations, restructurings, and other alternatives to bankruptcy. Kate has deep experience in creditors’ rights, loan workouts, and commercial lending transactions, and is well versed in all areas of corporate law and commercial transactions relevant to your business. A graduate of The Penn State University Dickinson School of Law, Kate is also a frequent speaker on lending law, business reorganization, and the empowerment of women in the profession. She continues her involvement at her alma mater by serving as a practitioner instructor. She is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation, and the Turnaround Management Association. Kate is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Kate was named a 2013 Women of Influence, a 2015 Select Lawyer for Susquehanna Valley, a Central Pennsylvania Business Journal “Forty under 40 award” recipient in 2016, and the PA Bankers Champion of Women award winner in 2018.
Molly Helmstetter, CFRE, New Hope Ministries
Molly has been a fundraiser in the nonprofit world for twenty-five years, serving a variety of agencies from grassroots to national organizations, in the education, health, and human services fields, primarily in Maryland and Pennsylvania communities. After living and working in Maryland in the early part of her career, she moved to Pennsylvania in 2004 to stay home with her two young children. Soon after, she jumped right back into fundraising, getting to know a new community, right at the beginning of the last recession. For close to twelve years, she has been the Director of Development at New Hope Ministries based in south-central Pennsylvania, overseeing and conducting various fundraising activities, campaigns, and appeals, while investigating and implementing new ways to engage the community New Hope serves through creative and engaging marketing activities. Molly is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and current Board President of the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Outside of fundraising and volunteering, Molly is a National Parks geek, avid traveling wanderer, an admirer of the arts, and still that “sometimes” embarrassing mom to her two adult children, Madeline (21) and Grant (19).
Janice L. Snyder, CPA, McKonly & Asbury
Janice is a Partner and Director of Assurance Services at McKonly & Asbury, LLP. She has over 20 years of experience in public accounting. A graduate of Penn State University, she majored in Accounting. She currently serves as the Treasurer and Board Member for WITF, Inc., Board Member for United Way of the Capital Region, Board Member for Tri-County OIC and was a past Board President for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central PA. She also serves on the Advisory Council for the Women’s Leadership Network of the United Way of the Capital Region and was a past Chair. She is also a founding member of the Lancaster Chapter of the Women President’s Organization.
The winners will be announced during the Virtual Luminary Awards taking place on October 15th from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm. Interested in attending? Purchase your tickets here!