The Enquirer is proud to announce its Women of the Year honorees for 2025.
Since 1968, The Enquirer Women of the Year awards have been presented annually to standout women who use their passion for service and diverse skills to make Cincinnati a better place. This year’s group joins the more than 550 outstanding individuals previously honored and includes women who have worked to uplift the local economy, propel the gospel music industry and advance maternal health.
The 10 women will be honored at the Enquirer Women of the Year luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 23, at Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati. Tickets will be available soon at www.enquirerwoy.com.
Here are this year’s honorees:
Rachel DesRochers
Rachel DesRochers is a serial entrepreneur who uses her passion for food as a vehicle for bringing people together and for building community among women to shepherd her many business endeavors. She’s the founder of Power to Pursue, a women’s empowerment movement that started in Cincinnati and has since expanded, hosting events in Cleveland, Columbus and Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Each year, Power to Pursue hosts a summit welcoming a lineup of standout female speakers who excel in a range of fields for mothers, female entrepreneurs, women in corporate jobs and all kinds of other attendees.
She’s also the founder and director of Incubator Kitchen Collective, a Newport-based nonprofit supporting food entrepreneurs and start-ups that has helped launch over 170 food businesses. In 2010, with one kid in school and an infant at home, she decided to use her skills in marketing and natural foods to create a company called Grateful Grahams, a line of handmade vegan graham crackers that has expanded to encompass wholesale business shipping orders made all over the country. All of these businesses, along with Good n’ Local, which she created to empower food entrepreneurs through an annual food show, make up The Gratitude Collective, her assembly of projects all rooted in spreading gratitude.
Tracey Farley-Artis
Tracey Farley-Artis is a trailblazing gospel music executive and founder of I Hear Music, Inc., a promotions and marketing firm that represents gospel artists and hosts special events such as the annual I Hear Music in the Air Conference. The event, held every summer in Cincinnati and now in its 23rd year, teaches professionals and entrepreneurs how to be successful in the music industry and beyond. The conference, most recently hosted at the Sharonville Convention Center, brings artists, business executives, and community leaders to the Queen City each year.
In her work as an executive in the gospel music industry, Farley-Artis helped launch the careers of award-winning artists including Trin-i-tee 5:7, Kirk Franklin and the Family, God’s Property featuring Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, Ricky Dillard, Brian Courtney Wilson, Andrae Crouch, Shirley Caesar, and more.
Farley-Artis’ contributions to the Cincinnati community stretch beyond the stage through her work as executive director of the Black Family Reunion – a four-day event and annual tradition once celebrated in cities across the country that has since found a home in Cincinnati. In directing the reunion, Farley-Artis leads a historic occasion that invites consumers, corporations and visitors alike to champion the historic strengths and values of the Black family. Her commitment to mentorship and celebrating Black heritage extends to her service on multiple boards and committees, including the Cincinnati Chapter of The Links, Inc. and Lincoln Heights Outreach, Inc.
Karen Finan
As CEO and president of OneNKY Alliance, an initiative bringing together professionals across Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties, Karen Finan contributes to the cohesion of the Northern Kentucky region across business, government and nonprofit initiatives. Since the founding of OneNKY Alliance 2017, Finan champions the mission of “One Region, One Voice,” bringing together regional stakeholders to produce tangible results in achieving world-class standards particularly in health and education.
Finan’s civic work helped forge projects like the OneNKY Frankfort building. Within walking distance of the Commonwealth of Kentucky Capitol, the building offers a physical anchor for the region’s advocacy efforts. She’s also contributed to launching EducateNKY, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing local leaders together to ensure success and innovation in Northern Kentucky’s education landscape.
And as board chair of Aviatra Accelerators, a boutique startup accelerator supporting female entrepreneurs, Finan has expanded her community work supporting women-led aerospace ventures. Beyond her work leading civic development in Northern Kentucky, Finan has previously held several senior leadership roles throughout her career, including as Sr. Vice President of Duke Realty Corporation, Sr. Vice President of Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation and as partner at Gilman Partners LLC.
Julie Holt
Julie Holt serves as the chief nursing officer and vice president at The Christ Hospital, a regional care system comprised of The Christ Hospital and more than 100 outpatient and physician locations in the Greater Cincinnati area. In her executive role, Holt uses her over three decades of health care service to elevate care standards for patients across the region. Among her efforts as chief nursing officer, she implemented an 18-month training program called Care, Innovation and Transformation provided for 30 medical teams and 200 direct care providers to boost quality of care within the hospital.
Holt also embraced telemedicine and other technological tools to improve patient experience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, forging a path for bettering patient care in the digital age. She helped implement smartphones for all frontline clinicians and champion the hospital’s electronic intensive care monitoring unit that remotely monitors patients at various locations in the care system.
Her commitment to quality health care extends beyond her executive leadership role. Holt serves on the board of the Family Nurturing Center, a social service organization combating child abuse in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. In addition, Holt is an avid supporter of the Go Red for Women campaign, the American Heart Association’s national movement to end heart disease and stroke in women. She’s leveraged her influence and health care knowledge to raise awareness around heart disease, helping educate women about the importance of heart health and preventive care.
Florence Malone Crump
Florence Malone Crump uses her personal experience struggling to afford child care as a young mom to inform her work as director of community engagement at Cincinnati Preschool Promise, a nonprofit that has connected thousands of children in the Cincinnati area to high-quality preschool education since 2017. In her role, Crump guides families through the enrollment process, connects parents to tuition assistance and ultimately removes barriers that stand between children and potential educational growth.
The proud West End native’s work at Cincinnati Preschool Promise goes above and beyond her job description. For one, she helped launch the nonprofit’s Provider Council, which brings together representatives from family child care and multi-site programs to deliver input on the nonprofit’s mission. She’s also led initiatives within Cincinnati Preschool Promise like Preschool Chats, Coffee & Conversations and newsletters informing providers and parents of all the inner workings of the group.
Crump’s devotion to her Cincinnati neighborhood is evident in her work at West End’s community garden, which she co-founded after identifying underutilized land in the area. After harvesting ingredients there, she taught herself to can and launched Urban Flo’s Kitchen, where she makes homemade jams, jellies, teas, and spices for her community to enjoy.
Chana Mangel
As co-founder and co-director of the Chabad Jewish Center of Greater Cincinnati, Chana Mangel has devoted over three decades building the center from a small organization of participants to an established synagogue bringing together individuals of all kinds in Blue Ash. Alongside her husband Rabbi Yisroel Mangel, she has worn many hats including educator, counselor and event organizer in leading holiday celebrations and other programming at the center.
Mangel’s dedication to building up Cincinnati’s Jewish community is evident in her major initiative the Mega Challah Bake. Launched in 2015, suspended during the pandemic and relaunched a few years ago, the challah bake brings together hundreds of women from all corners of the Jewish faith, including unaffiliated, Reform,Humanistic, Conservative and Orthodox, to knead and braid challah, traditional Jewish bread. Through this event, Mangel has championed principles of community-building while bridging differences of religious practice.
And in helping lead the Jewish Women’s Circle, Mangel offers support services for hundreds of Jewish women, mentoring individuals on issues of identity, personal growth, wellness and mental health among teens and adults, among other topics.
Carolyn Pione Micheli
Carolyn Pione Micheli’s dedication to serving the Cincinnati community runs every day of the week. During business hours, she utilizes her media knowledge as a senior executive at The E. W. Scripps Company, a national broadcasting company headquartered in Cincinnati. And on weekends, she lends her talents to Saturday Hoops, a volunteer-run weekly program by the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative that offers creative, instructional and physical activities for kids in the region.
For over a decade, Micheli has been a driving force behind a pillar of the Saturday Hoops program, the Huddle room. There, Micheli helps students engage in social-emotional learning, critical life skills and mental health support, connecting with volunteers, community leaders and wellness professionals to create a space where Saturday Hoops students feel empowered.
Beyond uplifting kids on her Saturday mornings, Micheli works to uplift the women that make up her staff at Scripps, leading both formal and informal efforts to empower other women. She created a forum called Scripps Wise Women Group, where fellow female leaders are encouraged to share knowledge and resources to support each other. Plus, she’s been a consistent advocate for working mothers, pushing for improved mothers’ rooms within Scripps, maintaining an open-door policy and promoting work-life balance for others on her team.
Jill Miller
As president and CEO of Bethesda Inc., a not-for-profit organization and co-sponsor of TriHealth, Jill Miller is working everyday toward making Greater Cincinnati a healthier place, particularly for moms and infants. In the over 10 years that Miller has overseen the major health care entity, Miller led millions in investments to improving health outcomes and advances in maternal and infant health. Her work at Bethesda Inc. extends to the bi3 Fund, a grant-making initiative that, over the past decade, has awarded more than $100 million in grants to advance health equity in the Greater Cincinnati community.
Miller’s efforts in her executive role and beyond speak to her dedication to helping drive Cincinnati’s historic reduction in infant mortality in a model of care that puts moms at the center that’s now being replicated across the state. Helping spearhead the partnership between bi3 and the nonprofit Cradle Cincinnati, Miller’s efforts enabled the launch of Queens Village, a network of Black women who share their pregnancy and childbirth experiences to inform needed resources. Her approach also resulted in a bi3 grant for Cradle’s program Mama Certified, designed to hold hospitals accountable for issues like equity and safety and to empower Black parents with birthing resources.
Her experience ushering in the historic shift is discussed in her book “Infant Mortality and Other Wicked Problems: A Community-Driven Approach to Creating Change,” which Miller co-authored with Dr. Meredith C. Smith, executive director of Cradle Cincinnati. And in line with her commitment to bettering community-wide health, Miller put in motion a bi3 grant program to offer funds for local schools supporting wellness rooms, mental health resources and more in honor of World Teen Mental Wellness Day. Now in its third year, the initiative has empowered thousands of students to lead activities that foster mental wellness in their schools.
Rickell Howard Smith
Rickell Howard Smith uses her legal background and executive leadership skills on the front lines of expanding racial and gender justice in Greater Cincinnati. As president and CEO of YWCA Greater Cincinnati, Smith has shepherded a period of growth for social services in the region, including opening a domestic violence shelter in Avondale this May. In a project that doubled the YWCA’s housing capacity, the former attorney led the opening of the trauma-informed and family-focused facility, with individual living spaces, a pet-friendly design, a communal kitchen, and safe outdoor play areas. Smith’s tenure at YWCA Greater Cincinnati has also been defined by her commitment to expanding domestic violence services to underserved rural areas, including Clermont, Brown and Adams counties.
Her dedication to producing tangible improvements in the realm of social justice is evidenced by her previous positions, most recently as the director of the center for social justice at the Urban League of Southwestern Ohio. There, she propelled police reform efforts in the region, addressing issues like police accountability and economic justice.
Breaking cycles of generational poverty and uplifting women are issues Smith tackles in her role on the Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s leadership council. On that team, Smith contributed to research pertaining to improving the economic status of women and helped curate the Employer Toolkit on Gender Equity.
Maribeth Rahe
Over the course of her robust career, Maribeth Rahe has made her mark among the executive women forging ahead in the financial sector. She’s led one of the largest investment advisors in the state as president and CEO of Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc., a subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group. The firm, which has grown considerably under Rahe’s leadership, offers asset management services for a range of clients including institutions, corporations, insurance companies, mutual funds and high-net-worth individuals. Rahe’s authentic leadership is reflected in the everyday innovations of the firm, as evidenced by the development of Fort Washington’s Fresh Network, formed in 2019 in an effort to uplift young professionals and produce an exchange of fresh ideas.
Rahe’s tenure at Fort Washington comes on the heels of a far-reaching career in various financial executive roles, including as president and board member of the United States Trust Company of New York, as vice chair of the board of The Harris Bank (now BMO) in Chicago and at J.P. Morgan in London and New York.
Her contributions to the Cincinnati community extend beyond her leadership at Fort Washington. Despite her demanding work schedule, Rahe has consistently donated her time and efforts for several local organizations and boards including the Cincinnati Arts Association, Cintrifuse’s Advisory Board, First Financial Bank, Greater Cincinnati Foundation and ArtsWave. Her philanthropic efforts have proven instrumental in major projects like the renovation of Cincinnati Music Hall and the success of Zoofari, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s largest annual fundraiser.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Meet the 2025 Enquirer Women of the Year
Reporting by Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
