Women Who Lead
Empowering Female Leaders
The women are highlighted with a new art installation every year to represent the lasting impact they’ve left on each of their respective industries. The Women Who Lead initiative brings together charity, small businesses, and the public to celebrate the female professionals who make a difference.
Do you know someone who has been influential in your community?
Stay tuned for our 2025 campaign to nominate them as a leader.
2026 Campaign
Ambition
Women Who Lead In sports
This year, our primary objective is to celebrate women across the sports industry, and the wealth of ambition they draw on to claim their place and open the door for those who follow. These are the women shaping the game at every level, whose determination moves not just their own careers forward but the whole field with them.
We’re so excited to celebrate these women and the ambition that drives them forward. Over the coming months, we’ll be introducing you to each of our candidates: the women driving impact on and off the field, in front offices and on sidelines, in boardrooms and locker rooms.
The honoree list for 2026 is coming soon. Stay tuned!
94%
Percentage of C-suite women who played sports.
Sage Marie’s Coffee & Tea
Perseverance
Women Who Lead In healthcare
The primary objective the Women Who Lead 2024 campaign was to celebrate women in the healthcare and health tech industry. Many women still struggle to get their foot in the door when it comes to male-dominated leadership positions, and must draw on a wealth of perseverance to succeed in their chosen career paths.
The 2024 Women Who Lead art installment utilized painted doors to symbolize the barriers these women in leadership have overcome. This exhibit highlighted nominees’ perseverance throughout their roles in healthcare, inspiring viewers to take action in their own communities and careers.
Passion
Women Who Lead In the Queen City
Finch crafted a coffee label specifically dedicated to Women Who Lead, and the proceeds generated from sales of this custom-designed coffee were directed toward Finch’s fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). This campaign both celebrated a Charlotte woman providing delicious coffee to her community, and the work that LLS does as the largest nonprofit funder of leading-edge research for every type of blood cancer.
Initiative
Women Who Lead in business
At its core, the 2022 Women Who Lead project also spotlighted Sharai Lavoie, CEO of Lavoie CPA and the brains behind Women Who Lead. As a woman in accounting, Sharai Lavoie has always made an effort to uplift those alongside her, and this new initiative was her way of taking that value one step further.
