The highlight of the 2024 Rad Awards were undoubtedly the people — mostly women — in the room. Philadelphia entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, activists and athletes making impacts in their fields and demonstrating a passion for supporting others, especially other women, filled the space to overflowing. It was a rare, joyful gathering of people transforming our city, one business, one story, one case, one creation — one victory — at a time.
Leah Kauffman founded the Rad Awards in 2015 to celebrate women making positive changes. Last year, Kauffman and The Philadelphia Citizen partnered to host the awards’ first post-pandemic appearance, honoring 16 accomplished women and one male ally. To date, more than 60 Philadelphians have won Rad Awards.
Comcast Chief Diversity Officer and President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation Dalila Wilson Scott won Rad Girl of the Year. In her speech, she said, “It always has and it always will take rad girls to move our city forward and our country forward. So we have work to do, ladies!”
Kauffman and The Citizen are teaming up again for the 2025 Rad Awards. This spring, we put out a call for nominations in 12 categories and received close to 100 responses. We’ve narrowed it down to four finalists in each category. You’re invited to fete each one of them (and find out the winner!) at a summer cocktail party at the Fitler Club from 6:30 to 9:30pm on the evening of July 30. The event will be filled with music, style and joy.
Most importantly, it will honor the women and allies who are innovating, breaking barriers and lifting each other up in Philly.
Purchase tickets here.
Meet your 2025 Rad Award nominees below:
Artist of the Year
Tan Hoang, Comedian, Co-host of Tattooed Momedy
Up-and-coming stand-up comedian Tan Hoang co-hosts Tattooed Mom’s popular, intentionally inclusive monthly comedy showcase Tattooed Momedy. Hoang has opened for acts across the city, including Jon Daly and Joel Kim Booster.
As a performer, what sets Hoang apart is how she prioritizes thoughtful storytelling and craft over … getting a laugh at all costs. As a gatherer of other comics and audiences, Hoang provides an antidote to the backslapping bro culture, providing a warmly welcoming onstage home to funny performers of all backgrounds and proclivities.
DeJeonge Reese, Artist
DeJeonge Reese makes modern sculpture out of synthetic hair. Reese came up with the idea as a student at Moore College of Art when she began her own locing journey and began researching the history of Black hair culture. Her work explores hair as both material and metaphor and affirms Black identity and challenges beauty norms.
Reese’s work is representation unto itself. In 2023, she became one of 15 recipients of the Mural Arts Fellowship for Black Artists. PHL’s A-West terminal has shown her work.
Ebony Roberts, Director, United We Heal Film Festival
Ever since seven-year-old Ebony Roberts watched Back to the Future, she wanted to make films. That opportunity finally came in 2020, when Roberts released her first short film about the social justice protests happening around the country. Today, she’s helped dozens of like-minded others chase their short filmmaking dreams.
Roberts’ festival shares a namesake with her original film and offers more than just an artistic showcase. Now in its fourth year, United We Heal gives a platform to Black and Brown filmmakers creating short stories about social justice in their communities.
Anula Shetty, Filmmaker
Inspiring social change through film is at the heart of Anula Shetty’s art. A first-generation immigrant, Shetty, who has a MFA from Temple University, centers questions of identity, culture, and erasure in her own projects.
Shetty is currently completing an artist-activist fellowship with the Leeway Foundation, documenting the family and cultural histories of communities now threatened by displacement and automation. The project builds on Shetty’s previous work with Mural Arts, Public Works, and SEPTA.
Storyteller of the Year
Thembi Palmer, Founder, Imagine More Story Adventures
It’s not uncommon to see Thembi Palmer crawling on the ground, breaking into a dance, or spraying kids with a bubble gun during her reading sessions. The founder of Imagine More Story Adventures aims to get kids — in groups of five or fewer to more than a 100, which she hosts 12 to 15 times each month — excited by books so that they become lifelong readers. Her sessions go beyond the simple read-aloud storytimes: Palmer incorporates music, crafts and STEM lessons into her work.
Among her partners and hosts for interactive reading sessions: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Please Touch Museum and literacy organizations like Read by Fourth.
Julie Hancher, Editor-in-Chief, Green Philly
Let’s face it. Besides repping the Eagles, Philly isn’t thought of as a green town. But thanks to the tireless coverage of Green Philly, launched by Julie Hancher in 2008, more people are changing their minds every day.
Hancher has developed a grassroots blog into a go-to resource for journalism, events, and discussion of public policy related to environmental sustainability in the city. While collaborating with more than 200 organizations on projects, including a number of journalistic investigations (and including The Philadelphia Citizen), Hancher has overseen the publication of more than 3,000 articles and spearheaded the creation of SustainPHL.
Jo Piazza, Author, Host of Under the Influence Podcast
One of the city’s most beloved (and prolific) authors, Jo Piazza has recently conquered the podcasting game, because why not?
The Citizen tapped into her sharp storytelling in Philly Under Fire, a podcast exploring the gun violence epidemic with tremendous intimacy. Her current work covers more lighthearted topics — which, at this moment, we desperately need more of. Her ongoing Committed series takes a hilarious and heartfelt look at long-term couples. With Under the Influence, she’s been tackling the thorny issues of social media. Did we mention she’s also written a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction? Her latest, Everyone is Lying to You, comes out this month.
Bobbi I. Booker, Managing News Editor, WHYY PlanPhilly and Jazz Music Host
Philly-born Bobbi I. Booker may have one of the city’s best and most distinctive voices, which you can hear almost daily when she hosts jazz shows on WRTI 90.1. As Managing Editor of PlanPhilly at WHYY, Booker guides community-centered development reporting.
Booker is the first African American woman president of The Pen and Pencil Club, America’s oldest press club, and a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is not only a storyteller herself, but she mentors and empowers rising journalists who hope to follow in her footsteps.
Nonprofit Leader of the Year
Samantha Mathews, Founder and CEO, Andrée Collective
Samantha Matthews was working as a trauma therapist when she got the idea for the Andrée Collective, a nonprofit organization that serves adult female survivors of domestic violence. Andrée Collective offers pay-what-you-can therapy and financial literacy classes — and also operates as a business planning weddings and events, a social enterprise model that provides clients work opportunities and imparts career skills.
Matthews’ goal: Make women financially and emotionally self-sufficient so they never need to return to abusers. Last year, her apprenticeship program served 25 women across six therapy and financial literacy sessions and nine events.
Jill Fink, Executive Director, The Merchants Fund
For the past seven years, Jill Fink has championed equity and community wealth-building as the leader of a 170-year-old Philadelphia charity that makes small grants to small local businesses that are facing financial hardship. Fink experienced The Merchants Fund (TMF) firsthand as a grant recipient on behalf of Mugshots Coffeehouse, a Fairmount B-Corps she founded in 2004.
Fink went on to spend five years as a TMF board member before becoming the organization’s leader working to boost Philadelphia’s economy, grow jobs, support energy-saving strategies, nurture business leaders, maintain family ownership, and improve and create revenue streams. The organization gave $645,641 to 101 small businesses last year when 44 percent of their grant recipients were immigrant-owned, 52 percent were women-owned and 66 percent were minority owned. Fink is also leading the movement to invest TMF’s endowment into companies that align with their values.
Saleemah McNeil, Executive Director, Oshun Family Center
After she had unexpected prenatal complications that resulted in an emergency C-section in 2006, Saleemah McNeil knew she wanted to advocate for other Black mothers and address systemic racism in the healthcare industry. McNeil founded the Oshun Family Center, a nonprofit that provides doula services, lactation support, psychotherapy and racially concordant care.
The Jenkintown-based nonprofit manages Maternal Wellness Village, a network of Black doulas, nurses, therapists, lactation specialists, healers and others who are working to close racial healthcare gaps. The nonprofit is currently fundraising to open the first Black- and women-led maternal wellness center in Philadelphia.
Corinne O’Connell, CEO, Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia
Long before Mayor Cherelle Parker declared housing as the city’s top priority, Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia was answering the call. Over the last 40 years, the organization has supported more than 1,300 households, mostly through constructing new homes or rehabbing existing ones, while helping families reach their goals.
Corinne O’Connell has taken the nonprofit to new heights. Under O’Connell’s leadership, which began 16 years ago, Habitat Philadelphia has increased its staff by a multiple of five, allowing the organization to work closer with homeowners and residents. O’Connell has also been a connector for the city writ large, launching the Building Hope Luncheon, a convening of corporate, faith, and civic leaders that has raised more than $6.3 million to date for first-time homebuyers.
Connector of the Year
Medina Oyefusi, Programmatic and Public Events Manager, Mural Arts Philadelphia
Medina Oyefusi builds networks that support and create opportunities for artists and entrepreneurs — and not just in her prominent role at Mural Arts. In 2020, Oyefusi launched I Buy Black Too, a bar crawl of six Black-owned food and beverage establishments and 26 independent artists. Last year, she produced the multi-week event series Live at Love, featuring DJs, musicians and local artists as vendors. As the founder of Stumble Media Group, she’s worked to create events and build relationships that platform underrepresented creatives and business owners.
There’s more to her C.V., but suffice it to say Oyefusi builds community and gives artists access to launch or grow their careers. No wonder she’s also been tapped as community advisor for Philadelphia250, the org planning the city’s Semiquincentennial.
Madison Seidel, Founder, Dessert Before Dinner
This year, Madison Seidel went viral by going old-school. Being new in town, Seidel felt intimidated trying to make new friends in a new city, and decided to do something about it. Dessert Before Dinner is the result.
Using social media, she invites strangers, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, to in-person meet-ups, where strangers become friends by hanging out, making a craft or two, drinking a Poppi, maybe having a cupcake. Turns out, this whole in-person thing works — she doesn’t measure how many friendships have formed, but has seen it happening over and over, proving girls just want to make friends.
Helen Horstmann-Allen, Chief Optimist, Radical Optimist
Helen Horstmann-Allen isn’t just a successful business woman, she’s a source of support for other women, helping with everything from making smart investments to running for office. Though the nonprofit Invest for Better, Horstmann-Allen has helped women in the Philly area by leading monthly meetings about impact investing — the practice of investing your money into companies that do good. As Director of Finance for the political action committee Represent PA, she’s helped distribute over $2 million to women running for office in our state.
Her attitude is perhaps best embodied in the name of her own organization, Radical Optimism, which she founded in 2023 to join her entrepreneurial and mentorship interests, which range from product development to impact investing and civic engagement.
Tina D’Orazio, Chief of Staff, Philadelphia Eagles
One of few women to hold a chief of staff position in the NFL, Tina D’Orazio has led day-to-day operations for the two-time Super Bowl winning team while advancing the work and profile of the Eagles Autism Foundation. In the process, owner Jeffrey Lurie’s right-hand woman has transformed the team’s brand into one that prioritizes impact alongside their football wins — and served as a prominent example of a woman making it in an incredibly male-dominated industry.
A Philadelphia area native, D’Orazio, began her career with the events production and national promotions department at MTV Networks, where she worked on events like the MTV Music and Movie Awards.
Attorney of the Year
Jasmeet K. Ahuja, Partner Litigation, Arbitration, and Employment, Hogan Lovells
In her pro bono work, Jasmeet K. Ahuja has fought to make Philadelphia safer for all residents — including immigrants. Among her fights: an argument for an ordinance to require firearms owners to report lost or stolen guns to the police in the cases City of Philadelphia v. Armstrong and Crawford v. Commonwealth.
Outside of these efforts, Ahuja has represented major companies like Bonobos, Reuters and IBM in privacy and cybersecurity-related class-action lawsuits. She is a member of the board for The Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, the Sikh Coalition and Emerge PA.
Marissa Boyers Bluestine, Assistant Director, Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; former Executive Director and Legal Director, PA Innocence Project
Marissa Boyers Bluestine was the first legal director and former executive director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, a nonprofit that provides no-cost legal representation to wrongfully convicted individuals. Under her tenure, the Innocence Project reversed 14 wrongful convictions and partnered with law enforcement to train them on evidence-based techniques to help prevent future wrongful arrests and convictions.
As assistant director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at Penn’s law school, Boyers Bluestine teaches conviction integrity while working with prosecutors nationwide to develop conviction integrity units — thereby keeping more innocent people free.
Diana Cortes, Partner, Morgan Lewis
Diana Cortes became Philadelphia’s first Latina City Solicitor in December 2020, amid Covid, when she provided legal guidance for pandemic response to city officials — while continuing to try felony cases as an Assistant District Attorney.
Now, as a partner at Morgan Lewis, Cortes represents clients facing investigations and litigation from attorneys general, municipalities and class-action lawsuits, amongst other types of complex litigation. She also serves as co-chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s The Committee on Women in the Profession and is a member of PA’s Hispanic Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association and the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group.
Carol Tracy, former Executive Director, Women’s Law Project
For more than 30 years, Carol Tracy was Executive Director of the Women’s Law Project, PA’s only public interest law center devoted to women’s rights, where she led the organization to major victories for reproductive rights, education, workplace discrimination, and welfare.
Tracy spearheaded a major reform effort that improved police response to sex crimes in Philadelphia and successfully requested hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee to address this same issue in cities across the nation.
Scientist of the Year
Dr. Jo-Elle Mogerman, President and CEO, Philadelphia Zoo
In less than two years, Jo-Elle Mogerman has leaned on her background in conservation biology and her priority for urban community engagement to bring America’s oldest zoo into the 21st century. Under her leadership, the Zoo has hired more local workers, beefed up local programming, and finally joined the ACCESS Philly program — which allows any PA ACCESS cardholder and up to three guests to pay $2 each for admission.
Is the fact that 97-year-old Galapagos tortoise Mommy welcomed four miraculous female hatchlings under the tenure of the Zoo’s first Black and first woman President and CEO coincidence — or simply good karma for catching up?
Dr. Delana Wardlaw and Dr. Elana McDonald, Founders and CEOs, Twin Sister Docs Foundation
Identical “Twin Sister Docs” Delana Wardlaw and Elana McDonald, a pediatrician and a family medicine doctor, respectively, built their careers serving the Northeast Philly communities where they grew up while mentoring other Black women who wanted to pursue careers in medicine. During the pandemic, they took their work a step further, launching their nonprofit and working with schools and public health officials to host vaccination clinics and spread the word about public safety measures.
Today, Wardlaw and McDonald continue to educate people about public health, especially about conditions like asthma and heart disease that have a disproportionate effect on Black communities.
Dr. Amelia Zellander, Founder and CEO, BioLattice
Bioengineer Amelia Zellander is solving one of the most common problems for the most common transplant recipients. Every 10 minutes, an American receives a donor cornea transplant — that’s 51,000 corneal transplants per year. But two-thirds of recipients reject these transplants within 10 years, and many contract blindness-causing cataracts or glaucoma from immunosuppressive eye drops.
These problems seem to disappear with Zellander’s proprietary synthetic corneas, which also don’t require refrigeration or donor management — luxuries that are common to the U.S. but much less so in the rest of the world, where 12.7 million people await the procedure. Zellander, whose company, BioLattice, is based in University City’s B+labs, has already created an artificial cornea prototype and achieved the crucial “proof of concept.” Her next step: FDA approval, for which she’s currently raising funds.
Dr. Maria A. Oquendo, Ruth Meltzer Professor of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine; Chair of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
Penn Perelman School of Medicine Professor and Psychiatry Chair Maria A. Oquendo just so happens to chair the committee that is reimagining the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) — the “bible” of psychiatry. The expert on mood disorders specializes in suicidal behavior and global mental health was the first Latina President of the American Psychiatric Association and, while at Columbia University, worked with Dr. Milton Wainberg on a fellowship program to support mental health training and research in Mozambique.
Since 2017, she’s been all Philly’s (OK, all Penn’s). In 2018, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology awarded her the Delores Shockley Minority Mentoring Award.
Activist of the Year
Victoria Martin-Nelson, Volunteer, South Philadelphia Community Fridge
When something needs to get done, Victoria Martin-Nelson steps up. A founding member and volunteer with South Philadelphia Community Fridge, one of many such operations that sprung up around the city during the pandemic, Martin-Nelson still picks up food from partnering local grocers and restaurants to ensure that any extras they have go to hungry Philadelphians, not landfills.
In her full-time work as a home delivery assistant at Share Food, she continues her fight against hunger in our city, where 210,000 people struggle with food insecurity.
Sarah Laurel, Executive Director, Savage Sisters
Sarah Laurel recovered from substance abuse disorder before founding a nonprofit to provide resources to individuals like herself. As Executive Director of Savage Sisters, she offers holistic, trauma-informed services: safe, structured housing, job search support, a 12-step program, therapy, and physical activity like yoga and kickboxing. Understanding her work also needs to face outward, Laurel advocates against stigma of addiction and mental health disorders, and conducts outreach to help clients access food, clothing, toiletries and recovery programs.
Having designed and organized the same Xylazine training now used nationwide, Laurel has earned a Congressional Medal of Honor, among other honors. Emmy-winning episodes of Vice News and CBS News with Jessica Kartalija featured her. She worked with actress Ashleigh Cummings, who played Kasey Fitzpatrick in the Peacock adaptation of Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, to ensure an empathetic and accurate portrayal of what it’s like to live with opioid-use disorder in Kensington.
Madelyn N. Morrison, Director of Programs, The Attic Youth Center
Longtime advocate for and leader among Philadelphia’s queer communities Madelyn N. Morrison co-created the Gender & Sexuality Handbook for Facilitators for the Philadelphia School District. Morrison led “Young, Trans and Unified,” The Attic Youth Center’s first trans-led group and raised awareness about sexual health. She has spoken in documentaries about ballroom culture, including ABC’s Our America: Who I’m Meant To Be.
Her activism began at age 14, when she shared her experiences as an out queer SDP student for The Attic’s Speaker’s Bureau. It wouldn’t be long before she became director of that program, now called The Bryson Institute, and then the whole organization, which creates safe spaces and opportunities for LGBTQ+ youth.
Louisa Mfum-Mensah, Vice President of Partner Experience, Urban Affairs Coalition
Louisa Mfum-Mensah has spent over a decade working in leadership in the government, nonprofit, and education sectors. Like many activists, she began her career doing voter outreach before taking on roles with: Global Citizen, where she oversaw budgeting and planning for Philly’s 115,000-volunteer MLK Day of Service, and the Mayor’s office, where, under Jim Kenney, she worked on public communications, social media and the expansion of the Community Schools initiative.
Since 2021, she’s been with Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC), first as Director of Executive Operations and now as Vice President of Partner Experience. Over her career, she’s managed more than 2 million dollars in grant funds for Philly-based nonprofits.
Athlete of the Year
Emelia Perry, Triathlete, 2024 Paralympic Games
Emelia Perry is rapidly rising in the world — literally, the world — of paralympic sports. Having tried her first paratriathlon in 2022, Perry repped Team USA just two years later at the Paris Paralympics — the only Philadelphian on the squad.
Truth be told, she’s long been an athlete, having run track and field at Ursinus College, where she studied exercise science. Partially paralysed from a post-college accident, Perry now uses sleek wheels to race and consults on physical therapy and rehabilitation research for Drexel University.
Karlie Kisha, Assistant Field Hockey Coach, Villanova; silver medalist for U.S. National and Olympic Field Hockey Team
In March, Karlie Kisha retired from USA Field Hockey — but not before winning a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Games, doing so a mere three months after a cancer diagnosis and surgery to remove her thyroid and lymph nodes.
The PA native was a two-time All-State selection while playing for Hamburg Area High School and represented her country in 73 international games before retiring and returning home as an assistant coach at Villanova, where she’s shaping the next generation of stars.
Tina Sloan Green, former Lacrosse Coach, Temple University; Co-founder, Black Women in Sport Foundation
Under Tina Sloan Green’s coaching, the Temple University women’s lacrosse team made it to 11 NCAA Final Four appearances and multiple national championships. A field hockey All American and U.S. national team field hockey player herself, the Philly native recently won the NCAA’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, for her storied career.
Today, Sloan Green is a founder of the Black Women in Sports Foundation, a nonprofit that does what its name says: work to increase representation of Black women in all aspects of sport, from youth to college, coaching to administration.
Niff Nicholls, Founder and Head Coach, Secret Circus Philly
Ever wanted to swing from a trapeze or dance in aerial silks? Niff Nicholls, founder and head coach at Secret Circus Philly, is making circus arts more accessible. In the past 10 years, she’s grown Secret Circus from a two-instructor operation in the back of a crossfit gym to 15 coaches and a bespoke studio.
Nicholls believes circus arts are for everyone, teaching students in their early teens to retirement age and establishing a BIPOC student scholarship fund.
Entrepreneur of the Year
Paige DeAngelo, Founder, Aer Cosmetics
At 22 years-old, and with $22 in her pocket, Paige DeAngelo set off to CVS with a mission: Create a mascara without a disposable plastic tube. The Drexel meteorology student and competitive dancer noticed the mascara portion alone of her makeup routine created a lot of waste — three to five tubes per year. Reporting on sustainability for Drexel’s TV’s Inside Ambition, DeAngelo decided to make her own.
Trial and error led to a formula for a dissolvable, smudge-proof, vegan, tubing mascara tablet. You place a mascara tablet into a dishwasher-safe tube, add water, and voilà, you have your sustainable, waste-free mascara. She sells it through her company, Aer Cosmetics and, in her spare time, dances with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Lindsey Scannapieco, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Scout
Lindsey Scannapieco has been in the news a lot this year for saving University of the Art’s iconic Hamilton and Furness halls for arts-centered development. The founder of Scout was behind the much-praised repurposing of South Philly’s Bok Building, transforming the former vocational school into a home for makers, nonprofits and small businesses, with a rooftop bar with a stunning skyline view.
Scout and Scannapieco are now retooling the UArts buildings to create makerspaces and artist workshops, a pop-up courtyard bar and artist housing, part of her dream to keep artists on the Avenue of the Arts. Scannapieco is at the forefront of the kinds of thoughtful, people-centered development Philly needs more of.
Tanya Morris, Founder, Mom Your Business
Mom Your Business founder Tanya Morris works with more than 300 women each year, connecting them with essential education, resources, and funding (more than half a million dollars so far) to begin and sustain entrepreneurial journeys. Since 2017, she’s been nurturing a promising cohort of Black and Brown mompreneurs — superhero women (who don’t need to be parents) determined to defy the odds to build successful businesses.
Last year, Morris opened a new headquarters at 19th and Lehigh, a space to host business seminars, mixers and co-working. Chances are, if you’re at a pitch competition in Philadelphia, she’s judging (or hosting).
Ximena Valle, Founding Principal, FIFTEEN Architecture and Design
In 2017, Ximena Valle founded her architecture and design firm, with a simple idea: What if buildings better centered people and emphasized community care? Those principles guide everything from FIFTEEN’s democratic leadership practices — everyone at the company, whether they’re an intern or a designer, has a voice — to its emphasis on working with collaborators from outside the field. Through the firm’s Collaborator Network, Valle brings experts in anthropology, medicine and social work to advise on projects, which include Rowan University’s School of Dance, Camden, NJ’s Coriell Institute for Medical Research and PHMC’s Public Health Campus in West Philly.
How Valle works prioritizes supporting and mentoring women in architecture, a field whose demands often force women out mid-career: She’s mentored architecture students while teaching at Temple and Penn, and her firm offers employees extended flexibility at work six months after maternity leave.
Innovator of the Year
Julia Rivera, Chief External Affairs Officer, Congreso de Latinos Unidos
Are influencer academies the job training programs of the future? Julia Rivera of Congreso de Latinos Unidos thinks so. Rivera partnered with Hector Nunez of Wooder Ice Media to design a program that teaches participants how to develop content, set up businesses, pay taxes and work with traditional corporate marketing teams, amongst other skills.
The 12-person pilot is just the latest project for seven-year Congreso veteran Rivera, known for both her fundraising and digital strategy. Rivera joined the nonprofit after working in comms and student relations at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in public policy.
Dr. Karen Tang, Founder, Thrive Gynecology
Main Line OB-GYN Karen Tang jauntily normalizes all manner of medical questions, conditions and procedures that, for decades, society has shrouded in shame and mystery through — how else? — social media.
Examples: She’s gone viral for posting a tubal ligation (to the tune of APT) along with videos about period poops, biological sex diversity, endometriosis, birth control, hysterectomy, perimenopause … Tang’s posts are factual and transparent, but also fun enough to amass her hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok. For followers who prefer printed to social media, she’s also authored It’s Not Hysteria about gynecological reproductive health.
Christine Cox, Artistic and Executive Director, BalletX
As Artistic and Executive Director and Co-Founder of BalletX, Christine Cox has been integral to making Philadelphia a prime location for contemporary ballet. Under her leadership, the company, currently celebrating its 20th year, has hosted 140 world premieres that push the boundaries of accessibility and excitement of classical dance.
Along the way, Cox helped pioneer the company’s Dance eXchange, in-school outreach for third and fourth graders across five District schools. She also ensures women choreographers lead at least 50 percent of every BalletX season. Her dancers receive annual salaries, 52 week contracts and paid vacation — a rarity in U.S. dance.
Lilly Chen, Founder and CEO, FSH Technologies
When former Meta engineer Lilly Chen was volunteering for Mayor Parker’s Open for Business initiative, she noticed that our city government wasn’t exactly filled with eager, start-up engineers, and that red tape was bogging down the development of municipal tech tools. So, she launched a company to make it easier, more efficient: FSH Technologies.
This year, Chen contracted with Pittsburgh Public Schools to build a logistics platform that will modernize the current paperwork-driven meal distribution process in city schools. Last year, she partnered with the Innocence Project to explore how ethical use of AI and legal technologies can support overturning wrongful convictions.
Rad Ally of the Year
Adam Dakin, President and CEO, Keriton
Last year, after 30 years in healthtech, Adam Dakin became president and CEO of Keriton, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) feeding technology app that manages inventory, feeding schedules and all the complicated issues related to nourishing premature infants. The idea belonged to Penn lactation consultant Laura Carpenter; Penn engineers developed the tool, which is now in 62 U.S. hospitals and health systems.
Dakin has long served as a mentor for entrepreneurs in the city: as entrepreneur-in-residence for the Penn Center for Innovation, and an advisor with Dreamit Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage cybersecurity startups.
David S. Cohen, Attorney, Professor of Law, Drexel University; Board of Directors, Abortion Care Network
Drexel Professor of Law David S. Cohen is a leading legal expert on abortion. He wrote (with co-author UC San Francisco sociologist Carole Joffe) the book on the reversal of Roe v. Wade: After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe But Not Abortion, which dives into abortion access June 2022 and features interviews with two dozen people on the frontline of access.
Cohen also serves on the board of directors for the national Abortion Care Network, takes on pro bono cases related to abortion access and LGBT rights, argued and won a 2018 case before the PA Supreme Court that prevents women from being charged with child abuse for drug use while pregnant, and is currently working to challenge PA’s ban on using Medicaid for abortion.
Zack Mackey, Community Engagement Supervisor, Lutheran Settlement House (CH)
In his role at a nonprofit serving Philadelphians experiencing hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, education needs, and old age-related issues, Zack Mackey is a pioneer. Notably, his Masculinity Action Project brings men into the gender justice movement, specifically through violence prevention and community education.
Mackey also coordinates Lutheran Settlement House training around domestic and teen dating violence prevention, crisis intervention and safety planning.
Le Thomas, former President, Philadelphia Black Pride
Le Thomas served Philadelphia Black Pride, one of the country’s first Black Pride initiatives, for 25 years. In this role, Thomas addressed health disparities facing the Black LGBTQ+ community, built a uniquely Black and queer Pride celebration and year-round programming, and confronted racism and discrimination in both Gayborhood and, increasingly, the nation.
Thomas has recently stepped down to take on a new role as grants and funding manager, he remains committed to growing and supporting Philly’s Black LGBTQ+ community.
Rad Girl of the Year
Ryan Hammond, Executive Director, Eagles Autism Foundation
Ryan Hammond built the Eagles Autism Foundation from team owner Jeffery Lurie’s family-based idea into a $10 million-a-year funder of early-stage research and local and international visibility and support. Hammond does this the old-fashioned way, connecting one-on-one with rookie players and long-time admins, families with autism and world-renowned researchers.
Hammond, who, in a prior role, built support for the autism center at St. Joe’s University, was also behind the first sensory-friendly room in a NFL stadium, a Covid vaccination clinic for people with spectrum disorder, and endless appearances on morning shows and such alongside former EAF staffer and current podcast superstar Kylie Kelce.
Cristina Martínez, Restaurateur, Chef and activist, South Philly Barbacoa, Casa México
Cristina Martinez has embraced and pedestaled her Capulhuac, Mexico culture and immigrants themselves through food, community and outright bravery. After crossing the southern border to escape an abusive relationship, losing her job at a high-profile Philadelphia restaurant because of her immigration status, Martínez turned a food truck specializing in her home city’s workaday delicacy — barbacoa — into a brick-and-mortar restaurant that earned her the 2022 James Beard Award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic.
During Covid, Martínez collabed with fellow chefs to serve and distribute nutritious and delicious free meals. To this day, she opens her eatery before dawn to serve restaurant workers. She also occasionally grants interviews in Spanish to the likes of John Leguiziamo and Bon Appétit.
Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Human Genetics), University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas made headlines earlier this year when she treated KJ, an infant with a CPS1 deficiency, a genetic disorder that causes a dangerous ammonia build-up when a child eats protein. The disease can result in mental and developmental delays; about half of infants with the CPS1 deficiency die within the first week of life. Those who survive inevitably need liver transplants.
Ahrens-Nicklas saw another way. A physician and a researcher, she and her team used CRISPR technology to edit baby KJ’s genes, partially reversing his condition, reducing the potential for brain damage, and making KJ the world’s first baby to receive this cutting-edge treatment.
Dr. Sarah McAnulty, Squid Biologist, Executive Director, Skype a Scientist
Want a squid fact? Text squid biologist Dr. Sarah McAnulty. You might have seen some of her stickers on lightposts around Philly inviting people to text to learn more about the tentacled mollusks — a clever play by a science communicator working to increase public awareness of the importance of science itself.
Since 2019, McAnulty’s nonprofit Skype a Scientist has connected career scientists and teachers who want them to visit their classrooms — 50,000 times. Here in Philly, she’s championed murals that teach people about watershed life, distributed native plant species seeds and hosted educational events about climate change, local insects and more.
Correction: Mugshots Cafe was located in Fairmount.
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