Samantha Wittchen has long been a problem solver. She’s the co-founder and interim executive director of the nonprofit Circular Philadelphia and the co-founder and chief product officer of the for-profit business Circa Systems. In these roles she’s paving the way to make the circular economy — one in which people repair, recycle and reuse materials rather than tossing them in a landfill — a reality in Philly. She’s a three-time business founder and has helped organizations like Kraft, the University of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia with various waste management and sustainability initiatives.

In other words, she’s a total Philly badass.

Yet, like so many women, Wittchen says she doesn’t often feel recognized for her work. “I’m typically someone who kind of keeps her head down and just does the work and I don’t often seek out a lot of recognition for it,” she says.

So Wittchen was both surprised and excited to be named the Innovator of the Year at the 2024 Rad Awards — a ceremony meant to honor the achievements of similarly accomplished Philly women and a few of their allies. The event — like the Oscars for amazing women making a difference in this city — was a joyous celebration that Wittchen found inspiring.

“To be recognized for some of that work really helped me feel like it’s okay for women to show up and take up space and to move this work forward,” Wittchen says. “The whole mood was so celebratory and supportive … It was great being in a room with a whole bunch of other women and a whole bunch of other people who wanted to be there to support women. These people were showing up and they were really acknowledging all that women have to contribute to Philadelphia.”

Alongside Wittchen, the awards recognized Kristen Gibbons Feden, the attorney who took on Bill Cosby; Shariah Harris, the first Black woman to compete in the U.S. Open Women’s Polo Championships; the cofounders of the Sisterly Love Collective — Ellen Yin, Sofia Deleon, Jill Weber, and Jen Carroll — who’ve banded together to lift up women in the restaurant and hospitality space; Comcast’s Dalila Wilson-Scott; and so many more inspiring leaders. All of the 2024 Rad Award winners — like those in the years before — are (mostly) women who are breaking barriers, inventing new products and technologies, helping people connect and advocating for change.

The 2024 Rad Awards marked the return of a 10-year-old event launched by Rad Girls’ Leah Kauffman, which honored about 50 badass Philly women, and a handful of male allies, until Covid hit in 2020. (Find all past winners here.)

“A Rad Award winner is a woman who breaks barriers and builds bridges — whether she’s launching inclusive businesses, championing social justice, or innovating in science and tech. She leads with purpose, uplifts her community, and redefines what leadership looks like in Philadelphia,” Kauffman says.

The Citizen and Rad Girls are working together again this year — and now it’s time to pick the next cohort of Rad winners who will be honored on July 30. You can nominate women in 12 categories here through May 16.

Women mentoring women

Kauffman launched the awards as an outgrowth of Rad Girls, a blog she launched in 2014 to feature her interviews with powerful, inspiring, ambitious and accomplished women in Philly. She started the blog after recognizing a need for women to receive mentorship and career advice from other women so they wouldn’t get tired lines like smile more, wear more skirts, or don’t interrupt a man. You know, the kind of advice Kauffman was getting from her male colleagues. More than 200 Philadelphia women have been nominated for the awards.

“The Rad winners I met manage to do amazing things in the most creative ways. They aren’t afraid to try. They truly show up. They take on a wide range of projects from the arts to social betterment. They use social media to reach people honestly. They are often collaborative. And they do it all with a sense of pride and confidence that can and does inspire others,” says writer, illustrator and editor Natalie Hope McDonald, winner of the 2024 Artist of the Year Rad Award.

“It felt great to be among so many powerful women. I was genuinely inspired by them. And I still keep in touch with a few people I met that night.”

Our 2025 Rad Award categories are:

• • Artist
  • Storyteller
  • Nonprofit leader
  • Connector
  • Attorney
  • Scientist
  • Activist
  • Athlete
  • Entrepreneur
  • Innovator
  • Rad Ally
  • Rad Girl

Don’t forget to get your tickets to this summer’s awards ceremony, on July 30 from 6:30 to 9:30pm at the Fitler Club (24 S. 24th Street). Early bird tickets are on sale for $40 now through May 16. Trust us, you’ll want to secure them ASAP. Last year’s event sold out — and was a total joy to attend.

“It was not only energizing, but there was a special magic in the room, being surrounded by so many tremendous women,” says Jude Husein, chief of state advocacy and strategic initiatives for the PA State Senate, deputy executive director of Philly BOLT and winner of the 2024 Activist of the Year Rad Award.

Husein adds, “There’s this funny quote [from Donald Trump] that Philadelphians always say, ‘Bad things happen in Philadelphia,’ but the most magical things happen in Philly. And that room was one of those magical spaces.”

COVERAGE OF PREVIOUS RAD GIRLS