2024: (Back row) Barbara Stanbridge, 2000-2001 president; Diane Valletta, 1998-2000 board member; Beverly Inman-Ebel, 2004-2005 president; Gayle Watson, 2005-2006 president; Marilyn Bushey, 2004-2005 Member Services director; Shelly Bloom, 2003-2004 board member; Jacqueline Vlaming, 2003-2004 board member; and Judi Firestone-Roth, 2000-2005 board member.
A lot has changed over NAWBO’s 50-year history, but one thing has remained constant: the deep connections and friendships that come with belonging and serving.
Suzanne Pease discovered NAWBO in the 1980’s as an artist and owner of a graphic design firm, Ampersand Graphics. She had some oil paintings in a local art show and a NAWBO member’s client, who was also a member, purchased one. The three later went to lunch.
Soon, Suzanne attended her first NAWBO meeting, where the chapter president immediately asked if she could help with public relations. “I asked, ‘What does it entail?’” she laughs. “Next thing I knew, I was VP of PR and had a newsletter to get out in the next month.”
NAWBO looked different at that time, both locally and nationally. In New Jersey alone, there were 13 chapters and 1,000 members as well as state boards. At the national level, there were annual regional retreats in five areas of the country and three national meetings.
“I was on the state board before I was chapter president, which was a plus for my leadership growth,” she recalls. She attended her first national conference in 1988. She was a director on the National Membership Council before she served as state president, allowing her to see a bigger picture before bringing the experience back to the local level. She served as VP of Corporate and Economic Development and then in 2003-2004 as national president. “We felt like we owned this organization and at the chapter level, we did,” she says.
2021: Barbara Stanbridge, Beverly Inman-Ebel, Mary MacRae, Diane Valletta, Judi Firestone Roth, Shelly Bloom, Gayle Watson and Suzanne Pease
That’s why Suzanne didn’t hesitate to “own” something equally important some years later: NAWBO history. At the time, NAWBO was closing its brick-and-mortar office space in Washington, DC and two boxes of photos from over the years were delivered to Suzanne’s office.
“I didn’t feel like they were mine, they were NAWBO’s,” she recalls. Suzanne put the photos in order, removed duplicates, scanned about 500, created photo CDs and gave them to various people before sending the boxes back to NAWBO’s headquarters. “NAWBO is really important to me—not just the history, but the people,” says Suzanne who has been NAWBO’s unofficial historian ever since.
When she was immediate past president, Suzanne organized a weekend retreat for 15 past national presidents like herself as well as the current National President Beverly Inman-Ebel and President-Elect Gayle Watson. They went to Barnsley Gardens outside of Atlanta where they enjoyed meals and fun together. It was the start of a special tradition.
2005: (Back row) Diahann Lassus, Virginia Littlejohn, Suzanne Taylor, Mary Del Bradey, Barbara Stanbridge, Sandra Hernandez-Adams, Patty DeDominic, Gayle Watson, (seated) Beverly Inman-Ebel, Grace McGartland and Suzanne Pease.
Beverly had a retreat house in Tennessee and invited a dozen women from the 2000 to 2005 boards. Every other year since, a group of past leaders—or “NAWBO buddies” as Suzanne calls them—have spent a weekend together.
The COVID pandemic disrupted the retreats, but the group still Zoomed together on the first Friday of every month. Sometimes five or six would join, and other times the full 10. This September, the group picked back up their in-person trips and rented a house on the Jersey Shore. They enjoyed cooking together, a few meals out, shopping, walking on the boardwalk and talking.
“We mainly re-cemented the connections and friendships,” she shares. “It’s a group that got close mainly by working on projects; NAWBO was our project. Over time, you can go years without seeing each other, and get together and it’s just like it was yesterday. These are my peers.”
There were lots of laughs, too—like when they were directionally challenged in the rental car or when their designated “tech person” was trying to get the TV to cooperate. A fast-paced card game called Spoon had them laughing and falling off their chairs.
“We’re all different and don’t always agree,” says Suzanne. “But it is a sisterhood. It is family. I am really looking forward to the 50th anniversary, hoping that it is a reunion of all the wonderful women who have been a part of NAWBO and who made it what it is today.”
2021: Shelly Bloom, Barbara Stanbridge, Suzanne Pease, Beverly Inman-Ebel and Diane Valletta.
2016: Jaqueline Vlaming, Mary MacRae, Beverly Inman-Ebel and Diane Valletta.
2009: Diane Valletta, Suzanne Pease, Shelly Bloom Beverlly Inman-Ebel, Barbara Roberts and Judi Firestone-Roth.