March 9, 2022
Tallahassee Community College honored ten community women and five TCC students at its annual Women’s History Month event on Wednesday evening, March 9. Each year during Women’s History Month, TCC recognizes and celebrates the contributions of women in the Big Bend community. The 2022 event theme was Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.
This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Andrea K. Friall, a gynecologist at North Florida Women’s Car and an Associate Clinical Professor for the FSU College of Medicine OB/GYN Clerkship. She is the Chief Medical Officer at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
TCC’s award-winning Forensics Team members Maggie Barde, Faith MacGregor, and Kiri Pigott performed a reading of “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou. Jeannie Dume read her poem “I Am A Black Girl” from the upcoming edition of Eyrie, TCC’s literary magazine.
Community Honorees are:
- Joedrecka S. Brown Speights, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health at the Florida State University College of Medicine
- Genae Crump, director of the Neglected and Delinquent Programs for Leon County Schools and assistant principal of the alternative sites for the district
- Tatiana M. Daguillard, planner for the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency, preservationist, and historian
- Lauren Faison-Clark, service administrator for regional development, population health, and telemedicine for Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare
- Jeanne' Freeman, CEO of Neighborhood Medical Center
- Minister Mary Griffin of Neal’s Temple Holiness Church in Havana and founder of the Books and Bears Outreach Ministry
- Patricia B. McCray, founder of Butterfly Life Journeys, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping formerly incarcerated women overcome adversity, recover from trauma, and emerge in flight toward their true purpose
- Kim Ortloff, founder and CEO of Kim Ortloff Massage and Flexibility Therapies and co-founder of Stretching Your Life
- Tsige Tadesse, nurse and quality assurance manager at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare
- Tracy A. Thomas, professor and interim director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Student Honorees are:
- Jerilyn "Shelly" Allen, member of Sister to Sister, Phi Theta Kappa, and Math Champions
- Annie Johnson, the driving force behind “Project Annie,” a non-profit program to feed, clothe, and provide financial assistance for the most vulnerable in our community
- Zaria Meeks, president of the Student Government Association and member of Black Student Union and Sister to Sister
- Amaya Stewart, first-year TCC student and member of the Summer Scholar Program
- Isabella Rodriguez, member of the TCC Honors Program and Phi Theta Kappa