Girl Scouts honor ‘Women of Distinction’

The Girl Scouts of West Central Florida honored its Women of Distinction today on International Women’s Day at Armature Works in Tampa. 

The longstanding event, now in its 32nd year, serves as a platform to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of exceptional women who have made significant contributions to their respective fields and communities.

The 2024 Women of Distinction award winners include:

1. Marilyn Alvarez, Master Deputy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
2. Alison Barlow, Executive Director of St. Petersburg Innovation District
3. Ann E. Dunwoody, Retired General and First Female Four-Star General in the United States Army
4. Bemetra Simmons, President and CEO of Tampa Bay Partnership 

Additionally, Diana Walker has been named the 2024 Woman of Promise, an award for women under 40, and Renée Vaughn will be inducted into the Women of Distinction Hall of Fame. Vaughn is the president of the Williams Consulting Group, a public relations and marketing firm in Tampa, and was first honored as a Woman of Distinction in 2015.

This was the second year Isabelle Canamero, 14, attended the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida’s Women of Distinction event.

This annual event attracts more than 600 attendees. It’s also the only yearly fundraising event for Girl Scouts of West Central Florida.

The Girl Scouts organization was founded in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, and the second troop in the nation was established in Tampa in 1913. In addition to business and community leaders, young Girl Scouts from the area attend the annual Women of Distinction event. 

“They’re very inspiring, and I look up to them as role models because they’re doing so much for Tampa and their community,” said Isabelle Canamero, a 14-year-old Girl Scout from Brooksville who’s been part of the organization for nine years and helped emcee Friday’s Women of Distinction awards ceremony. “The ​​Girl Scouts is a very safe and welcoming environment for girls to learn, and it’s really special that I get to help out with this important event.”

Before the awards ceremony and luncheon, a few dozen invited guests attended an executive forum, where the 2024 Women of Distinction honorees shared their life stories, professional experiences and lessons learned as women aiming for leadership positions in their chosen fields.

“I think that since Covid, we’ve had a more open mind to doing things differently, which has allowed women, people of color and folks whose voices were not necessarily heard to be heard,” said Simmons. “I think all of those new voices and people at the table who view things differently is going to fuel innovation.”

Vaughn agreed, adding, “Women have always fueled innovation. Now, we’re just getting prominence in the workplace.”

The 2024 Women of Distinction spoke at an intimate executive forum, moderated by Girls Scouts of West Central Florida CEO Mary Pat King, ahead of the awards ceremony and luncheon.

Barlow, who’s been leading the St. Petersburg Innovation District since 2017, shared a message of resiliency that was the unifying thread of her advice to the executive forum and her speech to the hundreds in the room during the awards ceremony.

“Sometimes, our young women have this expectation that the minute they get into the workforce, they’re supposed to be successful. Were you [successful] six months into your first job?” said Barlow. “Telling your stories and getting them inspired lets them know that it’s all right to fail. Try one thing, and if don’t like that, you’ll move on to the next thing, but something about what you learn there will lead you to the next job.”

Dunwoody, well-known for her accomplishment as the first woman in U.S. military history to be promoted to the rank of four-star general in 2008, shared an anecdote about how she originally dreamt of being a sports coach but enlisted in what she intended to be a “short two-year stint” in the Army. She retired in 2012 after 38 years of service, and along the way, had the opportunity to “coach thousands of men and women, both on and off the battlefield.”

Her message to ambitious women, which received a robust round of applause:

“You don’t have to use your femininity to get ahead, and you don’t have to lose your femininity to get ahead.”