FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Prestigious Award Honors Female MBA Students Who Help Advance Women into Business Leadership Positions
(Austin, TX, September 9, 2014) – Forté Foundation, a consortium of major corporations, business schools and non-profit organizations that directs talented women towards leadership roles in business, announced the 2014 winners of the annual Edie Hunt Inspiration Award. Named in honor of Forté’s Board Chair Emeritus, Edie Hunt, the award recognizes women MBA students at Forté Foundation sponsor schools who exhibit remarkable leadership and dedication within their communities and schools, while helping to advance women into business schools or business careers.
This year’s winners are Chantel Adams, a recent graduate of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Jacqui Cuffe, a recent graduate of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
Edie Hunt Inspiration Award nominees must be enrolled in a full-time program as a second year MBA student at a Forté sponsor school or enrolled full-time in a one-year program. Criteria for selection include, but are not limited to: demonstrating initiative and leadership within a student organization related to women, participating in school programs to recruit women, and actively mentoring and counseling prospective young women about potential business careers.
Chantel Adams, a Forté Foundation Fellow, graduated in May 2014 from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an MBA in Marketing, Sustainable Enterprise, and Nonprofit Leadership. While at Kenan-Flagler, Chantel was selected for the Dean Fellows program, an honor given to 10% of students “representing the very best talent in their class.” She also served as President of Carolina Women in Business (CWIB), a student-run organization that offers female students career development and community engagement opportunities to boost their business school experience and prepare them for their post-MBA journeys; before that she was a First Year Liaison to CWIB. Additionally, Chantel was a Consortium Fellow through the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management for underrepresented groups, an alliance of business schools with a goal of enhancing diversity within their student bodies. During her time at Kenan-Flagler Business School, Chantel worked closely with MBA Admissions, the Marketing Department, and the Career Management Center to recruit, develop, and engage women and underrepresented minorities as prospects, students, and alumni of the full-time program.
Jacqui Cuffe graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in May 2014 with an MBA in Marketing and Management. While attending Kelley, Jacqui served as a Kelley Admissions Counselor, interviewing prospective applicants and advocating for worthy students during the final decision process and helped recruit women to the MBA program by hosting web chats specifically for female prospective students. She was an inaugural member of the Kelley Leadership Academy which coaches first-year MBA students in matters related to professional development and academic success, and took a particular interest in mentoring other women. Jacqui also served as President of the Kelley Women’s MBA Association, where she worked with the admissions team to create a Women’s Virtual Visit program,
leading to at least five new applicants who might otherwise not have applied.
“Chantel and Jacqui both demonstrate extraordinary intelligence, ambition, leadership, and goodwill, which make them very deserving winners of the Edie Hunt Inspiration Award,” said Elissa Ellis-Sangster, executive director of Forté Foundation. ”All of the award nominees are passionately committed to supporting and advancing other professional women and we are proud to see so many MBA students embody Forté Foundation’s mission and the values set forth by Edie Hunt.”
Award winners receive complimentary attendance for Forté Foundation’s annual MBA Women’s Leadership Conference, where the winners were announced in June; networking opportunities with Forté Board of Directors and senior executives at the event; recommendations for their résumés; a $500 cash award; and a $100 retail gift card. Additionally, award winners receive a profile on Forté Foundation’s website and newsletter (see here and here).
The award was created in 2009 to honor the Chair Emeritus of Forté Foundation’s Board of Directors, Edie Hunt. Edie was with Goldman Sachs for over 30 years; a partner from 2004 to 2011 and most recently served as Chief Diversity Officer and Advisory Director until the end of 2013 when she retired. She is a graduate of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.
FORTÉ SPONSORS
Forté Sponsor Companies: A.T. Kearney; AT&T; Bain & Company; Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Barclays; Capital Group; Chevron; Citi; Citizens Financial Group; Cognizant; Credit Suisse; Cummins; Danaher; DaVita; Deloitte; Deutsche Bank; Dimensional Fund Advisors; DTCC; Eli Lilly and Company; Ernst & Young; ExxonMobil; Fidelity Investments; Goldman Sachs; Hines; IBM; Liberty Mutual; New York Life; PIMCO; The PNC Financial Services Group; Prudential; Unilever
Forté Nonprofit Sponsor: Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)
Forté Business School Sponsors: Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business; Babson College (F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business); Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business); Columbia Business School; Cornell University (Johnson School of Management); Dartmouth College (Tuck School of Business); Duke University (The Fuqua School of Business); Emory University (Goizueta Business School); Georgetown University (McDonough School of Business); George Washington University School of Business; Harvard Business School; HEC-Paris; IE Business School; IESE Business School; INSEAD; Indiana University – Bloomington (Kelley School of Business); London Business School; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan); Michigan State University (Broad College of Business); Mills College (Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business); Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management); Ohio State University Fisher College of Business; Queen’s School of Business; Rice University Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business; Simmons School of Management; Southern Methodist University (Cox School of Business); New York University (Stern School of Business); University of California – Berkeley (Haas School of Business); University of California – Los Angeles (Anderson School of Management); University of Chicago (Booth School of Business); University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (College of Business); University of Maryland Smith School of Business; University of Michigan (Ross School of Business); University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (Carlson School of Management); University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler Business School); University of Notre Dame (Mendoza College of Business); University of
Oxford (Saïd Business School); University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School); University of Rochester
(Simon School of Business); University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business); University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business); University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management); University of Virginia (Darden School of Business); Wake Forest University (Schools of Business); Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management; Washington University in St. Louis (Olin
Business School); Yale School of Management; York University (Schulich School of Business)
ABOUT FORTÉ Forté is a nonprofit organization with the goal of achieving gender parity at all levels of business. Forté works closely with business schools, corporations, and universities to ensure women have access to opportunities at every stage in their careers. Forté offers a wide variety of resources, including MBA prep, professional development, leadership education, and a diverse community of successful women. For more information, visit fortefoundation.org.
Media contacts: Michele Vana, BCW Global, michele.vana@bcw-global.com; Katie Stanfield, Forté Foundation, katies@fortefoundation.org
