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The 2020 West Michigan Woman People's Choice Brilliance Award

BAPCA19 Social1 UPDATEVoting is now closed! The West Michigan Woman Brilliance Awards is entering its 4th year of celebrating the unique talents of women and men in our community. For the second year, the public will select one honoree from the finalists for the People's Choice Brilliance Award. The winner will be announced on Thursday, April 30, 2020 at the West Michigan Woman Brilliance Awards where they will receive their award and recognition.

• To vote, please provide your first and last name and email address
• You may only vote 1x for one person
• Voting opens March 2nd and closes at 5pm on March 18th

 Enjoy reading the bio snippets below that were written from the nominators' and finalists' submissions.

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Finalists

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Category: Brilliance Awards Finalists 2020

Senior Director of Leadership Giving
Make-A-Wish Michigan
Brilliant Champion of Service

Ellie carries the torch for many fundraising initiatives that have grown to be record-breaking under her leadership. These funds are vital to Make-A-Wish’s mission and without the steadfast efforts under Ellie’s leadership, transformational wishes wouldn’t be possible for Michigan kids. Through a tough three-year battle with leukemia as a teenager, Ellie realized philanthropy was her passion. Ellie has been a Patient Mentor for the P.O.R.T program at Spectrum Health where she mentors young women going through their cancer journey. Ellie also volunteers her time as an AFP mentor to young women entering the non-profit world in fundraising.

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Category: Brilliance Awards Finalists 2020

Owner
The Mitten Brewing Company
Brilliant Best Supporting Man

Chris is an advocate for everyone he meets. From a small startup, he now runs a $4 million company with 100-plus employees. Chris is a believer in giving back to the community, with more than $250,000 in charitable gifts since 2012. He also helped form the Small Biz 4 Equality, to rally small businesses to work toward expanding the Equality Act to explicitly support LGBTQ+ individuals. He currently supports Hillary Scholten as she runs for Congress and serves on her campaign committee.

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Category: Brilliance Awards Finalists 2020

Founder & CEO
Hibachi Creamery
Brilliant Emerging Leader

After exploring several higher education options, Faten realized being an entrepreneur and a business owner was her calling. She invested in a concept West Michigan hadn't adopted yet: rolled ice cream. Despite having no knowledge in the food industry, she spent endless hours, sleepless nights, and never-ending days learning the ins and outs. Faten recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of Hibachi Creamery, a minority- and woman-owned small business that has regular customers coming in and out every day.

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Category: Brilliance Awards Finalists 2020

Director of Sales and Event Services
ASM Global (DeVos Place)
Brilliant Team Player

Whether it’s a co-worker, staff member, or one of her many clients and partners, Kathy is always finding ways to lift them higher and encouraging them take every opportunity to grow, professionally and personally. She has been an integral part of the success of DeVos Place and the Grand Rapids convention industry as a whole but, according to her staff, she will never tell you that. It will always be a team effort or someone else’s success.

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Category: Brilliance Awards Finalists 2020

Founder/Executive Director
STEM Greenhouse
Brilliant Social Change Agent

Keli is the founder and Executive Director of STEM Greenhouse, a nonprofit organization that fervently believes if you plant the seed in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—aka STEM—and nurture the resulting curiosity, children will flourish! Keli adds her own fifth ingredient, which may be the most important: student mentoring. STEM Greenhouse, under her direction, runs afterschool programs at several Grand Rapids Public Schools and for Camp Blodgett.

  1. Latasha Robertson Crump
  2. Rebecca Dutcher
  3. Jennifer Fillenworth
  4. Mimi Fritz