Leesburg, VA May 2023

STRONG & BEAUTIFUL

Photo by Christy Kosnic

Architect: Cawood Architecture, PLLC

It's cookout season.

Is your backyard ready?

Beauty. Safety. Security.

It's the perfect time to start planning for a new fence. Explore our huge selection of aluminum, vinyl, and wood fencing in all your favorite colors and styles.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Empowering Women in Business

CEO Consulting Group is passionate about empowering female micro business owners to grow successful businesses that lead to financial freedom.

Founded by Certified Business Strategist Tina Johnson, a serial entrepreneur with over 35 years of business experience.

At CEO Consulting Group, we teach women business owners the ‘How To’ of building a sustainable business. We know what it is like to struggle with overcoming business obstacles, making constant daily decisions, and balancing the never-ending task list. We can help! You do not have to do this alone!

To learn more or to schedule a free business Strategy Call visit theceowoman.com or call (703) 779-2694

Save the Date

ABBTECH is a family owned and operated IT staffing firm headquartered in Loudoun County, VA. We help people find valuable work opportunities and we provide well-qualified candidates for growing companies/organizations.

(703) 450-5252

threase.baker@abbtech.com www.abbtech.com

We help people work better together. Team Leadership Solutions partners with leaders and organizations to design strengthsdriven strategies, enhancing performance and productivity, and deliver a laser-focused coaching and training program customized for your organization to affect positive change at individual and team levels.

kelly@teamleadsolutions.com

www.teamleadsolutions.com

Offering stress, loss and trauma reduction services without diagnosis.

170 West Main Street, Suite 106 Purcellville, VA 20132

(540) 931-6268

strestllc.com

This one day event will bring together women business owners for a unique roundtable experience, educational workshops, and strategic business connections.

“WOW! What a transformative day! YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS EVENT!”

— Meghan T.

(703) 779-2694

• hello@theceowoman.com

• womensceosummit.com

Corporate Headshots & Branding | Corporate Events with Instantaneous Delivery | Products

We highlight your unique staff and vision to push your business forward. At our studio or your location, we coordinate and collaborate with you before, during and after our session to get the images you need and want.

info@robinsgambatiphotography.com

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ToiletKingsm provides white glove toilet replacement at half the cost of other companies. With simple upfront pricing, ToiletKing includes the toilet, delivery, professional installation, and haul away. Replace your poor-performing, outdated, or inefficient toilet today!

(571) 326-8708

www.toiletkingva.com

SciGenius inspire elementary school kids with fun and hands-on STEAM activities. We offer summer camps, day camps, after-school programs, and birthday parties.

Scream is Loudoun’s newest attraction in morbid entertainment. Whether you’re looking for a blood-curdling haunted house experience or battling it out with our Zombie Laser Tag, you’re sure to SCREAM! www.screamloco.com

SciGenius is also a program partner with Girls Scout and has been voted three times as the best camp in NOVA.

(877) 684-1260

info@scigenius.com

www.scigenius.com

Our Women’s CEO Community

Discover a CEO Consulting Program that is right for you!

This program provides an exclusive opportunity of 1:1 business consulting services to teach you the framework that leads to real business growth.

A year-long, in person, business growth and educational program for women business owners. Hands-on business training, a supportive community, accountability, and help build a sustainable and scalable business that will withstand all market conditions.

A community of like-minded Women Business Owners who come together to share and learn through online and in-person opportunities.

At HomeWell, your peace of mind is our priority. We believe in providing care with respect and compassion while you age with dignity in the comfort of your own home.

(703) 431-4706

www.homewellcares.com/va184/

Inovativ Scrubs provides services that involve getting healthcare professionals into uniform scrubs. With our premium and quality scrubs, our goal is to make all healthcare workers look good while saving lives. Connect with us now and we will get you and/or your organization outfitted in your own styles and colors.

(703) 936-7174

info@inovativscrubs.com

www.inovativscrubs.com

We help Small Business Owners, Non-Profits, and Churches have the power and resources of a well-rounded marketing team without the increased costs associated with Payroll! Check out our unique membership program which provides monthly Marketing Coaching to ensure you’re business is on the right track month-to-month.

Visit us online to learn more!

www.VeryGoodMarketingCo.com

Manor Works Painting is an award winning, class A contractor, offering interior, exterior painting, and carpentry services for your home. We also offer professional holiday lighting. Call for your free estimate today.

Manor Works Painting & Christmas Decor by Manor Works

(703) 339-6800

www.manorworks.com

Tamara helps business leaders gain clarity on their next step, unlock their highest potential, accelerate their results, and create richer, fuller lives using a proven mindset and neuroscience system. Book a Clarity session to learn more: tamarawolfe@cox.net

www.thinkatahigherlevel.com

Worthy Journey Communications is an award-winning, woman-owned firm providing non-profits with tailored communications support. From content strategy to campaign support, we’re building a better world through mission-driven communications.

roxanne@worthyjourneycommunications.com

www.worthyjourneycommunications.com

Bring your family, friends, or coworkers out for a fun and challenging night of games and puzzles at Escape Room LoCo! This adventure will challenge your mind and get your adrenaline pumping as you race the clock. You can only win if you work as a team! (703) 468-8538

contact@escaperoomloco.com

www.escaperoomloco.com

Quail Creek Promotions is your local connection for promotional products and branded apparel. We work with you personally to help you select just the right product to communicate your marketing message for your event giveaways, thank you gifts and more.

Sheryl Hine (540) 974-7960

shine@quailcreekpromotions.com

www.quailcreekpromotions.com

Primis is a different kind of different. We like to keep things simple, because the last thing a business should be worried about is their bank. That’s why we’ve got it all covered with premium accounts that are tailored specifically for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and services that prove that we’ll literally go the extra mile — like V1BE, the nation’s first banking delivery service.

Teresa Rios, Senior VP/Director of V1BE

Direct (804) 815-3666

customercarecenter@primis.com

Celebrating Five Years at the Heart of Loudoun

We begin our 5th Anniversary Women’s Issue with some numbers. Over 49 issues, we’ve profiled more than 200 charities and countless efforts by Loudouners to give back to their community. Loudoun County has heart. We attribute much of that generosity to local community-first businesses that have stepped up to take care of their neighbors even when it was hard. Since our own journey cuts a path through one of the most trying times in recent memory – and we may not be through it yet – we think that’s largely because of the good works that we choose to feature issue after issue, month after month.

Leesburg Lifestyle’s values include Inspiration, Education and Activation – we like to offer you, our readers, the opportunity every chance we get to get out there, volunteer and build the kind of caring community we all want to live in. And, we try to practice Philippians 4:8 along with our corporate motto Prov. 3:5-6. (Google it. ;-)

We’re simultaneously building a community of business leaders who support our "voice" and who provide excellent products and services. That means you can feel good about patronizing any of our advertisers, knowing that they both share our values and have stellar reputations to uphold. They’re in it for the long haul and are intent on making a positive difference every day.

Many of those business owners are women, and they’re not alone. The White House, which just launched another round of funding for the Small Business Administration’s Women Business Centers bringing their number to 160, women entrepreneurs own 12 million businesses nationwide and created almost half of new businesses started in 2021, at the height of the pandemic!

We don’t want to stereotype, but women work extraordinarily hard in our society, often as the primary breadwinners for children. They also seem to captain the overwhelming number of local nonprofits, though that’s a tough number to pin down given how many there are in Loudoun County (just count the GiveChoose requests in your inbox!) This month we call out Loudoun Hunger Relief, Women Giving Back, HealthWorks of Northern Virginia and Mobile Hope for their sustained success, as well as the female first responders of the Ashburn Volunteer Fire Department.

We’ll be celebrating all these women and more on June 7th at Oatlands with the Business Women of Loudoun and the CEO Consulting Group, and hope you’ll join us.

May 2023

PUBLISHER

Hann Livingston | hann.livingston@citylifestyle.com

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR

Melinda Gipson | melinda.gipson@citylifestyle.com

Corporate Team

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Steven Schowengerdt

CHIEF SALES OFFICER Matthew Perry

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER DeLand Shore

DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA Mindy Hargesheimer

ART DIRECTOR Sara Minor

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Janeane Thompson

WEB APPLICATIONS Michael O’Connell

AD DESIGNER Matthew Endersbe

LAYOUT DESIGNER Kirstan Lanier

MELINDA GIPSON, EDITORIAL COORDINATOR @LEESBURGLIFESTYLE

Rock Your Kid's Future with The Coder School Camps

The Coder School of Ashburn’s Summer Camp schedule is out (thecoder school.com/camps), and this year promises to be the most motivating yet! Besides game developing, learning Python, an intro to AI, WebRox, RoboCode, Minecraft, and Game Development in Unity, kids also can combine their classes with a half day of soccer ( bit.ly/KickNCode) or skating ( bit.ly/SkateNCode)! Sign up today and help your kids get off the couch and develop a 21st Century superpower!

Stop wasting money on utility bills.

Start generating your own power, reduce your total reliance on the public utility, and start saving money today.

When you install a solar power system, you harness the power of the sun during the day. You only switch to the grid at night. This could cut your electricity bill by as much as 50%!

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Northern Virginia Science Center Nears Reality

Clean, renewable energy

The Northern Virginia Science Center (novasci.org ) unveiled a virtual, five-gallery plan at an event in March designed to attract funding for their completion. Half of the Center’s $100M funding comes from the Commonwealth, 25% from Loudoun County and the rest from donors. The real draw: a rooftop view of one of the largest blue heron rookeries in the Mid-Atlantic from the top of The Jameson apartments. NVSC also is asking the public for nature and wildlife photographs to include in its Habitat gallery. See bit.ly/ HabitatPhotoGallery to contribute.

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Loudoun Hunger Relief Expansion Nears Dream of Centralized Human Service Center

Loudoun Hunger Relief ( loudoun hunger.org ) began building their new Community Market and Loudoun Nonprofit Hub with a “Breaking Down Walls” event in March. The project is being funded through a $3 million capital campaign with The Claude Moore Charitable Foundation priming the pump. The new Community Market will be built adjacent to Loudoun Hunger Relief’s current location next to the board of elections on Miller Rd. Loudoun Hunger Relief will expand its offerings beyond free groceries, providing space for community-based human services.

Photo: Carol Barbe, Chair Randall and Jennifer Montgomery, LHR

Elizabeth Lancaster Elizabeth Lancaster

John C. Whitbeck John C. Whitbeck Jim Beglis Jim Beglis

Dulles South Soup Kitchen Seeks

Loudoun Space

The Dulles South Soup Kitchen, which we profiled in our November issue, is again seeking use of a commercial kitchen in Loudoun County. The charity has set up Fairfax County digs in the Church of the Epiphany in Herndon, never missing a meal service to needy families. Anyone with information or suggestions on available space should contact Devina Mahapatra at devina@ dullessouthsoupkitchen.org.

Photography: Melinda Gipson

MEET THE WOMEN

OF ASHBURN’S VOLUNTEER

FIRE & RESCUE DEPARTMENT

ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY LAMBERT, MJL STUDIOS

We love all of our first responders – we do. But for our Women’s issue, we just had to ask, how many of the firefighters and EMTs who work for the Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department (AVFRD), for example, are women? More than you might think, and from more places than you might imagine.

Of the full roster of AVFRD firefighters and EMTs, 70% are men. That means there are 67 female “operational members.” Among firefighters alone, 89% are male, 11% female, although fully 49% of volunteers to county Volunteer Companies are women. Most of either gender have other full- or part-time jobs.

Despite the disparity, we’re told that one weekday platoon of combined firefighters and EMTs will be all female, just as soon as one of the women completes her training as a fire engine driver! That’s an AVFRD first, so we wanted to introduce you to a few of them.

Feeling inspired? Man or woman, here’s how to become an Ashburn Volunteer Firefighter or EMT: ashburnfirerescue.org/volunteer

Irma Hopke is Peruvian, though she’s lived here for 20 years. It took 4-5 months of training to become an EMT, for which she celebrated her first-year anniversary in March. “For me, it is a rewarding thing to do, and also because I would like to be a role model for my kids and all the kids that are involved in my life – nephews, nieces, my kids’ friends.” Her own, a boy and a girl, are both teenagers. Not looking forward to being an empty-nester, she wanted to take her free time and “give it to my community,” which she does twice a week. She adds, “Coming from Peru, a country where women didn't have many opportunities to do these kinds of jobs – being a public servant was mainly for men – but I always wanted to do it.” Though it’s physically demanding, “I’m very energetic and like to be active, and I like to be involved in the community, and what better place than here to be serving? This company is like my second family and I love spending time here with other people who like to serve.”

Evangeline “Angie” Boers grew up in the Philippines where her hometown burned down – “We lost 437 houses within two hours. I had just literally finished building my mom's house. Her house was saved but my sister’s house was gone. There was no fire truck, and no one came to help. So, my husband and I decided we were going to donate fire engines to my hometown. But before that, I wanted to understand what a firefighter does and how an engine works. So, I joined!” Turns out, she loved it so much that she not only stuck with it but is frequently called upon to speak to new classes of firefighters as a kind of object lesson. Standing at 4’10”, Angie says she is living proof that “size doesn’t matter – if I can do it, anyone can!” The toughest part of her training was an exercise called “the maze,” where trainees are blindfolded and given just four minutes to work their way through tiny corridors in full gear to find and free a “victim.” Sure enough, the grit she learned from the exercise was perfect training when she was called upon to rescue a person from a bathroom when she was the only one who would fit through the window! With Cindy Porter, she looks forward to being part of AVFRD’s first all-female crew.

Cindy Porter was moved to become a firefighter two and a half years ago during the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020. “I was really just upset about seeing a lot of things that were happening in the community that were just sad. So, I wanted to help him be part of the community in a positive way. I looked up where I could volunteer and when the fire department popped up, I was really excited and kind of just jumped for it. I had thought about it for a career before but always talked myself out of it. I thought, this is a great opportunity.” What caused her to discount firefighting before? “I was afraid of the trauma I might see. So, I was like no, I can't do that.” But, all the way through training when she experienced the same mental blocks – against crawling through small spaces, for example, “I would mentally talk myself through the process and just get it done, and that was really rewarding.... I’m not sure I can say this, but it’s really an inspiration to my kids. They think I’m a badass!” The camaraderie combined with her newfound inner strength “makes me want to prove to myself and to other people that I can do more.”

Cindy Porter

Unlike the adventurous Kassandra (p. 30), Katie Alpert says, “I’m more of a chicken of the sea type. I’m not somebody who usually would throw myself into danger. But, at the same time, I get a kick out of it.” Searching for a description of what that feels like, she says, “I’m like a duck on the water. Underneath, I’m paddling like crazy, but on the surface, I’m always cool, calm and collected. I may be anxious inside, but I’m always calm when we get to where we’re going and we have a job to do.” She trained during the pandemic and graduated the fire academy in January. She was inspired to serve by her father who is in law enforcement and has a law degree but was also raised to be a strong woman by her mother. “I’m the third generation to go to an all-woman’s college,” she says – Bryn Mawr College, if you’re wondering. Smart, calm, and centered, Katie just has that aura of confidence that inspires trust.

Kimia Teymouri, an EMT, is Persian. She says what first attracted her to volunteering was “basically, the excitement. You never know what you’re walking into. But then eventually I just fell in love with it.” What she loves specifically is the fact that you’re making a difference in somebody’s life. It’s just priceless. And, sure, you know you’re probably showing up on the worst day of their lives, but we just want to make a difference on that day.” The 21-year-old in her third year of college already has had life-saving experiences and expects to have many more opportunities after she finishes her clinical rotation in paramedic school. “I’m convinced I’m made for pre-hospital treatment,” she explains. “I’ve been working under pressure and learning how to control my emotions in the moment. When you’re on the scene you can’t freeze; you have to act quickly. That’s my strength, that I can lock everything else down and just focus on the call.”

Katie Alpert

Kimia Teymouri

Kassandra Haakansson

Kassandra Haakansson moved to Virginia from Sweden to be with family in 2018 and immediately applied to become a firefighter. Before coming to the states, she had been contemplating serving in the Swedish military like her father. “I tried firefighting and kind of got hooked on it,” she explains. Always competitive – she grew up in a family with three younger brothers, two older brothers and three older sisters – “I always wanted to be better than my brothers,” she laughs. She soon became a career (full-time) firefighter and EMT in Fairfax County and a volunteer firefighter at AVFRD. She works 24-hour shifts, so every week is different depending on how her shifts fall. She says learning a technical brand of English might have been her greatest challenge. But she’s always been adventurous and tried to do more – something she learned from her dad before he passed away n 2016. “What I enjoy most is the people. It’s my favorite thing about coming here. We usually come here for dinner time, then we’re here until 6 in the morning. So, we make dinner together and talk. Everyone is so different, from all over, and with all different kinds of experiences. I’m a people person so for me that’s what makes me really enjoy being here.”

Zainab Shah’s family comes from India and Pakistan. She’s been a fully certified EMT for the last six months, though her training began in November of 2021, pretty much the height of the pandemic. Of all the volunteers, it’s Zainab that joined the AVFRD because of personal exposure to the squad. “A couple of years ago, my grandmother fell and called 911. It was the Ashburn Volunteer Fire Department that came. Our family room filled up with like 10 people. They came in with grace and respect and they took care of her so well.” The experience stayed with her when the COVID vaccines began to roll out in January of 2021. “I started volunteering then, and there were EMTs who came in to help out as well. I was with them every shift and finally just asked, ‘How do I join?’” She says the job was “nerve-wracking” at first but that, “Eventually, everybody manages to find their calm. I didn’t expect to learn that here, but I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to build on that confidence more on every shift.” Asked where she finds her strength she says, “In the team. We are strong together. Because every situation is so unique, we really don't know what to expect. But as long as you know that your unit is there with you, you know we’ll solve it together.”

Zainab Shah

Victoria “Vicky” Ghanma, an EMT in training, is a Jordanian by birth and at 20 was the youngest of the AVFRD volunteers we interviewed. Initially, she is in training to become an attending in charge of the ambulance, but her ambitions reach even higher. Having also served as a hospital volunteer, she now attends George Mason University on the premed track majoring in neuroscience. She says her experience as an EMT comes largely from her wanting to give back to a community that she says fully supported her when she transferred to a new country in high school. “I wanted to just give back to my community and be there when they need me like they were there for me. It’s truly an honor to be there for people on one of the worst days of their lives and to be able to do something and help them out. Sometimes just sitting there and listening to them and not necessarily doing any medical interventions... you can tell their blood pressure is dropping and they’re starting to relax.” So, brain surgeon or no, the real-life emergency experience she is gaining at AVFRD is equipping Vicky to deliver superior bedside manner. She adds that “just seeing other women that are also very powerful, encouraged me to want to become the best that I can be at helping people.”

Vicky Ghanma

Founders Reflect on Women Giving Back’s Growth

16 years of Giving Marked by 5th Annual Empowerment Luncheon

ARTICLE

AND

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON

In March, Women Giving Back hosted its fifth annual Women’s Empowerment Luncheon at Westwood Country Club, supported by M&T Bank. There were more than 300 in attendance and the gathering raised more than $157,000 for the women’s charity. Since WGB’s first event was captured in our inaugural issue, and because all three founders of the group attended the luncheon – one traveling all the way from Utah – we thought it might inspire others to look back on how the charity got started.

Back in 2007, Terri Stagi was serving on the board of HomeAid Northern Virginia, now HomeAid National Capital Region, as the Communications Chair. HomeAid provides safe and dignified housing and programmatic facilities for those experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness by putting people in the building industry in touch with charities focused on ending homelessness.

At the time, the board was made up of all the major new home builder CEOs and presidents in the region – and they were all men. To foster diversity in their industry, Terri says the board asked her to find a way to get more women involved in their trade. She first interviewed officials at the shelters HomeAid had helped to renovate, asking what more the group could do to help them. “Overwhelmingly, they said clothing,” Terri recalls.

She explains, “Since most of the occupants had escaped domestic violence situations or other hardships, many entered WGB with only the clothes on their backs. Their children did not even have changes of clothing to wear to

school, so this seemed a natural fit for us.” One of HomeAid’s board members, Doug Smith of Miller & Smith Homes, offered to sponsor an event to launch the initiative.

Terri called her friend Leslie Strittmatter and asked her to meet at Clyde’s. Leslie brought a third woman, Fiona Hughes. All three were employed in sales and marketing in the homebuilding industry, and were part of a professional women’s group called Women in Real Estate Marketing.

Together, the three came up with Cocktails for a Cause at the Tower Club, with admission consisting of a clothing donation. It drew 50 women in the building industry who all signed up to work as volunteers, and the mission was off and running. A few years later, the group formed its own 501c3 as Women Giving Back, “helping women and children in crisis by distributing clothing at no cost.” Most importantly, the group vowed then to make sure their clients were served with dignity in a way that would help to restore their self-esteem.

At first, the group operated out of a closet in the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association headquarters, so Terri calls WGB’s growth to fill an 11,000 sq. ft. facility in Chantilly nothing short of “astonishing.” From the beginning, the group collected not just professional attire like suits but clothing “for life” – for leisure, recreation, school clothes for the kids, pajamas, new underwear, coats, shoes, make-up, and even jewelry and purses. “Every month we learned something new; things were very fluid in the early days,” Terri says.

TOP IMAGE: Exec. Dir. Nicole Morris, Supporter Erica Rowe, Associate Maleeha Darab

BOTTOM IMAGE: Fifth Annual Women’s Empowerment Luncheon Benefitting WGB

“It’s wonderful when women arrive at the other side and we know we had a little to do with that....

We have created something magical.”

– Terri Stagi

Fiona ticks off the trio’s early goals: 1. We wanted to share high quality high-end clothing accessories at no cost to our shoppers. 2. We intended that every shopper would be able to take up to 50 items of clothing free of charge. 3. We wanted WGB to be a high-class “boutique” – not just a thrift-type store; we set high standards for the clothing we offered to our clients. We didn’t offer out-of-style, or clothing that was stained or heavily worn. 4. Our army of

volunteers acted as “personal shoppers” for the women we served, putting together outfits and accessories for each one of them. 5. We wanted to give our clients a chance to rebuild careers, and to ultimately regain their independence, pride and self-confidence. And, 6. “We wanted donating to, and volunteering with, WGB to be a fabulous experience. It certainly was, and our army of volunteers quickly grew – we wouldn’t have been able to

“Once you work at the Boutique, you are hooked by the stories of persistence from these amazing women. They overcome horrible situations and strongly forge ahead.”

WGB Founders, Terri Stagi, Fiona Hughes and Leslie Strittmatter

do what we did without the volunteer network which we built.”

All three were surprised by both the strong demand and the donations and volunteers to help fill that need. Fiona says, “The most difficult thing was to raise the funds and find a permanent facility to house our boutique store and our warehouse. The hurdle now, with our growing success, is still the same; we need a bigger home for WGB.” The board will be mounting a capital campaign in the next year to start the process to build that “forever home.”

What kept them going? Says Terri, “Once you work at the Boutique, you are hooked by the stories of persistence from these amazing women. They overcome horrible situations and strongly forge ahead. I love watching our teen volunteers come and have their eyes opened. I remember one teen coming over and saying ‘OMG! She’s in my 10th grade class!’ She had no idea she was living in a shelter and reliant on programs like ours. Not only do we help our clients, but we serve as education for our youth. We teach them the value of giving back.”

Each has been strengthened by the resilience and success of the women they have assisted, and has been goaded by tales of teenagers exploited by human trafficking. Terri, who chaired the board for a decade, often sees women in the neighborhood who were served at some of their lowest moments. “It’s wonderful when they arrive at the other side and we know we had a little to do with that.... We have created something magical.” Adds Fiona, “Once it became clear that we had landed on a desperate need and a gap in services that were currently offered, our passion for what we were doing kept us going!”

Leslie was particularly proud of being able to bring TJ Maxx into the fold, as she puts it. Forging a relationship with Sue Bills, TJ Maxx District Manager, who saw the need to make WGB the official community charity for the 13 stores she oversaw. Now the chain is a regular donator of school supplies, backpacks, Halloween costumes and toys for the charity’s

Santa’s Workshop, in addition to $10,000 in annual support. When the manager invited WGB to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new store and used the occasion to deliver a check, they learned that many of the store’s new employees had received the clothes they wore to their TJX interview from WGB. “Without the new clothing, they would never have been able to land the jobs they so desperately needed. It was a ‘full circle’ moment like no other.”

Each of the three says she had her career impacted by her service. Terri notes, “I had no notion that I would end up in the non-profit world. It opened my eyes to what was around us in this affluent area. It’s very easy to close your eyes to what’s going on, but once they are opened, you cannot go back. We did not quit our careers. We were able to juggle with the help of our volunteer army. A lot of very caring women and men made it work.” Leslie says she is not only still involved with the charity but says, “WGB Founder Is part of how I define myself and my life. It fills me so much pride (and) taught me so much about gratitude and service.” She adds that when the three were chosen 2020 “Washingtonians of the Year” by Washingtonian Magazine, it was, in a word “unreal.”

Fiona is now an interior designer in Utah but faces every day with the gratitude of “There but for the grace of God go I.” Terri and Leslie still sit on WGB’s executive board and are involved in most of the group’s decisions. Terri has her own ad agency The Stagi Group, and is president of Ms. Fixit, a new company she started.

For others like them who are moved to fill a need in their community, Fiona says, “Just do it. We learned as we went along, and really had no structure to start; we had an idea and went for it.” She adds, “Be flexible in your mission. Show gratitude and write personal thank-you notes to your supporters. Be positive. Be prepared to be surprised, and always laugh.” Adds Terri, “Don’t get discouraged... and don’t be afraid to ask for help!”

All three credit Executive Director Nicole Morris for her seven years of service and supporters like M&T Bank Regional President Cecilia Hodges for raising the organization to a level of service they could only have imagined would serve more than 24,000 women and children annually. Now you can be part of the journey! On Thursday, May 4th from 4-7 p.m. at its 20 Export Drive, Sterling location, WGB hosts its annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta celebrating all its sponsors, donors and volunteers outdoors under a fiesta tent with Latin-inspired food, drinks, wine and tequila tastings, a raffle and an online auction. See womengivingback.org/cinco to buy tickets and bring a friend!

Domestic abuse survivor Jennifer Haas and Board Member Jane Lyons.

To FOUR Locations!

Saturdays at One Loudoun Sundays at Brambleton & Loudoun Station and coming soon...

MetPark Amazon HQ2

All Markets Open 9am - 1pm

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Regularly $100 – Includes consult, exam, posture scan, and assessment outlining your best course of treatment

Strong & Beautiful

Loudoun’s Business Women Share Secrets of Their Success

ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY LANAGHAN, MJL STUDIOS

Trials are a universal human condition. In the Agamemnon, Aeschylus writes that “we must suffer, suffer into truth.” The Bible speaks of strength that is made perfect in weakness, and of our ability to comfort others coming from the comfort we receive from God in our own afflictions. And, completely anecdotally, I was always taught that the strongest trees grow in the most exposed places. (Turns out not to be true... apparently, it matters a lot what the tree is MADE of to start with!)

Whatever the principle, we know that it takes an uncommon strength to succeed as a woman in business. That’s what inspired Mary Lanaghan of MJL Studios (mjlstudios.com) to plan a “Strong & Beautiful” portrait series that she will unveil as gallery-sized art at the combined Business Women of Loudoun / CEO Consulting Group summer social at Oatlands Historic Home & Gardens June 7th (see loudounchamber.org/ events for details on how to attend.)

Always a fan of strong women, and as a way of celebrating our own 5th Annual Women’s Issue, we decided to tag along on Mary’s photo shoots and ask each of these inspiring women about the challenges they’ve faced and what’s given them the strength to not only survive but thrive.

Special thanks go to Loudoun Medical Group ( lmg doctors.com) for donating portraits to two recent breast cancer survivors we singled out for their courage and the great work of breast surgeon Virginia Chiantella, MD at LMG’s Comprehensive Breast Center (vcbreastsurgery.com), and Mei-Hwa Firestone at LMG Cancer & Infusion Center who treated them. So first, meet Margot and Malissa.

Margo Fallon first noticed a lump in her breast in August of 2020 when no one was going anywhere because of COVID. Margo’s first thought was, “Other people get cancer. I don’t get cancer,” so she first had to overcome that sentiment to exit her “bubble” and seek treatment. Following a mastectomy, she learned that her cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.  On Dec. 21st – her birthday –  Margo made a comment that it was her worst birthday ever, Dr. Chiantella remarked that it was her birthday as well.

For their birthdays the following year, post chemo and radiation, Margo celebrated by raising more than $2300 for the Loudoun Breast Health Network ( lbhn. org ) which Dr. Chiantella helped to found. Then she decided, “I can do more,” so she joined the board of the organization “to start giving back to other women going

As a portrait photographer in Loudoun County, Mary’s craft usually honors family in legacy portraits. Herself a member of Business Women of Loudoun, she more recently embarked on a campaign to capture the Strength & Beauty of local businesswomen, many of whom juggle home, family and philanthropy as well as careers. We’re grateful that she asked us along. Spots are still available to participate in the gallery, so give her a call! (Photo: Photographer Mary Lanaghan)

Aleena Gardezi

Olga Johnson

Malissa Sexton

Lisa Adams

Jennifer Todling

Margo Fallon

through the same horrible thing.” She explains that the charity has two programs: the Pink Assistance Fund, providing financial assistance to Loudoun County residents who have been diagnosed with or are undergoing active treatment for breast cancer in the past 12 months, and the New Beginnings program which provides physical and emotional support to anyone undergoing breast cancer treatment. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. When you hear that word, ‘cancer,’ it’s horrible. It took a lot out of me. But when people tell you, ‘You can get through this,’ it helps.”

Frankly, she said, “I think I’m a better person now than I was before the diagnosis because I now understand more of what other people are going through.... I mean, I’m terrified of it coming back and I think everyone always is. But I’m trying not to let that fear hold me back, and I’m trying to be a person who can be there for others.”

Malissa Sexton’s family runs the Sexton Christmas Tree lot on Georgetown Pike in Great Falls behind the post office (sextontrees.com) The trees themselves are grown on Whitetop Mountain in Southwest Virginia, one of the largest Frasier fir-producing areas in the Mid-Atantic. They have been in business for almost forty years and enjoy being able to hire local residents for the holiday season. She’s always been a “giver,” so “being on the receiving end was challenging at first,” she admits. When she finally shared that she needed help on her Caring Bridge website (caringbridge.org), her community responded. “It was really important for me to lean in and ask for help because otherwise, it’s very lonely. I’m thankful that I did that.”

You met Lisa Adams in our profile of the Loudoun County Social Collective (citylifestyle.com/wash ington-dc/articles/life-and-culture/first-we-ban ish-the-trolls) But would you be surprised to learn that finding people who can use a hand and tapping into the small business community that cares enough to help isn’t all a bed of roses? “I feel very blessed to be able to see who needs help and see who can help and bring them together.” Although it can be challenging and take a personal toll, “it’s what my vision for the Collectives has always been — to make a difference where it matters,” she explained. It’s hard for Lisa to relax even on a beach. So, where does she get her strength? “It’s 100% from God, absolutely. I may have a million other things going on but when I get back into the Bible, and I pray- it doesn’t take a minute to get fully recharged and refocused. That’s what keeps me going.” (Note that her next fundraiser, “Bubbles

and Bling” is May 5th at Waterford Pearl. Check LoCoSoCo on Facebook for details.)

Lisa has help from friends like Aleena Gardezi When they met, Aleena was a marketer for a nonprofit called Brain Injury Services ( braininjurysvcs. org ) which helps people after brain injuries. After meeting Aleena at an event, Lisa proposed raising money for the non-profit, but later confessed she was a bit overwhelmed with the rapid growth of the collective and needed help. Aleena offered to manage the more technical aspects of the Facebook group. With a third friend named Mercedes Taylor, they put together the first Christmas tea fundraiser. Along the way, Aleena was offered the opportunity to buy an escape room in Manassas (manassasvirtualescaperoom.com) and jumped at the chance. “I remember Lisa saying, ‘Great! Now the Collective has an escape room!” Translation: whatever you need, we’re all in it together. Aleena and her husband had been raising a 5-year-old son named Aaliyan they adopted from Pakistan, who has already offered to help answer the phones and take bookings when he grows up. We guess that is just the natural response for someone whose mom believes she can do anything with a little help from her friends.

Olga Johnson named her financial services firm Vessels and Johnson Financial Services (vessels andjohnson.com) in honor of her grandfather Robert Vessels who succeeded in the lumber business through the Great Depression and her father Herbert Johnson Sr. who started a transportation business while a federal government worker and was always helping other families during tough economic times. Her own toughest time was losing her youngest son who died in a motorcycle accident. “When he passed, the bottom kind of fell out for me,” she admitted. They had worked together to found a nonprofit called The Empowerment Institute to help disadvantaged youth learn life skills and start businesses. After she moved to Ashburn to be with her oldest son and his family, she helped a domestic violence shelter called Bethany House of Northern Virginia, which helped restore her joy.

“I went through years of saying today I will enjoy today. I’m going to have fun today... I love people and I love being able to help people. I know what it’s like to suffer loss, and how to pick yourself up and say, I’m still going to enjoy life as opposed to just exist.” She loves to laugh and often before going to bed will stream an online comic on her phone and just laugh out loud, “because laughter

is healing.” She’s passionate about educating people about financial possibilities and ways to increase their bottom line. “I want to take the fear of discussing finances away. I want to offer a judgment-free zone.”

Jennifer Todling ’s joy is dancing. She started with ballet, but now is a ballroom and Latin dancer. It’s how she met her current husband who was for a time her competitive dance partner. By day, she’s an audit partner at Ernst & Young, and an author working on her first book, tentatively called “Freedom Dance.” In it, she details her journey from age 20 to 35 in and out of relationships, including one that turned abusive. “The message of the book is really about figuring out what you want in life and going after it. I had to figure out how to leave [her abusive relationship] and start over and dance was a part of that.” Briefly, she stopped dancing when she married at 20. “Once I found the courage to leave, ballroom dancing was the way I could learn about people in a safe way and learn to trust again... I learned to reconnect with the things that bring me joy.” She now supports Women Giving Back and is on the board of Youthcast Media Group ( youthcastmediagroup.org ), an organization that trains high school students from under-resourced communities to report, write and broadcast stories that highlight solutions to the health, wealth, and social disparities where they live. She’s

also working to “find the right groove” with a fouryear-old daughter so both she and her husband can find time to dance.

Asked where she’s from, Ion International Training Center ( ionitc.com) co-owner  Mitra Setayesh says, “I’m Iranian. I grew up in Switzerland. I lived four years in Paris and I moved here 26 years ago so I’m from wherever you want me to be.” It’s the usual self-effacing comment from a woman who’s done far more than you might imagine. She speaks seven languages and considers herself a linguist, not solely for that proficiency, but because she also studied psychology and can interpret what people are trying to communicate on many different levels. She started three successful businesses before Ion, including a marketing strategy consulting agency. Having considered living in half a dozen places in the U.S. she actually chose Washington, D.C., as her home, and it’s where she met her husband, Romanian Olympic figure skater Luiz Taifas. While Luiz is often the “front man” for all on-ice events, it’s Mitra who wrote the business plan, lined up the investors; met with Leesburg and Loudoun County officials to win their support, and now manages some 13 departments with around 13 different business models. “Luiz dreamed it and I did it,” she says without a hint of hubris. Ion opened its doors in June of

Mitra Setayesh

Donna Fortier

2019 and then weathered the most taxing business disaster in modern memory, in part because of a highly detailed and well-crafted business model. “Usually, investors look for somebody who understands the business, right? And, of course, we have the best of both. We have Luiz who understands the industry and me who understands the business. The two of us work well together because where one’s expertise begins, the other one ends and vice versa. We never step on each other’s toes. He never tells me how to run the business and I never tell him how to run the coaches and the teams.” Together, they open their doors to more than 850,000 people a year – a jaw-dropping number until you realize it includes nearly thirty hockey teams and their fans, a tournament that draws upwards of 4,000, 50 pairs of ice dancers, holiday performances and a robust concert series. (Get ready for Kool & the Gang on May 20!) “It’s a very heavy load,” Mitra admits.”It requires focus; you can’t look away at all, but it’s very rewarding.” At the depths of the pandemic when things got really rough I had to get away from all the talking so I would go through the back and go to the top of the bleachers and just watch the hockey kids practice. Their belly laughs and all the fun they were having would just feed me all that positive energy and remind me why I was doing what I was doing. It wasn’t Luiz’s dreams or ‘oh what will happen if the business goes under.’ It was all these people who would lose so much if we were to close. We have 128 employees, and I kept everyone on payroll through all the shutdowns. If it were just about yourself it wouldn’t be worth it. It becomes about them. You become irrelevant and that feeds you. That gives you a reason to push and to just not think twice about it,”

Since we last featured Donna Fortier, Mobile Hope (mobile-hope.org ) has served more than 400,000 meals to family members through COVID, opened its Graffiti & Silk thrift store in Purcellville – and is preparing to open a second in Leesburg –soft-launched its trade school at its new digs at 302 Parker Court in downtown Leesburg and is preparing a capital campaign to finally purchase the building. “It will be a one-stop shop that incorporates training and empowerment for the homeless youth who come here. Here we impart life skills and do peer-to-peer training” to help otherwise homeless kids live independent and productive lives, she said. For now, she’s grateful to have signed a 15-year lease on Parker Court because the critically important charity has moved a dozen times in less than a dozen years. “My daughter eloquently

reminded me that I’ll be 71 by the time our lease runs out and I said, ‘Thank you, honey. Thank you for bursting my bubble!’”

When fully constructed, the youth will have access to a Wellness Center and a gym with a boxing ring to offer therapeutic ways for kids to deal with stress. Mobile Hope now boasts a fleet of five vehicles including refrigerated trucks that help deliver food. And, of course, there’s the recognizable AirStream trailer which will house the trade school until renovation is complete. The nonprofit generally maintains a caseload of 50 to 60 kids for whom it provides housing and other services, but as many as 30 more might walk through the door in various degrees of being “precariously housed.” Donna explains, they’re either completely homeless, they just got kicked out or are about to be kicked out. Current staff is now around 12 or 13, down from a high of 22 during COVID. “We made the decision that some needed to be kicked out of our nest so they could get a true sense of what life is all about.” Many are “rockstars,” and they’ll be fine, but she’s always prepared for disappointment.

The work is emotionally draining, she says, so the process of hiring trainers is proceeding slowly to give potential employees a true sense of what it’s like to work there day in and day out. Wagner Grier, the former principal of Monroe Tech, currently heads the trade school, which operates less as an on-site training course and more like an apprenticeship program with partners in the trades. “The lifestyles our kids lead don’t often allow them to complete a formalized program. We embrace whatever is going on with them, whether they have no transportation, or have mental health issues, whatever that looks like, and we work with our partners to give them paid apprenticeships.” Either the business partner pays, or Mobile Hope provides a scholarship. Whether it affords youth the opportunity to see “what’s out there” or become serious about an industry, they at least experience the consistency of making money and being responsible. Each kid also receives at least two mentors – folks they can trust and rely on because most of our kids have been let down by the adults in their world.”

Donna says 12 years into the job of running Mobile Hope, “I still love it. I still love seeing when kids move forward and when they genuinely smile because now they’re in a happy, safe place. As corny as that sounds that’s truly what keeps me going –when these kids start to see their worth, and that happens a lot. Seeing that they come here during their darkest time and trust us to help move them forward is what keeps me going.”

Pamela Jones

Pam Jones and her husband Dave have together sold nearly 1,200 houses in and around Loudoun County through their company Extraordinary Transitions. She says she’s “incredibly shy,” yet manages to both call 25 or more people a day, and to steward the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce’s lead-share Groups as (self-described) “Poo-Bah.” She says she’s able to help homeowners through the toughest of circumstances by controlling her emotions – something she learned from her longtime business coach. Among the other things he taught her: never watch the news and surround yourself with positive people and ideas. “I figured out that shy does not pay the rent. I have an amiable personality. I care deeply about people. And after I learned how to control my emotions and stay focused on those things that are most productive, I can find the people who need my help.” She calls it grit. We call it

“heart” – the kind of heart that drew her to serve as chair for three years on the board of Oatlands, Inc. And, we’ll add that, while she credits her business coach with helping her prioritize, her mother may have had something to do with her always seeing her glass as half full. She relates that back in 2009, when her mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, she’d get pneumonia on a regular basis and have asthma attacks. Regardless of the setback, she would always ask her doctor, “So how soon can I play golf?”

Then there’s Angela Espinoza, a Realtor at Berkshire Hathaway, who not only supports small businesses by hosting networking events, but helps immigrants apply for citizenship. The latter work began back in 2001 when she established a multi-service insurance agency called Centro de Negocios working with the DMV to help Spanishspeaking motorists with their insurance needs.

Angela Espinoza

Donna Galpin

Donna Thomas

When she pivoted into Real Estate, her efforts to help people become independent made her the perfect person to call when a client is trying to find a nice place her kids can afford when it’s time they moved out! She prays for all her clients and recently graduated with an associate’s degree in biblical theology. “So, I get my strength from the Lord. I really do. I depend on Him wholeheartedly... If you remind yourself why you’re doing something, you’ll fight harder for it. You will make it happen.”

Our final trio of businesswomen have a range of experience but have all made community a linchpin of their success. Donna Thomas , or “ Momma Donna” as her friends call her, established her own webpage (l inktr.ee/mountainsidegals) to share all she has to offer her community, who adore her, so we feel like we’d fail a bit in shortening her story to just a few graphs. Briefly, after a cruelly harsh life of being passed around as a child following her parent’s divorce, she rose to become a

VP at Xerox and now runs a LuLaRoe clothing boutique. She’s lost more than 400 pounds and now hosts a Facebook group called “Healthy Choices with Momma Donna from the Mountainside” to help others lose weight and is an internationally bestselling author. Donna Gilpin , is taking a break from being a therapist to help foster a taste for “clean crafted” wine and coffee from Scout & Cellar (see bit.ly/DonnaGilpin ). And, maybe that’s its own form of therapy, right? And Leslie Kay has opened the Leesburg Beads and Studio ( leesburgbeads.com ) which is more than a bead store, but rather a place to come and explore your creativity in classes, or maybe just have fun with friends. Leslie enjoyed beading with her mother whom she was happy to consider a close friend before she passed. Having decided to turn her hobby into a business, she still hears her say, “Leslie, you’ve got this. You’re strong, you’re beautiful. You can do anything,”

Leslie Kay

MAKING HEALTHWORKS WORK FOR EVERYONE

DR. TONYA ADKINS RISES TO THE CHALLENGE:

any patients who are either uninsured or can’t afford health care. To meet the stringent federal requirements for federal funding, its offerings include preventative care and medical, dental and behavioral health services to medically underserved and vulnerable populations living below the poverty level. It boasts a Patient-Centered Medical Home philosophy, meaning that it aspires to serve as a kind of primary care practice for families who work with their doctors to make health care more effective and affordable.

ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON, HEALTHWORKS

When Dr. Tonya Adkins, MD, advanced from Chief Medical Officer into the CEO role at HealthWorks for Northern Virginia last summer, she had big shoes to fill. The retiring CEO, Carol Jameson, named the County’s top non-profit executive in 2019, had helped to create the health service by merging the Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic in Herndon with the Loudoun Community Health Center in 2012. More than a decade later, HealthWorks now serves more than 15,000 patients from Ft. Evans Rd. in Leesburg, two sites in Herndon, one in Reston and – as of the end of March – from Ridgetop Circle in Sterling.

But Dr. Adkins, a Navy veteran with more than 20 years in both community health and private practice as an OB-GYN, has never shirked a challenge. Her commitment to exceptional patient care seems exactly the right focus for helping HealthWorks to grow beyond its perception as a “free clinic” to the kind of personalized practice that can serve everyone in the community.

HealthWorks functions as a nonprofit, Federally Qualified Health Center or FQHC, meaning that it is partially federally funded and doesn’t turn away

Currently, only 17% of HealthWorks’ funding comes from federal grants and another 17% comes from both Fairfax and Loudoun County.  The remaining 50% comes from patient revenue, community grants and donations. Dr. Adkins says HealthWorks needs to improve the payor mix and to have larger donor participation and grants to offer its brand of high-quality patient-centric healthcare to everyone in its community. Because almost 60% of its patients are uninsured – and some 88% of them live 200% below the federal poverty line – that means that, for uninsured patients the practice is operating at a deficit of more than $200 per patient visit.

“We rely on grants to help cover that cost,” Dr. Adkins says frankly. “There was plenty of federal funding during the pandemic, but most of that expires May 11th with the end of the Public Health Emergency.”

HealthWorks also takes Medicaid and Medicare and commercial insurance but sees uninsured patients on a sliding scale and won’t let anyone’s inability to pay create a barrier to excellent care.

“There just isn’t any other practice out there that can say they don’t turn anyone away. Our goal is open access to everyone. On top of that, we give high-quality health care.”

Bright, Roomy Lobby Resembles Private Practice More Than a 'Free Clinic'

Speaking of the pandemic, Dr. Adkins believes the last two years were among HealthWorks’ finest. Having already served as a part-time OB-GYN, and then Associate Medical Director, she became Chief Medical Officer one day before the service saw its first COVID patient. “I got us through COVID and It was the best two years of my medical career because I saw a very kind country and everyone was working together for the good of everyone else. Here, we worked as a team as we have never worked before... we just made things happen.”

Providing everything patients need under one roof is a high priority for Dr. Adkins. “We have dental. We have behavioral health. We have pediatrics and we have adult care.” As a two-decade veteran of women’s health medicine, her current passion project is to provide a radiology suite to make mammograms for women and ultrasounds for all more accessible. This focus clearly stems from the fact that she continues to see patients two mornings a week, and has heard on more than one occasion from women who told her they would have to wait more than two months for a mammogram – time obviously better spent in delivering an accurate and timely diagnosis and treatment of potential breast cancers.

Dr. Adkins Comforts Patients In Any Language

Dr. Tonya Adkins, HealthWorks CEO

HealthWorks Hits the Hill in March To Share Needs with Lawmakers Like VA Sen. Kaine

She plans to appropriate HealthWorks’ first-floor acute care suite for the radiology department which she anticipates will cost around $1 million to equip and staff. She already has applied for one federal grant for about a third of that cost and looks to raise the rest in grants and donations to realize her dream that no woman has to wait for critical preventive screening. She adds, “People love to give to end hunger and homelessness, but they don’t really think about health care, because most of us have it. That makes me sad because too often we see patients who have cancer and but by the time they find us, it’s in a late stage.”

She says, “I love taking care of my patients – just the joy of being able to explain to them what’s wrong with them, versus saying, ‘Take this pill and you’ll get better.’ I love to teach. I just love my patients and they know I love them. And, I know everything about them – I know about their children and I know about their lives and I know what’s going on with their sister who just had a baby. So even though there’s a language barrier, I still get to know them before I get to know their medical problem. And that way I can put it all together.”

The language barrier comes from the fact that some 73% of HealthWorks’ patients are Spanish speaking with a total of 78% having a primary language other than English. Providers and staff make use of a live translation service that not only provides real-time translations in over 100 languages but also keeps a log of each encounter.

Watching Dr. Adkins in action with patients, it’s clear there’s no loss of communication when it comes to expressing empathy or in addressing concerns that may have languished, undiagnosed or misdiagnosed from previous acute care treatment. She says HealthWorks behaves much more like a private practice in this regard, taking ownership of whole patient care, “not just the symptoms that brought them in the door.”

“We’ll never turn a patient away,” she explained. “We just want to make it clear that we’re here to serve the whole community.”

Being an administrator means that she also meets with legislators to make sure that federal funding for community health centers doesn’t “fall off the budget cliff” or that support for using 340B pharmaceutical industry funding for prescription drugs HealthWorks’ patients need isn’t cut.

As for where she finds the strength to cover all those bases, she says, “I’m a Christian. It comes from above. I work for an audience of one every day. If I can say, Have I done the right thing? I’m good. God’s got me. He wouldn’t have put me in this position if he didn’t have my back. There are going to be days when I don’t please anybody, but I have learned if I can please Him, I’m okay with that.”

Dr. Adkins: "God's got me. He wouldn't have put me in this position if He didn't have my back."

realty report

A sample of recently sold properties in Leesburg.

When it comes to buying and selling homes virtually, “Rely on Pam”!

After retiring further south, we decided to sell our River Creek home after leaving it on the rental market for over ten years. Selling an older home in a high-end neighborhood, with a tenant in place, with $150k of needed updates, long-distance and during COVID-19 pandemic—this could have been the ultimate real-estate horror story. Instead, it was one of the easiest, smoothest house sales I’ve ever experienced. Pam handled everything and quickly sold the house for more than the asking price. Pam is the most professional and capable agent that I’ve ever worked with.

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