Richmond Magazine - June 2020

LOCAL

COMMUNIT Y

GOOD NEIGHBORS New 5th District initiative pairs volunteers with vulnerable seniors

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n response to COVID-19, Richmond City Councilmember Stephanie Lynch and Council Liaison Amy Robins recognized a need to care for vulnerable residents of the 5th District.

They worked together to build the new Neighbor Connect program, a corps of volunteers who reach out to homebound and isolated seniors.

Robins spearheaded the program and reports it has more than 70 volunteers reaching out to approximately 1,800 residents across a district that includes the Fan, Randolph, Oregon Hill and Westover Hills. Robins developed a script for volunteers to use in phone and door-todoor outreach, with important information about COVID-19 and resources for

Neighbor Connect volunteer Milton Whitehead drops off groceries to a South Side resident.

residents in need of health care and food distribution through Richmond Public Schools and Feed More.

The Rev. Robin Mines, who competed with Lynch for the 5th District seat, is now working with Lynch and Robins to support the program. “Most of the seniors are doing well with family members checking in on them, but there are those whose spouses are in nursing homes and may need more help,” she says. “We make sure they have everything they need

through Meals on Wheels, picking up prescriptions and welfare checks, yardwork and whatever else we can do to help.”

“We have had such a great response from our seniors and volunteers,” Lynch says. While the initiative is distinct from the city’s existing Neighbor-to-Neighbor program, which aims to “leverage volunteerism as a city strategy to help meet needs, solve problems, cultivate relationships, and build One Richmond,” according to the city’s website, Lynch sees the potential for the two to merge in the future. —Paul Karns

TRANSPORTATION

CITY’S BICYCLE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT MAKES PROGRESS Residents of Bellevue, Ginter Park and Mosby Court have seen a series of street improvements in recent weeks as part of the city’s “Road Diet” Bicycle Improvement Project. The projects include repaving, shifting parking and creating protected lanes for cyclists.

In addition to protecting cyclists and promoting a green infrastructure, the projects are part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative with the goal of increasing the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. Both projects are part of the Capital Improvement Program.

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On Brook Road (left) between Laburnum and Westbrook avenues, the road has been repaved and striped to create new bike lanes. Though some residents initially opposed the project, people seem to be abiding by the new parking guidelines, which moved parking away from the curb and replaced a travel lane, according to Sharon North, the Department of Public Work’s public information manager. Pavement marking has begun on Brook Road south of Laburnum, and lane changes are expected to be completed by the end of June, at the latest.

Mosby residents have seen

plenty of work going on in their area, too. Public Works crews have resurfaced roads in recent weeks and will begin striping and setting up barriers between travel, parking and bike lanes once that work has been completed. North says the project is expected to “improve safety for Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School students and residents of Mosby Court.” The reduction in traffic lanes will increase the neighborhood’s walkability and slow traffic in the vicinity of the school. Work is expected to be completed on the same timeline as the Brook Road project. —PK

FROM TOP: JAY PAUL; JUSTIN VAUGHAN

Make Way for Bikes

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LOCAL

HIGHER EDUCATION

‘A LONG TIME COMING’ New Virginia law allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at colleges and universities

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grant with lawmakers since 2013. She access to DACA are eligible for in-state tuition at Virginia schools. co-founded UndocuRams, a student advocacy group at VCU focused on expanding However, President Donald Trump in undocumented rights.

2017 announced he would end the DACA Amado is glad to see the state expand program. Though the decision is currently access to higher education, but says it under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, still excludes segments of the undocuthe USCIS no longer accepts first-time mented community.

DACA applications.

“At the end of the day, it was a small State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chestervictory because we were at least ensurfield), one of the bill’s co-patrons, says she ing that people who didn’t qualify for saw the need for the legislation firsthand DACA are getting access to in-state tuias a former administrator at J. Sargeant tion,” she says.

Reynolds Community College.

DACA, or Deferred Action for ChildHashmi recalls meeting with a stuhood Arrivals, is a program established dent who broke down in her office after

by President Barack Obama in 2012 that sharing that she was unable to transfer protects nearly 661,000 undocumented to a four-year public university due to immigrants who were brought here as insurmountable out-of-state tuition costs. children from deportation and provides “That’s why this particular bill was them with two-year work perimportant to me because it wasn’t Ernestine Locsin mits, according to U.S. Citizenship testifies before the just this one student,” she says.

Virginia General “It was many, many others that and Immigration Services (USCIS) Assembly in January I encountered throughout my data. In 2014, state Attorney Gento advocate for in-state tuition for eral Mark Herring ruled that career. That really brought it home undocumented undocumented students with with me.” —Rodrigo Arriaza students.

ALEX MATZKE/COURTESY NAKASEC

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his year, Virginia joined a growing number of states that will allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.

Once it takes effect on July 1, the new law will expand access to higher education for undocumented students who would otherwise face costly out-of-state or even international student tuition rates. Virginia Commonwealth University students classified as non-Virginia residents paid $21,308 more than in-state students in tuition and fees during the 2019-2020 academic year, according to the university’s website.

To qualify for in-state tuition, students will have to prove they’ve attended a Virginia high school for at least two years, show that they graduated high school on or after July 2008 and submit at least two years’ worth of tax filings for themselves or their guardians.

Sookyung Oh, the D.C. area director for immigrant advocacy group National Korean American Service & Education Consortium of Virginia (NAKASEC), was one of the leading advocates for the in-state tuition legislation in this year’s General Assembly session. She is now part of conversations with state officials and college representatives as they weigh how to implement the new measure.

“There is definitely a lot of excitement from many people that we’re finally at this conversation about implementation, because it’s been a long time coming,” she says.

Yanet Amado, 24, was another prominent voice among a statewide collective of students who have pushed for in-state tuition reform year after year. Amado, a recent VCU graduate, has shared her experiences as an undocumented immi-

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LOCAL

EDUCATION

NOURISHING THE COMMUNITY Public schools’ emergency feeding programs provide more than food to students

By Gary Robertson

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t’s not often that the humble school lunch gets much attention.

But in the wake of the coronavirus, school lunch programs have re-created themselves as a way for school systems to connect with their students and communities, providing a lifeline to vulnerable populations and often bringing out the best in school employees and community volunteers.

“I can’t imagine that anyone would not remember this,” says Dana Whitney, director of school nutrition services in Henrico County, praising the efforts of county employees who’ve worked long hours to ensure that the feeding program is successful.

“I think any one of us is working more than just five days a week,” she says, “but it’s just whenever duty calls.”

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Although Henrico is a prosperous county, having the second highest number of jobs of any Virginia locality, 46% of its 50,000 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

In many communities, the faces of familiar cafeteria workers are a balm for students shaken by the pandemic. Whitney says she has seen the faces of students light up when they recognize cafeteria personnel from their schools. “That was inspiring to see,” she says.

Hanover County staffed its meal sites with volunteers from March 18 through April 10, until cafeteria personnel were activated on April 13, in response to increased demand and the need to produce more meals, according to Chris Whitley, public information officer for Hanover Public Schools.

“Our volunteers were a tremendous help, and we are grateful for their selfless service,” Whitley says.

One of those volunteers was Kyle Holden of Mechanicsville, a real estate agent for Hometown Realty. “It was a blessing to see the smiling faces of the kids and know that I was part of a good thing that caused those smiles,” he says.

Holden’s wife, Ilene, who is a teacher in the system, also volunteered.

In his two sons, aged 12 and 18, Holden has seen firsthand the effect the abbreviated school year and the pandemic have had on students. Instead of remembering the senior prom and the excitement surrounding high school graduation, Holden says his oldest son, Kyle Jr., a high school senior, is going to remember the quarantine. “We all are,” Holden says. “It’s tough on families.”

In Chesterfield County, a small army of 300 staff members prepares and delivers food at nearly 60 sites. “These individuals truly are superheroes on the front line,” says Tim Bullis, executive director of communications and community engagement for the school system.

After first serving only breakfast and lunch, Chesterfield officials recently were approved by the federal government to serve a snack and dinner at many sites, Bullis says.

“We’ve also expanded distribution sites into the community and closer to neighborhoods, making it easier for families to access,” he adds. “In doing so, our transportation department has assisted with food deliveries.”

For one new elementary school principal in Richmond, the emergency school

JAY PAUL

K.J Ricasta (right), Maximillian, 6, and Luna, 2, inspect their meals distributed by Richmond Public Schools.

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LOCAL

NEWS

PLAYING THE LONG GAME Casino legislation moves forward, but Richmond facility could still be years away

By Rodrigo Arriaza

Pamunkey Chief Robert Gray says revenue from a casino would allow the tribe to be more self-sufficient.

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ground in those locations.

If the measure is approved by voters, a 2019 study by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that casinos could generate approximately $970 million in net gaming revenue annually, resulting in about $260 million in state gaming taxes each year.

Though the measure requires the localities to hold voter referendums this November, Richmond can opt to postpone its vote because city officials haven’t yet contracted a preferred casino operator.

“Being able to employ our people, provide adequate housing, medical care and educational opportunities, those are ... the biggest things that we see benefiting our tribe.”

—Chief Robert Gray, Pamunkey Tribe

COURTESY PAMUNKEY INDIAN TRIBE

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lthough the General Assembly cleared a path for casinos to enter five Virginia cities, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe’s bid to open a multimillion-dollar gambling establishment in Richmond is likely still years away.

In January, the tribe announced plans to build a $350 million casino resort, aiming for a AAA four-diamond rating for a 275-room hotel tower with a 1,000-space parking garage across three parcels in the Manchester neighborhood, along with a fourth plot along Jefferson Davis Highway serving as a workforce training center. At the time, Pamunkey spokesperson Jay Smith said the tribe would use its casino earnings to lessen its reliance on federal aid and improve access to housing, health care and educational opportunities for its members. Pamunkey Chief Robert Gray echoed those hopes after state lawmakers opened Virginia to casinos this year.

“It’s fairly limited what the federal government is able to do, and we'd like to get out of that practice and just stand self-sufficient and truly exercise our sovereignty,” Gray says. “Being able to employ our people, provide adequate housing, medical care and educational opportunities, those are probably some of the biggest things that we see benefiting our tribe.”

The state legislature passed the bill this year after Gov. Ralph Northam amended it to direct the state’s share of gaming revenues toward school repairs and construction. However, the new law still needs to pass by voter referendum in Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond before a casino can break

City administrators began drafting timelines to kickstart a contract bidding process before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but uncertainty caused by the health crisis makes a 2020 vote unlikely.

“This coronavirus thing has just taken everything else off the agenda — no one has been having any conversation about [the casino],” says 6th District City Councilmember Ellen Robertson, whose district includes the planned site of the tribe’s South Side casino. “Certainly, the city is not going to be in a position to put this on the ballot by November for the same reason, so we’re talking as much as a year before we’d even be ready to put it on the ballot.”

As a federally recognized tribe, the Pamunkey are also able to pursue a casino in the city under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because Richmond is part of its historical trading and hunting grounds.

However, Smith says the Pamunkey

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LIVING

Left: JeanEtienne LaVallee with MakeItThru Alliance face shields.

Right: Alliance volunteers assemble medical face shields.

HEALTH

Making a Difference Richmond entrepreneurs get creative to craft pandemic protective gear

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s COVID-19 caseloads rose exponentially in early spring while hospitals across the country lacked safety shields and masks, some creative Richmond residents wanted to provide local health care workers with proper protective gear.

Grassroots efforts sprang up in the initial days of the pandemic, seeking to provide the safety equipment to health care providers. But those efforts were piecemeal, inefficient, and often ineffective. Many of the products were crafted by garage tinkerers who were unaware of safety specs and standards. All too often, such labors resulted in pieces produced with the best of intentions that had to be thrown in the trash.

Some Richmond makers and coders were monitoring the situation, and they felt there had to be a better way. “What we found were many of the nonprofessional makers were in way over their heads,” says Jean-Etienne LaVallee. He’s

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lead software engineer with Capital One, a co-founder of Capital One Makers and part of a collaborative effort of volunteers who are working to craft, assemble and ship personal protective gear for health care workers in Richmond and beyond.

His group is called the RVA MakeItThru Alliance, one of several groups across the area producing gear and helping out.

The umbrella group for a large collaborative effort that involved the Alliance and other groups in Richmond was formed and called RVA Project Shield.

The project is for “anyone and everyone,” according to Bert Green, owner of SolarMill and president of RVA Makers, a collective that represents metro area makers. The Build Forward Foundation worked with RVA Makers to craft protective face shields. The nonprofit foundation provides a makerspace, Build, RVA, on Rosedale Avenue in Scott’s Addition.

Green says he noticed various people making protective gear and saw a need for a group to organize, promote and coor-

dinate. Face shields were the critical need locally, and that led to the collaborative focusing on masks and medical-grade face shields, the full plastic models that stop spatter, spittle and sneezes — gear that can be used with high risk patients.

Green says there’s no coordinated national effort to help with projects such as this, just lots of local groups across the country. “It essentially pitted city versus city, hospital versus hospital,” he says. “Everybody is clamoring for the same stuff, and we got what we could to bring to Richmond.”

Project Shield partners delivered 13,200 face shields to health care workers by midMay, according to Build, RVA. Regular supply lines are beginning to meet demand, and the dire need for gear in Richmond has been met.

Its work done, the coalition dissolved.

“The emergency part of the sprint, we’ve made it through,” Green says.

RVA Makers will continue to connect people with resources. It’s website (rva makers.com) offers information on craft-

COURTESY RVA MAKEITTHUR ALLIANCE

By Tharon Giddens

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PAR T FOUR OF A CON T INUING SERIE S ON T HE IMPA C T OF GUNS AND REL AT ED IS SUE S

'A PERFECT STORM?' Stress from the pandemic combined with increased alcohol and gun sales could create a precarious situation for those at risk of domestic violence

By Carol A .O. Wolf

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Richmond Police Sgt. Carol Adams knows what domestic violence looks and feels like.

She and her younger sister spent their childhoods experiencing the fear and intimidation of their father and did their best to protect one another and their mother. On Dec. 30, 1980, when she was 17 years old and living in Richmond’s East End, Adams heard five shots ring out in the bedroom next to hers.

Her father had killed her mother.

In 1997, 17 years after that life-changing night, Adams joined the RPD as an officer. Rather than allow herself to be consumed with anger or vengeance, she dedicated her life to helping people deal with domestic violence. She credits her grandmother with instilling in her and her sister a sense of faith and forgiveness and, with that, the power to transform her family tragedy into a positive.

In 2014, she formed the Carol Adams Foundation, whose mission is to provide emergency assistance to women, men and children who are victims of domestic violence. She has received numerous accolades from the RPD and community organizations for her work.

Today, Adams says she worries not only about what she reads in newspapers and watches on television about the COVID-19 quarantine, but about how it is affecting people in precarious domestic situations as they spend more time isolated at home.

Noting a “horrifying surge in domestic violence,” United Nations SecretaryGeneral António Guterres recently called on all nations to help protect victims: “Violence is not confined to the battlefield. For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest — in their own homes.”

“In many cases this quarantine has made prisoners of women and children,” Adams says. She ticks off four recent domestic violence incidents in the region involving guns, two in which someone died, one in which a person was wounded and one in which the shooter took their own life.

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JUSTIN VAUGHAN

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period in 2019. But she notes, “Many of the calls have to do with fundamental survival questions such as the need for shelter, food and coping with the fear of being abused.”

In contrast to the statewide increase in the number of calls, Richmond-area domestic violence hotlines calls actually dropped by nearly 50%, says Rupa S. Murthy, chief development officer for the Richmond YWCA. She notes that the YWCA hotline received 640 calls between March 1 and April 30, 2019, but in the same period this year, during the COVID-19 shutdown, there were just 317 calls.

But that isn’t necessarily an indication that domestic violence is on the wane. Murthy says this anomaly has likely resulted from a decreased ability of individuals who are in a domestic violence situation to have independent access to a telephone and the privacy to make a call.

“Think about it,” Murthy says. “When you are sheltering in place, your domestic partner is there with you 24/7, the kids aren’t in school so they are there, you don’t have access to your normal avenues outside your home, the situation is extraordinarily difficult.”

Adams knows from her own experience and that of 23 years as a police officer that victims of domestic violence frequently don’t want the world to know the extent of the danger happening within their homes. “It is critical for those suffering domestic violence and intimidation — and for their children — to have open and truly transparent conversations about what is happening,” she says.

She stresses that headlines and calls to domestic violence hotlines don’t reveal the true number of simple or aggravated assault, malicious wounding and strangulation attempts, or the numerous bullying incidents that happen behind closed doors.

“Someone doesn’t need to fire a gun to use it to intimidate and terrorize their family,” she says. “All they have to do is sit at the kitchen table and continuous-

ly clean, load, unload, reload. Point it at different objects and people in the room.

“Mental health professionals and volunteers answering calls on the hotlines have no way to know if a former victim of domestic abuse isn’t calling because there is ‘no problem’ or because they can’t access a phone,” she says, adding that police reports don’t always show if a victim refuses to file charges “because everything is OK [or because] they are too terrified to do so.” And police and family members cannot respond if victims of abuse "choose to try to hide their fear or the bruises on their bodies and those of their children.”

Adams is especially passionate about helping children trapped in domestic violence situations. She says she hopes that people in the area’s churches will step up in even greater ways and that family members will answer the call with compassion. “This pandemic is presenting us with the opportunity to remember what truly matters and that our homes and our communities need to show more love to one another. If we don’t truly dedicate ourselves to this fight for the lives of our children, if we don’t address this now, when will we?”

The Action Alliance has collaborated with groups across the state to gather information and help those in dangerous situations and to prepare for the “aftershocks” that McCord and others predict will come as they do after an earthquake.

She explains that even after shelterin-place orders are lifted, not only will the fear of the pandemic continue, but people will still be dealing with financial loss, children who need more freedom — and, paradoxically, more attention — and coping with a lingering anger for unreported incidents suffered behind closed doors.

The Action Alliance recently initiated a plan that aims to communicate that hotlines are open, and that law enforcement and the courts are available to help anyone in a dangerous situation find a safe place.

Like McCord, the YWCA’s Murthy

worries that many people are simply not aware that the hotlines are available for any real help beyond “talk” due to the quarantine.

Murthy is proud of her organization’s work with the Richmond Police Department and with the Action Alliance. “We’ve worked together to establish protocols to keep people safe from possible COVID-19 exposure, to provide food as well as to provide safe transportation and rapid re-housing that doesn’t risk the safety of our staff and volunteers or that of the people needing our help,” she says. “We do everything possible to get people into safe places.”

Additionally, she notes that some hotels and cab companies have stepped up to help by donating free rooms and rides when necessary. She can’t say which ones because of “confidentiality and the need to keep people safe from their abusers,” she says.

Murthy, like other front-line responders across the state, is hopeful that despite the pandemic creating a toxic environment for domestic violence, the situation also presents the opportunity “for us to improve upon how we do outreach and delivery of services.” R

Resources for Victims of Domestic Violence Greater Richmond Regional Hotline 804-612-6126 Virginia Statewide Hotline Call 800-838-8238 Text 804-793-9999 Chat www.vadata.org/chat National Domestic Violence Hotline Call 1-800-799-7233 Text LOVEIS to 22522

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THE INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART AT VCU HAS RECEIVED NATIONAL ACCOLADES FOR ITS ARCHITECTURE AND EXHIBITIONS, YET SOME RICHMONDERS JUST DON’T GET IT

BY DON HARRISON

Abstract Mission DEPENDING ON YOUR VIEW,

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art can look like the ornate lair of a Marvel Comics villain, a short stack of pyramids kicked over or (if you’re a modern art connoisseur) the gnarly deconstructions of Irish sculptor Matt Calderwood. But today, from all perspectives, this 41,000-square-foot congregation of slabs and cubes looks dark and lonely.

In mid-March, like other area cultural institutions, the 2-year-old museum shut its doors and canceled all remaining programs and exhibitions for the spring semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“These are unprecedented times,” says Dominic Willsdon, executive director of the ICA. “We feel fortunate to have the

support and community that a large, public institution such as VCU can provide during the crisis.” The soft-spoken, U.K.born administrator maintains that when things do eventually reopen, the public will need the modern art it showcases more than ever. “The ICA is one of those institutions that is meant to be sensitive to what is changing in the world,” he says.

It should be a time of celebration for the ICA, which was named as one of America’s “Ten Best New Museums” by USA Today earlier this year, the only contemporary art museum on the list. It also earned a rave from The New York Times, calling last year’s group exhibit “Great Force,” which examined white privilege and African American resistance, one of the art world’s unmissable events.

Willsdon, who came to the ICA from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern in London, was hired in September 2018 to oversee a fledgling institution that had, as art market website ArtNet described it, a “troubled history,” mainly because its first executive director, Lisa Freiman, stepped down three months before it was to open.

“I think Dominic was a really smart choice,” says Ashley Kistler, the former director of VCU’s long-running Anderson Gallery, and current chair of Richmond’s Public Art Commission. “People have to remember that he’s only been in place for a year and [four] months and he inherited a pretty chaotic situation, and that doesn’t change overnight. It’s so ironic that [the ICA] was really getting on their feet in a

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vital way and then this calamity [of COVID-19 came along].”

One of the ICA exhibits currently on hold is “Xenogenesis,” created by a twoman art collective called The Otolith Group. Originally slated to run through July, this expansive show was the group’s first major exhibit in the United States.

Its impressionistic assembly addresses, to quote the program notes, “contemporary global issues: how humans have shaped the natural world; what ‘we’ have inherited from colonialism; the unresolved histories of global Asian and African diasporas; and how ‘we’ are changing in response to new technologies.”

The ICA staff didn’t curate it — as it has with the other exhibits it has presented since opening — but “Xenogenesis” is in

to the city,” says Kistler, who served as a liaison between the university and architect Stephen Holl during the ICA’s planning. “I would say that the building is difficult in some ways ... some exhibits just won’t work there.” That’s not unusual for a modern art showplace, she says. “It shouldn’t be like the Virginia Museum [of Fine Arts] or any other museum. It should be a totally different animal.”

“The building itself is such a departure from what we’re used to here in Richmond,” says Enjoli Moon, founder of the Afrikana Film Festival and assistant curator of film at the ICA. “Looking at it, a person might perceive a level of pretense ... but there’s been such a conscious effort here at the ICA to totally dismantle those traditional ideas that would circulate in

determined, the idea was to erect a structure that was different from anything else in Richmond. “The planning for a state-ofthe-art exhibition facility connected to the university and to the School of the Arts had been talked about for 20, 25 years,” says Kistler. “When Joe Seipel became dean of the School of the Arts, he took up the charge and helped make it happen ... he deserves enormous credit.”

Now back to being a full-time sculptor, Seipel, the ICA’s retired “father,” shifts credit to the late Beverly Reynolds, owner of the Reynolds Gallery, who had successfully represented several VCU faculty artists to the greater art world. More than a thousand private donors — including Pam and Bill Royall, Kathi and Steve Markel, Patsy Pettus, and True Luck —

“I think people are still trying to figure out what’s up with that big building on the corner.” line with the challenging, enigmatic, political offerings that patrons have witnessed at the institute in its first two years. While programming is paused and as VCU unveils a new strategic plan for the ICA — and while we ponder a changed, post-COVID-19 environment, the questions are worth asking: Is this what Richmond expected when the ICA made its splashy debut two years ago? Is this what Richmond wants in a contemporary art museum?

‘A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ANIMAL’

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an art space. We aren’t here for that. We want to offer people a fresh way of experiencing an arts institution.”

The outward shell looks imposing and cool — even icy — but it feels friendly when you step inside. With its welcoming lobby/meeting space, ornate staircase and four adaptable gallery spaces, Holl’s hulk was built to capture light and to feel inviting. Stephanie Smith, the ICA’s chief curator, says the museum’s central space was purposefully designed to feature two entrances, one from the campus side near Monroe Park, the other from Broad Street.

“This shows that the ICA is open to a wide swath of the city,” she says.

Long before its current location was

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—ENJOLI MOON, ASSISTANT CURATOR OF FILM

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DAVID HUNTER HALE/COURTESY OF INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART AT VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY; OPPOSITE PAGE: MICHAEL SIMON

CHARGING AHEAD

Keeping admission to the ICA free is integral to its mission, Willsdon says. Most of the ICA’s $4.1 million annual budget comes from VCU, but he says that the eventual goal is independence. The ICA’s new strategic plan sketches out a long-range, multiyear financial course that presents, as Willsdon says, “a kind of path for us to become, through the generosity of many people, hopefully, increasingly independent of the university budget. But that’s going to take a little while.”

Short on financial projections, the ICA’s 16-page strategic plan is an aspirational mission statement that stresses listening to the larger Richmond community, placing a greater emphasis on disseminating material online, and bringing in contemporary work that inspires debate and promotes study. The plan was informed by a visioning process overseen by Brightspot Strategy, a management consulting firm based in New York, and included the ICA’s advisory board, staff, VCU officials and members of the arts community.

There was upheaval last year when Ellwood Thompson’s closed its cafe inside the ICA. “This was a difficult decision to make,” market owner Rick Hood wrote in a press statement. “The cafe was not financially sustainable.” Its replacement is the locally owned Soul ‘n’ Vinegar Cafe. “We are excited for them to continue as our cafe vendor,” Willsdon says. “They are focused on sustainability in the food they serve, and on the community.”

The ICA also let six employees go last year, a move some interpreted as a downsizing. Willsdon says no. “It was part of a restructuring to better meet our operational needs, informed by the strategic plan,” he says. “We are hiring now. The ICA staff will be the same size as before.”

As far as connecting to Richmond, Willsdon and VCU point to data showing that the ICA’s total attendance for 2018 and 2019 is 152,227 and that it reached a demographic not normally seen in area museums. (In comparison, the VMFA

reported 507,745 visitors in 2019.)

VCU reports that more than 70% of first-year attendees were under 35 years old, with 50% under 25. Half of the ICA’s 2018 visitors were affiliated with the university, and 80% were Virginia residents.

“The crowds look like the city looks,” Siepel says, “and that’s new for Richmond.”

“We’ve really committed to creating visibility and opportunity for artists who have been historically unrepresented — women, LGBTQ [people] and artists of color,” says ICA Chief Curator Smith. In 2021, the ICA will highlight women artists in a multi-part exhibition.

For now, everything is on hold as the museum struggles with when and how it will return from hiatus. But Willsdon is sure that COVID-19’s aftershocks will be felt, seen and heard in contemporary art, and that the ICA will be here to chart the reverberations.

“If you’re an institution that’s meant to be sensitive to the present and to the immediate future, it kind of comes with the territory,” he says. “The question is already on our minds: What kind of programming do we present at the ICA that will be most pertinent to the world we’re going to come back into?” R

“We’ve really committed to creating visibility and opportunity for artists who have been historically unrepresented.”

—STEPHANIE SMITH, ICA CHIEF CURATOR

A view of the installation “Provocations: Guadalupe Maravilla, ‘Disease Thrower’” in the ICA’s True Farr Luck Gallery

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y the second week of March, my clients had started asking what COVID-19 was going to mean for the real estate market, and while I could offer my thoughts and opinions about what might happen moving forward, I was careful to remind them that they were exactly that — thoughts and opinions. Because honestly? I had never sold real estate in a global pandemic before. We were all headed into uncharted territory together.

Our brokerage canceled open houses from that weekend forward. It was a tough call to make at the beginning of the spring market, but it was the ethical thing to do. I had some hard conversations with my clients who were preparing to list their homes. One couple in Church Hill told me they’d both be working full time from home, effective immediately. They decided to hold off on listing.

Another couple had been busy through the winter getting their home in top condition for spring. We decided to try and outrun the storm and sell as quickly as we could. We settled on a compelling price to keep it from lingering, got it on the MLS with gorgeous pictures and a virtual tour, and they relocated for the weekend. In three days, we had 80 showings and 19 offers. Now it seems like a different world when buyers were still

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JUNE

A Realtor shares her experience selling houses during a global pandemic

By Anne Thomas Soffee

moving in and out of homes that casually.

We’ve always done FaceTime showings for out-of-town buyers and in situations when it’s not possible for the buyer to see the house in person, but now virtual showings are the rule rather than the exception. If there’s a virtual tour online, we try to do a phone call or videoconference as we “walk” through the house with our clients, to decide whether to see it in person. And we ask buyers to do a drive-by viewing of the house prior to scheduling access. Buyers are seeing far fewer homes in person, just their top choices. At showings, we request they wear masks and shoe covers and touch nothing in the home. And now more than ever, we’re requiring buyers to have their mortgage paperwork in order before they look. There’s discussion about a lot of the new policies being permanent, which may not be a bad thing.

We’ve had some lively (OK, heated) discussions in Realtor circles about at what point the duty to stay at home outweighs the duty to serve our clients. I feel I need to represent my clients as wholeheartedly and as mindfully as I can without sacrificing safety. What that means to me is having the conversation about whether now is the best time to buy or sell, or if it can wait. One thing that we’ve all had to look at, not just in real estate, is being

honest about wants versus needs, but moving can’t always wait.

Every day you hope that nobody will get furloughed at the last minute, that the people whose money is in investment portfolios will be able to fund, and that the title company will be open for business, and the courts will be open to record the deed on closing day. We’ve added a new addendum to our contracts, addressing how to proceed — or not proceed — if any of the parties to the contract are quarantined at the scheduled time of closing. Lenders call regularly with alarming updates about interest rates and changes to credit scores and down-payment requirements. They have horror stories about loans being denied at the closing table. It’s starting to level out as we adapt, but for a while, every closing felt like rolling the end credits on a suspense thriller. Which is great at the movies but not so much when it’s your home — or your client’s — at stake.

Anne Thomas Soffee is a Realtor with Small & Associates. She is also the author of two books, “Nёrd Girl Rocks Paradise City: A True Story of Faking It in Hair Metal L.A.” and “Snake Hips: Belly Dancing and How I Found True Love,” and she was a Richmond magazine columnist from 2009 to 2014.

JAMES CALLAHAN

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UNCHARTED TERRITORY

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REAL ESTATE NOW

EXPERT ADVICE

Q. What is the best way for someone to choose a Realtor?

A. Find a Realtor with whom you connect because communication is the biggest piece in all of this. The Realtor needs to be able to hear you, and you need to feel that you are being heard.

When I first meet with someone, I want to find out about them, their lifestyle, their family needs and things that are important to them.

—Susan Derco, Long & Foster

Q. What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about selling?

A. Meet with a Realtor as soon as the thought of selling occurs to you, so that you can come up with a plan, and we can make sure you are making improvements that will give you the most bang for your buck. …

Making a yard look clean and neat is really important, and getting rid of really heavy window treatments is also helpful. I am a big fan of bare windows in listings. We want to see the light. —Jennie Barret Shaw, Joyner Fine Properties 94

JUNE

We asked a few Referred Realtors for their insight on the current real estate market, as well as their best tips and tricks for successfully buying and selling a home

Q. What advice would you give to a client who is nervous about buying a house right now?

A. I would tell them that this too shall pass. … Regardless of what the world is going through, real estate will always be here. … People may be looking to put finances into real estate rather than the stock market. Over the years, real estate has always been a viable option for increasing your investment.

—Mahood Fonville, Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Real Estate

Q. How do you win a bidding war?

A. In certain areas and at certain price points, we still have multiple offers. One thing I will tell people is to do a big earnest money deposit with your offer — it doesn’t cost you more overall, but it shows that you’re serious and are not going to get cold feet and back out. If you put a $10,000 deposit down, you will be a lot more committed to your contract. —Sarah Jarvis, One South Realty

Q. What improvements can a seller make to their home to help it sell more quickly?

A. Paint is typically your best friend when you are putting your house on the market. If you’ve got some dated colors, a coat of paint will make a big difference. Even painting cabinets in the bath and kitchen will make a huge impact. …

And light fixtures can make a big difference. You can get a $150 to $200 modern brushed-gold chandelier, and it will really change how a room looks. —Shane Lott, Rashkind Saunders & Co.

/ 2020

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Referred Realtors

To compile our first Referred Realtor list, we sent an email survey to 6,408 subscribers and 5,012 agents from a list provided by the Richmond Association of Realtors, asking them to share three Realtors they would recommend to a friend or family member for their market knowledge, negotiation skills, professionalism, customer service and integrity. These 52 agents received the most votes.

Karen Berkness

Jenni Comer

Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-513-0995 karenberkness.com

Jenni & Co. Residential Real Estate 13310 Midlothian Turnpike 804-205-7238 jenniandco.com

Connie Byers Joyner Fine Properties 2727 Enterprise Pkwy, Suite 200 804-869-3314 conniebyers.com

Joe Cafarella River Fox Realty 4803 Forest Hill Ave. 804-212-7507 riverfoxrealty.com

Lisa Caperton The Steele Group Sotheby’s International Realty 6726 Patterson Ave. 804-690-8863 thesteelegroupsir. com

ryanmedlin.homes inrichmond.com

Sarah Jarvis

The Pace of Richmond, Keller Williams 6806 Paragon Place, Suite 300 804-937-9806 thepaceofrichmond. com

One South Realty Group 2314 W. Main St. 804-356-4700 onesouthrealty.com

Tammy Johnson

Long & Foster 8411 Patterson Ave., Suite B 804-822-3220 longandfoster.com

Tammy L. Johnson & Associates, Coach House Realty 3900 Westerre Parkway, Suite 300 804-241-0700 soldbytammy johnson.com

John Daylor Team, Joyner Fine Properties 10136 W. Broad St. 804-612-0190 johndaylor.com

Clayton Gits

Sarah Landrum

Susan Derco Long & Foster 3428 Pump Road 804-399-2105 longandfoster.com

Coach House Realty 2400 Old Brick Road, Suite 102 804-358-3684 markgoad.realtor

Jennie Dotts

Faith Greenwood

John Daylor

Virginia Properties, Long & Foster 412 Libbie Ave. 804-370-6565 longandfoster.com

Ernie Chamberlain

Jim Dunn

George: A Real Estate Group at Hometown Realty 114 N. Third St. 804-921-4307 georgerva.com

Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-864-8879 jimdunnhomes.com

Nancy Cheely Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-334-8116 nancycheely.com

Virginia Properties, Long & Foster 412 Libbie Ave. 804-338-3378 susanfishersells homes.com

Cabell Childress

Mahood Fonville

Cabell Childress Group of Long & Foster 11225 Nuckols Road 804-340-7000 cabellchildress.com

Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville 420 N. Ridge Road 804-389-3636 mahoodfonville.com

Suzanne Cline

Re/Max Today 4333 Cox Road 804-360-9164 daraf.remaxagent. com

Village Concepts Realty Group 2603 Anderson Highway, Powhatan 804-901-1193 villagesells.com

804-393-1038 longandfoster.com

114 N. Third St. 804-306-9019 georgerva.com

Susan S. Fisher

Dara Friedlander

Patrick Gee Long & Foster 8411 Patterson Ave.

Paul Gee

Mission Realty 3701 Cox Road 804-833-9298 missionrealty.com

Mark Goad

Coach House Realty 3900 Westerre Parkway, Suite 300 804-357-2270 landrumrva.com

Andrea Levine One South Realty Group 2314 W. Main St. 804-647-2828 andrealevine.com

Long & Foster, Christie’s International Real Estate 2800 Buford Road, Suite 105 804-240-7879 longandfoster.com

Dianne Long

Tucker Greer

Long & Foster 409 Strawberry St. 804-873-5036 longandfoster.com

Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville 5808 Grove Ave. 804-310-5897 srmfre.com

Sally Hawthorne Hawthorne & Hatcher, Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-357-2109 hawthorneand hatcher.joynerfine properties.com

Neil Hodge Small & Associates Real Estate 5413 Patterson Ave., Suite 200 804-456-6000 neil.thervalife.com

Matt Jarreau George: A Real Estate Group at Hometown Realty

Napier Realtors ERA 14361 Sommerville Court 804-334-3041 diannelong.com

Jean Longest

Shane Lott Lott Realty Group at Rashkind Saunders & Co. 1500 Forest Ave., Suite 115 804-382-8352 lottrealtygroup.com

Daphne MacDougal Shaw McDougall Realtors, Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-399-5842 shawmacdougall. com

Ryan Medlin The Ryan Medlin Team, RE/MAX Commonwealth 7201 Glen Forest Drive 804-564-1092

John Pace

Beth Pretty

The Pretty Team, Keller Williams Midlothian 15871 City View Drive, Suite 120 804-922-6243 theprettyteam.com

Graham Rashkind

Rashkind Saunders & Co. 1500 Forest Ave., Suite 115 804-467-1229 rashkindsaunders. com

Sallie Rhett

Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville 5808 Grove Ave. 804-399-6384 srmfre.com

David Riley

Re/MAX Commonwealth 7201 Glen Forest Drive 804-337-1809 rileyshomesearch. com

Brad Ruckart

Ruckart Real Estate Group, Keller Williams 6806 Paragon Place, Suite 300 804-909-2346 ruckartre.com

Jennie Barrett Shaw Shaw MacDougall Realtors, Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-399-9190 shawmacdougall. com

Chris Small

Small & Associates Real Estate 5413 Patterson Ave., Suite 200 804-353-1250, ext. 101 thervalife.com

Anne Soffee Small & Associates Real Estate 5413 Patterson Ave., Suite 200 804-353-1250, ext. 102 thervalife.com

Cathy Strobel

Virginia Capital Real Estate 1106 N. Thompson St. 804-247-4483 virginiacapitalrealty. com

Patrick Sullivan ReRVA, One South Realty Group 2314 W. Main St. 804-397-5078 rerva.com

Suzanne Super Hometown Realty 111 S. Railroad Ave., Ashland 804-543-4533 hometownrealty services.com

John Thiel

The Thiel-Morris Team, Long & Foster 5702 Grove Ave. 804-410-4663 thielmorristeam.com

Alexis Thompson River Fox Realty 4803 Forest Hill Ave. 804-627-3803 riverfoxrealty.com

Meg Traynham

Long & Foster 5702 Grove Ave. 804-356-9045 longandfoster.com

Ann Vandersyde Virginia Properties, Long & Foster 412 Libbie Ave. 804-683-3809 longandfoster.com

Lacy Williams Joyner Fine Properties 319 Maple Ave. 804-389-3722 lacywilliams.com

Jamie Younger Virginia Properties, Long & Foster 412 Libbie Ave. 804-287-4666 longandfoster.com

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BOLD WOMEN OF RICHMOND

“We were very proactive and communicated ahead to our agencies and our donors.”

Jackie Farell FeedMore’s food donations manager believes communication is paramount FEEDMORE.ORG

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as the food donations manager

for FeedMore, Central Virginia’s largest food bank, Jackie Farell stresses the importance of maintaining a dialogue between her team, the donors they work with to supply food to the food bank, and the agencies they serve (churches, schools, nonprofits and other entities acting as food pantries).

One way that she has managed to keep those lines of communication open is with the creation of what she calls her “bible” — a manual for agency partners that they can refer to for common questions and concerns. “I pretty much spell it out for them, step-by-step, in a way that’s easy enough for them to understand and relay to another person should a transition or change of leadership happen,” Farell says. “I want to give

them that knowledge and know-how.”

While her job usually consists of traveling from store to store to work with over 250 retailers who help keep the food bank stocked, the onset of the COVID19 pandemic put a stop to her travels.

She was forced to jump into a triage role of troubleshooting with donors and agencies over the phone, putting much of the action directly into the agencies’ hands. “We were very proactive and communicated ahead to our agencies and our donors in early March,” she says. While she did see a disruption in some supply chains and the closing of some agencies, she was encouraged to see other donors and agencies step up to the plate by offering more food and being willing to go the extra mile to keep the food pantries running.

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Kim Williams This Campofrio Food Group servant leader knows the power of patience and paninos

JAY PAUL

A SAFE HARBOR. THAT’S HOW

20-year Campofrio Food Group veteran Kim Williams sees her office — and herself as a leader. “I want teammates to be able to talk with me about anything, or to make a request,” she says. “If someone just needs a listener, just an ear, I want to be that person.”

Williams, the specialty meat maker’s product and customer service manager, learned about being present for co-workers from her fi rst professional mentor, Virginia Keller. “She took me under her wing when I worked at a Virginia Tech research center,” Williams says. “She taught me to be patient, to stay calm in the storm.”

And a storm hit in March, challenging Williams and her nearly 500 Campofrio co-workers. Delivery trucks were being turned away at loading docks as restaurants and other commercial food clients closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The company also was

in the middle of a warehouse move, and it faced a rapid rise in demand for their popular paninos — little sticks of mozzarella wrapped with their pepperoni, prosciutto and hard salami, a favorite of kids who were now snacking around the clock at home.

“Operations put a plan in place and worked around the clock,” Williams says.

“They got those paninos made.” And a month later, Campofrio once again had enough to donate them and other items to FeedMore, a longtime partner with whom Williams has worked, and other hunger relief agencies in the region.

Since January, the company has supplied 16 tons of food to these agencies.

The panino challenge, Williams says, underscores Campofrio’s purpose: bringing communities everywhere favorite foods to love. “And as our divisional vice president of operations says, one of the ingredients put into our product is love.”

“I want teammates to be able to talk with me about anything.”

Campofrio Food Group 1800 Ruffin Mill Road 804-520-7775 cfg-america.com

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“We have to have our moral compass and our values at the forefront leading us toward the future.”

Greta Harris The Better Housing Coalition’s president and CEO looks for strategic silver linings during a crisis

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despite continued anxiety over

COVID-19, Greta Harris, president and CEO of the Better Housing Coalition, chooses to see how the pandemic could change society for the better. Serving the Richmond community for over 30 years, the organization strives to create, as Harris puts it, “better living environments for families to thrive.” This means developing real estate for rental, creating home ownership opportunities, managing properties and providing services to families in need. “The Better Housing Coalition has helped over 15,000 lower-income households be able to find a good place to call home,” Harris notes.

After immediately focusing on maintaining the properties they manage and making sure that her team and residents were in good stead, Harris

looks forward to tackling broader issues that the crisis calls to mind. “I think it’s lifting up the issue of quality housing needs across all socioeconomic lines — now more than ever,” she says.

Harris is hopeful that the current challenges will lead to better opportunities for growth ahead. “The need is great, and I am just honored to be one of several leaders within the organization that are helping to navigate these challenging times,” she says.

With a number of deals currently in motion to obtain and develop more properties, Harris hopes that with this crisis, new efforts will be made to give residents the tools they need to succeed. “In many cases this is not a money issue, it’s political will,” she says, “and I think we have to have our moral compass and our values at the forefront leading us toward the future.”

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5/20/20 12:04 PM

Maria Tedesco Growing up in restaurants has helped the president of Atlantic Union Bank serve her customers well

COURTESY ATLANTIC UNION BANK

WITH PARENTS WHO OWNED A

French restaurant right outside Boston, Maria Tedesco knows about long hours and keeping the doors open, even during snowstorms. “My father always wanted to be there for his customers,” says Atlantic Union Bank’s president. Working in her family’s restaurant gave Tedesco a head start on learning fi nance and delivering a great experience. “You were treated as an adult, and I was accountable to something bigger than just me every day.”

Those same long hours and customer care came to the forefront again in March and April as Tedesco and her teammates quickly prepared for the COVID-19 crisis, from handling routine transactions to processing federal Paycheck Protection Program loans. Atlantic Union was one of the fi rst banks to close and offer by-appointment and drive-though service

only, and 85% of the bank’s employees were working from home by March 16. “We are deeply rooted in caring for our teammates, the customer and community,” Tedesco says. “I think the response to the payroll protection program is representative of that.”

Tedesco readily makes herself available, especially to those who directly assist customers. One initiative developed from a spring 2019 listening tour has been the Women’s Inclusion Network, which recently hosted several panels of female employees. During these discussions, women talked about their work experiences, and male attendees shared how they would take what they heard and improve their own leadership skills. “Women have made progress in banking, but we have a long way to go,” Tedesco says.

“We are deeply rooted in caring for our teammates, the customer and community.”

Atlantic Union Bank 1051 E. Cary St., Suite 1200 800-990-4828 atlanticunionbank.com

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“We’re looking at ways to refocus, pivot ... in order to continue to do the things that we’ve always done.”

Mary Ashby The Network of Enterprising Women’s presidentelect strives to be a mentor to young women NETWORKOFENTERPRISINGWOMEN.ORG

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four years ago, mary ashby,

president-elect of the Network of Enterprising Women, was invited to a scholarship luncheon put on by the organization, during which graduating high school women were awarded $1,000 scholarships. After attending, she was hooked. “I just really liked this group of ladies who are networking with a purpose,” Ashby says. “College is such an expensive proposition, and being able to really help these young ladies to have that opportunity and come out of it with much less of a debt load is exciting.” Now, years later, Ashby is the vice-president of the volunteer-driven nonprofit, and she’s set to become president in August.

In addition to being a great group of women banding together to network, the organization’s central mission is inspiring young women and presenting them with

opportunities for growth. They also offer professional development programs for both women and men in order to empower the community. Throughout the year, the group raises funds through events such as a fashion show supported by Wear RVA, and then they hold the scholarship luncheon in July to award the funds that are generated.

While Ashby is hopeful, she recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic may require the luncheon to be rescheduled this year.

Despite the health crisis, Ashby remains optimistic about her organization’s future.

“We’re looking at ways to refocus, pivot, all the words that people are using now, in order to continue to do the things that we’ve always done,” she says, including exploring partnerships with other local organizations focused on high school women and figuring out ways to do fundraising events, “so that we can continue to fund these scholarships.”

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5/20/20 12:05 PM

Dentist Janine Randazzo, DMD Putting smiles on patients’ faces in and out of the office is key at her practice

JAY PAUL

HEARING THAT PATIENTS EITHER

didn’t have dental insurance or were losing coverage, Dr. Janine Randazzo and her team members developed their own dental plan that includes two cleanings and set discounts on other treatments for one annual fee.

Her practice also marks milestones in patients’ lives, from birthdays to anniversaries. “We have one team member who keeps track of everything,” Randazzo says. “When the right time comes around, we celebrate those patients with balloons and cards or some custom gift.”

The practice also holds a quarterly raffle of 10 gifts for patients.

This quarter’s raffle theme — appropriately — is board games.

Randazzo Dentistry also serves its community, with team members annually selecting a charity to help. In 2019, it was

HomeAgain; this year, it’s FeedMore.

Since opening her practice in 2008, Randazzo has been part of the Network of Enterprising Women, serving as the organization’s president this year.

She’s made lifelong friends through the group, which also gives scholarships to female seniors in local high schools.

Randazzo relishes the variety in her work: “What I like the best is that I see the whole family, from children to grandparents.”

On the path to dentistry early, Randazzo worked as a dental assistant on Saturdays and two days during the week for a prosthodontist while attending college.

What she learned from other dentists is that the best ones made patients feel relaxed and special. “It’s not only about how you treat the patients but how you make them feel.”

“It’s not only about how you treat the patients but how you make them feel.”

Randazzo Dentistry 2300 Robious Station Circle 804-897-2900 jrdentistry.com

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BOLD WOMEN OF RICHMOND

“My passion and my heart was really working with young people.”

Charleita Richardson The president and CEO of Partnership for the Future believes that being able to listen proactively is the best tool a good leader can have

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for charleita richardson,

president and CEO of Partnership for the Future, the most fulfilling part of her job is watching the students she works with celebrate graduating from college.

Unfortunately, a closing ceremony at the end of the summer recognizing their accomplishments has been disrupted by the pandemic. “I know that they’re going to be really heartbroken about not being able to be together for that,” she says. “We’re working on modifying that celebration for them virtually now.”

Despite the pandemic’s effect on the organization’s programs, Richardson and her team are hopeful about their ability to adapt. “It’s been different, but it’s been exciting at the same time because it forces you to think outside the box,” she says.

Partnership for the Future was founded 26 years ago with the primary purpose of helping students from low-income

families get into college through the use of various resources and programs, including internships and college-prep classes.

Since then, according to Richardson, the organization has expanded its mission to include working with students while they’re in college and even after graduation.

“Within the last year or two, we’ve moved towards helping our alums eventually adapt into being full adults and successful leaders in the community,” Richardson says. “It’s a very long term commitment of working with our students and really getting them to where they need to be.”

Richardson, a corporate accountant by trade, first found her way to Partnership for the Future after a mentor recommended her for a job with the organization. “I kind of had this life-changing epiphany that I love working with numbers, but my passion and my heart was really working with young people,” she says.

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5/20/20 12:05 PM

Mary Allen Waller Markel’s new global director of community engagement wants the giving process to be led by employees

JAY PAUL

IN MARY ALLEN WALLER’S FORMER

role as director of accounting and fi nance business process at Markel, she helped Vice President Bruce Kay and CFO Anne Waleski assess charitable requests and manage the company’s employee matching gifts program. After both retired from Markel last spring, the company created a new full-time position — global director of community engagement — and Waller, a 20-year Markel veteran, was tapped for the role. She’ll now work with 73 insurance offices in 2l countries around the world.

Waller is looking forward to meeting the members of site-based giving committees that will review all by-invitation local grant requests at Markel offices. “It’s very important to put the power of philanthropy into our employees’ hands,” she says.

Waller brings the insight of community board service to her role. She was on the board of CancerLINC for six years.

She also was a mentor for Partnership for the Future’s high school students and a school lunch buddy at St. Andrew’s

School, and she subsequently became a board member at both nonprofits.

As a graduate of the Leadership Metro Richmond (LMR) class of 2018, she gained an even broader understanding of the importance of community engagement. “At Markel we have a commitment to our community,” she says. “It is reflected in our culture statement which we call the Markel Style, and in our long history of philanthropy. The LMR experience underscores that philosophy.” In addition to Markel’s philanthropy, Waller is proud to be involved in the company’s employee networks, from the women’s network to the veterans’ network and others currently in the development stage.

Waller’s most significant mentor at Markel was Waleski, who’s now working with Steve and Kathie Markel on the Church Hill North Initiative. “I’ve landed where I’ve landed because of her,” Waller says. “She made it possible for me to serve in this role. And my greatest hope is that I’ll be able to expand on the philanthropic legacy of Markel.”

“My greatest hope is that I’ll be able to expand on the philanthropic legacy of Markel.”

Markel Corp.

4521 Highwoods Parkway 800-446-6671 markel.com

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5/20/20 10:59 AM

Roberta Keller As the head of one of the region’s only Certified B-Corp advisory firms, Alexis Advisors’ founder and CEO offers a values-based experience for women

JAY PAUL

AFTER NEARLY A DECADE OF TRYING

to figure out what ailment she was suffering with as she continued to work in the highstress institutional money management world, Roberta Keller’s Chinese doctor told her this in 1999: “There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says, ‘Smart people learn from observing other peoples’ experiences, normal ones earn from their own experiences, dumb ones never learn.’

You are falling into the dumb category.”

Her doctor was right. The lack of a diagnosis — and her ego — resulted in Keller staying in a high-stress job that was making her sick. Keller got the message, left her job in London, returned to Richmond and became a yoga instructor and management consultant. She also finally learned she had a treatable thyroid condition.

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, Keller felt disheartened by the devastation and believed that her prior experience could be of benefit. She launched Alexis

Advisors, a fee-only advisory firm offering a proprietary investment approach that focuses on minimizing catastrophic losses associated with stock market declines.

“We have become a business to support women in talking about their investments, their financial plan and their legacy. Our goal is for women to be empowered and confident, to build wealth and use their money as a force for good.” On June 26, Keller will co-host a free Zoom seminar for women on “Money & Meaning” that will focus on creating financial resilience and opportunity during insecure times.

Keller’s ultimate wish is for clients to be in the Chinese proverb’s “smart” category, and to avoid her circuitous path — to make intentional choices about how they earn, spend, invest and give their money.

“Money is just a form of energy — another way to get a need met. We want women to be informed about their money and what’s behind it.”

“Money is just a form of energy — another way to get a need met.”

Alexis Advisors 2821 Emerywood Parkway, Suite 202-A 804-625-3290 alexisadvisors.com

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BOLD WOMEN OF RICHMOND

“Our students were showing so many incredible skills — teamwork, leadership, safety.”

Elizabeth Redford For the executive director of the Next Move Program, flexibility is key to working with a diverse group of people

THENEXTMOVEPROGRAM.COM

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ELIZABETH REDFORD, EXECUTIVE

director of the Next Move Program, which is dedicated to providing internship opportunities for adults with diverse abilities, started out as a special education teacher before co-founding the nonprofit in 2015.

The Next Move Program maintains 13 sites where they run internships throughout the year, including Wells Fargo, Quirk Hotel, Ledbury and the University of Richmond.

“We have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most fantastic individuals and organizations that really see the value that these young adults bring to the workforce,” Redford says.

“They see their hunger, their desire, their enthusiasm to grow and to gain skills.”

In addition to maintaining and coordinating internship sites throughout the Richmond area, for the past three years, Redford and her team have undertaken a baking program that has enjoyed great success. After students began working

with local baker Britt Falabella, Redford noted the positive effect that working in the kitchen had on their students. “Our students were showing so many incredible skills — teamwork, leadership, safety. We saw great communication skills, we also saw avenues to talk about entrepreneurship, fi nancial literacy, customer service.”

Shortly after the baking program took off, the team began selling cookies.

Catering gigs and appearances at local farmers markets followed, and some of the Next Move Program’s corporate partners came to them to help advocate for a physical space that would not only offer internship and education opportunities but also the possibility of full-time employment. Three years later, Redford is excited to announce the creation of the bricks-and-mortar Tablespoons Bakery, which is set to open in a former parsonage house owned by Westover Hills United Methodist Church this summer.

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5/20/20 12:06 PM

Rohana Meade Synergy Technical’s CEO runs in order to run her company better

JAY PAUL

WHEN THE COVID -19 CRISIS BEGAN,

Rohana Meade and her company of 50 employees at Synergy Technical were in a unique position, since their job often involves training clients to use Microsoft Teams across the country and across the world.

But even her office felt the loss of water cooler conversations and had to recalibrate. “It’s easy to get into a silo and not interact with others in your office,” Meade says. “We’re scheduling a group meeting for 15 minutes at the end of the day, every day. And we’ve recommended that to all of our customers.”

Being mindful of her staff members’ personal well-being and growth is central to Meade. “My philosophy always has been to groom people for their next step in their career,” she says. As team members gain technical certifications, she offers merit increases. The company also supports healthy pursuits outside the office. “We reimburse up to $1,000 per

employee per year on race and other types of entry fees,” Meade says. “I think you can’t be happy unless you feel healthy.”

And Meade embodies that. She got into running in her mid-30s and now is working toward her fi rst Ironman in the fall — a 140.6-mile race in Louisville, Kentucky.

Encouraging staff members to strengthen their skill sets inside and outside the office is part of the DNA of the company, which was recently named Microsoft 365 Security Deployment Partner of the Year for excellence in innovation, integration and customer implementation.

Meade and her teammates also support about 20 nonprofits, including The Next Move Program, Lutheran Family Services of Virginia, Operation Smile and Winrock International.

“I tease that Synergy Technical is the most successful unknown technology company,” Meade says. “And my job is that I work for everyone else within the company.”

“My philosophy always has been to groom people for their next step in their career.”

Synergy Technical 2201 W. Broad St. 804-302-4943 synergy-technical.com

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“With the pandemic we are just shining light on what was already a big problem, which is of course health equity.”

Michelle Nostheide The executive director of the American Heart Association — Richmond looks for opportunities to learn and make a difference

HEART.ORG/RICHMOND

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HER BACKGROUND IN COMMUNICA-

tions and social work led Michelle Nostheide to the nonprofit sector, and as the executive director of the American Heart Association — Richmond, she’s proud to work for an organization dedicated to supporting longer, healthier lives for all people.

Nosetheide and her team work to engage and educate the community about heart disease and stroke. Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the world, their mission has become that much more important, and she’s working even harder to ensure that resources are going to underserved populations that are already more at risk for worse outcomes than those with easy access to health care. “We’ve always been working for public health and combating health disparity in our community,” Nosetheide says. “With the pandemic we are just shining light on what was already

a big problem, which is of course health equity. We’ve been able to shift our focus from things that we were already working on like food insecurity to getting food into the hands of people that are unemployed or struggling with the pandemic locally.”

When the AHA’s annual Heart Ball fundraising event had to be postponed due to the pandemic, Nostheide and her team held an online auction on their original date of April 25, only this time instead of auctioning off experiences or art, they had donors bid on meals for health-care workers and youth athletic league kits to help coaches learn CPR. “Everything became, ‘How can we help?’ ” Nostheide says. “Rather than our usual mission of just longer and healthier lives, it came with this new lens of coronavirus and what can we do in the community right now that’s going to make a difference today.”

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5/20/20 12:07 PM

Vivian White Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Richmond CEO leads with her mother in mind

JAY PAUL

AS A YOUNG NURSE IN ILLINOIS ,

Vivian White found herself serving as her 57-year-old mother’s therapy buddy and advocate after a severe stroke impacted the right side of her mother’s body.

White saw how intensive inpatient therapy helped her mother walk again and reach her goal: dancing at her son’s wedding a year later.

“Because of my mother’s four-week stay in a rehabilitation hospital and the phenomenal care she received, she was able to live the next 23 years of her life,” says White, who’s now the CEO of Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Richmond.

As a rehabilitation hospital, Encompass is focused on recovery after a life-changing medical event. Patients come to them from traditional hospitals, and the goal is getting them back to doing the things they love, with care supporting both physical

and psychological healing. This care also now includes a wing of patients recovering their strength from battling COVID-19.

Making sure her staff members can do their best for patients means providing them with a work-life balance, White says. “I try to instill in people that to be good caregivers, we must take care of ourselves.”

Moving to Richmond in March 2019 with her family, White has gotten to know her new city better through a constant in her life, the American Heart Association. As a kid, she did door-todoor fundraising, inspired by her mother, who had heart issues related to having suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.

Today, White is part of Richmond’s Circle of Red group, and she says, “American Heart has been a great introduction into what Richmond has to offer.”

“I try to instill in people that to be good caregivers, we must take care of ourselves.”

Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Richmond 5700 Fitzhugh Ave. 804-288-5700 encompasshealth.com/richmondrehab

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5/20/20 11:01 AM

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“Art can bring us together and connect us, even during this time when we are all apart.”

Ashley Hall Communities in Schools of Chesterfield’s executive director is inspired by nonprofit work CISOFCHESTERFIELD.ORG

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ashley hall has worked in the

nonprofit sector for most of her life.

Through high school she was active in service clubs and volunteerism, but it was after joining the Peace Corps in Guatemala for over two years that she decided her ultimate goal was to run a youth-serving nonprofit. She is proud, years later, to be heading up Communities in Schools of Chesterfield.“For the kids we work with, high poverty and trauma create major equity issues and barriers to success,” Hall says. “Our job really is to build relationships and bring resources and help level the playing field.”

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hall and her team members have had to adjust their approach to connect with students who still need them, now more than ever. One way they are trying to reach students is through

encouraging access to the art community.

Local artists Matt Lively and Hamilton Glass recently launched a collaborative mural project called All in Together, providing students with coloring pages to submit that will be represented in murals throughout the city. While the pages can be accessed online, Hall and her team are making sure that underserved students without internet access can participate — bringing them worksheets and instructions.

“Art can bring us together and connect us, even during this time when we are all apart,” Hall says. Two of these murals will also be featured in CIS schools.

Hall recognizes the importance of having a strong staff to support the work CIS does. “I’d say we’re all team players,” she says, “and we really encourage and inspire each other through this work that is really motivating and challenging.”

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5/20/20 12:07 PM

Joy Kline Village Bank’s executive vice president of retail banking is committed to community building

for joy kline, village bank’s

response to the COVID-19 crisis exemplified its tagline: You’re a neighbor, not a number.

Village Bank with its nine branches helped nearly 1,300 existing and new business clients process Payroll Protection Plan Loans. “We did $185 million in approvals protecting 20,000 jobs in our community by April 29, which represents about 150% of the normal volume in a year,” Kline says. “It’s been a huge amount of teamwork. And to hear that we were the one who made the difference to someone, that they felt we were willing to listen to them, really has resonated.”

Kline, a 40-year banking veteran who joined Village in 2006, manages the retail banking arm with a complement of 40 employees. The question “What can we do to make sure we maintain quality relationships?”

is at the core of her team’s work.

Relationship-building through community service is also part of Village’s mission. Each Village teammate is given two full workdays to volunteer each year, in addition to being able to participate in the lunch mentor program at Chalkley Elementary School through Communities in Schools.

Service is integral to Kline’s identity.

She lives in Goochland and sat on her local YMCA board for nearly a decade.

“I saw those nine years as making an impact in my backyard, trying to meet the needs of people of all ages,” she says.

And through Goochland’s Rotary Club, she’s been able to impact the world.

“The Rotary Foundation is so special to me,” Kline says. “Through it, grants can be generated that allow Rotarians to do the work they want to do to promote peace and fight disease internationally.”

“I saw those nine years as making an impact in my backyard, trying to meet the needs of people of all ages.”

Village Bank 13319 Midlothian Turnpike 804-897-3900 villagebank.com

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“For critical care, you had to establish trust with the hospitals, local doctors, governments and with the families we served. ”

Susan Rickman The first CEO of World Pediatric Project retires, leaving lasting partnerships built on trust and changes in how pediatric critical care is delivered

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upon returning from work in

Africa in 2001, Susan Rickman became executive director of the International Hospital for Children, a new pediatric nonprofit that wanted to link pediatric critical care to children in developing countries. It was a passion project of orthodontist Julian Metts and the South Richmond Rotary Club.

Almost 20 years later, Rickman leaves an organization that merged with a St. Louis-based nonprofit to form the World Pediatric Project, which has touched the lives of more than 27,000 patients and has helped change health care policy in Central America and the Caribbean.

“My wish is that WPP finds the next global health expert who can come in to take WPP to the next level by expanding our proven model,“ Rickman says.

It was from her mentor, Dr. Paul F. McCleary, that she learned perseverance and making sure that you were working in partnership with the country’s leadership. “For critical care, you

had to establish trust with the hospitals, local doctors, governments and with the families we served. I took great joy in developing those deep relationships.”

Lasting change in the countries in which WPP works is what Rickman circles back to. “When we cut the ribbon on a dedicated operating theater in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for World Pediatric teams in 2015, it was a milestone,” Rickman says.

“That’s where our hub is now for serving all the children in the Eastern Caribbean.”

And in Belize, “we started with folic acid supplements in the southern part of Belize, where there was the largest Mayan population and highest incidence of neural tube defects.” It took seven years to convince the government to pass a law that all rice had to be fortified. The law passed in 2009, and WPP continues to work with the government on implementation of that program.

“Again,” Rickman says, “it was done through perseverance and through partnership.”

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5/20/20 12:07 PM

Dalal Salomon The co-founder of Salomon & Ludwin has an independent streak that’s helped create her firm’s unique approach with clients

LILA PHOTO

during the financial crisis in

2008, Dalal Salomon wanted to find a way to work around the unpredictability of the stock market for her clients.

“I’ve learned that I can control hiring the right people, I can control our service level and our attention to detail, I can create financial plans, and we can take control of investment,” Salomon says. “But I cannot control the stock market, which is very emotional.”

With that in mind, she and her team began developing the firm’s own patented software program that has predetermined triggers for buying and selling — a strategic way to buy when others are fearful and sell when others are holding tight.

Her independent streak also is reflected in the firm’s 2018 designation as an independent registered investment advisor and in how her office works: Every client is serviced by the entire office of 10.

“We work as team on behalf of every client,” Salomon says. “As a group, we have a lot more to offer. There’s no hierarchy.

Everyone’s opinion is valued, and there’s no place in our office for big egos.”

Serving clients and the community with empathy also is part of the firm’s culture. “You can’t be successful serving others if you don’t have empathy,” Salomon says. “There’s a difference between advice and meaningful advice.

Clients depend on us to be truthful and smart, and it’s a big responsibility.”

In the community, the firm supports child-focused charities, including the World Pediatric Project, Side

by Side, Junior Achievement, and The Boys & Girls Clubs. “We had a hand in developing World Pediatric’s honor cards,” she says. “We could make a donation in honor of a client’s birthday and in turn support them.”

“You can’t be successful serving others if you don’t have empathy.”

Salomon & Ludwin 1401 Gaskins Road 804-592-4999 salomonludwin.com

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“I waited around thinking someone else would start one, and no one did.”

Connie Moslow Free Clinic of Powhatan’s executive director brings health care to the underserved FREECLINICOFPOWHATAN.ORG

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when connie moslow first moved

to Powhatan about 37 years ago, she began volunteering and noticed a lack of affordable medical care. It was after she discovered that Powhatan residents were visiting Richmond’s free clinic in search of care that she decided to create one for her community. “I waited around thinking someone else would start one, and no one did. So I thought, ‘Well, let’s go do it.’ It’s been a great thing for the county, it’s been a great thing for me, it’s been a good thing for our patients, it’s been a good thing for our staff.”

The Free Clinic of Powhatan, which has now been open for about 13 years, offers medical, dental and mental-health care to low-income residents of Powhatan.

Executive Director Moslow, who does not take a salary, recognizes the importance

of her clinic now more than ever as the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the country.

While the current space occupied by the clinic is very small, with few allowances for social distancing, within a couple of months, Moslow and her team should be moving into a vacated school board building that will be renovated to fit the clinic’s growing needs, the result of a massive fundraising campaign called “The Campaign for Health and Hope.”

“Now we’re going to have all the room we need, and we’re going to be able to expand our hours and increase our patients, get more services,” says Moslow, who’s especially grateful to be able to expand mental health and substance abuse counseling services. She expects to see a growing need for them as the pandemic continues to affect the disenfranchised.

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5/20/20 12:08 PM

Lisa Benusa The co-owner of the event venue The Mill at Fine Creek sees herself as a steward of the property and its history

JAY PAUL

lisa benusa is a force of nature ,

and fittingly, she credits as her mentor the land on which The Mill at Fine Creek sits.

The land? Yes, the land.

“It’s enabled me to grow and let me be person that I wanted to be,” says Benusa, a mother of five adult children who has relished cooking since childhood.

Those 15 acres are now providing temporary shelter to her children and grandchildren during the COVID-19 crisis, and Benusa’s team had provided pick-up meals for clients of the Free Clinic of Powhatan for nine weeks.

Benusa even hosted the wedding of her son Colin, with just 10 immediate family members as guests.

In 2004, she and her husband, Tim, purchased the first 10 acres when their youngest was entering high school and then went through a yearlong zoning

process to create the full-service event venue. “I knew in my heart that I could do it,” Benusa says. In 2010, her son Mark became a co-owner, and soon after that, they purchased 5 more acres where they built a brewery, a pastry shop and five guest cottages.

Many of Benusa’s team members have been with her since the start, and now their children are working alongside them. “Our biggest thing here is letting our staffers put their own families first,” she says. This can mean having a schedule where someone can be waiting at their children’s bus stop in the afternoon or have time to take care of elderly parents.

Benusa also wants her entire staff to have pride in their surroundings, because that enhances the events they host. “You are entrusted with a person’s dreams,” Benusa says.

“Our biggest thing here is letting our staffers put their own families first.”

The Mill at Fine Creek 2434 Robert E. Lee Road 804-379-8211 themillatfinecreek.com

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“I was raised in a community where you take care of people around you — if you see a need, you try and help.”

Theresa Sears Let’s Go Services’ executive director works to spread kindness and offer respect to those in need LETSGOSERVICES.ORG

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when theresa sears began to

hear reports of disabled people and older adults being left behind for hours at a time after being taken to doctor’s appointments or the grocery store by some for-profit transportation companies, she decided to turn her own service, Transporting Angels, into a nonprofit called Let’s Go Services in 2017. “It seemed like there were a lot of nightmare stories,” she recalls.

Sears, who grew up in Ireland with four siblings, is a practicing Christian who believes in showing her faith through acts of love and kindness. “We were poor, but we didn’t know it,” she says. “I was raised in a community where you take care of people around you — if you see a need, you try and help. I’ve always felt, because of my faith, that this is what you are

supposed to do. You can talk the talk, but I feel like I want to be walking the walk.”

Let’s Go Services is dedicated to offering rides to those in need. “We say we are a transportation company, but we’re not just a transportation company,” Sears says. “If somebody needs to go to the grocery store, we will go in with them if they need help. If we take somebody somewhere, we wait for them. If they need us to go into the appointment with them, we’ll do that.”

Sears stresses the importance of treating those they serve with respect and kindness. “They can go from clients to friends,” she says. “Once they get to know you, they share their stories with you, and you get a peek at history through each of their lives.”

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5/20/20 12:08 PM

Angie Shay As founder of THE PATH Financial Strategies, this CEO believes trust comes from listening and walking in her clients’ shoes

JAY PAUL

angie shay became a licensed

financial advisor in 1989, but as she took off building her client base, the business became her identity, and she used it as a way to hide from a failing marriage.

After getting a divorce, God put her on a new track with her firm THE PATH Financial Strategies. As a Christian, Shay’s philosophy for life and business is to help clients develop sound financial futures through knowledge, integrity and trust. “We want to create powerful financial strategies that our clients understand, and empower them to live without fear of their future,” she says.

Shay and her team of six start by asking their clients’ goals, and then they work on a financial plan after examining estate-planning documents, insurance coverage, any wealth management plans and tax returns.

“When you garner people’s trust, you’ve got to take the time to wear their shoes,”

Shay says. “You can’t do adequate strategies or plans until you do that well.”

Shay and her team start the workday together. “We huddle every day at 8:30 a.m. and read from a devotional calendar for everyday living and pray together,” she says. They each also set annual professional, personal and spiritual goals that often include things that make them uncomfortable. “If you are not uncomfortable, you are not growing,” Shay says.

Mentoring also plays a huge role in Shay’s life. Through Fairmont Christian Church, she mentors several young people, and professionally, she has served on the board of Women in Insurance and Financial Services and as the group’s national president. “I had been invited to speak at their conference, and it was so refreshing to see 340 women sharing information with transparency and vulnerability,” she says. “It was like a breath of fresh air.”

“We want to create powerful financial strategies that our clients understand.”

THE PATH Financial Strategies, LLC 4435 Waterfront Drive, Suite 400, Glen Allen, VA 23060 804-935-5318 thepathfinancial.com

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“My work has always surrounded finding opportunities for improvement, growth and development.”

Aimee Selleck For the United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg’s volunteer coordinator, guiding leadership principles include having an authentic eagerness and passion for the work done in collaboration with her team, as well as gratitude, transparency and humility YOURUNITEDWAY.ORG

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WHEN THE COVID -19 CRISIS

brought everything to a grinding halt in mid-March, Aimee Selleck, volunteer coordinator with the United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg, had to put a hold on United Way Literacy Kits, which are typically distributed to schoolchildren in alignment with the timing of kindergarten registration. They include a new book, school supplies and family educational materials that help contribute to childhood development.

Despite the pause and disruption in schools, Selleck and her team are looking for ways to get those kits out to people who need them. “There was a very drastic shift in what my work looked like for many, many weeks,” she says, “but the past couple of weeks, we’ve kind of been able to pick back up.”

The United Way works to empower community members and partners in

order to create systemic change that breaks down barriers to access and opportunity for those in need. Selleck manages volunteers and helps to create programs and initiatives that support the health, education and fi nancial wellbeing of underserved communities. “My work has always surrounded fi nding opportunities for improvement, growth and development so that we are increasing our impact and engaging community members more deeply,” she says.

Two years ago, when Selleck fi rst started working at the United Way, she was particularly proud to have helped implement Steps to Success Learning Trails with support from sponsors. The series of signs that the organization put up at parks and other outdoor spaces focuses on physical and cognitive skill-building for parents and caregivers to engage children. Selleck and her team hope to install more this summer.

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5/20/20 12:08 PM

Lori Engelhardt Strong female mentors guided this DuPont environmental, health and safety leader in her career and community work

JAY PAUL

WHILE STUDYING CHEMICAL

engineering at Ohio State University, Lori Engelhardt experienced the blessing of getting paid while garnering real world experience for DuPont.

Hired into DuPont’s Field Engineering Program, Engelhardt received another blessing in 2010: a strong female mentor named Karen Wrigley, who oversaw one of the plants where Engelhardt was stationed.

“She was the one who recommended that I’d be part of United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council when I moved to Richmond,” Engelhardt says.

After Wrigley retired, Engelhardt’s new Richmond-based mentor, Ervette Broadnax, encouraged her to apply for her current job, that of environmental, health and safety leader at DuPont’s Spruance Plant, which has been

operating around the clock to meet the demand for Tyvek®, a material used in personal protective equipment.

Engelhardt’s day is often focused on answering questions. “I spend time out on the plant floor, visiting with as many people as I can,” she says.

“If there are concerns I can address right away, I do it. If there’s feedback that needs to get to managers, I summarize it anonymously and put it forward in a productive fashion.”

Engelhardt also leads the Tyvek® Culture Team.“We are trying to shift the culture at the site to be even more communicative,” she says, “with more engagement from the shop floor, and that comes from cultivating relationships.” Just like the ones her mentors fostered with her for a decade.

“We are trying to shift the culture at the site to be even more communicative, and that comes from cultivating relationships.”

DuPont 5200 DuPont Site Road 804-383-2000 dupont.com

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“The kids are really empowered and are doing something that they never dreamed.”

Amy McCracken Helping businesses support underserved youth through vocational training motivates and challenges the director of corporate work study at Cristo Rey Richmond High School CRISTOREYRICHMOND.ORG

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amy mccracken, director of

corporate work study for Cristo Rey Richmond High School, has always found herself drawn to working with urban youth. When the opportunity for a job at Cristo Rey, which opened in Richmond in the fall of 2019, presented itself, she found herself jumping at the chance to make a difference in students’ lives while also partnering with businesses to encourage support.

Cristo Rey schools are replicated from a model that first debuted in Chicago in the early ’90s and was funded and recognized by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations to aid underserved neighborhoods by providing a private Catholic school education to students who couldn’t have afforded it otherwise. In addition to being a four-year high school, “The secret sauce of Cristo Rey is the Corporate

Work Study Program,” McCracken says.

“The students are earning the bulk of their tuition by working in entry-level positions, even starting in ninth grade, at the city’s top companies.” She works with corporate sponsors to secure jobs for students and to make sure they are successful in those positions.

“It’s just been incredible,” McCracken says. “The kids are really empowered and are doing something that they never dreamed.”

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, McCracken worried that the corporations and entities that they work with would have to pull the jobs and salaries that they had committed to Cristo Rey, but that hasn’t been the case. “It’s amazing and stunning that people are still saying yes to us,” she says, “but I think that it speaks volumes to the philanthropic spirit of Richmond.”

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5/20/20 12:08 PM

Karrie Southall RiverFront Investment Group’s COO believes office culture sets stage for success

JAY PAUL

IN 2008, KARRIE SOUTHALL AND A

group of 14 co-workers from Wachovia Securities decided not to move to St. Louis after their firm merged with another. Instead, they opened RiverFront Investment Group, which serves financial advisors and their clients. Since then, she has helped to shape RiverFront’s culture and its commitment to supporting more women in the financial services world.

The company has grown to 47 employees, and in Southall’s role as chief operating officer, she is passionate about maintaining a strong company culture based on the belief that leadership comes from everyone. RiverFront has a dedicated cultural leadership team that surveys associates about what is good and what needs improving in their workplace. “You don’t know unless you ask,” Southall says.

That caring radiates outside RiverFront and into the community. Every year, the

firm’s charitable giving committee selects one nonprofit to support based on associates’ nominations. This year, the Richmond Community Tool Bank received the firm’s $25,000 donation and many hours of associates’ time.

Southall also wants to encourage and mentor more women in financial services. “At some conferences I attend, I’m still the only woman in the room,” she says. RiverFront has its own mentoring program for female associates, and they’re planning a Richmond conference for female financial advisors with whom they work across the country.

Southall’s greatest work lesson was a decision early in her career to take a job that paid less in exchange for personal contentment. “Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward,” she says, “and that realization of making less money at a job that made me happy was the catalyst that set everything off for me to where I am today.”

“Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward.”

RiverFront Investment Group 1214 E. Cary St. 804-549-4800 riverfrontig.com

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“My leadership style is very much bold — I’m a risk taker.”

Karen Stanley CARITAS’ president and CEO is guiding her nonprofit to meet today’s challenges

CARITASVA.ORG

SPONSORED BY

KAREN STANLEY, THE PRESIDENT

and CEO of CARITAS, the largest homeless services and recovery program in Central Virginia, has been with the nonprofit since 2000.

Once a domestic violence coordinator for Chesterfield police, she has worked in both the private and public sector, but, Stanley says, “Nonprofit is defi nitely where my heart is.”

“United by our compassion, we help our most vulnerable neighbors break the cycles of homelessness and addiction to reclaim their dignity,” says Stanley, quoting CARITAS’ mission.

The organization strives to embody those words with four programs — an emergency shelter, a furniture bank, a works program and a recovery program for those suffering from substance abuse.

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit Richmond, Stanley recognized the need to act fast for their underserved population.

“It’s been crazy, but for the most part our folks have been kept safe and healthy,” she says. “It really puts things into perspective.”

After locking down the shelter and the recovery center, Stanley began to modify CARITAS’ operations, knowing that people would need more help than ever.

Luckily, for the past three and a half years, she and her team have been working on a massive $28 million project, the CARITAS Center, a 150,000-square-foot space that will permanently house a recovery center and an emergency shelter for women, the furniture bank and work program, administrative offices, and 40 sober living apartments, all under one roof. The CARITAS Center is nearing completion, and they are looking forward to expanding their operations in the next couple of months. “My leadership style is very much bold — I’m a risk taker,” Stanley says. “My board is, too, and we made some really conscious decisions to make this happen.”

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5/20/20 12:09 PM

Kelsey Spicer U-fab interiors’ manager has stitched together a close-knit family of coworkers

JAY PAUL

GROWING UP WITH THREE SIBLINGS

on a soybean farm in Caroline County, Kelsey Spicer learned determination from her mother, Peggy — to do anything as well as men or better — and sewing from her grandmother Glenda.

This spring, Spicer, u-fab interiors’ manager, put both those lessons into overdrive.

Spicer and her coworkers have made more than 30,000 masks for VCU Health and Henrico County. Like modern-day Rosie the Riveters, she and her team sewed for three weeks straight either at home or while social distancing in the u-fab warehouse.

Spicer began working part time for u-fab in 2012 while attending Virginia Commonwealth University. She helped with e-commerce, social media and data entry. After graduating in 2014, she became the manager of the Robinson Street store. When u-fab expanded and moved to their new location

on Broad Street in the West End, she began managing all customer-facing operations.

“What I try to bring through the door each morning is a calm and positive attitude,” Spicer says. “Over the years, I’ve learned that an even-keeled temperament is crucial to problem-solving.”

Two years ago, u-fab began hosting an annual in-store charity auction for CARITAS, which assists those facing homelessness and addiction. U-fab’s support, along with that of many others, has helped CARITAS prepare for an upcoming move into a new 150,000-square-foot space in South Side, where all of the nonprofit’s programs will be under one roof. U-fab is also assisting with some of the furniture and upholstery in the new space.

“Understanding CARITAS from a different angle has made me want to help even more,” Spicer says.

“What I try to bring through the door each morning is a calm and positive attitude.”

u-fab interiors 7921 W. Broad St. 804-888-8322 u-fab.com

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“The good in people really comes out when they see that interaction with the horses.”

Karen Fowler For the president of the board of directors of the James River Horse Foundation, horses have always been a calming presence, and seeing them have a similar effect on the incarcerated is inspiring JAMESRIVERHORSES.ORG

SPONSORED BY

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KAREN FOWLER HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN

avid horse lover. “I have ridden my whole life, and I have a long love of racing and thoroughbred racehorses,” she says. “I have worked with them, raised them, cared for them.” While horses are what initially attracted her to the James River Horse Foundation, for which she serves as president of the board of directors, it is the organization’s philanthropic work that has kept her involved.

The James River Horse Foundation runs a program that was created by a group of volunteers whose primary purpose, initially, was to provide sanctuary, a rescue home, retraining and rehabilitation to retired racehorses.

The horses, which are housed at the State Farm Work Center in Goochland, are cared for by inmates who have been selected for the program, which also

focuses on vocational training. Each year, after a lengthy application process, six to eight inmates are chosen to participate, and they’re taught how to care for the horses with a curriculum including barn safety, basic veterinary care and grooming. They learn basic management skills and how to work as a team.

For Fowler, who started volunteering with the James River Horse Foundation eight years ago, it has been transformative to see the way inmates respond to the horses. “The biggest lesson, I’ve found, is seeing the true goodness of people come out,” she says. “Whether it is the inmates that are in the program, our sponsors of the program that are helping to support us, or the general public as we try to spread our mission, the good in people really comes out when they see that interaction with the horses.”

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5/20/20 12:10 PM

Jennifer Berdell The co-owner of Kinloch Capital is passionate about sharing her knowledge to help women and their families stand on their own financially

JAY PAUL

SOMETIMES GOOD THINGS COME

from bad things. Soon after Jennifer Berdell went through her divorce, she realized that her financial planning expertise could help other women.

When she offered her Certified Financial Planner help for other divorcing clients, she learned that the legal world recognized another designation: a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst who’s trained to understand the financial and legal sides of divorce proceedings.

Having earned the CDFA designation, Berdell describes her role as a financial coach at a time when a woman has sometimes lost confidence and is often wrestling with sadness and anger. “I’m there to empower them, to tell them that they are in charge now of their financial world and to help them build a team around them,” says Berdell, who also works with women who have recently lost their spouses.

As the full-time complement to her parttime CDFA work, she and her husband, Peter Walls, opened their own wealth-management firm, Kinloch Capital, in May 2019, after two decades running their practice at large brand-name brokerage firms. They advise individuals and families with between $1 million and $10 million in investable assets. “I like to say that we bring billionaire strategies to your next-door millionaire,” says Berdell, adding that Kinloch Capital’s investment specialty areas include securities, real estate and private equity.

Recently, Berdell had a full-circle career moment. In the early 1990s, she worked on trusts in Crestar Bank’s private banking department under manager Bonnie Turner.

“She had an open-door policy, allowed us to sit in on meetings and held training sessions for me and two others a few times a week,” Berdell recalls. The week of Mother’s Day, Turner became a Kinloch client.

“I like to say that we bring billionaire strategies to your next-door millionaire.”

Kinloch Capital 4801 Cox Road, Suite 200 804-956-4550 kinlochcapital.com

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“Being a family-focused workplace is one of the most important aspects of our culture.”

Lisa SpecterDunaway For Families Forward Virginia’s CEO, working not only with support staff and those in need but also teaching and collaborating with those in power, is the way to create open lines of communication and understanding across all backgrounds FAMILIESFORWARDVA.ORG

SPONSORED BY

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when lisa specter-dunaway,

CEO of Families Forward Virginia, left for vacation in early March, she had no idea that she would be coming back 10 days later to an international health crisis.

“While I was concerned, I knew that I had a strong leadership team in place that would make good decisions,” Specter-Dunaway recalls. “The pandemic-related decision making is ongoing, but this strong group of leaders laid a solid foundation for our ongoing work while supporting our staff.”

Families Forward Virginia is a nonprofit dedicated to disrupting the cycles of child abuse, neglect and poverty in partnership with families and communities. In 2017, Families Forward Virginia was created as a merger between two organizations with similar missions — CHIP of Virginia and Prevent Child

Abuse Virginia. “It was absolutely the right move in terms of our ability to support our 50-plus community partners,” SpecterDunaway says, “and we’ve seen a 40% growth in funding and staff post-merger.”

For Specter-Dunaway, her work is all about families. “We support more than 50 local organizations across the commonwealth in their work with families,” she says. “Being a familyfocused workplace is one of the most important aspects of our culture — living our mission. We focus on getting things done, helping our affiliates, changing how people view parenting. We don’t focus on the specific boxes that must be checked to get those things done. This sparks tremendous growth in our staff to develop new, better and different ways of delivering the results that we need.”

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5/20/20 12:10 PM

Erin Hatcher Sauer Brands Inc.’s director of marketing carries on the legacies of Olga Sauer and Eugenia Duke

JAY PAUL

IN 1889, TWO YEARS AFTER THE C.F.

Sauer Company was formed by her husband, Olga Sauer took an oversized marketing display for their bottled extracts to the State Fair of Virginia and won fi rst prize.

That led to Sauer attending trade shows all over the world to promote the brand.

In 1929, 12 years after beginning a sandwich-making business that used her homemade mayonnaise, Eugenia Duke sold her mayonnaise factory to The C.F. Sauer Company. She continued to act as the brand’s spokesperson until 1950.

Fast-forward 70 years, and both of these iconic brands are promoted by a team of four women led by Erin Hatcher, who developed her love of cooking while stationed with the Army in Italy. As marketing director of Sauer Brands Inc. since 2007, she works with her team to help set the strategy for Duke’s, The Spice Hunter, and Sauer’s extracts, flavorings and spices.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Sauer was

in a position to help home cooks stretch pantry staples, and the marketing team supported that through their Duke’s Date Nights, which suggested a Southern movie with an accompanying recipe, and Duke’s Dishes for Donations Campaign, which features live Facebook and Instagram videos led by New Orleans-based chef Mason Hereford.

For every viewer during Hereford’s sessions, Sauer is making a gift to the Southern Smoke Foundation’s Emergency Relief Fund. The company also donates to Richmond-based organizations fighting hunger, such as FeedMore and Shalom Farms. And every three months, Hatcher and her team use Sauer products to make a meal for guests at the Ronald McDonald House on Monument Avenue.

“I take really seriously what drew me to C.F. Sauer,” Hatcher says. “That above all, integrity is the most important characteristic, and that you must set the example with actions, not words.”

“Integrity is the most important characteristic, and you must set the example with actions, not words.”

Sauer Brands Inc. 2000 W. Broad St. 800-688-5676 sauerbrands.com

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“When I look back on the past six weeks ... I’m like, ‘Wait a minute — are we superhuman?

How did we do that again?’ ”

Aisha Bullard With three daughters who look up to her as a community leader, Real Chances’ founder is dedicated to empowering the underserved WHERE-WE-HELP.COM/REAL-CHANCES

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real chances inc., which aisha

Bullard started in 2011, is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting underserved communities — people who live on the margins because of homelessness, prior incarceration, poverty or mental illness.

Some programs offered by Bullard and her team include the Richmond Urban Ministry Institute, a school and dorm providing leadership opportunities to the disenfranchised, and Glenwood Farm, which teaches cultivation techniques via urban agriculture, including a retail outlet through farmers markets.

Bullard’s background as a corporate lawyer led her toward the nonprofit sector after she saw the way corporate banks are able to devote funds to organizations designated to help. She runs Real Chances with a corporate eye but a passionate heart. “Somebody told me recently, ‘Oh, I’ve never heard

of your organization before,’ ” Bullard says. “That sort of hurts us when it comes to funding — that people don’t know the breadth and depth of what we’re able to do — but it also allows us to be nimble because we don’t have 20 people to be held accountable to. We’re able to, under the leadership and direction of myself and a small team of leaders, jump in to fill needs quickly.”

With the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Real Chances immediately went into action mode, teaming up with Homeward, another nonprofit, to provide housing for people who need it most. “When I look back on the past six weeks, to think that we were able to take in 50 new people and connect them to the services that they need, house them and feed them so quickly and during a pandemic,” Bullard says, “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute — are we superhuman? How did we do that again?’ ”

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5/20/20 12:10 PM

Leah Coleman This Realtor started an investment company, Real Estate Couture, and serves as president of Boss Babes RVA, which has more than 8,000 members

JAY PAUL

in 2018 , leah coleman, who had

been a licensed real estate agent for eight years, wanted to explore another lane of the business, so she created her own investment company — Real Estate Couture LLC. While continuing as an agent through broker Dodson Properties, Coleman has purchased five properties in the past two years, rehabbing and selling four of them, while keeping one as an Airbnb.

“I have always had a curiosity about real estate and the way it could work to help build wealth for a person,” she says, “as well as the impact it has one family at a time, one street at a time, one neighborhood at time.”

Coleman “curates” each home, designing the interiors with work from local artisans and selling homes with furnishings. She describes her finished projects as “affordable luxury for trendsetters.” Her property purchases

and renovations are privately funded, mostly by other women investors.

Coleman’s support from women is underpinned by her four-year involvement with the Boss Babes RVA network, a private Facebook group with more than 8,000 members — most of whom run their own businesses or are preparing to open one. Boss Babes founder Christine Greenberg sought new leadership for the group in 2018, and Coleman became president that October, running it with a volunteer board of 10 other business owners and an attorney.

Boss Babes RVA, which was founded in 2014, is a 24-7 clearinghouse of business advice, a virtual brain trust that can be tapped into immediately.

“When you are starting out, you need a sounding board, especially if you are opening alone,” Coleman says.

“Boss Babes is about giving other women the courage to do it, to be bold.”

“Boss Babes is about giving other women the courage to be bold.”

804-484-2018 leah@dodsonprop.com leahcoleman.co bossbabesrva.com

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“Our goal is to provide a full spectrum of care without judgment.”

Dr. Wendy Klein After 25 years in academia at the VCU School of Medicine, Health Brigade’s medical director has found a new calling providing health care to the uninsured HEALTHBRIGADE.ORG

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dr. wendy klein, medical

director at Health Brigade, never saw a female doctor while growing up. Despite not seeing these role models, she developed a passion for medicine at a very young age and continued to pursue her dream. “It’s an incredible privilege to be able to take care of people, and it’s also very challenging and very intellectually fulfilling,” she says.

“I love learning and I love teaching, and medicine is a pathway to those things.”

Health Brigade, formerly the Fan Free Clinic, has been in operation for 50 years, making it Virginia’s oldest free clinic. “We are committed to providing exceptional health services to the least served and most vulnerable populations — to the people who have no insurance, no Medicaid, no Medicare,” Klein says. “Our goal is to provide a full spectrum of care without judgment.” Health Brigade offers an array

of services, including health screenings, mental health services, navigation of social services, access to medications, transgender care, universal hepatitis screening and more.

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Klein and her team were forced to act immediately upon realizing that they did not have enough personal protective equipment. They closed most of the clinic (while still safely distributing medications and other essential services) and got their telehealth system up in record time. In some ways, Klein has found that they are more efficient, having learned what is most essential. “Health Brigade is unique in its commitment to health equity and social justice,” she says. “I work with an amazing group of people who share that commitment. I am just so profoundly proud of the way in which everybody rose to the occasion.”

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5/20/20 12:11 PM

Dee Ann Remo The founder of Heritage Wealth Advisors uses her tax, financial advising and nonprofit experiences to help clients navigate the changes within the new normal

dee ann remo’s appetite for

professional change began when she left her secure, successful, partner-level role at KPMG and set about creating an entrepreneurial business to provide investment and tax advice, financial planning, and estate planning.

“It’s atypical for a firm in our industry to offer all three disciplines,” she says.

“Because it’s harder. It’s more laborintensive and complex. We do it because it drives better outcomes for our clients.”

Her bias for change is in full effect during the COVID-19 pandemic, as she leads Heritage Wealth Advisors in navigating the financial crisis for clients, as well as exploring new ways to motivate and engage her remote-working team.

She describes Heritage’s pre-COVID downtown headquarters as an “office ballet” of meetings, including conversations where every client is treated as a client

of the entire firm. The firm’s morning collaboration sessions are still going on virtually, but Remo is restless to explore and reset every form of communication in the firm to the new normal — from business development to teammate learning. “I believe this event will permanently change the way we do business,” she says. “So it demands something different of leaders.”

The crisis also demands more of philanthropy. “We plan for our clients over the long term — multiple generations,” Remo says. “We have the privilege of making connections for our philanthropy-minded clients.” In February, Remo hired Elaine Summerfield, who spent more than a decade at the Community Foundation, for a new position, as director of foundations and endowments. “Our timing with Elaine was so fortunate,” Remo says. “Now more than ever, we need to help our families be effective at the art of building the community.”

“Now more than ever, we need to help our families be effective at the art of building the community.”

Heritage Wealth Advisors 919 E. Main St., Suite 950 804-643-4080 heritagewealth.net

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5/20/20 11:04 AM

Deborah “Dee” Gordon Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods’ safety and human resource manager leads by example

JAY PAUL

from manning the carytown

Ukrop’s Super Market salad bar in 1986 right out of high school to now overseeing human resources and safety for Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods, Deborah “Dee” Gordon embodies Ukrop’s belief in continuous learning, cross-training and promoting from within.

Gordon found her home in human resources when she realized that it combined her love of teaching and helping people — similar to the feeling she had as a resident advisor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

She began full-time work in the human resources department in 2004, steadily gaining responsibilities, including overseeing company safety in 2013.

One of her professional mentors includes the first human resources manager with whom she worked, Dana Allison. “She always told me to build positive relationships.” Gordon says. And she’s seen that

advice bear fruit. Those relationships, embodied in trust, integrity, fairness and respect, allow her to consistently join forces and get cooperation throughout the organization as well as outside it.

During the COVID-19 crisis, making sure Ukrop’s associates feel safe as they continue to make prepared foods for the public has been her priority. And that means keeping up with the copious daily CDC updates, talking with human resources managers throughout the region and checking in on associates.

“In my role, I’m promoting doing the right thing and following policies,” Gordon says. “Associates are looking for you to do the right thing.”

And that means that even she can be called out for not following the rules.

“I was in the plant, and one of the associates called out, ‘Miss D, you are chewing gum?’ ” she recalls. “I was so appreciative of that. He felt comfortable enough to do that.”

“Associates are looking for you to do the right thing.”

Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods 2001 Maywill St., Suite 100 804-340-3000 ukropshomestylefoods.com

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5/20/20 12:36 PM

To those on the front line during this time: Hospital staff members Doctors and dentists seeing patients with emergencies Postal workers Delivery drivers Custodial cleaners Bus drivers Sanitation workers Restaurants offering takeout Police, fire and rescue squad employees Grocery store workers Caregivers And so many others...

Our heartfelt thanks to all of you

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EAT&DRINK

PROFILE

THE SWEETEST THING A buttermilk doughnut pop-up from a furloughed chef sparks joy and success By Eileen Mellon

Tom Collins at Fuzzy Cactus

OPEN TAB

When Life Hands You Lemons Meet Tom Collins, one of the most refreshing and time-honored cocktails DATING BACK TO the father of American bartending Jerry Thomas’ 1876 “The Bar-tender’s Guide,” the Tom Collins is a certified classic. The sparkling lemonade, gin-spiked libation is the perfect way to brighten a summer porch session.

Richmond magazine: What is a “beaux?”

Ernie LaBrecque: Biscuit,

buttermilk-based doughnuts.

We try to keep everything very Southern — that’s what I know, that’s the food I love to cook and the food I love to eat. … I’ve got an Alabama grammy, and this is a biscuit recipe from her I’ve been toying with to make it a sweet dough, and it finally came together — little bit of acid, saltiness and sweetness from the buttermilk.

RM: Why did you decide to start this pop-up?

Ernie: I had been making them for my kitchen staff at Upper Shirley, and I never had time to pursue it beyond that. Then the

shutdown happened. I sat on the couch for half a day and thought, “I can’t do this.”

KB had also stopped working to take care of her mother in March. I said we have to make some money and gave this a try.

RM: Do fl avors change or are there a few staples?

Ernie: There’s a couple favorites — cinnamon sugar and apple cider have become staples. Other than that, we try to do something different each week.

RM: What is your culinary background?

Ernie: I went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh when I was 27 and then worked at Habitat, inside the Fairmont Hotel. I missed the South, I missed fried green tomatoes, and then came to Richmond. I've worked at Relay Foods, Pearl, The Hard Shell downtown and Max’s Positive Vibe Cafe.

RM: Why do you think Beaunuts has been such a hit?

Ernie: People see someone pivot and make something out of nothing, and I think there’s a respect for that. I think people just respond to doughnuts — it’s something new, something fun.

KB: It’s also a cool little break for people to get out for that half-hour and come and grab doughnuts. It gives everyone something to look forward to.

“The most important part about making cocktails at home is using fresh-squeezed citrus,” says Katey Damian of Rappahannock.

As for gin, Thomas most likely used Bols Genever, a malty and less juniper-heavy Dutch precursor. The cocktail’s next phase of popularity called on Ransom Old Tom gin, a sweeter, barrel-aged version, while today, most bartenders use a London Dry style. At Fuzzy Cactus, Paul Kirk typically turns to Gordon’s — if he wants something sweeter, he reaches for Barr Hill, a satinsmooth, honey-based gin.

Easy Tom Collins variations: Substitute lime for lemon = Gin Rickey No soda = Sour More soda = Fizz Ginger beer = Buck Brenner Pass Bar Manager Shannon Hood makes a Tom Collins and margarita mashup dubbed Mar-Gins. Her rule: Never shake. —Paul Blumer For more on the Collins shake debate, plus recipes from Brenner Pass, Fuzzy Cactus and Rappahannock, visit richmondmag.com/tomcollins.

FROM TOP: JAY PAUL; TYLER DARDEN, COURTESY BEAUNUTS; KB LABRECQUE, COURTESY BEAUNUTS

During their first pop-up in mid-March at The Roosevelt, the husband-and-wife team behind Beaunuts sold 1,000 doughnuts in 30 minutes. Since then, the sell-out streak has continued for Ernie LaBrecque, furloughed Upper Shirley Vineyards chef de cuisine, and his wife, KB, a social worker. Inspired by Southern desserts like banana pudding and key lime pie, the “big” and “baby” beaux creations have brought the couple success during unexpected times.

To make, begin with equal parts lemon juice and simple syrup until you reach a desired balance of flavors. After, shake or build in a tall Collins glass and top with soda.

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5/19/20 10:51 AM

| CA LENDA R |

Wedding Events 6/5-7

7/18-25

Hayley Paige & Blush Spring Show

Fifth Annual National Bridal Sale Event

Check out the spring 2020 collections from both Hayley Paige and Blush at Annalise Bridal Boutique. Receive 10% off any gown from the featured designers during this showcase.

1309 E. Main St. 804-649-3000 or annalisebridal.com.

National Bridal Sale Day is held every third Saturday in July, and many shops extend the day to a week of savings on gowns and wedding-party attire. There are nearly 1,000 stores participating, including local boutiques. For a list of participating stores, visit nationalbridalsaleevent.com.

6/10

Urban Set Bride Reopening Contact Urban Set Bride to make an appointment for when the doors reopen in June. In the interest of safety, all brides will be limited to four guests, must wash hands or use hand sanitizer upon entry, and wear their own mask or a provided disposable mask. Plus, in appreciation of first responders, bring your badge to the boutique during June and July and receive a 15% discount on gowns (excludes Jenny Yoo). Visit the shop’s website for updates.

602 N. 29th St. 804-939-7082 or urbansetbride.com.

7/12

Wish Come True: Bridal Fashion Show Rescheduled from April, only 100 tickets will be sold for the Tiffanys Bridal in-house fashion show. Enjoy refreshments, learn the do’s and don’ts of gown shopping and be automatically entered to win prizes, including a free bridal gown from the Jasmine Collection. A portion of the proceeds benefits Brides Across America, a nonprofit providing free wedding dresses to military and first responders.

Visit Tiffanys’ website for event updates. 2 to 4 p.m. $20. 1517-D N. Parham Road. 804-273-6303 or tiffanysbridal.com.

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UPCOMING EXPOS, TRUNK SHOWS AND REOPENINGS | By NICOLE COHEN

7/26

The Richmond Greater Virginia Bridal Show Hosted by Virginia Bride Magazine, this show lets you meet wedding vendors, check out the designer fashion show, enjoy cake and catering samples, and take part in opportunities to win door prizes and the grand prize of a honeymoon.

1 to 4 p.m. $10 (cash only).

Richmond Raceway Complex, Old Dominion Building, 600 E. Laburnum Ave. 804-822-1768 or vabridemagazine.com.

9/2

CELEBRATIONS ABLOOM! WEDDING & SPECIAL EVENT SHOWCASE Rescheduled from May, stroll through the gardens of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden as you explore one-of-a-kind indoor and outdoor event spaces. Dine on bites courtesy of Lewis Ginter’s exclusive caterer, Meriwether Godsey, meet and greet with the site’s preferred vendors, and participate in the raffle, which includes a chance at the grand prize: a free facility rental for a wedding in August 2021. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. $15. 1800 Lakeside Ave. 804-2629887 or lewisginter.org/event/celebrations-abloom.

9/13

Richmond Weddings Summer Show More than 100 weddingindustry professionals will be at this elegant showcase. View the latest fashion trends for men and women, sample desserts, and check out amazing floral displays. VIP ticket holders receive a swag bag with items from participating vendors.

Doors open at 11 a.m. for early admission ticket holders and at 12:30 p.m. for general admission. The event ends at 4 p.m. $15 to $32. Main Street Station, 1500 E. Main St. richmondweddings.com/ wedding-show.

10/18

11/27-12/5

Virginia Bridal & Wedding Expo

Anne Barge Trunk Show

Meet with vendors ready to make your perfect wedding day a reality. Experience live music and dance performances, receive a free makeup trial and see a fashion show by Celebrity Bridal and Formals.

Enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win $10,000. 12:30 to 5 p.m. $10. Richmond Raceway Complex, 600 E. Laburnum Ave. 888-433-3976 or bridalshowsva-rr.com.

Join Annalise Bridal Boutique for this exclusive trunk show featuring the newest collection of gown designs by Anne Barge.

1309 E. Main St. 804-649-3000 or annalisebridal.com.

IN CONSIDERATION OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC'S IMPACT ON LARGE GATHERINGS, PLEASE CHECK INDIVIDUAL WEBSITES FOR EVENT UPDATES.

Courtesy Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

5/15/20 3:19 PM

| OUR W EDDING |

IN (GLOBAL) SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH FINDING THE BRIGHT SIDE OF GETTING MARRIED DURING A PANDEMIC

By SARAH LOCKWOOD

I

’m not going to pretend there weren’t tears when we first realized we had to reschedule our 130-person wedding that I had planned — and planned — for months. But I’m grateful for the intimate family wedding that we were able to have despite the global pandemic.

Our original wedding date was April 4, 2020. The countdown had hit the 30-day mark when we began to see the coronavirus as a threat. The questions began to eat us up: “Can we just tie wedding bows to hand sanitizer dispensers and position them throughout the reception? Can we put our grandparents in a giant protective bubble? What if we go ahead with our wedding, but it gets someone sick? What if we reschedule, but we lose a lot of our parents’ money?”

By now, these questions seem silly, but at the time, we didn’t know just how widespread the pandemic would be. It wasn’t even called a “pandemic” yet. Just as we were starting to think that it would be irresponsible to forge ahead, Gov. Ralph Northam banned gatherings of more than 100 people (he later banned gatherings of more than 10). There was some relief in the decision being made for us — but there were also many tears. Suddenly, all of my late nights of planning and emails back and forth with vendors were not going to pay off. This big day we’d been waiting for was taken out of our sightline.

Luckily, we were in the early wave of couples rescheduling, and our venue, Historic Jasmine Plantation, waived the change-of-date fee if we rescheduled within 2020. We selected a Sunday in September,

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which increased the chances of our vendors being available. We never would have selected a Sunday as our original date, but it’s amazing what priorities fell away this second time around.

When all of our vendors were available on our new date, it felt like a miracle. When they all graciously rescheduled without any additional fees, I thought I’d gone to heaven. But I still felt a sucker punch to the stomach when the countdown on my phone shifted from 18 days to 194.

I knew that my “loss” was nothing compared to the loss of life around the world and the strength required by frontline health workers. I knew it was just a big

“Except for donning the masks that my grandmother had sewn in our wedding colors, we were able to forget about thevirus-that-must-notbe-named for just a few hours.”

SARAH LOCKWOOD

Left: Aurelia Studios; Right: Holly Pritchard Photography; John Buller, J. Ellis Photography

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party, and that the health and safety of our loved ones were so much more important.

But it still hurt. I found comfort in other brides. I had joined a Facebook group for Richmond brides months before our originally scheduled wedding. Prior to the virus, the group sold used wedding decor and shared vendor recommendations.

Once the coronavirus hit, the threads were filled with rescheduling plans.

“We kept our date and got married without our families,” says Sovanna Sok, who tied the knot with Brook Ballard on April 10. While this couple from the Fan is looking forward to celebrating with family when it’s safe, in the meantime they were able to share a GoPro video with loved ones of their intimate, scenic mountain-top wedding.

“It was a different kind of special, and I love knowing that I’m married to my best friend now,” Sok says. “I am so happy with our decision to get married. I want to encourage other brides to do what will make them happy. It’s not a normal time, and we just need to uplift each other.”

While Sok wore her rehearsal-dinner dress for this elopement and is saving her wedding dress for her rescheduled family wedding, others saw an opportunity to

among those in attendance. It felt special wear their gown more than once. and beautiful and intimate. Except for “I plan to wear my dress for both donning the masks that my grandmother because I love it so much, so why not had sewn in our wedding colors, we were wear it twice?” says Elizabeth Robinson. able to forget about the-virus-that-mustThe Chesterfield bride and her fiancé, not-be-named for just a few hours.

Tristan DeWitt, decided to have a “mini I’m grateful that as long as we live ceremony” May 2 and rescheduled their in this house, we’ll know what a special bigger party for September. thing happened on our back porch. I’m Like most brides sharing their plans grateful for our family who supported us on the Facebook group, I knew that my from afar and in the yard that day. I’m fiancé, Andrew, and I still wanted to legally grateful that our dog Merlin got to attend tie the knot on April 4. The new house the wedding (since it was out of the we’d just closed on felt like the question with our original plans). perfect venue for an intimate OPPOSITE PAGE: And (knock-on-wood-cross-mywedding. We talked to our Sarah Lockwood heart-and-hope-to-cry) I’m parents and siblings about and Andrew Ray donned grateful I’ll get to wear my their comfort level with a hand-sewn masks for their April dress twice. small outdoor gathering 4 backyard ceremony. LEFT: Elizabeth Robinson and Tristan DeWitt We danced our first dance to quickly exchange at their “mini ceremony” on May 2 to Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonvows while practicing RIGHT: Brook Ballard and Sovanna Stop Us Now.” Because resocial distancing. They na Sok opted for an intimate ally — though, please universe, were in. In fact, they took mountain-top wedding on April 10. do not take this as a challenge the planning responsibility — what can stop us? We still wanted away from us. to tie the knot after weeks of quarantinFor their quick mobilizaing in a 1,000-square-foot apartment, and tion and loving support, I am eternally despite the fear and panic in the world grateful. My brother married us while around us, we looked into each other’s we were surrounded by our immediate eyes and said “I do” with confidence and family — stationed 6 feet apart from each hope and joy. other. I don’t think there was a dry eye

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Blackbyrd Goods logo hat, $30, at Blackbyrd Goods

Fish fly woven bow tie, $70, at Peter-Blair

The back of Proraso this invite has travel a pocket.shaving kit, $15, at Need Supply Co.

Hideout enamel mug, $28, at Jackson & James

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Pink quartz memory box, $75, at Janet Brown Interiors

Jelly Belly champagne jelly beans, $5 each, at For the Love of Chocolate

Lemon stripe robe, $60, at Beckon Home

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BRIDESMAID: Your bridesmaids are joining you on the journey to the altar, so when it comes to the time-honored tradition of presenting them with a gift, a little spoiling can go a long way. Consider these relaxation-inducing items for your bridesmaid gift basket.

Jade revitalizing eye mask, $18, at amazon.com

Monogram hand towels, $25 each, at FraĂŽche

Pink feather pen, $13, at Relics to Rhinestones

Silk tulip bouquet, $16, at FraĂŽche

Panier de Sens jasmine travel set, $33, at Yves Delorme

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Enamel pocket double frame, $54 each, at Yves Delorme

Upper Shirley Vineyards sparkling rosé, $36, at Upper Shirley Vineyards

Simon Pearce Woodbury clock, $150, at Fraîche

Gold Tone wine chiller, $40, at Beckon Home

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REGINALD & RACHEL

Bohemian Sanctuary JULY 6, 2019 Photos by THE GERNANDS PHOTOGRAPHY

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achel Green and Reginald Chapman, a founding member of No BS! Brass Band, met in 2015 through a mutual friend and bandmate.

After dating for two years, they moved to Illinois together to complete their graduate degrees. In 2018, the pair planned a trip to visit the Grand Canyon, where Reginald intended to propose to Rachel. But an unexpected out-of-town work trip for Reginald foiled these plans, so instead, he proposed in their living room at 6 a.m. before leaving for his flight.

While still in Richmond (the couple now makes their home in Brooklyn), Reginald and Rachel lived in Church Hill and often took walks around Libby Hill Park. They chose the scenic location for their intimate outdoor ceremony. For their reception at the Hofheimer Building, the couple took advantage of the venue’s “blank slate” to create a minimalist bohemian sanctuary decorated with tons of natural greenery, including a living plant wall that served as the evening’s backdrop.

Guests dined on Asian-themed delicacies from Peter Chang, including dry-fried eggplant (the couple’s favorite), Golden Mountain chicken and Kung Pao shrimp. Unique signature cocktails included Something Old, a classic old fashioned; Something New, a twist on a tequila sunrise; Something Borrowed, Straight From Moscow (mule); and Something Blue, a blueberry gin lemonade.

The couple agreed that one of their favorite moments from the reception happened when Rachel’s best friend started a toast — and other guests followed. “It was really cool that everyone participated,” Rachel says. “Reginald’s cousins even invited me to be in their ‘cool cousin club.’

[Laughs.] It was such a sweet moment.”

WALK THE LINE: Rachel took pre-ceremony bridal photos at the Graduate Richmond.

Handmade using vintage lace, her fitted gown is from Saldana Vintage, and her handmade sandals are from Michael Grey Sandal Factory.

Her bouquet contained succulents, blushing bride proteas, garden roses and orlaya.

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ALL DRESSED UP: Reginald’s mother pinned his succulent boutonniere to his lapel.

A dusty pink tie from The Tie Bar accented his Banana Republic suit.

(Opposite page) ON TOP OF THE WORLD: The couple took this dramatic photo standing beneath the iconic Mediterraneanstyle dome that tops the Hofheimer Building. “It looks like we’re not even in Richmond,” Reginald says.

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PLANNER, FLORIST AND DECOR: Olivera Floral Design CATERING: Peter Chang, Scott’s Addition DESSERTS: WPA Bakery HAIR: Emily Borgo, Flourish Hair Studio

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CHECK THIS OUT: Reginald and Rachel printed their seating chart, place cards and signature cocktails list on library cards using a typewriter, as a tribute to Rachel’s career as a school librarian.

The lush centerpieces consisted of assorted greenery.

DIY DOLLS: The quirky cake toppers were handmade and painted by the couple. “It was hard to find interracial cake toppers that looked like us, so we decided to make them ourselves,” Reginald says. They cut into a hummingbird cake from WPA Bakery and served guests vanilla cupcakes, also from WPA Bakery.

LETTER ART: Rachel handwrote a welcome message on the chalkboard at the Hofheimer bar to match the lettering on their wedding invitation.

NATURAL ELEMENTS: Both Reginald and Rachel’s wedding rings are rose gold, so they incorporated rose gold napkins into their table settings. They added stick-on numbers to succulent planters to create their DIY table numbers.

HAPPY HOUR: Rachel enjoyed a Moscow mule as Reginald admired his bride. Sarah Boyle with Olivera Floral Design created the living plant wall behind the couple.

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DOUGHNUTS: Emily’s Donuts and Café FLOWERS: Trader Joe’s HAIR AND MAKEUP: Melissa Giorgi and Kendall Evans

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BETHANY & AUBREY

A Day at the Farm OCTOBER 20, 2018 Photos by SHAWNEE CUSTALOW

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fter connecting on Tinder in 2017, Bethany Ayers and Aubrey Moog had their first date at The Veil Brewing Co. Several months later, Aubrey proposed to Bethany after a delicious dinner of Thai food at Aubrey’s parents’ home. Not knowing Aubrey was going to propose, Bethany had coincidentally purchased her a gift of lotus pearl earrings. “We both got gifts that night,” Bethany says, laughing.

The couple decided to get married the following fall on the peaceful grounds of Bethany’s family-owned farm in Amherst, Virginia. “I grew up having family cookouts and birthday parties there, and it was a really special place for me to share with Aubrey when we started dating,” Bethany says. “It was an easy decision to make.”

The brides sourced rustic decor from local thrift stores and borrowed items from family and friends to create a casual bohemian look for their DIY autumn celebration, including distressed wooden pallets that were used as dinner tables.

Guests dined on hearty chili and pumpkin soup, both homemade by a friend, paired with fresh bread and cheese purchased from Costco. The brides also served freshly picked apples from Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville and doughnuts from Emily’s Donuts and Café in Williamsburg.

A favorite moment from the day for Aubrey was walking down the aisle with her parents and then watching Bethany walk down the aisle after her. As for Bethany, she says, “I really enjoyed the mealtime because we got to sit back and watch everyone be joyful together.”

(Opposite page) MAGIC MOMENT: The brides enjoyed a moment under their ceremony archway, which was built by Aubrey’s stepfather, Gary Zimak. The bridal party decorated the archway the day before the wedding with fresh flowers and antique lace.

BASKET OF SUNSHINE: All of the flowers for the wedding were purchased from Trader Joe’s.

This vintage basket contained sunflowers, baby’s breath and alstroemeria.

ROW YOUR BOAT: The wedding was “bring your own beverage,” so rather than using multiple coolers, the brides filled a canoe with ice for guests to use for drink storage.

The canoe also housed a keg of Virginia Apple Bold Rock Hard Cider.

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(This page) SWEET SENTIMENT: The couple cut into a chocolate espresso cake with vanilla icing homemade by their friend Hannah Sullivan.

As a wedding gift, Aubrey hand-wove the shawls they both wore.

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FRIEND IN ME: The gender-inclusive brides had 20 “bridesmates” stand beside them on the big day. Bridesmates were simply instructed to wear something comfortable in a fall color scheme.

FARM TO TABLE: The couple sanded down wooden pallets to use as picnic tables for the reception. They provided colorful pillows and blankets from local thrift stores to keep guests comfortable as they ate dinner.

DOUG’S BUG: The couple’s getaway car was a Volkswagen Beetle that was originally owned by Aubrey’s father, Doug.

After he passed away, it became Aubrey’s car, but it eventually fell into disrepair.

Bethany’s father (also named Doug) purchased the car from Aubrey and fixed it up so the brides could drive it for the wedding. “We call it Doug’s Bug,” Aubrey says. “It went from one Doug to another.”

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JOEL & JEANETTE

Vintage Garden Party APRIL 28, 2018 Photos by TANIA DEL CARMEN PHOTOGRAPHY

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eanette Bouchard and Joel Bennett knew each other for 17 years before beginning their romantic relationship in 2016. Joel, a cardiac anesthesiologist, and Jeanette, a cardiac critical-care nurse, developed a close friendship at work that eventually blossomed into something more. Joel proposed to Jeanette by asking her to pick out an engagement ring during an impromptu visit to Fink’s Jewelers.

The couple opted for an intimate afternoon wedding at the historic Linden Row Inn. The venue’s tranquil outdoor courtyard setting aligned perfectly with Jeanette’s vision for a springtime garden party. “I wanted the wedding to feel small and cozy but very beautiful, like an afternoon tea party,” she says.

A brunch-themed menu from The Urban Farmhouse offered guests classic brunch favorites such as bagels and lox, made-toorder omelets, pastries, bacon, ham, hash browns, waffles and French toast, as well as mimosas and bloody mary cocktails.

Though Jeanette describes the wedding as a “low-key” affair, the one thing that was not low key, she says, was her dress.

“Something I really wanted was a beautiful gown,” she says. “I didn’t have that at my first wedding.” The bride wore a glamorous lace sheath dress by Sottero and Midgley, purchased at Becky’s Bridal & Formal in Buena Vista, Virginia, accented with a vintage birdcage veil from Etsy.

Joel’s best man, a fellow cardiac anesthesiologist, pleasantly surprised the couple during his toast. “At the end of the toast, he sang an Indian blessing for us,” Jeanette says. “I am not an emotional person, and I had tears streaming down my face. He is just such a pure soul. I found that moment to be so inspirational.”

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: After Joel proposed, Jeanette picked out an oval canary-diamond engagement ring with oval white diamonds on either side.

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CLASSIC SCENT: Jeanette wore her signature scent, Chloé Eau de Parfum by Chloé, on her wedding day.

“It’s light and fresh, and not overwhelming,” she says.

(Opposite page) SNEAKING A KISS: The couple enjoyed alone time while taking photos under the awning of the Richmond Public Library. Joel’s black suit is from Franco’s Fine Clothier.

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PLANNER: Tanya Harding, XOXO Wedding Co. CATERING: The Urban Farmhouse DESSERTS: Buttersweets Cakery FLORIST: Flowers Make Scents HAIR: Lydia Brackett, Salon del Sol

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PRETTY IN PASTEL: Lush floral centerpieces in pastel colors adhered to the wedding’s garden party theme. Patterned table linens with matching purple napkins came from Classic Party Rentals.

FOREVER AND ALWAYS: Joel and Jeanette smiled at the crowd after being pronounced husband and wife. “We are very different people, but we work really well together,” she says. “I was so proud in this moment to be standing beside him.”

MOMENT IN TIME: Jeanette’s children, Brooke and Michael, escorted her down the aisle.

Her bouquet included mini calla lilies, Playa Blanca roses, baby’s breath, blue hydrangeas, delphinium and fresh greenery.

SWEET TOOTH: Desserts included an almond cake with buttercream icing, as well as cupcakes in salted caramel and Heath Bar chocolate, maple bacon, key lime, banana pudding, chocolate, and vanilla.

The champagne flutes are Waterford Crystal, the cake stand was borrowed from a friend and the cake topper was purchased from Etsy.

(Opposite page) GLAMOUR SHOT: Jeanette says she adores this photo taken before the ceremony. “Tania said, ‘Think about the things in life that inspire you,’ ” Jeanette says. “I thought about my children and my soon-tobe husband and the love that I have for them.”

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