New Orleans Magazine's Top Female Achievers

I was touched by the spirit of Mildred Fossier, a 95-year-old retired civil servant and one of this year’s honorees at the New Orleans Magazine Top Female Achievers luncheon. She brought the audience to its feet with her moving acceptance speech in which she praised New Orleans for its long history of diversity.

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The other top female achievers of 2008 were Valentine Bemiss-Williams, the director of Love Alive Fellowship Choir; Sheila Ealey, the founder of the Creative Learning Center for children with autism; Cathy Harris, the founder and president of C. Harris Cos. Inc.; Yvonne LaFleur, the owner of Yvonne LaFleur New Orleans; Barbara Motley, the proprietor of Le Chat Noir; Capt. April Overman, the commander of the Reserve Division of the New Orleans Police Department; Kathleen Sullivan Schiavi, an obstetrician/gynecologist at East Jefferson General Hospital; Melinda Sothern, a professor of research at Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center; and Ann Rogers Tuennerman, the founder of Tales of the Cocktail.