IWL Honored to Recognize Leaders at 3rd Annual IWL Gala

Meet IWL's 2024 Transformational Leadership Honorees!

2024 IWL TRANSFORM Award Honoree: Wendy K. Baumann

Wendy Katherine Baumann serves as President/CVO of The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), a statewide economic development corporation.  Baumann accepted this challenging position in the community in 1994, providing the leadership required to ensure the achievement of WWBIC’s mission and to uphold the philosophy of serving businesses owned by women, minorities, and low wealth individuals in Wisconsin.

Baumann’s credentials, experiences, and enthusiasm has been key in obtaining the objectives set forth for WWBIC in developing new and innovative models for business assistance programming and small business development. Baumann is a former Director of Small Business Development at The Milwaukee Enterprise Center (MEC) and served as Executive Director of The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin in 1987 and 1988. Baumann has also worked at The Council for the Spanish Speaking and prior to that at Goodwill Industries. Baumann’s ability to dialogue and successfully collaborate with public, private, and diverse groups has been key.

Baumann has served on numerous national and local Boards, currently maintains membership with various organizations while also serving on numerous boards, and has received four other notable awards for leadership and innovation. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee. Wendy K. Baumann has two adult daughters and sons, three grandchildren, a fabulous border collie, and resides in a log cabin in Mequon, Wisconsin.

2024 IWL INSPIRE Award Honoree: Jacqueline Black, PhD

Dr. Jacki Black is the Director of Hispanic Initiatives and Diversity & Inclusion Educational Programming at Marquette University, and seeks to provide greater access and support to Latinx and other underrepresented students. Dr. Black also provides strategic leadership and learning opportunities for faculty, staff, and students with the goal of fostering a more inclusive working and learning environment, and contributes to the execution of other campus-wide diversity and inclusion efforts.

Hailing from a working-class background, Dr. Black strongly believes in the power of education as a path to upward mobility. She has a deep passion for cultivating an educational culture in which every student—regardless of race, socioeconomic or immigration status, gender, sexual identity, or religion—has the opportunity to fulfill their potential with access to a safe, welcoming school environment, an excellent education, leadership-development opportunities, and a sense of pride and belonging.

Dr. Black earned her BA from the University of Chicago, MA from Saint Xavier University, and PhD from Marquette University. Prior to her role at Marquette, she devoted 15 years to teaching, mentoring, coaching, and advising in Chicago and Milwaukee schools. Most notably, she spent 10 years at MUHS, where she taught Honors Spanish for Native Speakers, advised the Orgullo Latino student organization and served as the Latino Family Liaison. While Dr. Black derives great purpose from her work, her world revolves around her family, including her children Alonzo and Emma and her life partner Luke, without whom none of her work would be possible. 

2024 IWL ENGAGE Award Honoree: Hope Moses

Hope Moses is a fourth-year journalism student at Marquette University and the Executive Director of the Marquette Wire, where she oversees a student newsroom of 70-plus staff members and volunteers who produce content across their newspaper, magazine, radio station, and television station. Additionally, Moses is an O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism Reporting Intern. In 2022, she was selected as the Inaugural Foley Fellow for the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, assisting the foundation implement journalism safety practices across the country. Moses co-founded a student group for journalists of color to create community and support within the media space on campus.

Moses has completed internships at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Urban Milwaukee, and The Community newsletter.  She has also volunteered at MCW, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, and Girl Scouts of America Southeast and became a peer counselor through the Educational Opportunity Program. This allowed her to mentor first-generation and low-income students through their college endeavors. Moses has received numerous awards and honors including having her writing published in the globally-distributed McGraw Hill textbook Common Places, and her journalistic work has been recognized several times regionally by the Society of Professional Journalists. Following graduation, she will attend Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Outside of academics, Moses enjoys playing tennis, writing, photography, traveling, and hanging out with friends and family.

IWL Honored to Recognize Leaders at 2nd Annual IWL Gala

Meet IWL's Inaugural Transformational Leadership Honorees!

2023 IWL TRANSFORM Award Honoree: Kareeda Chones Aguam

As the Senior Vice President of Partner Strategy and Management for the Milwaukee Bucks, Kareeda has blazed her own trail, taking a job with the Milwaukee Bucks in ticket sales following her graduation from Marquette and working her way up the corporate ladder to her current role. With women making up just under a third of team vice president roles and under ten percent of team presidents or CEOs, Kareeda has made it her mission to help reach out to those behind her, ensuring that "the next young lady has the same opportunities I have," and advocating for greater diversity of thought and diversity in work culture. Her courageous work has changed the lives and careers of women. Thank you for inspiring us, Kareeda!

2023 IWL INSPIRE Award Honoree: Rosemary A Stuart, PhD

Dr. Rosemary A. Stuart is a Wehr Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences whose research and work on campus over the last 23 years has embodied the IWL's mission to elevate and inspire women. In addition to her past service as Associate Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences and leading her current role as director of the Biological & Environmental Sciences Internship Program, she serves on Marquette's Committee on Diversity & Equity, the IWL Faculty Advisory Council, Marquette's faculty-led Pay Equity Taskforce, and Marquette's NSF-funded ADVANCE initiative, which seeks to support the advancement of women in STEM.  She is also the proud mother of two fabulous and inspiring "kids," Ciara and Eddie. Thank you for inspiring us, Rosemary!

2023 IWL ENGAGE Award Honoree: Gabrielle Chun

Gabrielle Chun is a third year, Mechanical Engineering student in the Opus College of Engineering with minors in Business Administration, Graphic Design, and Writing-Intensive English. She has been accepted into Marquette's Graduate School of Management and will be completing her MBA as part of the university's five-year STEM-MBA accelerated degree program. Beyond her academic excellence, Gabby is an active student leader who serves as a tutor for both the writing center and the physics department, a Sacristan for Campus Ministry, and an executive board member for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the Art Club, and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society. As outreach director for SWE, she has also worked with Notre Dame School of Milwaukee and Discovery World to organize volunteer opportunities promoting engineering to future generations of women in STEM. Thank you for inspring, Gabrielle!