YWCA Honors Five Women

Every year the YWCA honors extraordinary women throughout Central Massachusetts who have reached exemplary levels of achievement in their professions and communities with the Katharine F. Erskine Award.

This year five women from the arts, education, medicine, social service and business communities will be presented with the prestigious Katharine F. Erskine Award during the Tribute to Women luncheon on May 4, 2010, at Mechanics Hall. Receiving the award is: Shauree Allotey, Arts & Humanities; Colleen Gardner, Business & Law; Keesha LaTulippe, Community/Social Service & Government; Laurie Ross, Ph.D., Education; and Dr. Matilde Castiel, Medicine & Science.

Shauree Allotey has been a community youth worker since graduating from UMass Amherst. She is dedicated to helping young people reach their full potential by developing their creativity and cultural awareness through knowledge and appreciation of the visual and performing arts, crafts and creative writing. As the Cultural Arts Program Director at the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester, Shauree develops programs and activities that allow kids to express themselves in a positive way. Under her lead, the agency’s hip hop dance team, In Da Zone, has won several city-wide competitions.

Dr. Matilde Castiel, a physician at UMass Memorial Medical Center, leads the hospital’s Elderly Outreach Program, staffing walk-in clinics at Worcester Housing Authority sites, the Worcester Senior Center, Centro Las Americas and other community locations. She has long been an advocate for the city’s elderly, poor and disenfranchised populations. Dr. Castiel is the volunteer executive director of the Latin American Health Alliance (LAHA) a non-profit dedicated to eliminating health disparities among the city’s Latino population. She also founded the Hector Reyes House, a substance abuse treatment program for Spanish-speaking men.

Colleen Gardner has a high-powered corporate job in a male-dominated industry, is a devoted mother, mentor, and community volunteer. She has demonstrated throughout her personal and professional life her true commitment to advancing the lives of women and girls – she leads the Women in Network at National Grid, she mentors female students in the Women’s Leadership Program at Babson College, she encourages young girls to explore non-traditional career paths,  she is an advocate for the participation of women and girls in sports forming a girls’ lacrosse team at her daughters’ high school. She does it all, according to those supporting her nomination, balancing work, family and community with great skill and aplomb.

Keesha LaTullipe overcame many obstacles in her life to go on and improve the lives of others. As assistant to the president at the Henry Lee Willis Center, she coordinates multiple city-wide coalitions aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic disparities. She is the coordinator of the Worcester Black Legacy Group, a member of the City’s No Place For Hate Task Force, and an adjunct professor at Anna Maria College and Quinsigamond Community College on Race and Cultural Minorities.

Laurie Ross, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Community Development and Planning at Clark University where she has been on faculty since 2000. Also, Laurie is director of the Healthy Options for Prevention and Education (HOPE) Coalition, a youth-adult partnership coalition created to reduce youth violence, substance use and promote adolescent mental health in the City of Worcester.