Melodie Baker is the director of education at the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, where she designs, implements and secures funding for evidence-based education programs. In 2014, she co-founded the Charter School of Inquiry, where she is also chair of community engagement and a member of the board of trustees.

Alma Carrillo’s wide-ranging journey to Buffalo – where she is executive director of the Buffalo Arts Studio – started in Mexico and then on to Texas; Notre Dame, where she graduated with a government international studies degree; a stint as office manager for the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Austin; Brown University, where she met her now-husband; and the Providence, Rhode Island-based Steel Yard, an industrial arts center and manufacturer of public art which fosters creative and economic opportunities, by providing workspace, tools, training and education, while forging lasting links to a local tradition of craftsmanship.

Berardi Immigration Law is a business immigration law firm that helps individuals and corporations obtain work permits, green cards and citizenship.

Berardi Immigration Law is a business immigration law firm that helps individuals and corporations obtain work permits, green cards and citizenship.

Our NYS Women, Inc. Legislative Platform specifically includes pay equity and economic self-sufficiency for all working women.

That advocacy goes back to our origins as the former Business and Professional Women: our umbrella organization, BPW/USA, was a leader in passing landmark civil and women’s rights legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Women’s Business Ownership Act, and the Equal Pay Act.

Chef Mandy Bailey and her husband, Trueman Muhrer-Irwin, have been working on their nonprofit community café, Big Big Table, for four years. They plan for a welcoming place where people from all backgrounds can come together to enjoy a healthy meal, regardless of ability to pay.

Members of the Buffalo Niagara Chapter from St. Bonaventure University came together with the Jandoli School of Communication's Woman of Promise panel two years ago to create a bracket to help with advocacy of amazing women throughout our history.

Our February 2017 “Woman in Leadership is Karen L. King. Karen King was appointed executive director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women by Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz in June 2016.

March is Women's History Month and there will be events all across Buffalo and Erie County throughout the month of March. The attached calendar lists all the events, locations and important details regarding each event.

Calendar 

It hasn’t been that long since a woman has been able to have her own credit card. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 granted a woman the right to have a credit card in her own name – which translated into an unprecedented degree of independence for women. Feminists and advocates for women’s equal rights, including New York State Women, Inc., fought hard for this basic right – enabling women’s financial freedom.