Diverse Mix of Authors, Activists and Other Pioneering Women

In Fields from Medicine to Architecture Receive International Award

Ten women whose pioneering spirits have helped to make a difference in the lives of countless others were to be honored with the International Women's Forum Women Who Make A Difference Award at the organization's United States Global Conference, Illumination, Imagination and Enlightenment in Las Vegas, Nev. on October 12. Due to the tragic events on September 11, the conference has been canceled out of concern for the safety of IWF members while traveling across America and from abroad.

The Women Who Make A Difference Awards are presented each year to women across the globe who have served as leaders and role models. The recipients are selected from the International Women's Forum's (IWF) membership, which includes top corporate executives, government officials, human and civil rights advocates, and leaders in nearly every field.

The 2001 Women Who Make A Difference are:

-- F. Marian Bishop, Professor and Chair Emerita, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine;

-- Charlotte A. Bunch, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University;

-- Elouise Cobell, Native American Activist and named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit, Cobell v. Babbitt (Montana);

-- Dr. Nkosazana Diamini-Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs, South Africa and President, World Conference Against Racism;

-- Jo Luck, President and CEO, Heifer Project International and Heifer International Foundation (Arkansas);

-- Ann Medina, Award-winning broadcast journalist and war correspondent (Toronto, Ontario);

-- Major General Martha Rainville, Adjutant General of the State of Vermont;

-- Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean, School of Architecture University of Miami;

-- Larissa Vassillieva, Russian poet, author, playwright and literary critic; and

-- Delores Barr Weaver, Chair and CEO, Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation

The International Women's Forum is an organization that facilitates meaningful connections on a global level between women at the highest levels of government, business and non-governmental organizations. Members come together across national and international boundaries to share knowledge and ideas to enrich each other's lives, to provide a network of support and to exert influence. IWF members include U.S. Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, Coretta Scott King and the Presidents of Hearst Magazines, General Motors Canada and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.