WWOY 25 Years

2004 WISE Women of the Year

Photo 1

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary Awards luncheon, WISE invited past honorees back to reflect on the last 10 years. Emcee Andrea Joyce moderated the Q&A, which included eight former winners.

Front row, left to right: Lee Ann Daly (ESPN), Sue Rodin (WISE/Stars and Strategies), Val Ackerman (WNBA), Stephanie Tolleson (IMG).

Back row, left to right: Kathy Francis (New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority), Sara Levinson (Rodale), Lydia Stephans (former ABC and Oxygen Media), Liz Dolan (Satellite Sisters), emcee Andrea Joyce (NBC), LeslieAnne Wade (CBS).

Photo 2

Emcee Andrea Joyce pauses to capture the sell-out crowd in the Marriott Marquis ballroom in a cell phone picture. "It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness,” [she said,] alluding to the light of leadership created by the decade’s WISE Women.

Photo 3

NJSEA Senior Vice President Kathy Francis and WNBA President Val Ackerman laugh with ESPN Executive Vice President Lee Ann Daly, who, after sharing that early in her career she had sacrificed her personal life, assured the crowd, “I’m on my final husband now.”

Photo 4

“Satellite Sister” Liz Dolan and Lydia Stephans, former Olympic speed skater, senior executive at ABC and Oxygen Media, share a light moment. “I trained my whole life to have a job where I do everything myself,” joked Dolan about leaving her position as Nike’s head of global marketing to become an entrepreneur in her forties.

Photo 5

CBS Vice President of Communications LeslieAnne Wade and NJSEA Senior Vice President Kathy Francis are amused by IMG Senior Corporate Vice President Stephanie Tolleson, whose mother refused to pay for any gender-stereotyped courses and told her daughter, “There's nothing you can't do.”

These photos and captions capturing the 2004 WISE Women of the Year Awards Luncheon first appeared in WISE words, the Women in Sports and Events newsletter, Issue 32, Fall 2004, and are republished to celebrate the 25th WISE Women of the Year Awards Luncheon in 2019.