Some decisions come quickly, and others take more deliberation.
This got us thinking about the past year, full of daily decisions that might or might not change our life course. Yet with all this mental activity, it seems like we all ground to a halt, but didn’t really stop. Many changed careers, businesses ended, people passed, babies were born, relationships flourished and we all kinda learned how to Zoom. As we get comfortable being next to strangers indoors, we are not going back to “normal.” Normal has left the building. We are all picking up the pieces, maybe tossing those pandemic to-do lists, forging ahead and making big and little decisions.
In this issue, we celebrate the strength and fortitude of many women in our community. From contractors and engineers reshaping San Francisco, restaurateurs keeping us fed, and a talented dressmaker celebrating 50 years of being in business.
Make it Better Founder, Susan Noyes, has championed women of impact for decades. “Women are powerful, more powerful than ever before,” she said. “Under the age of 40, females are outperforming males in work. They outnumber males in graduate schools.”
And, according to American Express, women launch more new businesses than men and use all social networks (except Twitter), more than men. When something captures a woman’s interest, she brings all of her resources to creating success for it – time, talent, connections and money.
Women don’t just climb a corporate ladder, they give a hand up to others too. At last year’s “Celebrating Women On The Rise” webinar, Julie Castro Adams, CEO of How Women Lead, explained women are happier when “we do things together and make an impact.”
This year, we are aligning with our sister publication Better and featuring the first Better Bay Area Powerful Women list. Don’t worry guys, your list is next month. The criteria is women who either control an influential endeavor or company and/or have a large audience. Frequent contributor, Donna Glass was tasked with coming up with the list, and as a team, we whittled down her big list to get to the final selections. There were so many impressive candidates, and we look forward to adding to this list in the years to come.
We tried to bring together two of the women in a photo. Knowing that Elaine Petrocelli has supported hundreds of notables — from presidents to movie stars — throughout her career, we figured there had to be a photo with her and fellow list maker, Vice President Kamala Harris. Nope. It turns out Elaine and Bill, her husband and business partner, are usually too busy behind the scenes to get in the photos. She did share a photo of Kamala at a 2009 book signing in Corte Madera, and another one alongside longtime friend, Joyce Linker, star-struck, behind the curtain holding Kamala’s book.
“Joyce was one of my friends who helped me make the decision to start a book company, at age 36, with only a love for books as my experience.” Now, at 81, Petrocelli is still going strong. You can read about her along with the others on better.net/bayareawomen.com
Speaking of decisions, We are excited to share news about Mimi’s new role here at Marin Magazine. After 17 years of showing up to One Harbor Drive, suite 208, and a crazy year of pandemic pivots and hundreds of Zoom calls, she will now be Editor-at-Large (or as she jokes, chubby editor).
“I’ve never felt closer to the team here, they are family, and with our owner Susan Noyes’ support and encouragement I’ll be sticking around to help guide the Marin content for Make it Better Media,” Mimi said. “I will also be pursuing my love of travel — more to come on that — and getting to that houseboat remodel I’ve been putting on hold.”
Featured in this issue:
- The Best Places to Play Golf in and Around Marin
- The Story of Forest Farm: How the San Geronimo Valley Became Home to the Country’s First Racially Integrated Summer Camp West of the Mississippi
- Women-Centric Films Star at the DocLands Documentary Film Festival
- Napa’s Domaine Carneros Secures a Sparkling Future With New CEO Remi Cohen
- History in the Making: Celebrating Marin’s First Female Eagle Scouts
- How Couture Designer Lily Samii Built an International Fashion House From a Small Marin Boutique
- Get an Added Boost With the Latest Mountain E-Bikes: Plus, the Best Places to Ride in Marin
- Creating an Iconic National Park in San Francisco: The Women Building the Presidio Tunnel Tops
- Experience True West Marin Living in Marshall: Cottages, The Croft and a New Cookbook at Nick’s Cove
- San Francisco Ballet Pirouettes into 2021 With First-Ever Virtual Season and Benefit
