On the Town: Zonta Club names its Woman of the Year
An assemblage of close to 150 men and women filed into the Castaway restaurant’s Starlight Room this past Saturday.
From representatives of Burbank’s business community, studios and nonprofit organizations to current and former elected officials as well as city executive and staff personnel and longtime community volunteers, rare was the person who crossed the ballroom’s threshold who, in their own unique way, has not played a role in making Burbank a better place to live, work and visit.
The reason for this late-morning gathering of those who represent a combined total of untold hundreds of years of dedicated service to Burbank was to honor the Zonta Club of Burbank’s 2014 Woman of the Year — Jamie Keyser Thomas.
Welcomed by the honoree, her husband, Mike Thomas, Brittany Vaughan, who serves as the president of the local Zonta chapter, and Samantha Mielke, who chaired the day’s event, notables on the receiving line included Mayor David Gordon, Council members Jess Talamantes and Emily Gabel-Luddy and five former Women of the Year — Barbara Howell, Shanna Warren, T.J. Baptie, Mary Alvord and Elaine Paonessa.
Thomas serves as the program manager of Los Angeles Community Engagement, which falls under the umbrella of the Walt Disney Co.’s Citizenship Division. She oversees various community outreach programs, the Disney VoluntEARS program and the Disney VoluntEARS Leadership Council in Burbank and throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
An alumnus of the Class of 2005 of the Leadership Burbank program, her resume includes both past and current service on numerous local charitable and community boards and committees including the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, Burbank Temporary Aid Center, the Burbank Centennial Community Committee, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics of Southern California and Volunteer LA.
“Jamie is an inspiration to her peers and to emerging leaders,” said Vaughan during her opening remarks. “And today, she joins a long list of distinguished women, who, over the years have unselfishly devoted so much of their time and energy in many different ways to enrich the lives of our citizens.”
Along with Vaughan’s remarks, the event also saw Thomas lauded for her dedication, leadership, compassion and creativity by Mayor Gordon, Joan McCarthy, who serves as senior manager for Disney Community Engagement Los Angeles with the Walt Disney Co. and Lisa Rawlins, senior vice president for public affairs at Warner Bros. She was also praised as “the strongest woman I have ever met,” by her husband, Mike, who has been a pillar of strength and support in the wake of his wife’s diagnosis and successful treatment of a rare form of cancer that affected her neck and face last spring.
Last week’s event marked the 60th time since 1949 that the distinction of Woman of the Year has been bestowed upon a Burbank resident. Originally established by the Burbank Women’s Club, the local Zontians took over the program in 1996.
The Zonta Club of Burbank was chartered in 1936 and is a member of Zonta International, a global organization of executives and professionals working to improve the status of women through service and advocacy.
For more information, visit www.zontaburbank.org.
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DAVID LAURELL may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007.
