Associate Justice Rhonda Wood has served the Arkansas Supreme Court since her appointment to Position 7 in 2014. A former Circuit Judge for the 20th Judicial District and judge for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, Wood is also a five-time recipient of the Arkansas Bar Association’s Outstanding Service Award and was previously named Arkansas Elected Official of the Year by the Arkansas Federation of Business. Along with fellow State Supreme Court Justices Bridget McCormack of Michigan, Eva Guzman of Texas and Beth Walker of West Virginia, she serves as co-host of the Lady Justice: Women of the Court podcast.

In the last episode of our Empowering Women Spotlight, Wood shares more about how Lady Justice came to be, what she and her co-hosts are hoping listeners gain from their discussions and future plans for the podcast after a successful first season.

Southwest Power Pool President and CEO Barbara Sugg has always strived to equip women to succeed. As a founding member of Arkansas Women in Power and the Leadership Foundation for Women, she helps educate women about leadership and opportunities for personal growth while encouraging networking and professional relationship building among women. With more than 30 years of experience in the male-dominated electric utility industry, Sugg has also been a longtime advocate for recruiting, maintaining and promoting women in the energy industry.

After a unique journey from an IT background to her current role, Sugg joins us on episode five of our Empowering Women Spotlight to share more about the opportunities and challenges she’s faced and how she’s championing women’s empowerment across our state.

Encouraging representation and participation of diverse groups of people, Tamika Edwards has dedicated her career to providing and improving opportunities for women. She currently serves as Special Advisor to the CEO on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Engagement at Central Arkansas Water. Previously the Executive Director of the Social Justice Institute at Philander Smith College and Director of Governmental Affairs at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Edwards is widely known in the community as a leader in women empowerment.

In episode four of our Empowering Women Spotlight, Edwards provides clarity on what it means to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and engagement with action and why it’s an important practice for all businesses and organizations.

A previous guest on The Ghidotti Podcast, E. Leigh’s founder and CEO Erin Hohnbaum has always been passionate about inspiring and elevating women. From co-founding PowHer Players to serving as a mentor for fellow female entrepreneurs, Hohnbaum has seemingly done it all. However, as we’ve learned with the recent launch of The Nest, Little Rock’s first coworking community and social club, she remains committed to doing even more to support the women around her.

Partnering with host Natalie Ghidotti as co-founder, The Nest will serve a diverse community of women looking for ways to learn from each other, better connect and build on each other’s strengths and ideas. Ghidotti and Hohnbaum share more about their vision in episode three of our Empowering Women Spotlight.

As an author and blogger, Rachel Martin provides encouragement for mothers with a bit of intentional living mixed in. Featuring serious and funny posts about motherhood along with content about struggles in finance, divorce and single parenting, Martin is the voice behind the Finding Joy website and blog. Several of her blog posts achieved viral status, eventually leading her to write her first book, “The Brave Art of Motherhood” and she will also serve as keynote speaker for the upcoming Smart Women Smart Money conference.

In episode two of our Empowering Women Spotlight, Martin shares more about how she got started in the early days of motherhood blogging, how Finding Joy has grown since its inception and what it means to her to help other women on their own journeys.

Arkansas Treasurer of State Dennis Milligan has been a champion for improving women’s financial education since his election in 2014. Providing women the opportunity to learn the necessary information to take control of their financial lives, Milligan’s commitment to this cause is reinforced with the Smart Women Smart Money virtual conference on September 24. With a goal to make financial education available to everyone, the conference is FREE for all attendees.

Along with Director of 529 Programs Fran Jansen, Milligan kicks off our Empowering Women Spotlight by sharing more about the conference and how the State Treasurer’s office promotes financial education for Arkansas women.

For more than four years, host Natalie Ghidotti and The Ghidotti Podcast have been sitting down with leaders, thinkers and innovators from in and around Arkansas sharing stories, business strategies and new ideas. While approximately half of all podcasts have 14 or fewer episodes, The Ghidotti Podcast has achieved a remarkable level of consistency, releasing 99 episodes since the summer of 2017.

“I had started thinking about it two years prior to (2017), and I knew I wanted to do a podcast that featured Arkansans and all of the awesome parts of our state that I was continuously learning about,” said Ghidotti. “I think it says a lot that we have almost 100 episodes with people that are really making a difference in and around this state.”

From business executives and community influencers to musicians and leaders in healthcare, The Ghidotti Podcast has covered nearly all industries since its inception. We promise you won’t want to miss our 99th episode celebration as Ghidotti and host Zach Parker discuss memories and challenges from the previous 98 episodes and reveal exciting news about the future of The Ghidotti Podcast.

As a Little Rock native and President of Cromwell Architects Engineers, Dan Fowler is passionate about community as he wants Central Arkansas to be a great place to live, work and raise a family for future generations. Fowler and Cromwell have been instrumental in the evolution of East Village, one of Little Rock’s most unique and interesting neighborhoods.

“The thing that attracted us the most to the neighborhood was the fact that it’s got a real fabric and a real history that makes it unique,” he said. “Our vision and our goal was to not destroy that or alter it in a way that would materially change that.”

The East Village has come a long way since Fowler joined the first ever episode of The Ghidotti Podcast in July of 2017. Tune into our latest episode as he and host Natalie Ghidotti discuss the growth in recent years, challenges the Cromwell team has faced along the way and what’s on the horizon.

After a 10-year career in nonprofit management, event planning and public relations, Jennifer Maune now spends her days creating her own brand of lifestyle and home design inspiration with her blog and popular social media channels. While she may shy away from the title of influencer, it’s clear with her more than 160,000 Instagram followers that Maune is building a following that is quickly helping her reach her goal of growing a national lifestyle brand.

“My tagline is live life beautifully, and I love to create content that revolves around that to inspire my audience,” she said. “That could be sharing a project that we’ve tackled, a recipe that we love as a family or working with a brand to highlight something that makes our lives easier.”

In today’s digital landscape, influencers and brand ambassadors are reaching a wider audience than ever before. Tune into the latest episode of The Ghidotti Podcast as Maune and host Natalie Ghidotti discuss how she joined the world of content creation, what she’s looking for in a partnership with a brand and how she balances her busy schedule while being a mother of six children.

Having great organization skills, managing time wisely, and setting aside moments to relax and enjoy life are all qualities that are required of both mothers and businesswomen alike. Today, this is especially true with the ever-changing schedules that have resulted from the impact of COVID-19. Lauren Reed, founder and president of Reed Public Relations, can attest to the trials, tribulations, and true joys of this position as she is a millennial mother herself.