Women of Achievement, Inc. was founded in 1984 by a group of women dedicated to honoring the extraordinary women who have made Memphis and Shelby County better through their lives and accomplishments. The coalition of individuals and diverse civic and professional groups and support agencies organizes events to recognize and celebrate these women.
For More Information, visit the Women of Achievement website.
2025 Women of Achievement honorees: left to right: Dr. Nikia Grayson, Kayla Gore, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, Maritza Davila-Irizarry, Gwendolyn Turner, Lauren Williams-Batiste.
Women of Achievement 2025 celebrates changemakers who persevere and blaze the way
The courage, determination and heroism of women — no matter the barriers or circumstances – will be celebrated once again on March 30 at the 39th Women of Achievement awards. An immigrant artist, a trans woman, a barrier-breaking judge and advocates for women’s health and safety shared the stage at Memphis’s premier celebration of National Women’s History month.
The Women of Achievement honorees for 2025 are:
Courage: Lauren Williams-Batiste, organized successful neighborhood opposition to a proposed industrial sawmill
Determination: Kayla Gore, builds housing for trans people of color
Heritage: Joyce Blackmon, first female and African-American vice president at MLG&W
Heroism: Gwendolyn Turner, domestic violence survivor and advocate
Initiative: Maritza Davila-Irizarry, Puerto-Rican born acclaimed printmaker, art educator
Steadfastness: Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, federal appeals judge and first woman appointed to a court of record in Tennessee
Vision: Dr. Nikia Grayson, midwife and chief clinical officer at city’s first birth center
Seven awards are given each year to women in our community who have shown courage, determination, heroism, initiative, steadfastness and vision. We honor a woman of generations past whose accomplishments still enrich our lives today, with the heritage award.
“This year’s honorees celebrate women who stand up, speak out and open doors for other women,” said Women of Achievement co-founder Deborah Clubb, executive director of the Memphis Area Women’s Council. “Our 2025 honorees blazed pathways to judicial, corporate and visual art careers and push daily for full access to healthcare, housing, safety and healthy neighborhoods. Each one exhibits the tenacity, creativity and passion that make change and make history.”
The stories of 285 individual women and three groups – the suffragists, martyrs of the yellow fever, and the women who saved Overton Park – have been honored and documented on the Women of Achievement website. A three-volume book series captures biographical essays and photographs of WA honorees through 2004.
The ceremony was on March 30, 2025 at First Congregational Church. The spacious and bright sanctuary reflected the inspirational stories of our seven honorees. Each honoree was given a unique handmade plate by local potter Katie Dann. The honoree’s story was read, and we celebrated and were inspired by each of these remarkable women.
Women of Achievement News:
Puerto-Rican born acclaimed printmaker and art educator Maritza Davila-Irizarry was interviewed by Kontji Anthony on March 11, 2025.
2025 Women of Achievement Honorees on Live at 9 For Women’s History Month!
Puerto-Rican born acclaimed printmaker and art educator Maritza Davila-Irizarry was interviewed by Kontji Anthony on March 11, 2025. Maritza is the 2025 Women of Achievement honoree for initiative. View the segment here.
The first female federal judge in Tennessee, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, was interviewed by Kontji Anthony on Live at 9 this week. Julia is being honored on March 30 with the Woman of Achievement award for Steadfastness. Watch her interview here.
MAWC Executive Director Deborah Clubb joined Kayla Gore, Woman of Achievement honoree for Determination, on Live at 9. Kayla Gore is the founder of My Sistah’s House, which addresses housing insecurity for trans women. The interview is available to watch here.
On March 14, 2025, Lauren Williams Batiste shared her story on Live at 9! Lauren is the 2025 Woman of Achievement honoree for courage. Lauren, community engagement chair of VECA, organized a successful neighborhood opposition to a proposed industrial sawmill. View her segment on Live at 9.
Midwife Dr. Nikia Grayson is receiving the 2025 Women of Achievement award for vision. Dr. Grayson is the chief clinical officer at the city’s first birth center, CHOICES. Watch the interview on Live at 9 here.
Judge Bernice Bouie Donald, the 2000 Woman of Achievement for Determination who retired in January 2024, is being honored by the renaming of a section of Front Street between Poplar Avenue and Beale Street.
At a reception hosted by her new law firm, Burch Porter & Johnson, Bernice noted that the road was known as “Cotton Row” in the 1800s, home to cotton merchants who marketed the cotton she picked as a child in Mississippi. She has travelled far from those cotton fields.
After law school in Memphis, she became the first Black woman to become judge in Tennessee when she was elected Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court judge in 1982, the first Black female U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Western District of Tennessee in 1988, first Black woman to serve as a U.S. District Court judge after she was nominated to the Western District of Tennessee by former President Bill Clinton in 1995 and the first Black woman to become a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit when former President Barack Obama appointed her in 2010.
Read the Women of Achievement essay about Bernice here.
One of our 2024 Women of Achievement honorees, Ellen Rolfes, joined Deborah Clubb in a feature with Kontji Anthony on Live at 9! The video is available here.
In 2019, Women of Achievement honorees Maxine Strawder and Rachel Coats Greer were interviewed on Live at 9! Watch the video here.
One of three cases featuring Women of Achievement memorabilia in the downtown Memphis building in early 2019, including a large banner with images of WA honorees.