Women's Leadership Luncheon 2021

Celebrating Women Honorees

The Virtual Women’s Leadership Luncheons celebrate women leaders who are making an impact on our world. Several of our sponsors have named women who they wish to honor for their leadership within their community. You can read about these women honorees and their achievements below. Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible.

Honoree

Rebecca Thompson

Global Head of Regulatory Stewardship, Compliance, and Quality
Bayer Crop Science

Bayer honors Rebecca Thompson, a native of the St. Louis region with over 20 years of experience working in the agriculture industry. She exemplifies Bayer’s vision of Health for all, hunger for none through her leadership contributions at Bayer and in the St. Louis community.

As Global Head of Regulatory Stewardship, Compliance, and Quality at Bayer Crop Science, Rebecca provides leadership for the establishment of stewardship polices and sets strategic direction for the responsible development, launch, and use of Bayer products worldwide. She and her team partner across business functions to ensure the safety and integrity of products and License to Operate in diverse marketplaces. Leveraging her diverse technical background, Rebecca is an impactful leader who creates highly engaged teams to address complex challenges, drive change initiatives, and maximize the potential of individuals. She serves as Chair on the Excellence Through Stewardship Board of Directors to steer industry-wide stewardship best practices.

Honoree

Takisha Lovelace

Executive Director, Community Health Operations
Mercy

Takisha Lovelace oversees the operational direction of community health initiatives throughout Mercy. Her focus is on the social determinants of health needs of underserved patients and building relationships with key community partners to provide needed resources. Her work has been key in the development of a new Mercy Clinic scheduled to open in Ferguson this summer. It is the result of striving to meet the community’s needs by collaborating with those who call Ferguson home. With a long-held interest in advocacy for underrepresented areas, Takisha has championed programs that eliminate health disparities, increase access and promote positive change.

As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Takisha was privileged to work around the world developing her skills. Her leadership is inspired by a personal commitment to service, intentional partnerships and sustainable community development. She is an alum of Fisk University, a historically black college and university, in Nashville and earned a graduate degree in business from Webster University in St. Louis. Takisha serves as secretary of the Veterans Business Resource Center and serves on the Ferguson Mayor’s Task Force, which focused on the Ferguson 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

Takisha has been married to her husband Rudolph for 19 years. They are the proud parents of Syrai (16) and Christian (12).

Honoree

Cristy Heuer

AVP, BankCentre Leader
Midwest BankCentre

Cristy exemplifies our mission and vision to empower people, enable business and energize neighborhoods. She is an exceptionally hard worker that not only goes above and beyond to take care of her customers and support her community, but also to lead and develop her team. This is all in addition to being a wife and mother.

Cristy is truly deserving of this recognition and I am honored to be the one to nominate her.

Honoree

Clinical Staff from Milwaukee Catholic Home and SSND

Healthcare Heroes
Milwaukee Catholic Home

There is no proper recognition that could do justice for the outstanding work of our talented clinical team at Milwaukee Catholic Home and the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Elm Grove during this past year. In our homes and in our workplaces, Covid-19 drastically changed many facets of our lives. Our clinical teams have consistently provided the very best physical and emotional caregiving in ever changing environments as our world learned more about this contagious and life-threatening virus.

On top of meeting the demands of those affected and keeping everyone safe, our caregivers became family and friends to those who were denied access to those they love through tight visitation restrictions. They stepped up to do whatever the situation required, in ways impossible to quantify.

Due to the intensely personal aspect of providing care to others, deep bonds form between residents and caregivers and between caregivers themselves. Teamwork is essential for success and leaders naturally emerge and become beacons to all. Today, we nominate not one singular woman who exemplifies strong leadership, but all of our women clinical caregivers who selfishly give of themselves so others are given the best medical, social and spiritual care on each step of their journey.