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Frances Hesselbein Honored With National Woman of Distinction Award

MARCH 4, 2004: WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Frances Hesselbein, Chairman and Founding President & CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, received the esteemed Girl Scouts of the USA National Woman of Distinction Award. The award was presented to Hesselbein on March 4, 2004 at the Girl Scouts of the USA National Corporate Leadership Meeting.

Also known as the Juliette Award after Juliette Lowe, founder of the Girl Scouts, the award is given to women who, as pioneers in their fields and as representatives of a diverse spectrum of professional and personal accomplishments, are stellar role models for today's girls.

Hesselbein serves on many nonprofit and private sector corporate boards, including the Veteran's Corporation Advisory Board, the Board of the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, New York, and the Boards of the Center for Social Initiative at the Harvard Business School, and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Management at the Kennedy School. She is the Chairman of the national board of directors for the Volunteers of America.

Hesselbein was a recipient in 1998 of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, for her leadership as CEO of the Girl Scouts from 1976 to 1990, as well as her role as the Founding President of the Drucker Foundation, which grew into The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute. This institute provides intellectual resources to leaders in the business, government, and social sectors, and fosters partnerships across these sectors.

Hesselbein is an accomplished author and speaker on the subject of leadership in the nonprofit community, and is editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal "Leader to Leader," and a co-editor of a book of the same name. She also is a co-editor of the Drucker Foundation's three-volume "Future Series" and "Leading Beyond the Walls," and "Leading for Innovation." Her own book, "Hesselbein on Leadership," was published in 2002.

Hesselbein is the thirteenth award recipient, and past winners of the National Woman of Distinction Award include:

• Val Ackerman, President of the Women's National Basketball Association
• Martha W. Barnett, Partner in the global law firm of Holland & Knight LLP, and the second female president of the American Bar Association
• Gladys KamakakíSkalani `Ainoa Brandt, outstanding educator from Hawaii
• Elizabeth Dole, current Senate candidate, former president of the American Red Cross, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
• Judge Glenda Hatchett, host of the nationally syndicated television show Judge Hatchett, and Georgia's first African-American chief presiding judge of a state court
• Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Carlson Companies, Inc.
• Myrtle Potter, a leader in the biotechnology industry as Genentech Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
• Alma J. Powell, Vice Chair of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth; Vice Chair, Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and Chair, Advisory Board, Pew Center for Civic Change
• Esmeralda Santiago, author of the award-winning memoirs When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman
• Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D., President and CEO of COSI (The Center of Science and Industry in Ohio), former NASA astronaut, and the first American woman to walk in space
• Vera Wang, internationally recognized couture designer, specializing in wedding dresses and ultra-chic eveningwear
• Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay,

The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute -- Fact Sheet

Contact:
Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute
320 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10022 Tel: +1 212 224 1174
Fax: +1 212 224 2508
Web: leadertoleader.org