The Pensacola Women’s Alliance is a group of women with diverse backgrounds from the Pensacola area who have formed a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in our community. We achieve this mission primarily by:

• Providing scholarships to women at Pensacola State College and the University of West Florida.
• Meeting monthly to hear women speakers who hold leadership positions in the community.
• Maintaining a directory of our members and their businesses.
• Disseminating information about pertinent women’s events and opportunities.
• Sponsorship for one of our members to attend the annual Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce LeaP program.

We provide all these services to our members by using our members’ dues of $180.00 per year. Therefore, we do no fundraising.

Our monthly lunches and dinners are held at the Pensacola Yacht Club and are free to our members and prospective members. We also have a Summer Social in June and a Holiday Party in December to which spouses and guests are invited.

Membership is open to women who significantly contribute to the community either through their profession, their public service, either elected or appointed or through volunteer service.

A prospective member must attend one PWA meeting and then, if still interested in membership, the prospective member completes an application and is voted into membership by our nine-member board of directors.

Please contact us with any questions at pensacolawomensalliance@gmail.com

Information on our meetings and members

Want to attend a meeting? Please RSVP by email to pensacolawomensalliance@gmail.com

November 2021 Meeting

Our November luncheon was something truly special! Dr. Lusharon Wiley spoke to us about the importance of education and the potential that it releases. Not only inspiring, but fitting as we were able to formally recognize this year’s scholarship recipients, from Pensacola State College, Kenzie Johnson and from the University of West Florida, Katlyn Schmitz. Two women who are already doing amazing things!

If you would like to know more about our mission, email us at pensacolawomensalliance@gmail.com

February 2021 Meeting

Thank you everyone who was able to attend our February dinner meeting!
We had a ton of guests, welcomed new members, and ate amazing food from the team at Pensacola Yacht Club. Laura Gilliam President of United Way of West Florida provided attendees insight into how the pandemic has affected women in the workforce.
Key takeaways were:
1. 211 Northwest Florida is available 24 hours a day to point callers to resources. They work diligently to keep up to date on resource availability in the 8 counties they service.
2. If you can be a mentor and provide a social circle to someone please do so.
3. Basic necessities are needed now more than ever especially toiletries.
4. Be engaged with policy decisions.
5. Free tax preparation is available through VITA, details can be found at https://www.unitedwayncfl.org/vitaWe are looking forward to another phenomenal meeting in March for lunch.

January 2021 Meeting
What an extraordinary meeting to start the year off right!

Chris Horak had so much to share with us on “Navigating Convention and other Social Interaction.”
We learned the correct way to get into our seats at the dining table, how important proper napkin etiquette is, why arriving on time matters, and the strategy of writing a great thank you letter to your hostess/host.

December 2020 Holiday Party
After a long year of postponed meetings, we were finally able to get together (socially distanced, and following all COVID-19 guidelines, of course), at the Pensacola Country Club for our annual Holiday Dinner. During this meeting, we had the opportunity to thank the outgoing board officers, and install the new ones. We were serenaded by the wonderfully talented Emerald Waters Celtic Band, and singers from the Pensacola Opera.

Many thanks to those who helped us make it possible!

January 2020 Meeting 
Our January speaker was Carol Powell Whitcomb, an audiologist from Hearing Life of Pensacola. The session was titled “The Impact of Hearing Loss on dementia. We learned that hearing is crucial for our well-being and quality of life. We also learned about the connection between the slow demise of our hearing and the rise in rates of dementia. Taking care of our hearing health is taking care of our overall health. If we don’t wear hearing aids when we need to, other problems can result with our memory, relationships, heart disease, increases in falling, depression, fatigue, and social isolation.
Carol also spoke about the advances in hearing aids with “BrainHearing” technology. It works smarter via your iPhone so that one can:
– Scan the environment 100 times per second to give you access to 360 degrees of sound
– Separates speech from noise
– This is also the first hearing device proven to make it easier for your brain

It’s important to stay aware of how hearing loss really reduces our quality of life and not hesitate to get our hearing checked if needed.

February 2020 Meeting
Cheryl Weir gave a presentation on “Communicating More Effectively With Others.”  She introduced us to four different communication styles, by using four different types of birds to describe the DISC Behavior and Styles.

•  Eagle-D-dominant – direct, visionary.
•  Parrot-I-influencer – chatty, enthusiastic, optimistic.
•  Dove-S-Supporter – steady, champion of others, team player.
•  Owl-C-Conscientious – analyzer, detail oriented, introverted.

We had some fun learning about perceptions: how we perceive ourselves, how others may perceive us under moderate and extreme stress, tension or opposite behavioral styles.  Many expressed that this was a very worthwhile learning event and provided great insight into how they might want to work on “flexing their style” to others for more effective communication.  Feel free to call Cheryl at 610-299-2360 or email:  cheryl@cherylweir.com for more information.

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