Tina Nixon
Bridge Builder
Tropical Storm Agnes was raging in 1972, and Tina Nixon asked why her mother was making far more soup than the family needed. Her mother, Rosalind Williams, “explained in great detail” that the soup was meant for displaced families sheltering in a school.
“My mom was always willing to help somebody in need,” says Nixon. “She was always willing to give someone a second chance.”
Community remains central to Nixon’s life and career. As CEO of the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg from 2004 to 2015, she focused programs on domestic violence, sexual assault, early childhood education and other areas under the national YWCA’s brand: “Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women.”
Today, she continues her community orientation as PinnacleHealth vice president, as well as chief officer of mission effectiveness and diversity. Her team of people, her “boots on the ground,” helps her reach into the community and find resources to close the intertwined gaps in behavioral health, drug and alcohol treatment, safety and healthy lifestyles.
“You can have a walking community, but if people are too afraid to leave their homes, what sense does that make?” she says. “You really have to get to the root causes of things.”
Nixon once served on 11 boards but has winnowed down her commitments to Joshua Group, which provides educational and vocational opportunities for at-risk youth. Operating in one of Harrisburg’s toughest neighborhoods, it is “a safe haven.”
“They offer a place where kids can study, and insight that education should be valued,” she says.
She is pursuing a master’s degree in health care administration, because “health care is changing on a regular basis.” She stepped back to reset priorities when she started her new job, her twin daughter and son left for college, and her sister passed away, all within a three-month period. “It was one of those things where you have to hit the pause button, and figure out that you have to take care of yourself, and understand that it’s okay to say no,” she explains.
She and her husband, James Nixon, are “a true team. We have to be. We have twins.” She hopes she has taught her children “to treat others the way you want to be treated.”
She adds, “Always be respectful. I just encourage them to be the best they can be. Whatever you do, do it 110 percent.”
Alexandra Dwyer
Arts Enabler
Alexandra Dwyer grew up in York and then left town to find herself: “the whole ‘I gotta get out of where I’m from’” story, she says. But as a record industry promoter immersed in travel, she missed her family and lacked her own community.
She returned to York in 2010 and started staging art shows that quickly drew several hundred people.
“I was able to recognize the spark that happened,” she says. “I realized this community was dying for more culture, and that was something I felt like I was good at.”
Those shows evolved into The Parliament Arts Organization, with Alexandra Dwyer as executive director. Now with a four-person staff, the Parliament stages 30 arts-related exhibits, events and classes annually.
In her travels, Dwyer had seen the arts transform cities. Why not York? She met Royal Square Development & Construction President and CEO Josh Hankey, and their partnership flourished, turning Royal Square into an arts destination, with a mix of higher-end and smaller galleries and studios.
“We’re all so open to different kinds of artists,” she says. “We’re not snotty yet.”
She also founded Redeux, a unique marketplace for the vintage and handmade. It was created because Royal Square needed an anchor store, and because Dwyer saw the need for storefront space accessible to artists and craftspeople with successful online stores.
“People were going crazy over this idea,” she says. “Every weekend, we’re getting people from D.C. and outside the area.”
Is she fearless? Well, she’s always been “a resourceful person.” Her uncle Greg Skirboll, owner of Mexitaly Brick Oven Brewhouse, taught her to always find something to do. Her resourcefulness came from her mother, who lost both legs to toxic shock syndrome when Dwyer was young. “That whole life change forced me to be a problem solver and [to be] resourceful,” she says.
She relies on a “wolf pack” of colleagues for getting things done. She hopes to snag one of York’s cool new apartments, she says, because she’s “ready for a super-awesome kitchen.”
She has seen artisans pushed out of the neighborhoods they helped revitalize once cities become successful, but to her, York is primed for a long marriage of artistic renaissance and economic development.
“My hope for York is that it continues to flourish, and I hope that as the city becomes successful, the merchants and the artists do, too. I’m honestly sure this will happen, that the merchants and the artists and the people that made this movement happen see success.”
Vy Banh & Alys Truong
Family Teammates
Growing up in New Orleans, sisters Vy Banh and Alys Truong often worked in their mother’s restaurant.
“We learned how hard our mom worked to take care of us,” says Truong. “She worked seven days a week, maybe 14 hours a day. We lived a good life because of her.”
“She always taught us to work hard and play hard, and just be persistent and stay in our lane,” adds Banh.
Third-generation restaurateurs Banh and Truong represent a family history of rebirth in the wake of tragedy. Their grandfather ran restaurants in Vietnam before fleeing with his family, including four-month-old Banh, during the 1975 fall of Saigon. Their parents, Chau and Anh Thu Cao, then launched their restaurant in New Orleans, which grew into four restaurants in the region.
Today, Vy Banh and her husband, Ninh, and Alys Truong and her husband, Bernard, own Lancaster’s popular Rice & Noodles Vietnamese Eatery. With Vy and Alys’ brother, Khao Cao, the four also own Rice & Noodles’ new, fast-casual offspring, Sprout.
In New Orleans, the family was accustomed to yearly hurricane-season evacuation orders. But from their refuge in Houston in 2005, they realized that Hurricane Katrina had changed their lives forever. With their restaurants and their livelihoods wiped out, they joined an aunt in Lancaster.
It was the place to raise a family, says Truong, who gave birth to her first child 10 days after Katrina. They pooled their savings and found, fortuitously, a turnkey restaurant for sale on Lititz Pike. With a few cosmetic changes, Rice & Noodles was born, introducing Lancaster diners to Vietnamese recipes passed down through generations.
“It’s really a family affair,” says Banh. “We like to think of all our customers as family.”
The sisters show their gratitude for the community’s support with such efforts as Banh’s seat on the Lancaster Restaurant Week committee and her involvement in the city strategic planning process. In 2014, Banh won Woman of the Year for the Lancaster Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
“Although I’m the one with the face and the recognition, my sister was behind the scenes,” says Banh. “She was my right-hand woman.”
The sisters balance each other out. Truong “brings stability,” says Banh. “She brings the rules. She brings organization. And she’s out there like I am. She’s a people person.”
Banh “definitely brings the sweets,” including Rice and Noodle’s famous French macarons, says Truong. “Everybody says she’s so sweet. She is the more personal one of our company, the face out there. People go there just to see her. Everybody knows I’m the strict one. There’s balance.”
Today, their mother helps by cooking three-course dinners for her children every night, “which is a big deal to us,” says Banh. They employ about 20 people who, like their customers, feel like family. Their brother recently joined them to open Sprout downtown this year.
“We have a backbone,” says Banh. “We have a very strong, tight family unit. With our husbands and our brother, that helps us be as successful as we are.” Rice and Noodles celebrated 10 years this year.
Elizabeth Vincent
Caring Heart
Elizabeth Vincent was reeling from a financially devastating divorce and desperate for Christmas presents for her three-year-old daughter. She scrounged around her home and wrapped a nutcracker that had never left its box.
Her daughter is now 18 years old, and “to this day, I have to put that nutcracker under the tree,” says Vincent. The lesson: When struggles seem overwhelming, turn them over to God.
“Every single time in my life when I’ve prayed, ‘I’ll follow your will,’ it’s worked out better than you can imagine,” she says.
The latest turn in Vincent’s life is her new role as president and CEO of Suits to Careers, formerly Dress for Success South Central PA, the workplace clothing and career-training organization. As she knows, anyone’s life “can change on a dime, financially.”
“I thought I did everything right,” she says. “I went to college. I got a degree. I got an advanced degree. I thought I was prepared.” But the divorce put her on welfare and food stamps. She made it her work to find a job in six months, and she succeeded. Her career started in sales, but she veered into nonprofits when she wanted the power to say, “Maybe I changed a life in the last year.”
Vincent, a Connecticut native, has worked in fundraising for Volunteers of America, United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties, and the international Feed the Children. At Suits to Careers, she and her multitasking, “lean and mean” staff made the Lebanon boutique completely mobile, enlisted new referral agencies, and are cultivating new revenue streams. Her “phenomenally strong volunteer cadre” provides unceasing support.
When Suits to Careers’ clients suit up in sharp outfits for job interviews, “their entire demeanor changes,” says Vincent. “The smile is from ear to ear. You can almost see the transformation that occurs in their mind, in the thought process that maybe they can compete.”
Vincent loves to golf, even if finding time is difficult. She likes to cook and “explore all the areas around here,” hopping in the car with her daughter or sister and finding new towns. “That’s how I found Lititz,” she says. “I never knew Lititz existed. I love to go antiquing.”
She hopes to leave a legacy of caring for others.
“Maybe when people attend my funeral, they’ll say, ‘You know what? She put her heart into it. She wanted to help. She tried to help.’”
Kim Bracey
Her Honor
Will York Mayor Kim Bracey seek a third term? It depends on whether she and her team “are making a difference here,” she says. She definitely feels a renewed sense of community pride.
“We have a diverse mix, folks from all walks of life helping York grow,” she says. “All the excitement that we’re having in the community is because of everyone rowing in the same direction.
York native C. Kim Bracey served in the U.S. Air Force and in community organizing before entering City Hall as community development director for Mayor John S. Brenner. She won a historic election in 2009, becoming the first African-American to occupy the mayor’s office.
When Bracey asks York residents to sweep their sidewalks, she sweeps with them. When she encourages them to walk in city parks, she leads the way. The city’s economic development is clicking. Arts and culture are flourishing.
A “bit of magic” helps drive revitalization in a city celebrating its 275th anniversary, says Bracey. “You get to know folks, and [you] have enough diversity in anything and everything, from having baseball games to symphony concerts, but it’s small enough that you can know everybody. Families are well grounded, and there’s a lot of history.”
Still, work remains. A new summer program helps young people build resumes and work ethic. And “let us not forget the Bearcats [the York City School District],” Bracey adds. The district operates independently of the mayor’s office, but “we’re seeing tremendous turnaround.” Teachers and families are committed to the district, and her office is “working with folks to create that change.”
Outside of City Hall, Bracey spends time with family, including her sister, son, grandson (“He’s perfect and he’s gorgeous”) and her “number one cheerleader,” her mom.
Her lifelong Christian faith has taught her “when to just let it roll off, turn the other cheek, and not take things personally. I know if something’s not for God, it’s not for me.”
When people tell Bracey that she’s always smiling, she responds, “I don’t have anything to frown about.” Even recalling the number of people she has helped makes her smile.
“It was just a matter of opening a door. I didn’t ask any favors. These folks stood the test on their own, and they’re doing so well. It has empowered them to be better citizens. I get chills thinking about it. It’s a good feeling.”
Lauren McAteer
Change Agent
Lauren McAteer grew up in a Lancaster home where volunteerism was the norm.
“You can stand up for things,” she learned. “You can make your voice heard, and you can make a difference. You can make change just by banding together.”
But then she left Lancaster, and much of her life today has been shaped by five years in Belfast, helping clashing Catholics and Protestants express their cultural identities without conflict. There, she fell in love, earned her master’s degree in comparative ethnic conflict, and learned peacebuilding from the ground up.
She and her Irish love, husband Eamonn McAteer, returned to Lancaster around 2011. They didn’t intend to stay, but McAteer says she “just fell in love with the area again. The more places [you’ve] been, the more you refine what’s important to you.” Lancaster offers quality of life, with affordable homes, great food and hometown pride.
Working at Harrisburg-based design experience and engineering firm Andculture, McAteer applies technology to scale up the kind of human interventions she once did one-on-one. For instance, giving joint-replacement surgery patients the positive reinforcement and clear action plans needed for success.
Involvement in the Junior League of Lancaster, with its “vibrant, supportive group of women,” helped her stay in Lancaster. She helped lead a methodical transition that focused the Junior League on two areas of need–girls in STEM careers and children aging out of foster care.
“How do we use partnership-building and capacity-building to support other people in this space?” she says. “You can’t do anything on your own.”
Eamonn, now a U.S. citizen, is a mental health and drug and alcohol therapist. The couple lives the downtown Lancaster life, walking to Central Market and restaurants. At their circa-1880 home, “there’s always a project.” She finds a wood pallet, and he repurposes it into a coffee table.
“I can’t get him out of King Street,” McAteer says. “He loves Lancaster. There’s so much freedom to find your niche, find your passion.”
Don’t tell McAteer, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Good can be better, and better can be excellent.
“I’m a pragmatic optimist or a pragmatic dreamer,” she says. “I really have been able to bring to my work and the Junior League the ability to put together a plan and turn vision into reality. It’s something I’m always trying to work on. How do you take an idea or see a problem and generate momentum?”
Senator Pat Vance
Honest Voice
State Senator Pat Vance is “not very good at telling people what they want to hear.” To her ears, the biggest compliment is, “I don’t always agree with you, but I know you’re going to tell me the truth.”
So, in November 2015, Vance broke the news of her retirement with characteristic forthrightness.
“Intellectually and physically I’m fine, but numerically, I’m old,” she says. “I can face facts. It is what it is. I have loved what I’ve done. It was time.”
Vance was a registered nurse who was active in the community when she fell into public office “by accident.” She was often in the Cumberland County Recorder of Deeds office, researching the history of the old farmhouse she shared with her husband, the late Charles D. “Chuck” Vance, when the office opened up.
Transitioning from the grueling work of nursing to a 9-to-5 job seemed enticing. She became Cumberland County’s first woman elected to office, despite the “many men who said they’d never elect a woman.”
Vance went to the state House of Representatives in 1991 and to the Senate, representing the 31st Senatorial District, in 2005. “You have to establish your credibility,” she says. She backed Tom Ridge in his successful bid for governor, but she resisted pressure to support his school choice bill, telling him, “Governor, I really like you, but I didn’t come here to be a rubber stamp.”
Her successful legislative efforts range from creating an HMO bill of rights to expanding Pennsylvania’s prescription drug program for the elderly.
Her proudest moment emerged from a profound shock, when a young, battered mother told Vance that her insurance company used her domestic violence history as an excuse to decline coverage. Vance convinced House leadership to back her bill banning the practice. She corralled Capitol reporters into covering its vote out of committee, on its way to eventual passage into law.
Women, children and people with disabilities “need a voice,” Vance says. “Realistically, who advocates for those who aren’t strong enough to hire a lobbyist? I’m most pleased with probably thousands of people my office has helped who mess up their lives in some way and don’t know where to turn.”
She hasn’t settled on what she’ll do in retirement. “I’d like to do genealogy. I’d love to go to Australia.” With the youngest of her three grandchildren, she has been to Alaska and went zip lining in Costa Rica.
“I’m willing to try almost anything,” she says.
She looks back on “a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful occupation. When people think about legislators and politicians, that’s not necessarily a positive, and I realize that. But I’ve always said that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.”
Katie Breit
Community Engager
The general manager of WPMT Fox43 asked senior account executive Katie Breit where the station should donate an old news set. The active Millersville University alumna, always striving to give back to the school that made the difference for her, suggested her alma mater. It worked.
“I’m always a collaborative thinker,” says Breit. “I try to pool my resources and try to engage people.”
Breit was born in Nuremberg, Germany, where her parents were teachers for the military. In second grade, the family moved to her mother’s hometown of Millersville, and the area has been home ever since.
A college project helping a Lancaster nonprofit change its name introduced Breit to the media and to teamwork. After college, she sold plumbing products and worked with a building-industry business consultant until she learned that Fox43 was hiring a media salesperson.
“I’ve always been a bold-entry person,” she says. “The words that would describe me are that I’m bold and adventurous. I’m a risk-taker. I went from toilets to television.”
For the avid golfer with two stepchildren and a Bengal cat named Ginger, the community is always calling. She steps out in style, wearing leopard prints or colorful Lilly Pulitzer.
When Breit and her 2015 Go Red for Women co-chair tasked subcommittee members according to their strengths and weaknesses, the event’s auction raised a record amount.
“If you create a strong team, everything else will fall into place,” she says.
With the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Breit helps coordinate networking events for the Women in Business Advisory Group.
“Without a network, it’s really hard to get in the door with a lot of businesses,” she says. “Women are a little more willing to help other women with that. I’m trying to make a little crack in the glass ceiling.”
Breit says her husband, defense attorney Steven Breit, is “my biggest cheerleader and my biggest supporter.” Together, they achieved their dream of buying “our little cottage in Bethany,” which she loves to decorate. Someday, she hopes to live in Florida, where she spent time with family growing up, but she admits, “that’s not going to be for a while.”
“The more networks and relationships you build, the more opportunities and avenues there are, so I don’t know where the next five years will be. I don’t know what the avenues will be. I’m taking things as they come along,” she says.
Anne Marek
Place Maker
Anne Marek grew up in rural Rhode Island, but urban place making is her passion.
“I have the opportunity to create these great spaces where people live, work, and play,” she says. “They’re tangible, and I can see the positive effects they might have on the community and how they bring people together.”
Marek is a project engineer with RGS Associates who also devotes her time to Harrisburg city planning and the Junior League of Harrisburg. Living in one of her favorite blocks of Midtown Harrisburg, she feels “this breath of fresh air is coming into the neighborhood, to breathe life into these old buildings, even breathing life into the community.”
Marek experienced “a surreal moment” when Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse asked her—a young female engineer—to serve on the city planning commission.
“The city has so much potential, and there’s so much opportunity to bring new resources and programming and businesses,” she says. “It’s exciting to have a backstage hand in that.”
Marek marvels over the things the Junior League accomplished during her one-year term as president in 2015-16. Membership grew. Programs aligned with Junior League’s mission of self-sufficiency received grants. Community leaders convened to fill gaps in services.
Under Marek’s leadership, Junior League of Harrisburg launched its largest fundraiser in 10 years, the Little Black Dress Initiative. While participating members issued social media posts about the effects of poverty, they wore the same LBD five days in a row to dramatize the impact that limited resources, such as the lack of interview outfits, can have on women’s career paths.
“Everyone in Junior League has this desire to make a greater impact in our community,” says Marek. “A lot of women have found, at some point in their careers or lives, that they were helped, and they want to give back.”
Marek found her profession when a high school teacher helped her attend a summer engineering camp. Today, she hopes that mentoring and judging for Harrisburg School District students designing innovative places for the Future City competition might “inspire another kid to go the same way.”
Marek finds “sanity time” in running, yoga and cooking. As she helps Harrisburg grow, she hopes to grow with it: “It gets me excited to think about how many more things I can do here as we continue to make change and make way for new growth, new life in the city.”
By M. Diane McCormick | Photography By Donovan Roberts Witmer
