Sarah Bartosz described grief as having her back to the ocean. Not knowing if the feelings of sadness and loss will swirl and ripple around her feet or if it will come like a tsunami. Bartosz has spent nearly a decade roiling in stages of grief punctuated by moments of tender mercies -- her back always toward the ocean.

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Nancy Major, executive director of Safe Babies Healthy Families, is married to Jesse, has a daughter, Miranda, two stepdaughters, Stephanie and Becci, and three grandchildren including little eight-month-old Dawson. She loves to ride her Harley, read books on leadership and business and is a self-proclaimed Ultimate Fight Club fan. To paraphrase a line from the movie, “Working Girl,” she has ‘a head for business and a heart for social work.’ Major applies business principles to the nonprofit model. “Just like for-profit businesses, sometimes you need to make the tough decisions in order to be successful.” To Major, success is measured in meeting the needs of the community she serves. “But those needs change all the time,” she said. “We are facing drug addiction, homelessness, domestic violence and safe-baby sleeping issues.”

Sara Meaney, president of strategy and growth for Hanson Dodge Creative, has two young daughters, Keelin, 8, and Fiona, 5. By watching their mother, they will grow up knowing that being female is not a deterrent to being a good leader. “Some women feel that in leadership roles, they need to adapt and become more male to succeed. That’s not me. Men and women -- we just aren’t the same. It’s not that men have it right or that women have it right. What makes us feminine and how we can adapt that to leadership?” Meaney asked. This is the Holy Grail. It is the topic she will be exploring as one of the featured speakers at the 2013 Women Leaders Conference on Friday, March 15, 2013 at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee.

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Kimberly Montgomery did not fit the profile for cardiac disease. She didn’t smoke. She exercised, watched what she ate, had regular medical checkups and participated in wellness programs at work where she was told that all factors indicated she had less than one half of one percent chance of having a heart attack. So as she was having a heart attack on August 20, 2011, she thought it was anything but.

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To raise awareness, to advance practices, to develop treatments, to discover cures, to question results, to lead further exploration -- “When women set their minds to do something, it usually gets done,” said Jan Lennon, a community volunteer and a founding member of the Women in Science program.

Last month, as the 2012-year was winding down, I found myself in a delightful conversation with a woman at New York’s LaGuardia Airport where our flight had been delayed by several hours due to weather.

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It may seem like an odd connection to make—confidence and holiday joy—but it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. For starters, think about how stress levels get cranked up over the holidays. Unrealistic expectations for perfect food, sparkling party settings, and angelic family members always seem to crash head on with reality. Cookies break, paper plates are sometimes all that’s on hand. And family members, well. You know how the pressures of the holidays seem to bring out the weirdest of weird behaviors. Oddly, things we don’t notice or care too much about at family picnics become huge annoyances during the holidays. Uncle Karl picks his teeth at the table. Aunt Marigold dissolves in tears. Cousin Bobby breaks Amanda’s favorite crayons and pushes Elliot off the couch. If you make yourself responsible for everything running smoothly, I can guarantee your confidence will take a beating. Joy? Forget about it!

Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the Elm Creek Quilt series, has found success by using thread, patterns and fabric as metaphors for friendship, community and culture. Chiaverini’s complex characters and rich descriptions of setting and mood continue to resonate with readers. The Giving Quilt, Chiaverini’s twentieth novel in the series, was published in October 2012.

Even though the swimsuit season is behind us, many women who suffer from varicose veins are self-conscious or feel some kind of adverse side effect from this aliment all year round. When your veins are working properly, they move blood against gravity from feet to the heart. To be able to accomplish this task, normal veins have one-way valves that open when the blood is returning to the heart and then close to prevent blood from flowing back into the feet.

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