Nicole Amsler has over 15 years of experience in professional writing, marketing and helping small businesses. She has been involved in varied and  diverseindustries—from  bridal jewelry to anatomical models. Starting as a marketing assistant, she advanced to Director of  Marketing before launching her own copywriting and marketing consultant firm, Keylocke Services .

Keylocke Services focuses specifically on small and women-owned businesses. With a BA in Communication from Spring Arbor University, Nicole knows professional writing and marketing go hand in hand. Nicole’s professional  philosophy is that anything which touches your client is marketing. So she helps her clients make the most of every “touch.”

Creative and widely read, Nicole has ghostwritten several articles and books for clients as well as under her own name. An authority on women-owned businesses, she is a unique and timely voice for other small business owners. 

Joy Brush has a life-long history of helping others and performing public service, always working her way up from grassroots level to leadership roles in whatever she chooses to do.  Joy was born and reared in Dayton as one of nine children, graduating from St. Joseph Commercial High school.  Joy attributes her interest in helping handicapped individuals due to the fact that she had a brother who was severely handicapped from a diving accident when he was 21. 

In 1995, Joy purchased a business called Worldwide Health Services, Inc., and since that time has tripled its service area.  The company name is now Miami Valley Mobile Health Services.  With just two employees (herself and daughter Jody) and an independent contractor network of 25 medical technicians, her company completes life insurance physicals for more than 750 insurance carriers and 3,000 insurance agents in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati.

Joy is active in her community – as President of the Americana Festival in Centerville, as a board member of Therapeutic Riding Institute (TRI), and as the founding board member of Women Who Care, a non-profit organization. As member of AMBUCS (American

Business Clubs), Joy is instrumental in providing special bicycles (called AMTRYKES) for disabled children and adults.  She has earned almost every recruiting and leadership award available in AMBUCS and has served as Regional Director over chapters in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Michigan.  Joy also has been beneficial in helping in the political arena.  She has worked on campaigns for local, statewide, and federal candidates. 

Thanks to her dedication to helping the handicapped, improving her community, and running a successful business.

Joy Brush is certainly a “woman to watch in 2010”!

Lisa Grigsby is well known in the Miami Valley area. She is a Special Events Manager with over twenty years experience in event coordination and public relations with strong social media skills. Her skills brings to the table the ability to foresee potential glitch areas and develop alternate plans for worst-case scenarios. She is an articulate communicator, skilled in quickly engaging team members and clients, establishing rapport and developing strong relationships.

Lisa is able to maintain a sense of humor under pressure. You can be assured that Lisa can be seen helping in some capacity at the majority of all Miami Valley non-profit events.  She serves on the board of Film Dayton and Clothes That Work. 

Her past experience includes, Special Events Manager for Culture Works, a catalyst for Dayton CREATE, Executive Director of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association, The Comedy Doc, and owner of the well known comedy club, Jokers.

Brenda Weber, Owner

Garden Shows, and various other events related to the home décor business. In addition to her retail business and gourmet café, she does in-home interior design consultation on a full scale or for just one room!

Brenda a member of the Dayton Society of Interior Designers,  American Society of Interior Designers and Women in Business Networking Entrepreneur Group.

Brenda and her husband Rick are the parents of three sons, two in college and one in high school.  In her busy life with a business and family Brenda finds the time to volunteer in her church and community.  She is a Mentor for MOMS and has worked in the Volunteer Art Programs in her children’s schools.

Karen  Rubenstein is a co-founder and principal of Jog Marketing, a woman-owned business created in 2004.  Jog Marketing is a full-service promotional products company that provides marketing and branding solutions for a broad spectrum of corporate clients.

Prior to joining Jog Marketing, Karen spent several years as a

National Account Executive for Target Corporation, where she both developed and sold recognition and incentive programs, achieving top sales producer status. Karen was instrumental in launching Target’s business-to-business growth strategy.  Karen has also amassed more than a decade of experience in staffing, human resources, project management, and marketing with Manpower, Inc.  While at Manpower, Karen completed a major project for Ford Credit that included setting up call centers throughout North America.

Karen is a graduate of  Ohio State University and currently resides in Dayton, Ohio.  In 2006, Karen was inducted in the “100 Wise Women” of Cincinnati, a program developed to increase the base of qualified, connected women in the area. 

She currently serves on the business advisory committee for CancerFree Kids, and has held leadership positions with two other non-profit organizations, having served on the business advisory board for the Courage Centers in Minneapolis and as marketing co-chair for Noble of Indiana (both providing services for people with disabilities).  Karen worked actively with her son’s schools and has served in Minnesota as PTA treasurer and as a liaison in the schools’ Parent Communication Network. 

Along with her son, Karen was the founder of a Teen Golf Outing-Sabine’s Cup-donating over $40,000 in three years to CancerFree Kids.

Cheryl Malone is the Regional Director of Market Development for the Adult Education Services department at Indiana Wesleyan University  She is responsible for marketing IWU's on-site and on-line programs in new community markets and with associations.

Cheryl has vast leadership and human resource experience as a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force. She served at a variety of stateside and overseas bases as well as the Pentagon. She has her Masters in Counseling

Cheryl claims Southport, North Carolina as her home town She has received numerous awards such as Meritorious and Commendation Medals, several leadership awards and was selected "Best Mission Support Squadron Commander 2 consecutive years.  She considers her best  job in the Air Force as being a Squadron Commander

Cheryl is active in her church and community. She is a member of Women in Business Networking and is presently developing the Mentor Program for Women in Business Networking.

She is married to Victor Malone and they have two children, Meghan and Sean. After retiring  (redirecting) from the Air Force in 2006, she has made Centerville, Ohio her home.

Karyn Gavzer is a practice management consultant specializing in marketing, training and customized solutions. She says her job is to help practices “go and grow” with new ideas and practical plans.

She has worked with industry, associations, and veterinary practices for over 18 years. She is best known, however, as the former director of marketing for the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) where she created public campaigns with industry, such as “Pets Need Dentistry, Too” and training programs to help veterinarians and their staffs market their services more effectively.

Karyn has an MBA and she is one of less than 200 certified veterinary hospital managers (CVPM) in North America. She is a member of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), an AAHA adjunct faculty member and one of the founders of VetPartners (formerly the Association of Veterinary Practice Management Consultants and Advisors).

Karyn is particularly well known for helping practices with strategic planning and with implementing improvements from the AAHA compliance study. She is a sought-after consultant, speaker and writer on these and other management and marketing issues. Above all else, Karyn says she is a pet lover and one of the people that walk through the front door of your office every day. She makes a point of sharing that perspective in all of her work.

Karyn lives in Springboro, Ohio.

Maha Kashani is the Sr. Account Manager at Cincinnati Bell. In her position Maha provides telecommunication & technology solutions to help Dayton area organizations increase efficiencies, boost productivity and cost effectively meet growing infrastructure demands.

Maha is known among her peers as one of the brightest, most outgoing professionals in the Miami Valley area. She takes on many different leadership roles and has a very active interest in helping to transform the Dayton region. Her energy is contagious.

Past experience include Account Executive with Gram Tel—A Cincinnati Bell Company and Special Events Director for Business Resumption Planners Association.

Organizations where Maha volunteers include, the Employer Relations Chair for Generation Dayton,  Executive Associate Board Member for the Dayton Ballet, the Chair of the "Emerging

Executives" at the Dayton Racquet Club, she serves on the Class of 05 Reunion Committee at University of Dayton, and a member of the Centerville Noon Optimist, Maha serves on the Development Committee at Dayton Children's Medical Center and an Advocate for SPARK Dayton.  She is a member of the Leadership Dayton 2010 class.

Her interests include technology, data centers, networking, events planning, virtualization, semantics, community service, and

shopping.

Christine Quijote-Oakes graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a major in Accounting and Finance.  After years of working in public accounting, she sensed a need to address accounting demands of small-to-medium sized entities (SME).  She found most SME business owners and decision makers lack the time to focus on non-core business functions like accounting, nor do they have vast resources to hire a team of accounting professionals.  Yet, their organizations are in a critical growth stage and need accurate financial information to make informed business decisions. 

Prior to establishing QCG, she was an audit manager for a Denver-based CPA firm.  She worked on over 40 clients; majority of which are publicly-traded entities; and seven are based in Europe, Asia, and Canada.  She led multiple global audit engagement teams and was involved in successful capital-raising activities.   

Christine is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA) and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.  She serves on the OSCPA  Accounting and Auditing Committee and the Dayton Chamber of Commerce Finance Committee. She is also widely involved in many non-profit fundraising efforts in the Dayton area, a member of Women in Business Networking, serving on the Business  Advisory Board.   She is a licensed CPA in Ohio, New Mexico, and Colorado.

“25 Women to Watch 2009”