From medicine to philanthropy, real estate to insurance, and with a lot of community volunteering thrown in, this year’s Women of Influence honorees make their presence felt in many ways all across Central Iowa. Sixty-eight women have shared the spotlight in the first seven years of this program sponsored by the Des Moines Business Record, and 11 more join the elite group in 2006.

This year’s selections: Ann Anderson, Connie Boesen, Judith Anne Conlin, Ann Cownie, Rosalie Gallagher, Lynn Graves, Marilyn Kollmorgen, Shar Pardubsky, Linda Railsback, Patricia Schneider and Susan Voss.

SHAR PARDUBSKY

If Shar Pardubsky were to take a census of all the chamber of commerce board presidents and volunteers she’s worked with over the past 21 years, the number would easily stretch into the thousands.

As the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s senior vice president of affiliate relations, Pardubsky has for more than two decades served as the liaison between the Partnership and its affiliated chambers and organizations. The affiliates include chambers representing 17 cities or regions in Greater Des Moines and four alliance organizations: the African-American Business Association, Alianza, the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute and the Women’s Chamber Alliance.

From working with the affiliates to develop new programs to assisting them in developing special events, Pardubsky plays a key role in building relationships between the affiliates and encouraging them to work together to achieve regional goals.

“I always say I have the best job of anyone, because I get to work with so many talented people throughout the metro,” she said. “They want to see growth not only in their community but also for the region.”

The oldest of seven children, Pardubsky and her family lived in Blairstown and then Lisbon before moving to Forest City when she was in high school. She worked in Cedar Rapids at a bank and then the Grant Wood Area Education Association before moving to Des Moines, where she worked for the Iowa General Assembly as a legislative assistant.

She began working for the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce in 1983.

“I had always had an interest in government relations, and that’s where I started working, in governmental affairs, working with the legislators,” she said. Two years later, when the affiliate manager position arose, “I decided that would be a great opportunity for me,” she recalled. “It dealt a lot with government relations, and it still does.”

During her time with the chamber, which would become the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Federation and, five years ago, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Pardubsky has been a part of building the affiliate base from 10 organizations to the present 21.

“My success is due to all of the people I meet and get to work with in all the 21 affiliates,” she said. “They dedicate themselves to their roles. I enjoy having the opportunity to grow in my role as a mentor to them, and allowing them to reach the highest potential they can and feel good about themselves.”

Her extensive time commitment working with volunteers gives her very little time for volunteering herself, she said. She and her husband, Larry, who is semiretired, like to play golf together. Their first grandson was born in July, and their second grandchild is due this month.

“While my children were growing up, I was very interested in watching their sports and activities,” she said. “Now, it will be watching our grandchildren grow up.”

ANN ANDERSON

Ann Anderson never got around to finishing her college degree requirements. Besides not having the time, she just didn’t see the need for it after she discovered her passion for volunteering.

“The work I was doing as a volunteer was too interesting to quit to go back to school,” Anderson said. “I was extremely fulfilled by doing these things I saw as important for Des Moines, and that piece of paper lost its importance. I laughingly say my honorary degree is worth more than I could have learned.”

Anderson, who was raised in Des Moines, originally planned to follow in her father’s footsteps and work in construction, but instead made a career out of volunteer work. With a focus on arts, education and conservation, she has donated her time and talents to numerous organizations. In several instances, she was a founding member of the organizations she served. She credits her accomplishments to being blessed with a great deal of energy.

“I think some of us need to work, regardless of if it’s for a paid job or something we think is terribly important in our lives,” Anderson said.

After high school, Anderson earned an associate’s degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Mo. and then spent a year at Northwestern University before moving back to Des Moines to attend Drake University. She and her husband, Sigurd, were married a semester before she finished her coursework in sociology.

Anderson’s first volunteer job as an adult was leading a Girl Scout troop at the Iowa Children’s Home. It was only natural that she took on this task, because her mother had been an active leader and fund-raising volunteer for the Girl Scouts.

Not long after Anderson started taking on leadership roles in the community, the Junior League of Des Moines invited her to join, which connected her with even more organizations to be a part of. She became a founding member of Friends of Drake Arts, Friends of Iowa Public Television, Friends of the Public Library of Des Moines and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. She also held leadership roles with many other organizations.

One of Anderson’s crowing achievements came in the 1970s, when she was president of the Des Moines Symphony Association. A friend, Des Moines Register publisher David Kruidenier, asked her to join a small group that was trying to build a performing arts facility downtown. She joined, and thanks to the group’s efforts, the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines was born.

“Arts bring a needed quality to our lives,” Anderson said. She plays several musical instruments, although she doesn’t claim to be musically talented.

Anderson has two children, Sigurd III and Mertze, who both live in Greater Des Moines. She spends half her year in Des Moines and the other half at her second home in Okoboji, where she tends to her 20-acre wildlife habitat.

“Life changes as you grow older, but the most important thing is to stay connected with the things that interest you,” she said.

CONNIE BOESEN

When Connie Boesen sees something that needs to get done, she steps in to help. Boesen, most widely known for her current role as a member of the Des Moines School Board, is driven by a sense of pride in her community and a determination to use her skills to help others.

“Getting involved is what you do,” Boesen said. “If I can help make an impact or make things better for somebody, it’s worth the time commitment.”

Boesen moved to Greater Des Moines from Clarinda as a child. Because her father, Kenneth Fulk, was the director of the Iowa State Fair, her family lived in a house on the fairgrounds. Her father instilled in her the importance of hard work, and by age 14, she was working concessions at the fair.

After high school, Boesen took some college classes before the Younkers department store chain offered her a full-time job as a buyer. She worked her way up in the company over the next 33 years, until the retailer moved its corporate offices out of Des Moines. Her job involved long hours and frequent travel, but she always stayed involved at her two daughters’ schools.

In 1998, she was asked to help with the campaign to approve a local-option sales tax to raise money to rebuild Des Moines’ public schools. She went door to door talking with East Side residents about the proposal, and as she did, she saw more opportunities to work on projects that would benefit the city.

“The sales tax campaign really got me more involved, and as you get more involved, you see more needs and how you can do more,” Boesen said.

Soon after, Boesen became involved with the East Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, Greater Eastside Development, the Des Moines Public Library board of trustees and the Blank Park Zoo advisory board. In 2003, she was elected to the school board. Budget shortfalls, a decline in enrollment and rising construction costs have made the past three years “probably the most challenging the district has had,” Boesen said. A group of local parents criticized the board for its decision last year to close four elementary schools with small enrollments. Boesen was school board president when the decision was made.

But the adversity Boesen has faced has only strengthened her commitment to being in public office. This fall, she will run for re-election on the school board. She said she is encouraged by progress she has seen with recent curriculum changes and early childhood initiatives she has pushed for.

“In the end, you have to try to stand by what you feel is best for the students,” Boesen said. “Not everyone is going to agree, but we still have time for conversation.”

Boesen continues to live on the East Side of Des Moines and works as a buyer for Schaffer’s. She also operates three part-time businesses: a retail consulting company and two concession businesses, Applishus and Salad Bowl. In addition to her two daughters, she has four stepchildren with husband, Ted Boesen Jr.

JUDITH ANNE CONLIN

Judith Anne Conlin doesn’t have a long-range career strategy. All she knows is that whatever she ends up doing in the future, it will involve helping the vulnerable and will challenge her in a new and exciting way.

“I do something for about seven years and then need a new or different kind of challenge,” Conlin said. “I’m not sure why. For a while, I kept apologizing for it and then realized I just have an insatiable need for variety and new challenges.”

Currently she is working on a $1.3 million capital campaign for the Girl Scouts of Moingona Council to help build two new buildings at Camp Sacajawea in Boone, which will be more accessible to people with disabilities as well as well as aid the 16-outreach programs that support at-risk and underprivileged girls.

In her spare time, she is updating her women’s guidebook for the fifth time. The new book, called “How to Get Your Bearings – How to Get a Job: A Guidebook for Women Who Are Unemployed, Underemployed and/or Underpaid,” will be out around September.

Before working for Girl Scouts, she facilitated a $2.2 million capital campaign for Special Olympics of Iowa, which funded the first-ever 2006 National Special Olympics Games in Iowa. Prior to that, she was the executive director for the Iowa Department of Elder Affairs, raising money and helping create programs that make assisted living more affordable, bring care to Alzheimer’s disease patients living in rural areas, and prevent elder abuse.

In addition, she has served as executive director of the Mid-Iowa Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Animal Rescue League of Iowa Inc. and as director of development and affiliate manager for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa.

“The constant theme throughout her many contributions,” said her nominators, Elaine Szymoniak and Judy Winkelpleck, “is to identify an area of need, involve others in the issue, develop innovative solutions and implement the solutions.”

Born and raised in Fort Dodge and a resident of the Ames and Des Moines area throughout her adult life, Conlin said, “Where else would I be involved except where I’m living? There are so many needs in the Central Iowa community.”

When the workday ends, Conlin retreats to her books, which stems from her educational background. She graduated with a bachelor of arts from Iowa State University, researched Shakespeare and D.H. Lawrence at the University of Edinburgh, and received a doctorate of arts from Drake University.

Her education not only honed her research and writing skills, which have been vital tools in securing funding for the organizations she has worked for, but also her love for literature has inspired her volunteer work including serving on the boards of the Des Moines National Poetry Festival, the Billie and Robert D. Ray Lifelong Learning Society at Drake University, StageWest and the Des Moines Public Library’s AViD Committee, which selects the books and authors for the Authors Visiting in Des Moines series.

How does she do it all?

“I’m blessed with incredible energy and fantastic health,” Conlin said. “I don’t even get a cold!”

ROSALIE GALLAGHER

In 1970, the Younkers department store in downtown Des Moines was not looking for a designer. Management conveyed that information to Rosalie Gallagher every time she called. But she kept calling and kept calling, and finally they gave her a job just to make the phone stop ringing.

So there’s one key to her success – persistence.

Her energy and determination led Gallagher to start her own business in 1978, and she still operates Rosalie Gallagher Designs Ltd. today. She also has put a great deal of her time into civic work, especially Variety — The Children’s Charity.

“In 1996, my good friends Don and Margo Blumenthal were the honorary chairs for Variety, and they asked me to have the cast party for 125 people coming in to do the telethon,” she said. “I couldn’t believe how refreshing and passionate these Variety people were; and I thought, ‘I need to get involved.'”

Gallagher is an international vice president of Variety and currently serves as the fund-raising chairwoman and as a member of the board of directors of the Iowa chapter. She previously served the organization as an international ambassador and as “chief barker” (president) of the Iowa chapter.

“It’s just a great feeling,” she says of her involvement. “You never get tired of giving to something you’re so passionate about.”

Gallagher grew up on a farm near Mount Pleasant, dubbed Chapel View Farm for the scenery visible from the front porch. The family raised cattle, hogs and “thousands of turkeys.”

She attended the University of Iowa, at first intending to become a speech therapist, then switched her field of study to social work and finally to design. After graduation, jobs in Nebraska and Wisconsin preceded the move to Des Moines.

Gallagher is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers and has worked on design projects from Florida to Phoenix to San Francisco, as well as in Central Iowa.

Having her own design business is “a great opportunity to travel,” she said. “I travel as much as I can.” And while she’s seeing new places, she’s also meeting lots of people. “Clients become good friends, and I get to know a lot about them,” she said. “It’s a wonderful field.”

Her accomplishments as a community volunteer include serving on the board of the Des Moines Playhouse, chairing the Des Moines Art Center’s “A Premier Evening for Mike Blank,” serving as co-chair of Art in the Park and of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra Pops Concert, and board memberships at Blank Children’s Hospital, Youth Emergency Services & Shelter, the MS Foundation and the Junior League of Des Moines.

Gallagher received the Civic Leadership Award from the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute in 2003.

LYNN GRAVES

Early in her 27-year career with Principal Financial Group Inc., Lynn Graves would walk across the street from work during her lunch hour to volunteer at the YWCA’s Aliber Child Center, where her son was enrolled for child care.

“As a single parent at that time, I just didn’t have a lot of money to give, so I was more apt to give of my time,” said Graves. Now, as vice president of executive operations for Principal Life Insurance Co. and a board member for numerous charitable organizations, she maximizes her abilities to give back to the community.

“Giving back is important, because there are always people less fortunate than you,” said Graves, who was one of 12 children in her family. Her mother instilled in all of the children a simple three-part philosophy: Try your best, share what you have, and be nice to everyone.

“It still sticks with me today that if more people had that philosophy, the world would be a better place,” Graves said.

After serving in several administrative and managerial roles at Principal, she was elected an officer and named assistant director of employment in 1991. In 2001 she became executive adviser to the chairman, president and CEO, and in 2004 was promoted to her present position.

“She has a passion for community service and has had a major impact building programs to benefit children,” said Mary O’Keefe, Principal’s senior vice president for human resources. “She has not only influenced a major company and our community in so many positive ways, but leaves each and every person she touches better for having known her.”

As a founding member of the United Way of Central Iowa Women’s Leadership Initiative, now in its fifth year, Graves was instrumental in establishing a program that has raised more than $1 million to benefit seven child-care centers in Greater Des Moines. She has also been active in early-childhood issues with United Way, and has worked on numerous fund-raising campaigns for Bravo, the March of Dimes, the American Heart Association, the Boys and Girls Clubs and Hope Ministries.

Graves also chairs the board of directors of Progress Industries in Newton and serves on the boards of the Riverfront Development Authority, The Blood Center of Iowa and the Des Moines Playhouse.

Graves said she enjoys teaching the importance of giving without expecting something in return.

“If I give someone something, if it’s monetary, I like to say, ‘I don’t want it back; I want you to at some point pass it on.’ That’s how we make it a better place for everyone to live. I like to be the one that teaches others the importance of giving back.”

MARYLYN KOLLMORGEN

When Marylyn Kollmorgen moved to Urbandale in 1970, she saw her new hometown as a nice place to stay until her family could build their dream house.

“But with every new shrub, and more importantly, every new friend, we just grew more and more attached to the city,” she said. “This is our home.”

And the people of Urbandale are glad she decided to stay. In her years as a resident, Kollmorgen has served on the Urbandale’s city council, school board, chamber of commerce and many other organizations, and along the way she has garnered a reputation as someone who cares deeply about her community.

“I have never met anyone who cared more about her community and who worked so hard to make it an even better place to live,” said Robert Layton, Urbandale city manager.

However, praise is not something Kollmorgen seems to enjoy.

“I don’t feel I am a woman of influence,” she said. “In Urbandale, people really work as a team to accomplish things for the benefit of everyone. Along the way, I just helped out where I felt I could contribute.”

Kollmorgen said she loves living in Urbandale because, for the most part, its residents are people who grew up in small towns who are more willing to share the responsibility of improving the city.

“You’re never in it alone,” she said.

And she has seen the city’s population explode over the years. When she arrived in 1970, she said, the population was around 9,000 people. Today, she said the population has grown to nearly 37,000. The city has the potential to grow to close to 70,000 people one day. But growth has not hurt Urbandale as it has other cities and towns across the country, she said, because the growth has been well managed.

“We’ve been able to plan our growth and development,” Kollmorgen said. “Some people think of growth as a bad thing, I think of it as I know a lot more people now.”

What she would truly love to see next for her hometown is for it to build a community center.

“That has been a real dream of mine,” she said. “I’ve wanted it since we moved here, but there was always something more pressing that had to be dealt with. I think it would be great for our community. It would give us a place where citizens from all over could get together.”

No one would be surprised if a community center was built one day, with Kollmorgen playing a key role.

“As one can see from her list of community involvement and awards that she has received, Marilyn is a doer,” said Dennis Linderbaum, president of the Iowa Health Foundation. “When she gets involved in something, things happen.”

LINDA RAILSBACK

It took nearly 25 years, but Dr. Linda Railsback was finally able to establish a sexual assault response team for Central Iowa in February. It was something she believed Polk and the surrounding counties desperately needed, and so she had no problem rolling up her sleeves and working for it, no matter how long it took.

“Polk County is way behind other counties around the state,” she said. “Since we’ve been up and running, we have seen the number of sexual assaults reported almost double. This isn’t an increase in activity; this is an increase in reporting, because people are beginning to realize that the quality of care they are going to receive has increased.”

She got involved in the cause when she was in private practice. She said she would be called in to see victims of sexual crimes, but she had no true idea what she was doing.

“There is an increase in post-traumatic stress disorder when a person who is raped is examined by a doctor as opposed to a nurse,” she said. “A doctor in an emergency room has people bleeding to death they have to deal with and sexual assaults take a lot of time. The response team provides a compassionate caregiver in a comfortable environment, and when you do that, studies show PTSD is cut in half.”

The team is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When a victim shows up in an emergency room, the ER staff calls the team, and a registered nurse who has been trained in how to deal with sexual assault cases is sent out.

“People would sit for four to six hours in an emergency room to be examined by a person who may not know what they are doing,” Railsback said. “Our response time is 30 minutes, and it doesn’t cost the patient anything. And only one in 100 victims needs an emergency doctor, so we can take them someplace quiet and comfortable to be examined by a person who is trained to deal with just this type of case.”

But Railsback doesn’t want to take credit for the new organization.

“I am pretty aware that things that would be viewed as personal successes are simply the coming together of people and their skills,” she said. “It really isn’t about me; it’s about the project. I may be the point person for this project, but it was an effort that took many more people than just me.”

However, the hard work hasn’t stopped Railsback from enjoying some less serious undertakings.

“I’m in a steel drum band called Tropical Steel,” she said. “And yes, we do have a CD out. We play the Farmers Market about once a month, as well as fund-raisers and community events, and have done that for about 14 years.”

SUSAN VOSS

Susan Voss found a unique path to success. She started college as a history major, later got a law degree and now she’s the insurance commissioner of the state of Iowa.

A Fairfield native, Voss took some classes at Parsons College while still in high school, then attended Parsons full time during its last year of operation. “It probably spoiled me,” she said. “The instructors were Ph.D.s from Yale and Harvard, and I never got so much attention.”

When Parsons shut down, Voss enrolled at Simpson College and earned a teaching degree with a history major. But she changed her career plan after one semester as a substitute teacher. “I was probably the worst teacher ever seen in the state of Iowa,” she said.

Voss then went to Chicago and earned a paralegal degree from Roosevelt University. She followed that with a stint at the Davis law firm in Des Moines, then attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where she received a doctorate in law.

“Then I came right back, took the bar exam, and I’ve been working for the state government ever since,” she said.

Voss began as an assistant attorney general with the Iowa Department of Transportation in 1981, and after a few moves between departments, joined the Insurance Division in 1993 as projects director to the commissioner. That move came about after then-commissioner David Lyons gave her a temporary assignment as a flood insurance mediator to handle the daunting problems arising from the ’93 floods. “I’ve been grateful to him ever since,” Voss said.

She also lists her predecessor as commissioner, Therese Vaughan, as someone she admires. “She’s amazing,” Voss said. “She was a great mentor who always took time to walk me through issues and problems.”

In 2000, Voss and her husband, Carl, gave a nudge to the city’s downtown housing efforts by moving from a big house on Grand Avenue to an East Village building. “The kids went to college, the dog died, and Carl came home one day and said he was not going to do yard work anymore,” Voss said. “But we absolutely were not going to leave Des Moines.”

There’s plenty of volunteer work to keep her busy downtown and elsewhere. Voss serves on the boards of the Civic Music Association, the Des Moines Area Religious Council Foundation and the Des Moines Public Library, and is a member of Rotary Club and P.E.O. Sisterhood.

She also speaks on health-care and insurance topics at Iowa colleges and universities.

“I don’t know if I’ve influenced anybody,” Voss said, “but the message overall is that you can do good things with your talent, whatever it is.”

ANN COWNIE

A food-stained and travel-worn piece of paper hangs on Ann Cownie’s refrigerator. It reads, “Some act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

What makes Cownie enthusiastic is her work with the Des Moines community. As a woman who witnessed drugs and prostitution when she was a schoolteacher in California, lived through the pains of her husband’s battle with cancer and had to help move her parents into a retirement home, she works hard to turn her life experiences into something positive for the community.

“I just feel that there’s a lot of needs out there and someone has to do it,” Cownie said. “Why can’t try to help a bit?”

After returning to Iowa after years of traveling while her husband served three years in the army, her two biggest goals were to set up the Volunteer Bureau of Central Iowa, which would help people who moved to town or wanted to volunteer find opportunities, and a zoo, after seeing how important it was to her family when they lived in a hotel room for three months while her husband underwent cancer treatments. She accomplished both.

Now her list of achievements include three decades of board commitments that total more than 105 years of service to more than 19 Central Iowa non-profit organizations, said her nominator, Rob Kretzinger, president and CEO of Wesley Retirement Services. She served as the first woman president for the United Way of Central Iowa board, helped organize Blank Children’s Hospital into a separate entity with a new building, and helped found the Festival of Trees & Lights, which has raised more than over $4.2 million for Blank Children’s Hospital.

“Sometimes I think I got overly involved,” Cownie said. “You get into something, then you get interested in the community and another opportunity comes up. But I’ve loved every single minute of it. I feel fortunate to do some of the exciting things I’ve done.”

Currently, she is focusing on projects with Wesley Retirement Community, including helping brainstorm ideas that would make retirement communities more appealing to older adults. After working around 20 years with Iowa Health – Des Moines, she also is helping lead the Coming Clean Initiative that promotes ways to patients fromm getting infections during hospital visits.

Besides these organizations, she also has served on the boards of the American Red Cross of Central Iowa Chapter for 12 years, Greater Des Moines Community Foundation for 12 years, Hospice of Central Iowa for 10 years, and the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines for nine years.

“Ann’s vast experience in problem solving makes her one of Des Moines’ most valuable community leaders,” said Kretzinger.

With so many activities going on around Des Moines, Cownie looks forward to recharging at her lake house in northern Minnesota during the summer and spending time with her four children and six grandchildren.

PATRICIA SCHNEIDER

When Patricia Schneider decided in 1992 to chair the organizing committee of the first Des Moines “Race for the Cure,” which raises money to fight breast cancer, several experienced runners told her that the event would not be a success the first year. Most start-up races, they said, are unorganized and never raise a lot of money. They predicted only 50 people would show up. On the day of the race, however, 900 people showed up and since then the field of runners has grown to 17,000.

Seeing the success of a new program like Race for the Cure is Schneider’s passion, and she’s usually the one on the forefront, chairing new non-profit special events, including this year’s Strike a Pose Fashion Show benefiting Broadlawns Medical Center, Junior League of Des Moines’ 75th Anniversary Auction, and the Young Women’s Resource Center “Sit on It” Auction.

“My sister says because I’m bossy, I have to be chair,” said Schneider, “but probably I delegate better than anything else… I like the leadership role.”

In addition, she often will start a new event and then hand it off someone else who will oversee it next year. “The nice thing about the first year is that there are no real expectations,” she said.

Her interest and experience with community service stems from her job as manager of the corporate volunteer program at US West Communications Inc. (now Qwest Communications International Inc.). In this role, she was responsible for initiating and implementing community service projects for the company’s employees and retirees in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.

“I was really involved in working with non-profits, more than a normal person,” Schneider said. “It was one of the most fun jobs I ever had.”

She left the company to spend more time with her two kids, Allison and Louis, but shortly after was recruited by the CEO of United Way of Central Iowa to become the director of its foundation. About six months later she became a consultant for the Chrysalis Foundation, then president of the Junior League of Des Moines before re-entering the for-profit sector as a broker for Ferguson Commercial Real Estate Services. Despite returning to a full-time job, Schneider has continued to chair and volunteer for several Greater Des Moines organizations related to health and the arts, including Planned Parenthood of Greater Des Moines and Metro Arts Alliance.

“I think it’s like anything else; you make time for the things you want to do,” she said.

Her latest project is to chair November’s Go Red for Women Luncheon, which will attract about 500 to 600 women interested in listening to panel discussions about health and other issues important to women.

Despite never graduating from college, Schneider said she has succeeded because she’s always been blessed with common sense, great mentors as well as job and volunteer opportunities that have allowed her to utilize her strong leadership skills.

“The nice thing (about Des Moines) is that you can never fail, because no one will ever let you fail at what you do,” said the Des Moines native. “It’s a welcoming community to volunteer in because everyone wants you to succeed.”