A Conversation with Our 2024 Betty Awards Honorees

READ MORE ABOUT OUR 2024 BETTY AWARD RECIPIENTS

Milwaukee has long been a place shaped by bold leadership and creative problem-solving. Maybe that’s why Betty Quadracci was such a natural fit for this city, and for Milwaukee Magazine. She ran this publication for nearly 30 years as the uncompromising publisher who told it as it is – or at least as she saw it – and always had the best interests of Milwaukee at heart.  

We launched the Betty Awards in 2019, six years after her death, to honor her spirit by highlighting remarkable women we see carrying on her legacy in the community. Each member of this cohort embodies one of the qualities that made Betty so unforgettable, from her relentless drive to her steadfast support of other women. Listen in as MilMag editor-in-chief and publisher Carole Nicksin leads a roundtable discussion with this year’s Bettys.  

CAROLE NICKSIN: First, can anyone who knew Betty share your impression of her? 

ALICIA DUPIES: She was a spitfire. “Tenacious B” sums it up. She was a fantastic leader and mother and always looking out for other women. I was actually at a Milwaukee Women Inc. event last night, and one of the slides that came up was the cover of your 2002 magazine. It was Betty talking about the 10 most influential women in Milwaukee. I think the groundwork she laid for women in Milwaukee is something we should all be grateful for.  

LAURA BRAY: I had a couple of opportunities in Milwaukee Women Inc. There was a group of us that met very early on. At the time, I worked for the Department of City Development, but I didn’t know how I got invited to the table because I was just a staff assistant to the commissioner. I think back to Betty expanding the table, welcoming people who might be future leaders. Betty was also one of the investors in the Urban Ecology Center build-out of the Hank Aaron State Trail. I worked as the executive director in the Menomonee Valley, and having the [Quadraccis’] Windhover Foundation fund part of that project got people excited about joining. 

MARY EWENS: [My sister] Betty was very strong and always supportive of me. When I came back from Rome, I needed a magnifier to help me work and read. It cost $3,000, and Betty bought it. I ran a residence in Rome for nuns from developing countries who were studying there, and Betty gave me a certain amount of money every year to help them.

When I came back to Milwaukee, she helped me find an assistant job with a theologian. Once, we needed funding for a film project about violence against women, which would cost half a million dollars. She asked me to send a grant proposal for the [exact and significant] amount they had left over to be spent at the Windhover Foundation at the end of the year.  

NICKSIN: How society defines femaleness has changed, but being a woman has also changed through the decades. At what points in your life do you think of your gender the most? 

POLLY MORRIS: I don’t think there’s a minute of any day when I don’t think about it. I think it’s influenced almost everything about what I’ve done throughout my life. The context is changing all the time, but I think it’s extremely difficult to be in this world and not be reminded you’re a woman. Anytime you step into a room, there’s a power relationship.  

BRAY: The thing that was the most impactful to me was making the choice to go to a church that has a woman pastor. My Catholic faith is a huge part of who I am, but I couldn’t get to the other side of just not having women in a leadership role. We had to decide what to choose for our family. When we joined a Lutheran church, they had a vicar who was in seminary, and we went with her on a retreat.

I’ll never forget when we had Mass together, she pulled up the bread and she started to say the words of the institution. I just started to cry. I didn’t realize how impactful that was to see a woman consecrating the host. It’s not that women are better pastors. It’s just nice to have options and to have a way of ministering from a female. 

DUPIES: I’ve always worked in male-dominated industries, so I feel like at times, I’ve tried to not realize that I’m the only woman in the room. But there’s actually some scientific evidence that women have more ability to discern color in their eyes, so I like to think I’m bringing a little bit more color to the table in my perspective.

Now, as the mother of girls who are now 20, 21 and 23, I’m more sensitive to gender. I’ve learned we have to own who we are. As a woman, I can’t pretend to be something I’m not. The easiest way is to just own it, and the exhausting way is to try to fit in because everyone around me is a male.  

MARIANA RODRIGUEZ: I have daughters, too. As they are now adults in school and working toward their careers, I’ve always encouraged them to get a female mentor. I tell them, it’s important for you to network with individuals who are going to uplift you.

My work is about alleviating the poverty and other issues that impact violence against women so they can see something better for themselves. If women are not stable economically, the vicious cycle of violence continues. Every grant application I write, I think about the young women I’ve interacted with and what I want for my daughters. 

LYNNE DIXON-SPELLER: One thing I was able to do to help gender issues is representation. Everyone should be able to see someone leading similar to themselves. I’m a third-generation college grad. My grandparents both graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1920. I could have named the college Dixon, their last name.

I chose Edessa because my grandmother graduating in 1920 was a great feat, traveling from Texas to Alabama when it was dangerous for African Americans. I felt Black girls in this world needed to see something named after a Black woman.  

EWENS: I once gave a paper at a conference saying how nuns had all the things feminists were looking for. We have education and executive positions. We’re not slaves to children or men, and we’re not sex objects.

When I was in graduate school, the young married men I studied with used to hang out with the nuns because some of the women who were not married were on the prowl. When I was running a London program for Rosary College, we had a tutor who was an unmarried member of Parliament. He’d take sisters to the Christmas party at the Irish embassy or tea at the speaker’s house. It’s just different when you’re a sister.  

NICKSIN: Each of you have an impulse toward community service and toward helping other people. What drives that impulse?  

EWENS: For me, it’s in the gospel. Whatever you’ve done to the least of my brethren, you’ve done to me. Love your neighbor as yourself. There are so many different lines you could quote. 

RODRIGUEZ: In Milwaukee, we have some of the highest rates of domestic violence homicides. I’m driven by helping women become more self-sufficient. When we give opportunities, a lot of these vulnerable young women become safer and more empowered.  

BRAY: I feel we’re put on the planet to serve each other and make the planet better. One of the most interesting things in my professional journey was that I was exposed to something called consensus organizing, and it’s like activism through partnership, bringing together those in power and those that might feel disconnected from power to solve problems together. I used that model a lot in the Menomonee Valley. We had CEOs and folks living around the valley working together to plan the future.

DIXON-SPELLER: I moved to Milwaukee in 1997, and my husband was a C-suite executive. I had not been teaching at that point for about three years, and I had to start all over. In boredom, I joined the board of directors at the library, which led to the symphony, the ballet and First Stage.

I learned that if you’re not wealthy enough to throw checks at them, you really have to get in there and work. You better love what you’re doing, and I did. When I began to teach again, I was in the room with young people trying to do the things I set out to help these organizations do. It’s like forging a chain. 

NICKSIN: Polly, do you have any thoughts about the importance of the arts in building community and the role that arts play in a healthy society? 

MORRIS: I think we tend to look at the arts as the icing on the cake. Artists can change the way we see things and think about things, but we don’t integrate them enough to help us build a better society. In Milwaukee, funding is rolling back in significant ways. Philanthropically speaking, money usually goes to organizations, not to individuals. I’ve labored for decades to get funding for individual artists. I would say I’m an artist advocate rather than an arts advocate.  

NICKSIN: You’ve said that failure is the only thing that really interests you. Can you ​​expound? 

MORRIS: Because I knew Lynden was going to be my last job, I looked upon it as a laboratory where we experiment and fail all the time. That’s where learning happens. The older I get, the more willing I am to push things further, which inevitably invites failure. I like to fail in company. I think I try with the people I work with at Lynden and in and other things to encourage people to push things further than they might otherwise, to see if we can make them work.  

NICKSIN: Alicia, I wanted to talk to you about working in a non-traditional field for women – construction. In the arc of your career, have you seen that change? 

DUPIES: It’s changed slowly. I’ve been in the field for 25 years. Similar to women mentors, I also think it’s important to have male mentors, especially in male-dominated fields. The thing I learned from male mentors is confidence. We want to make sure that our competence is A+ before we exude any level of confidence, and those male mentors gave me the chutzpah to feel like I could do what I was being asked to do. I’m seeing in the field much more gender parity with men and women coming into construction. Construction is hard. You’re on the job site at 6 a.m., when not a lot of daycares are open. So you need to figure out how you’re going to balance things. On the flipside, at Gilbane, our COO and deputy general counsel are women. Seeing more women since I entered the workforce is a breath of fresh air.  

NICKSIN: Lynne, have you always been a Tenacious B? 

DIXON-SPELLER: I think so. I went against everything that I was supposed to. My father was a physician. My mother was a child psychologist. I hated science. My father just didn’t get it. I think the day he got it was at my undergraduate graduation. He met Dr. Walter Kleeman, who was the first Ph.D. in interior design.

My father shook his hand and said, “Oh, they give out Ph.D.s in interior design?” And he said, “No, I earned it.” I think the tenacity within me was that my entire family are medical people, and I’ve made it a point to shout at the top of my lungs, “I’m not!”  

NICKSIN: Mariana, is domestic violence increasing, and how do you make it better? 

RODRIGUEZ: I’m hearing that the crime rates are coming down in Milwaukee. However, post-COVID, we have seen an increase in domestic violence. In these past few years, I’ve seen women with the most severe forms of injuries. Yet there’s been a huge reduction in funding and programs.

When we talk about the root causes of some of the violence in the homes, it’s often not having access to resources. Health care, education and employment opportunities are important. Right now we’re focusing a lot on awareness. We’ve brought in police officers, prosecutors and funders to talk about how we can all work together to make it safer for families. 

NICKSIN: Mary, would you recommend becoming a nun to a young woman today? 

EWENS: If you don’t have that calling, you shouldn’t do it. It’s a good route for the right person, because you have all kinds of possibilities since the Second Vatican Council. Whatever field you want to be in, it’s all welcome and supported. And you have a whole community. We’re family for each other, and we’re community for each other, and you’re encouraged all along the way, and you have other people who have the same values.  

NICKSIN: Laura, your career has been mission driven. What do you think is the kernel of the mission?  

BRAY: I just went through a process of doing my core values with an executive coach, and the thing that kept on driving me was to take on things that matter. I’ve been exposed to a lot of amazing professional development. I did the Executive MBA program at Marquette, and I was the only nonprofit public sector person in the room.

I felt that understanding how business works in the world of economic development was essential. If I’m going to create opportunities for people, I have to understand the fundamentals. I could have been making more money in the private sector, but I want to do things that matter.  

NICKSIN: Let’s go around the table and share any words of wisdom or encouragement for the next generation of women. 

BRAY: I think we’re in the moment of redefining what success means, and we need to lean into that. One thing that I see is the head of many Milwaukee organizations are changing to men. But progress isn’t always linear. It happens in cycles. Women got the right to vote, but that didn’t mean that everything was solved. We have to keep at it, asking questions and having discussions and redefining what it means to be a woman leader. 

DUPIES: Be your authentic self, show up as who you are each day. There’s been so much progress in women’s leadership, so be hopeful, even if it’s not always linear. 

MORRIS: I’d say that feminism is a team sport. Open every door, launch every possible platform. Mentor women – also mentor men – and create as many opportunities as you can for other women. 

EWENS: I’ve just tried to take risks. Be willing to try something different. But a whole new era of my life blossomed because I did certain things. Even trying for grants, I got most of them, and some of them I didn’t. But if you don’t try, you’re not going to get anything. It makes your life so much more interesting to try.   

DIXON-SPELLER: I’m an academician, not a grant writer or fundraiser, but the school needs funding to survive. So I’ve written grants and paid a grant writer and was told it was “the best grant they’d ever seen – but no.” That’s so frustrating. But my mantra is, “No is a request for more information.” It doesn’t always work, but sometimes it does. You have to keep punching at it. 

RODRIGUEZ: For all the “nos” I’ve received, I don’t give up. We need to keep going. I tell my daughters to trust their thoughts and feelings. Continue on. We can be easily discouraged, but then, we stop growing and challenging ourselves. Keep going and keep learning, and don’t let “no” be a barrier.