In 2008, Rachel Lackey walked across the stage at the University of Alabama in Huntsville with a Bachelor's degree in Studio Art. That degree was made possible in part by her participation in the WEDC Foundation Scholar Program. Three years later, she founded Green Pea Press at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment, the first community printmaking studio in Alabama. This September, she will be an Honoree at the 25th Annual Women Honoring Women event, and the first WEDC Foundation scholar graduate ever to receive the honor.
It's the kind of full-circle moment the WEDCF founders could only have hoped for when they launched the Women Honoring Women fundraiser in 2002. The idea for the event was born from watching the program’s non-traditional scholars pursue higher education against real odds. One scholar walked to her UAH classes daily, pushing her baby in a stroller, because she could afford neither reliable transportation nor childcare. Moved by tenacity like that, the Board created a new celebration saluting the remarkable women of Madison County.
This year's group of Honorees are, fittingly, all entrepreneurs.
Dawn White Pumpelly is Owner and Editor of The Scout Guide Huntsville and The Scout Guide Greenville. Her publications are built on championing local businesses and creatives. She is a past President of both the Women's Economic Development Council and ENABLE Madison County. Today she leads the Burritt Memorial Committee Board, and she received The Scout Guide Aim High Award earlier this year.
Dr. Lindsay Limbaugh, owner of Limbaugh Orthodontics, has spent more than 20 years creating confident smiles in Huntsville. She is a board-certified orthodontist and past President of the Alabama Association of Orthodontists. This year alone, she sponsors more than 20 public schools and mentors students both in her office and throughout the community.
Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh has been a REALTOR for 48 years. She founded Van Valkenburgh & Wilkinson Properties in 1985 and was named 2016 REALTOR of the Year. A founding member of Historic Huntsville Foundation, she is also the first second-generation recipient of the Rosetta James Honor Our Elders Award.
Stephanie Wilkins has spent 27 years as Executive Director of Girls Inc. of Huntsville. Thousands of local girls have found mentors, tackled STEM programs and robotics competitions, and built the confidence to plan for college. Wilkins believes exposure to greatness inspires achievement. That belief has brought leaders like Dr. Condoleezza Rice and Serena Williams to meet Huntsville girls face to face.
And then there's Rachel Lackey, who went back to school as a single mother in her early twenties and found the WEDCF when a professor urged her to apply. "One of the greatest things about the program was being around all these successful women," she says, "because being in a room with them was not something I had experienced in my life before." Their belief that she could do it, and that it mattered that she did, carried her. Green Pea Press is thriving, and Rachel now employs art students who were once in her shoes. A Huntsville native, she has spent 15 years serving her community through art. This September, she returns to that room of successful women, and the room rises for her.
The event is presented by Woody Anderson Ford, a sponsor of 13 years. The dealership is owned by Cathy Anderson Stender, herself a 2012 Honoree. That's the quiet magic of Women Honoring Women. The honored become the honorers, the scholars become the celebrated, and every ticket and sponsorship funds the next woman's walk across the stage.
The 25th Annual Women Honoring Women takes place September 17, 2026, at the Von Braun Center's Saturn Ballroom. Doors open at 5 p.m. with dinner and program at 6 p.m. Cocktail attire. Tickets and sponsorship information at wedcfoundation.org.