2011Distinguished Service Award: Gwen Woolf
Announced October 2011 in Richmond
Newsmaker of the Year: Rowena Fullinwider, business woman
President: Cathy Jett
2010
Communicator of Achievement: Barbara Crookshanks
Newsmaker of the Year: Doris Buffett, philanthropist
President: Gwen Woolf
2009
Communicator of Achievement: Pam Stallsmith
Newsmaker of the Year: Lucinda Roy, author and Virginia Tech
faculty
Distinguished Service Award: Norma Pierce
President: Gwen Woolf
2008
Distinguished Service Award:
Cynthia Price and Pam Stallsmith, announced March 29 in
Staunton
Newsmaker of the Year: First Lady of Virginia Anne Holton
President: Sande Snead
2007
Communicator of Achievement:
Mary Jane King, announced September 2007 in Richmond
President: Sande Snead
[No Newsmaker named for 2007]
2006
Communicator of Achievement:
Margaret Mock, announced fall 2006 in Roanoke
Newsmaker of the Year:
Nikki Giovanni, poet, professor, civil rights activist
President: Julie Campbell
2005
Communicator of Achievement:
Nancy Beasley, announced fall 2005 in Fredericksburg
Newsmaker of the Year:
Geraldine Brooks, novelist and journalist
President: Julie Campbell
2004
Communicator of Achievement: Norma Lugar
Newsmaker of the Year: Rita McClenny, head, Virginia Film
Office
President: Cynthia Price
2003
Communicator of Achievement: Mary Ann Johnson
Newsmaker of the Year: Suzanne Lebsock, author, professor,
historian
President: Cynthia Price
2002
Communicator of Achievement: Gwen Woolf
Newsmaker of the Year: "Virginia communicators who so ably and
heroically served the public during the crisis following Sept. 11,
2001." Representatives of state, federal, and private agencies:
Janet L. Clements, Department of Emergency Management;
Susan Hansen, the Pentagon;
Bill Harrison, American Red Cross
President: Pam Stallsmith
2001
Communicator of Achievement: Dorothy Livingston Ulich
Troubetzkoy
Newsmaker of the Year: Adriana Trigiani, novelist
President: Pam Stallsmith
2000
Distinguished Service Award: Cynthia Price
Newsmaker of the Year: Roxane Gilmore, first lady of Virginia
and Randolph-Macon College professor who continued teaching during her
husband's tenure
President: Mary Ann Johnson
1999
Communicator of Achievement: Pauline Mitchell
Newsmaker of the Year: Katharine Lee Reid, director of the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
President: Mary Ann Johnson
1998
Distinguished Service Award: Barbara Ball
Communicator of Achievement: Martha Steger
Newsmakers of the Year: Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid, New
Millennium Studios of Petersburg
President: Lynn Nystrom
1997
Distinguished Service Award: Martha Steger
Communicator of Achievement: Louise Seals
Newsmaker of the Year: Meyera E. Oberndorf, mayor of Virginia
Beach
President: Lynn Nystrom
1996
Distinguished Service Award: Susan Trulove
Newsmaker of the Year:
Emily Couric, state senator, Virginia's 25th District, elected
1995 and had an unusually successful freshman year
President: Susan Winiecki
1995
Distinguished Service Award: Lynn Nystrom
Newsmaker of the Year: Patricia D. Cornwell, best-selling
crime novelist
President: Susan Winiecki
1994
Distinguished Service Award: Pauline Mitchell
Newsmaker of the Year: Lillian Vernon, entrepreneur
President: Martha Steger
1993
Distinguished Service Award: Susan J. Winiecki
Communicator of Achievement: Melodie Davis
Newsmaker of the Year: Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin, Tailhook
scandal whistle blower
President: Martha Steger
1992
Communicator of Achievement: George Crutchfield
Newsmaker of the Year: Patricia Kluge, Albemarle County
businesswoman and philanthropist
President: Louise Seals
1991
Press Woman of the Year: Norma Pierce
Newsmaker of the Year: Dr. Georgeanna Seegar Jones, pioneer in
infertility research
President: Louise Seals
1990
Press Woman of the Year: Mary C. Holliman
Newsmaker of the Year: Elizabeth B. Lacy, first woman on the
Virginia Supreme Court
President:
1989
Press Woman of the Year: Gail Benge Kent
Newsmaker of the Year: Jeannie Baliles, first lady of Virginia
and leader in literacy programs
President: Carolyn West
1988
Press Woman of the Year: Liz Vantrease
Newsmaker of the Year: Brig. Gen. Gail M. Reals, first woman
general in the Marine Corps and first female base commander in the corps
President: Carolyn West
1987
Press Woman of the Year: June O. Nicholson
Newsmaker of the Year: Eva S. Teig, Virginia secretary of
health and human resources
President: Mary Jane King
1986
Press Woman of the Year: Louise Seals
Newsmaker of the Year: Margaret Sanger Marston
President: Mary Jane King
1985
Press Woman of the Year:
Newsmaker of the Year: Mary Sue Terry, activist Virginia
attorney general
President:
1984
Press Woman of the Year: Joan Deppa
Newsmaker of the Year: Anne Dobie Peebles
President:
1983
Press Woman of the Year: Linda K. Ganschinietz
Newsmaker of the Year: Dr. Betty J. Diener, outspoken and
combative Virginia secretary of commerce and resources
President:
1982
Press Woman of the Year: Loretta Gillespie
Newsmaker of the Year:
President: LeeNora Everett
1981
Press Woman of the Year: LeeNora Everett
Newsmaker of the Year: Marianne C. Stanley
President: LeeNora Everett
1980
Press Woman of the Year: Pat Royal Perkinson
Newsmaker of the Year: Jessie Rattley
President:
1979
Press Women of the Year: Liz Vantrease and Carolyn Hines
West
Newsmaker of the Year: Dr. Jean L. Harris, first woman and
first African-American to serve in the Virginia cabinet
President:
1978
Press Woman of the Year: Trudy Willis
Newsmaker of the Year: Elizabeth Taylor Warner, Academy
Award-winning actress and wife of John Warner, who was elected U.S.
Senator from Virginia in November 1978
President:
1977
Press Woman of the Year: Sylvia Costen
Newsmaker of the Year: Virginia's eight women Episcopal
priests: the Revs. Alison Cheek, Patricia Merchant, Constance Chandler
Ward, Mary B. Anthony, Blanche Powell, Margaret Jefferson, Gloria K.
Bergerich and Georgia H. Shoberg.
President:
1976
Press Woman of the Year: Peggy Pond
Newsmaker of the Year: Del. Eleanor P. Sheppard, former mayor
of Richmond, delegate to Virginia General Assembly and the first woman
to serve as chair of a General Assembly committee
President:
1975
Press Woman of the Year: Ann L. Merriman
Newsmaker of the Year: Annie Dillard, Pulitzer prize-winning
author of "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" and former professor at Hollins
College
President:
1974
Press Woman of the Year: Lois D. Watkins
Newsmaker of the Year: Rae Ely, leader of the group to save
historic Green Springs from strip mining
President:
1973
Press Woman of the Year: Myrtle S. Barnes
Newsmaker of the Year: Helen Chenery Tweedy, owner of
Secretariat, Triple Crown Winner, and Riva Ridge, winner of the 1972
Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, from her Meadow Farm at Doswell
President:
1972
Press Woman of the Year: Ruby Jean Phillips Uhler
Newsmaker of the Year: Jinks Holton, first lady of Virginia
President:
1971
Press Woman of the Year: Marge Fisher
Newsmaker of the Year: Vivian Carter Mason, Norfolk civil
rights leader
President: Myrtle Barnes
1970
Press Woman of the Year: Madeline W. Livesay
Newsmakers of the Year: Virginia Wives of Prisoners of War
and Missing in Action in Southeast Asia
President: Myrtle Barnes
1969
Press Woman of the Year: Pat Royal Perkinson
Newsmaker of the Year: Ann H. Kilgore of Hampton, only woman
mayor in the state
President: Marge Fisher
1968
Press Woman of the Year: Ruth H. Barner
Woman of Distinction: Mrs. Ruth Shuey
President: Marge Fisher
1967
Press Woman of the Year: Agnes Cooke
President:
1966
Press Woman of the Year: Ulrich Troubetzkoy
President:
1965
Press Woman of the Year: Virginia Biggins
President:
1964
Press Woman of the Year: Vivien Bodeau
President:
1963
Press Woman of the Year: Ulrich Troubetzkoy
President:
1962
Press Woman of the Year: Helen Mugler Stuart White
President:
1961
Press Woman of the Year: Valerie Edinger
President:
1959–1960
President: Pat Bryant