2025 Women’s History Month Breakfast
Date/Time
Date(s) - March 05, 2025
8:00 am - 10:00 am
Location
Missouri Athletic Club
405 Washington Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63102
Reserve your spot now for our popular annual Women’s History Month Breakfast! Come network with professionals from across sectors and hear from our panel of prominent and influential St. Louis leaders. In a conversation moderated by FOCUS Director of Leadership Programs Shalia Ford, we’ll explore how they got to where they are in their careers, their tips for navigating power structures and achieving change, and how they lead in community and civic spaces. Learn strategies to improve your leadership effectiveness in any situation and how you can help pave the way for future women leaders. We promise this event will leave you feeling inspired and ready to tackle the next challenge in your leadership journey!
Meet our 2025 Panel!
- Karen Branding, President & CEO, The St. Louis Regional Business Council (Impact STL 1994)
- Yvonne M. Buhlinger, Executive Vice President, Affinia Healthcare Foundation, and Vice President, Development & Community Relations, Affinia Healthcare
- Mary Elizabeth Grimes, President, Marian Middle School (Leadership St. Louis 2016)
- Angela Zeng, Ph.D., Founder & CEO, Fulfill Food & Beverages, LLC
Cost
$25 for FOCUS members (join/renew now)
$40 for non-members
Advance registration is required. To receive discounted member registration, you will need to log-in to your account. Registrations are nonrefundable, but attendee substitutions are allowed. For group tickets of 10 or more, please contact Kayla Dix at kaylad@focus-stl.org.
Schedule
8:00-8:30 a.m. – Check-in/Networking
8:30-10:00 a.m. – Program
Here’s what past attendees had to say:
- “The FOCUS Women’s History Month Breakfast is quickly becoming one of my favorite events of the year. It was an honor to be in the room with 300+ women, celebrating our individual and collective strength.” – Shannon Durio
- “FOCUS St. Louis’ 2024 Women’s History Month Breakfast was phenomenal. The love, wisdom, and joy shared were a great way to remember my why and continue to remind me why I love St. Louis.” – Andrea Cox
- “FOCUS St. Louis, you did it again! This morning was an incredible celebration of women and the leadership they provide. I had the pleasure of surrounding myself with strong, passionate, and creative women from all across St. Louis. It was inspiring to see us come together to celebrate our achievements and the progress we’ve made. Here’s to more opportunities to come together and support each other!” – Kari Willett
- “I left the FOCUS Women’s History Month Breakfast feeling inspired by the 300 people who showed up ready to support and empower women. It’s events like these that make me optimistic about the future.” – Emily Malloy
- “Have you ever just felt you were called to the right place at the right time? Today was that for me. The FOCUS Women’s History Breakfast was the perfect place for me to refill my cup and give me the inspiration I needed. This room held some of the brightest women in St. Louis and I was glad to be amongst them.” – Lisa White
Thank you to our partners for this event!
About Our Panel
Karen Branding is the president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Business Council, which brings together 100 leaders of key St. Louis-area companies to act on high-impact business, civic and philanthropic affairs for the betterment of the region. Before joining the RBC in May 2024, Karen was the senior vice president for external engagement and corporate communications at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for 13 years, and its corporate secretary. Previous roles include serving as associate dean of marketing and communications for Washington University’s Olin Business School; 15 years with Anheuser-Busch; and time spent in Washington, D.C., as a presidential management fellow with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and policy analyst at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Karen earned her bachelor’s in public administration from Drake University, master’s in public affairs from Indiana University and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Her current and past board service includes Drake University, United Way of Greater St. Louis, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors, Missouri Baptist Medical Center Community Advisory Board, Wydown Terrace Neighborhood Association, Eden Seminary, and several others. She is the recipient of Washington University’s Emory Award, YWCA’s Leader of Distinction Award and Drake University’s Alumni Loyalty Award.
Yvonne M. Buhlinger is the Executive Vice President of the Affinia Healthcare Foundation and Vice President of Development and Community Relations for Affinia Healthcare. She joined Affinia Healthcare in 1996 and her career progression has included roles as Director of Managed Care, Managing Director of Community Health and Managed Care, Vice President of Community Health Services, and Vice President of Development and Community Relations. Previously, Yvonne held the role of Eastern Region Supervisor at First Health Corporation, a company contracted by Missouri Medicaid to implement the start of Medicaid Managed Care, and before, she worked at Life Skills Foundation as Associate Director for Supported Employment, winning the four-state regional Project Excel Award, modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Yvonne’s board service MOFEAT, the Missouri State-Wide Blue Ribbon Panel for Autism, Behavioral Health Network of Greater St. Louis, and the Family Advisory Board of Webster University. She served on the Board of the Hispanic Leaders Group of Greater St. Louis from 2019 through 2024, serving as Board Vice Chair for the last three years. Currently, she serves on the Disparities Elimination Advisory Committee of the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities of the Siteman Cancer Center of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.. In 2020, she received the Unsung Human Rights Hero Award from the United Nations Association of St. Louis. Yvonne holds a B.S. in Psychology and a Masters of Social Work, both from Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds a Fellowship in Community Health Center Executive Management from Kansas University Medical Center.
As President of Marian Middle School since 2013, Mary Elizabeth Grimes is responsible for stewarding over 200 students from 5th grade through post-secondary education and beyond. She previously served as the State Director for the Greater Missouri Chapter of March of Dimes where she transformed the declining chapter into a sustainable and operationally efficient organization. She has served as President of Forward Vision, Inc., Director of Marketing for BJC Healthcare, Director of Development for Fair St. Louis; Executive Director of Elite International Sports Marketing and Management; Director of Sales and Marketing with the St. Louis Sports Commission; and Account Executive at KMOV-TV. Before returning to her hometown of St. Louis, her professional experiences in Atlanta included host and associate producer for three weeknight talk shows; National Marketing Manager of the Southeast Region for Television Bureau of Advertising; Regional Director of Advertising Sales for MTV Networks, Inc.; and Account Executive positions with HBO, CBS, Inc., WSB-TV and WKLS-FM.
Mary Elizabeth has been recognized with the SLU Martin Luther King Educational Leadership Award, Missouri Athletic Club Woman of Distinction Award, YWCA Distinguish Leader Award, St. Louis Business Journal Diverse Leaders Award, Rise Collaborative Woman of Influence Award, Incarnate Word Foundation Leadership Award, and Gazelle Magazine Top 50 Women of Influence Award. She has served on the boards of Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School, Catholic Charities and the iHeartMedia Local Advisory Board, and is a commissioner of Explore St. Louis. She graduated from Spelman College and earned an Executive MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University.
Angela Zeng, Ph.D., MBA, is the founder and CEO of Karviva Beverages, a St. Louis-based company that blends Eastern medicine principles with modern science to create award-winning, functional plant-based drinks.
A passionate advocate for natural healing, Angela holds a Ph.D. in Pathology and an MBA. She has been recognized as a leader in innovation, sustainability, and community wellness, including receiving the 2023 Lieutenant Governor’s Women of Achievement Award and being named among the Most Influential Business Women by the St. Louis Business Journal in 2022.