AWARDS
Feminist Leadership Awards
Avalon Harold
Avalon Harold and Carrie Elizabeth Smith, the co-recipients of the 2020 Feminist Leadership award, are phenomenal feminists who are devoted to the work at the Women’s Resource Center and to advancing intersectional feminism. Please join the WRC in celebrating these magnificent women.
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valon “Ava” Harold, an Economics and Finance double major at Loyola University, serves as the Associate Director of Administration and Operations Management. She assists Dr. Boyett in overseeing and tracking all the projects, programs, advocacy work, and creative developments at the center. She aids the director in the supervision of an average of 30 student staff members each semester. When Ms. Harold began working at the center her freshman year, Hadori Bukle, who served as the associate director at the time, saw so much potential in Ms. Harold that she was determined to mentor her to take over her position when she graduated. She also quickly impressed Dr. Boyett, who enjoyed witnessing Ms. Harold flourish at the center and become a fabulous leader and mentor. As Dr. Boyett asserts, “Ava is a brilliant leader whose work ethic is phenomenal and whose exceptional organizational and creative ideas have assisted me in expanding the center’s reach and strengthening its core.” In addition to Ms. Harold’s work in operations and management, Ms. Harold has served as a moderator and contributed articles to the magazine. She and Ms. Bukle co-moderated the WRC’s annual Businesswomen’s Luncheon that it hosts during Feminist Festival every year. Ms. Bukle and Ms. Harold worked beautifully together to develop thoughtful questions that they posed to the panelists during the event. Ms. Haorld and Ms. Bukle
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made a wonderful team, as they always have, and Ms. Harold has flourished in her own right since assuming the associate director position this year. Ms. Bukle is quite proud of her former mentee and said, “Ava is a strong, natural-born leader. Her professionalism and passion allow her to lead organizations to success. Although productivity is important to her within the workplace, she enjoys spreading her bubbly personality to maintain high morale. Ava’s curious nature allows her to engage employees in reflective conversations, which provokes innovative thoughts and ideas. She is truly destined to be successful, and I am excited to see her thrive in a career in finance.” Ms. Thabata echoed such sentiments. “Ava is a natural born leader. She is a feminist icon, both kind and firm [and is phenonemal in engaging in difficult conversations and facilitating change.” Ms. Harold has already taken many steps to establish a career in the business world. In the summer 2018, she completed her first internship at a financial advisory firm, where she experienced client reviews and meetings first-hand. The experience introduced her to wealth management as a viable future career path. During the Summer 2019, Ms. Harold accepted an internship in Lisbon, Portugal for a distressed asset valuation, buyout and management firm. She gained valuable work experience in a large company. Furthermore, Ms. Harold is an active member of Delta Sigma Pi, a professional business fraternity,
and a newly inducted member of the College of Business’s honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma. She is also on the Dean’s List and has been awarded multiple scholarships for her academic success. Ms. Harold is a wonderful mentor and has taken on several students at the WRC under her wing. Mentoring comes naturally to Ms. Harold as she has spent much of her pre-college life in her hometown of Los Angeles, California mentoring girls, advancing women’s sports, and giving back through community service. Every summer, she worked and continues to work at a YMCA sleep-away camp where she mentors girls ages 7 to 14. During her senior year at Notre Dame High School, she founded the first women’s lacrosse team and served as captain and assistant coach. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, she worked with her father, a chef, to provide food to homeless populations in Los Angeles. For her exemplary community service, she won Notre Dame High School’s Service Award. Ms. Harold and Ms. Smith have brought their phenomenal skills, their brilliant minds, their incredible work ethic, and their creative ideas to deepen and expand the work of the WRC in a myriad of amazing ways. They have earned the great respect of their peers and the director. It would not surprise the director in the least if both Ms. Harold and Ms. Smith became national and even global leaders.
