NPR Correspondent to Headline YWCA's Women of Distinction Luncheon

Submitted by the YWCA Darien/Norwalk: 

The will pay tribute to six honorees during the Women of Distinction Awards and Luncheon Thursday at the . The distinguished honorees are Kiki Karpen, Grace Lichtenstein, Lisa Joyce, Susan Daly and Jeanne Marconi, MD. Katie Grozier will be honored as a Young Woman of Distinction, recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of a woman under 21 years of age.

The Women of Distinction Award is bestowed in recognition of the outstanding achievements of a select group of women. Local residents and business owners nominate women whose significant and unique contributions have made a difference in the Darien and Norwalk communities. The YWCA Darien/Norwalk Women of Distinction Nominations Committee reviews the nominations and selects the honorees.

“These six women, each in her own unique way, embody important traits embraced by the YWCA: leadership, perseverance, courage and service. They are trailblazers and we are proud to hold them up as role models for us and for our daughters," said YWCA Interim Executive Director Nancy Coughlin.

"Women frequently work behind the scenes to forge stronger families and communities," added Dawn Crouch, Nominating Chair. "We at the YWCA are grateful for the opportunity to shine a light on these women and celebrate the differences they make every single day.”

The YWCA will also present longtime Darien resident and former employee Anne Flanagan with a Distinguished Service Award Thursday. Anne joined the YWCA Darien/Norwalk when she moved to Darien from New York City in 1990 with her four children and remains a dedicated member to this day. She served on the Capital Campaign and was instrumental in expanding the organization’s facility to make sure all our programs would have a home. Anne’s talents were immediately evident and she joined the YWCA staff as the Development Director, a position she held until she retired in 2008.

Anne’s dedication to community service spans five decades. She was a devoted Junior League member in Detroit, Boston, and New York, tirelessly volunteering for the Red Cross, Holy Ghost Hospital for the terminally ill, and Pediatric Unitof Mount Auburn Hospital and in New York City and Boston schools. Anne also became involved with Darien EMS-Post 53 and helped raise funds for the new building on Ledge Road. She eventually took the rigorous course to become EMT certified and served as one of the first “Daytime Ladies” who partnered with the young adult members in responding to emergency (911) calls. According to her husband Bill Flanagan, “Anne’s outgoing personality, love of people and concern for others are her most notable and enduring qualities admired by so many people whose lives she has touched over two generations.”

NPR News correspondent Dina Temple-Raston will be the guest speaker at Thursday's event. Ms. Temple-Raston is the FBI correspondent at NPR specializing in national security and counterterrorism and her reporting can be heard on NPR’s newsmagazines.

Temple-Raston joined NPR in March 2007 fresh from a two year sabbatical in which she completed two books, learned Arabic, and received a master’s degree from Columbia. A long-time foreign correspondent for Bloomberg News in Asia, Temple-Raston opened Bloomberg’s Shanghai and Hong Kong offices working for both Bloomberg’s financial wire and radio operations. She also served as Bloomberg News’ White House correspondent during both Clinton administrations and covered financial markets and economics for both USA Today and CNNfn. Temple-Raston is also an award-winning author. Her first book, on race in America entitled A Death in Texas, won the Barnes and Nobel Discover Award and was chosen as one of the Washington Post’s Best Books of 2002. Her second book, Justice in the Grass: Three Rwandan Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes and a Nation’s Quest for Redemption, on the role Radio Mille Collines played in fomenting the Rwandan genocide, was a Foreign Affairs magazine best seller.