Join us Wednesday, November 10 for the return of our Professionally Pink: Women Impacting the Automotive Industry event from 1:00pm – 6:00pm at Maketewah Country Club.

Professionally Pink’s goal is to raise the profile of women at all levels and sectors of the automotive industry, along with providing mentoring, networking, sharing and collegiality opportunities for women as they continue their careers in the industry.

Complete the registration form that follows to enjoy an afternoon event featuring our special guests:

Melanie Webber, Esq. is a partner in the Cleveland office of Fisher Phillips, a law firm devoted to representing management in all areas of employment and labor law. Melanie has been practicing law for more than 20 years and has been an advisor to many of our automobile dealers for just as long. Before her legal career, Melanie worked as an HR professional in industry.  She currently chairs Fisher Phillips’ Women’s Initiative and Leadership Council and is the proud mom of an eight-year old daughter.

Although Melanie is a traditional labor and employment lawyer and represents employers in arbitrations and before state and federal agencies, her practice is focused on assisting employers with their preventive, internal human resource programs to help avoid costly litigation or labor problems. 

Melanie frequently lectures on a variety of employment law issues including the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, sexual and other discriminatory harassment, and maintaining union-free status. Melanie has been a frequent guest speaker for the OADA over the years and presented in-person to our GCADA membership last in 2018.

State Representative Cindy Abrams is serving her first full term in the Ohio House of Representatives. She represents the 29th Ohio House District, which includes portions of western Hamilton County. Abrams currently serves as the Assistant Majority Whip for the House Republican Caucus.

Abrams previously served as a Police Officer for the City of Cincinnati and as City Councilwoman for the City of Harrison before taking the oath in 2019 to serve as a state representative. With years of both public and private sector work experience, she is well-equipped to advocate for the people of Ohio’s 29th House District.

She received her Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Indiana University and is a graduate of the Public Leadership Academy of The Ohio State University. Abrams is very involved in her community. She served on the boards of the Hamilton County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency, Hamilton County Municipal League, and SHELeads. Active in the Hamilton County Republican Party, Abrams serves on the Hamilton County Judicial Screening committee. Additionally, she established the Harrison Junior City Council Program.

She has been married to her husband for 19 years and they reside in Harrison, Ohio with their two sons.

Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco was appointed Hamilton County Coroner in February 2012 and later elected to the position in November 2012 and in each general election since. She is the first female coroner and Asian Indian ever elected to a political post in Hamilton County. Dr. Sammarco was born in India, but raised and educated in Cincinnati. She is a board certified neuroradiologist having attended University of Cincinnati for electrical and computer engineering at College of Engineering and College of Medicine. Dr. Sammarco held previous faculty positions at UCLA Medical School and The Cleveland Clinic.

Since taking office, Dr. Sammarco has been very busy championing many causes and is on a number of different boards throughout the community. She has spoken to hundreds of grade school and high school age students about the importance of staying in school, and avoiding risky behavior such as use of drugs and alcohol.

Dr. Sammarco is married to local orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Vincent James Sammarco and mother to Josi and James and their pet parrots, Cannoli, Mango and Spooky Ghost.

Jackie Reau, CEO of Game Day Communications, has more than 25 years of experience and specializes in strategic communications planning, social media strategy and crisis management. Before launching GDC, Jackie worked in health care at The Christ Hospital and as director of marketing at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Jackie is an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati where she teaches Sports PR and at Xavier University where she teaches in the sports administration graduate program.

She is also active in the community serving on boards of the following: Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Mt. Saint Joseph University, Ohio University Foundation, Reds Community Fund and the YWCA Greater Cincinnati. She currently serves as the Board Chair of the Greater Cincinnati Sports Commission.

In 2007, Jackie was named Public Relations Practitioner of the Year by the Cincinnati chapter of Public Relations Society of America. In 2011, she was honored with the chapter’s highest honor, Werner-VonderHaar-Bogart Award. Last year, she received the Medal of Merit from Ohio University, the highest alumni honor bestowed by the university.

Jackie earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and a master’s in sports administration at Ohio University. She has also studied at the Harvard Business School earning a certificate in Non-Profit Management.

She has finished four half marathons and has visited all 30 Major League Baseball parks.

Emmy® award winning sports reporter Betsy M. Ross is president of Game Day Communications, a sports and entertainment communications firm based in Cincinnati and founded in 2002.

As one of the first women to break into national sports news, Ross most recently worked as an anchor at ESPN for five years. Before anchoring SportsCenter and ESPNews, Ross worked at NBC News Channel and Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate, WLWT‐TV, for seven years, where she covered the 1996 Presidential Election and Inauguration and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and Olympic trials.

She continues to be involved in sports broadcasting as play‐by‐play anchor for women’s college basketball for ESPN, Fox Sports and other national and regional outlets, and as a sports reporter for Cincinnati’s FOX 19. She won a regional Emmy® for her work on the broadcast of the Lauren Hill Mt. St. Joseph-Hilliard College basketball game at Xavier University in November 2014. She is also part of the crew for Junglevision during Cincinnati Bengals’ home games and handles the public address announcing for University of Cincinnati women’s basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

In October of 2010, her first book titled Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in Men’s Sports was released to a national audience.

She teaches a master’s level course, Sports and PR, at Xavier University and most recently taught a Sports Journalism course in the Media School at Indiana University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Ball State and a master’s at the University of Notre Dame.

Register here: