Welcome to our 2025 Women’s Issue! 2025 has been a whirlwind, and I can’t believe that June is  here! This year’s cover is a reflective one, a celebration of what was, in anticipation of what is yet to come. The influential women we have shared with you are strong, passionate, innovative, and courageous. We were honored they trusted us with their stories, let alone their image. You can revisit their stories by clicking on the Inspired tab on our website. As we look into the future of our Women’s Issue, we will continue to highlight the powerful women in our community. Going forward we will be asking you to share with us who you believe should be featured on the cover. We will have a formal nomination process and ask for your participation. I know there are so many women doing amazing things in our community and we need to share them with our readers! In addition to our featured stories, our women’s issue will explore the different aspects of women’s health, covering what’s trending and what’s tried and true. Our promise is to talk with experts in their respective fields and have the real-world conversations we are all having with the people in our circles. Real world conversations, beget, we hope, real world connections. 

Speaking of connections, our Fourth Annual Cover Girl’s Brunch is one of the opportunities we provide todo just that. This event was designed to bring the influential women in the county together, whether they have been on the cover or not. Men who support women are always welcome and we definitely had a few in the house!

What an amazing time we had this year. I opened the day with an update on what Columbia Inspired is up to, and then we broke for our lovely brunch catered by Cured/18th & 21st. Shortly therafter, it was time to get down to the topic at hand. What’s that you say? What’s the topic? 

Good ol’ menopause, exciting right? Okay, maybe not exciting but definitely the talk of the town. I felt it was time that we had open dialogue about this, in a safe space. However, I was smart enough to not allow us to be left to our own devices. We were blessed to have two fantastic experts guide us through our conversation. Gynecologist Dr. Kimberly Turner, and Menopause Coaching Specialist Jessie Kates. We were able to talk about a complex event that affects every woman. Dr. Turner did a fabulous job of sharing her perspective, as a clinician, what ways women can advocate for themselves with their doctors. Menopause Coaching Specialist Jessie Kates did a beautiful job of sharing her wholistic approach women should take when entering into this phase of life and what they can do to prepare. Both of our speakers shared pieces of their journey, which truly illuminated the idea that we are all in this together.  We had a wonderful question and answer session near the end of our discussion, but there were so many questions we couldn’t get to them all. We decided to record a podcast episode for our Life Curated channel answering the questions we couldn’t get to. We are working on that as we speak. 

After our discussion, it was time for the very best part of our event. I like to call it The After. During the after, everyone had the opportunity to just be, talk, get to know people at their table. Make new connections, not only professionally but also personally. It’s the calling card of our event and it’s my favorite part to watch. Seeing the powerful women and men in the community have real conversations. So often we go to professional events in the community, and we don’t really have time to truly meet people. The Cover Girl’s Brunch is a different kind of vibe, a real one and I hope you get the opportunity to join us next year. It’s always a great time, and we can’t wait to see what 2026 brings.