Nominated by their peers for the impactful work they are doing in our community, we invite you to get to know Lehigh Valley Style’s 2023 Influential Women of the Year. Read on to learn what they are doing to aid in mental and behavioral health, support victims of human trafficking, empower the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, set students up for success, foster community connection and personal growth, advocate for animals and so much more.
Josi Garcia
Board-Certified Behavior Analyst | Co-Founder & Clinical Director of ZimZum Consulting
"Helping people has always been a passion."
Josi Garcia had worked in mental and behavioral health for many years before deciding in 2017to open a practice of her own. “I really wanted to be a wellness group for anyone, not just someone who’s experiencing a mental health diagnosis,” she says. “You don’t need a label for someone to feel like they’re struggling with their behaviors or with their wellness.”
ZimZum Consulting, which is based in Emmaus, takes its name from a Hebrew word, which Garcia defines as “the energy between two driving forces to create something new.” It’s an accurate summation of how she and her team conduct business; ZimZum promotes a holistic, collaborative approach to achieving emotional wellness.
Garcia, a native of Brazil, says she has her own trauma story dating back to her childhood. “Working through some of that in my own life formulated this idea that I have something to share, something to give others. Helping people has always been a passion.”
She’s been a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) since 2007. The holistic approach she favors can be tailored to tackle any number of challenges. “We’re really looking at functionally how to adjust behaviors,” says Garcia. ZimZum offers traditional one-on-one counseling services as well as classroom consultations for teachers and schools, behavior therapy (including ABA therapy for children with special needs) and family and marriage counseling. Yoga is one of its more recent additions. “The mind-body experience is very important,” Garcia says. “We can’t miss what’s happening in our bodies and being more connected to our bodies.”
ZimZum’s clientele runs the gamut, from those seeking to stop (or start) a particular habit, to survivors of human trafficking. “My brain has to shift pretty quickly,” Garcia says. And yet, regardless of the scope of the trauma, many of the same issues are often at play, such as fear, anxiety and a lack of self-worth. “I think it helps to highlight that at the end of the day we’re all human beings, and we need help, we need support,” Garcia says. “We need to feel like we’re loved.”
Nani Cuadrado
Director of Education for HEAL Trafficking
"The 'why' is my patients..."
For the past five years, physician assistant Nani Cuadrado put her skills to use wherever they were needed in the Lehigh Valley: under bridges, inside soup kitchens or within homeless encampments and tent cities. If an unhoused person needed medical care, she was there. Recently she decided to step away from her role as director of Valley Health Partners’ street medicine program to embrace what she calls a new season in her life as the director of education for HEAL (Health, Education, Advocacy, Linking) Trafficking.
It’s somewhat of a full-circle moment for Cuadrado, who’s been advocating for human trafficking victims for more than a decade. She says a discussion at her church in 2012 opened her eyes to the fact that trafficking is a very real problem in the Lehigh Valley. At that point, she had been working in the emergency department for several years, but had no training in recognizing the signs of human trafficking.“I didn’t even know what I was looking for,” she says.“I realized in all the years that I’d been [practicing], how many people I probably missed.”
One of her first major projects with HEAL was developing a Human Trafficking Response Protocol for Lehigh Valley Health Network, which was rolled out in emergency departments this past April. Cuadrado says the triage nurses, as the first line of defense, now have the tools they need to react appropriately when something seems off: “What do you do when you have your Spidey senses tingling? We’ve trained them on different red flags that would make them suspicious.” The program will be rolled out to other LVHN departments and facilities in the months and years ahead.
While the shift from anon-the-street PA to a behind-the-scenes advocate is a change, she hopes her work will be equally impactful. “The ‘why’ is my patients, because they’ve taught me everything about this. What it looks like, and what it looks like here in our community,” says Cuadrado. And she’s encouraged by the groundswell of support for trafficking victims in the Lehigh Valley. “We have great backing here,” says Cuadrado. “We have shelters in the area, we have aid centers for survivors and victims, we have law enforcement that’s behind us.”
Chloe Cole
Co-Founder of Basement Poetry Program | Coordinator of Project Silk
“The work that we do is to challenge ideas…”
Who is Chloe Cole? “I’m an artist, a poet, an advocate for young people,” she says. Cole is also someone who understands the importance of having a safe space that serves as both a refuge and an incubator for creativity. Born and raised in Allentown, Cole says she struggled with a number of challenges, including violence and trauma. She wasn’t sure she’d graduate from high school on time. She credits the city’s Xcape Dance Studio with saving her life. “That program really shaped who I am as a creator, as an artist, as a professional,” Cole says. Now she’s returning the favor through a pair of projects that aim to empower and inspire the LGBTQ+ and the BIPOC communities. “This is my way of giving back to the community and ensuring that those spaces are available for people.”
Cole was a co-founder in 2015 of Basement Poetry, a group that combines performance, community and collaboration.“The work that we do is to challenge ideas, give spaces for community members to talk about difficult topics such as mental health, racial inequities, LGBTQ+ issues, all of those things,” says Cole. That work is done at live shows, workshops, open mic nights and other gatherings held throughout the year.
Cole is also the program coordinator of Valley Youth House’s Project Silk, an LGBTQ+ inclusive drop-in program for people ages 13to 29 that offers a variety of free services, such as HIV and STI testing, counseling, education and food and emergency supplies. “Truly we’re just a space for people to come together and be in community,” says Cole.“Our community deserves radical spaces where there is radical belonging.”
Cole speaks openly about her own struggles in the hopes of buoying others who may feel adrift amidst their own trials and tribulations. “I lead with that,” she says. “I lead with love and supporting people with grace.”
Katarah Jordan
Certified Master Gardener | Children’s Book Author | Program Director at the James Lawson Freedom School
“Having a sense of belonging is huge.”
The theme of growth—both literally and figuratively—is one that looms large for Katarah Jordan. She’s a certified Master Gardener via Penn State Extension who loves getting her hands dirty. “Anywhere that I can get my fingers in the soil, I’m there,” she says. She’s penned a book about gardening for kids called It’s Harvest Time, which relates to the other kind of growth that fuels her—the cultivation of young minds. “I don’t find a lot of books on food liberation—really teaching children to feed themselves,” Jordan says, “and I think that’s such a huge value in the world we live in today.”
It’s just one of the many lessons she can offer young students, or “scholars” as they’re called at the James Lawson Freedom School in Allentown, where Jordan is in her second year as program director. It’s a six-week initiative that aims to lessen the impact of the learning loss experienced by many inner-city children after the traditional school year winds down. “We help with the summer slide, really trying to make sure that when they leave in the summer they don’t lose those months of training and learning,” Jordan says. The program continues to grow, while staying true to its mission of setting up Black and Brown children for future success. But it’s not all work and no play; they have fun, too. “We don’t want it to feel like summer school,” Jordan says.
Jordan was also a co-host of the 2023 Lehigh Valley Woman’s Summit in June, and she previously served as director of Second Harvest Food Bank, two more roles that combined her penchant for outreach and advocacy for those who are underrepresented or underserved. She says she learned early on the importance of community, and the void it leaves if it’s lacking. “Having a sense of belonging is huge. Our children need it; us as adults, we need it. If I can develop space for that, if I can offer that in any way, I’m all about it.”
Sarah Barrett
Executive Director of YWCA Allentown
“…I had a love for, and a capacity for, nonprofit work.”
As executive director of YWCA Allentown, Sarah Barrett has no problem rolling with the punches, even if that means grabbing a paddle and climbing into a boat. She’s not just an advocate for the YWCA’s community rowing program (a partnership with Lehigh University), she’s also an active participant. Even though she’d never rowed before, she found herself right at home on the water. “I got in and I never wanted to get out,” she says.
Rowing may sound like an odd offering from a YWCA, but it adheres to one of the organization’s goals of fostering community connection and personal growth. And, Barrett says, it’s something the people of the Lehigh Valley wanted: “We would never offer programming without asking for input from our community.”
Barrett first came on board with the YWCA in 2009 asa volunteer with The Perfect Fit for Working Women program. “I realized pretty quickly I had a love for, and a capacity for, nonprofit work,” she says. She was named executive director in 2017. During her tenure, The Perfect Fit has continued to thrive. The program provides women with professional clothing so they can look the part for an upcoming job interview. “That clothing is really a tool—it’s a tool for empowerment, it’s a tool for confidence building,” Barrett says. After they land the job, they can return for a week’s worth of outfits to spare them from having to squander their first paycheck on a new wardrobe.
The YWCA helps women meet their goals in other ways, too. Barrett says during the pandemic they heard from a lot of women who wanted to change careers but lacked the computer skills to do it, so they launched the YWTech Lab, which offers a number of free courses in everything from IT support to digital marketing.
The staff at YWCA Allentown is small—four people—but mighty. And Barrett is quick to share credit for all of its successes with her co-workers and the many volunteers who donate their time and talents. “We do a lot with a little,” she says.
Sheryl Petrillo
Founder of Animal Defenders Greater Lehigh Valley
“…one person can make a difference.”
Sheryl Petrillo went vegan for health reasons in 2011. But after she began researching animal rights issues, she felt a shift, a new sense of purpose. “Probably since about 2017 I’ve been vegan for the animals. That is my primary reason, and that is when my activism started to kick in,” she says. Petrillo founded her nonprofit, Animal Defenders Greater Lehigh Valley, in 2019. “Our mission is to build an inclusive vegan community by planting seeds of knowledge and promoting compassionate living,” Petrillo says. It’s about more than just changing eating habits, too; true veganism, Petrillo says, is a lifestyle. “It’s the clothing that we wear. It’s things we consider entertainment. It’s making choices that cause the least amount of suffering that you can.”
Animal Defenders ran a vegan food pantry for three years. Recently,it’s been leading an after-school program for Dieruff High School students who are curious about plant-based eating. Its website (animaldefendersglv.org)is a wealth of information for both veterans and newcomers to the world of veganism, and includes a list of local eateries and businesses that are 100 percent vegan.
A personal triumph for Petrillo came last fall, when she successfully lobbied Allentown to ban the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits that come from breeding mills. She pushed for the ordinance following her own undercover investigation that she says brought her to tears. “That says to me, one person can make a difference,” Petrillo says. Easton adopted similar legislation in March.
Her work hasn’t gone unnoticed. In May, Petrillo was honored by the national chapter of the Humane Society with the Advocates We Love Award. “Animal Defenders is on my mind 24-7. I’m always trying to think of what else can I, can we do to make a difference in our animal friends’ lives,” she says. And, as you might expect, Petrillo has a brood of her own, made up of the furry (two dogs, two cats, six bunnies and a chinchilla) and the not so furry (one snake).
The Resort
Earlier this summer Wind Creek Bethlehem unveiled its expansion to the public, featuring 550 hotel rooms, the largest meeting space in the region, a new lobby bar by the name of Mixx, a 10,000-square-foot spa and so much more.
Published as “Lehigh Valley Style's Influential Women of the Year” in the August 2023 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
