Awards
2025 Zontians of The Year:
Each year, we honor a member of our Club as Zontian of the Year. This member is recognized by their peers for exemplifying our mission and vision.
Sheila King
Sheila Kng has been the co-chair of our Advocacy Committee since June 2024. In that time, she has inspired everyone on the Committee and around the Club with her passionate leadership. She has coordinated projects that are taking our Club in new directions, including our inaugural 2025 Climate Forum and the production of our new Environmental video entitled Zonta Says Now to Climate Justice: Women Taking Action. Sheila is passionate about protecting our planet and defending the rights of women. Through her unwavering determination, she has given voice to the Zonta Foothills Club and led our advocacy to make the world a better place for women and girls.
Sheila is also a member of our Club board and our 25-26 Zonta Foothills Foundation Finance Committee.
Claudia Ibarra Ariello
Claudia has been a member of the Zonta Foothills organization for the past 12 years, first as a member of our Boulder High School Pantherz Z Club, then as a Flatirons Golden Z Club member, and now, as a mentor to both Clubs as the Zonta Educatez Committee Co-chair for the Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder County. Claudia meets weekly with the Boulder High Club, inspiring this group of twenty-plus students to make a difference in our community. She helps with planning and running meetings, coordinating service and advocacy projects, and most of all, she inspires Club members learn about themselves and to become leaders and inspire others.
Claudia is also a member of our Club’s Governance Committee.
Strong leaders who inspire others to Build a Better World for Women and Girls
Sheila and Claudia, thank you for your commitment to Zonta, and the World.
2025 Woman of Achievement:
Lesley Smith
What is the Woman of Achievement Award?
Each year on March 8th, our club celebrates Zonta Rose Day and International Women's Day, by recognizing a woman in our community who demonstrate a commitment to Building a Better World for Women and Girls. Our annual award goes to a woman whose work is “advancing the status of women and girls worldwide through service and advocacy…”
This year our Club’s Woman of Achievement is Lesley Smith. Nominated by Kay Meyer and Pam Malzbender, Lesley Smith spent nearly 30 years as a scientist and educator at the University of Colorado and last November she was elected to represent HD 49 in CO House of Representatives. One of our nominators describes Lesley as "a practical, hard-working woman who simply gets things done."
Smith graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara, and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. While writing her dissertation, she became the first woman aquanaut in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s underwater research habitat, Aquarius. Only a few women worked at the University of Maryland’s marine labs, and Smith was the only one selected to join the aquanaut team, where she lived underwater and conducted research on coral reefs for a week. Her CU career began in 1989 with a Visiting Scientist Fellowship at CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES). She loved working in the field as a research scientist, but also wanted to share the joy of inquiry-based scientific exploration and discovery with students. She taught an intensive, three-week Lake and Stream Ecology field class at CU’s Mountain Research Station for 10 summers.
Upon her April 2018 retirement, Smith was Associate Director of Education and Outreach for CIRES, the largest research institution at CU. She raised more than $7 million in grant money from the National Science Foundation to bring science alive in classrooms with professional development support for rural and Front Range teachers, and fellowship support for science graduate students to partner with teachers in the Boulder Valley School District. She also developed and directed the Research Experience for Community College Students program, which prepares students across Colorado to be successful in four-year STEM degree programs. Over its ten years, many former RECCS students have attained a four-year college degree, with many completing a Master’s or PhD.
As a community leader, Smith won election to the Boulder Valley School Board in 2005 and served for eight years. She then served as University of Colorado Regent from 2019 to 2025 where she served on the Gender Equity Task Force for the Boulder campus’ Athletic Department, and led the search for current CU President. She also served as the CU liaison to the Auraria Higher Education Center.
Lesley is a state-wide advocative fighting for gender equity and climate justice
Meet Our Women of Achievement From The Last Twenty Years
2024 - Ellen Marshall
2023 - Dr.Paty Romero-Lankao
2022 - Peggy Leech
2021 - Deborah Simmons
2020 - Tere Garcia
2019 - Penny Axelrad
2018 - Kathy Schultz
2017 - Jean Dubofsky
2016 - Meera Meyer
2015 - Janet Beardsley
2014 - Michelle Carpenter
2013 - Josie Heath
2012 - Dr Lisa Hardaway
2012 - Erika Stutzman
2011 - Paula DuPre Pesman
2010 - Roxanne Bailin
2009 - Ceal Barry
2008 - Susan Solomon
2008 - Melida Marquis
2008 - Linda Mearns
2008 - Bette Otto-Bliener
2008 - Elisabeth Holland
2007 - Alice Madden
2006 - Inge Sargent
2005 - Janine D’Anniballe
2004 - Marjorie McIntosh
2003 - Brenda Ingram-Lyle
2002 - Bev Sears
2001 - Diana Sherry