2013 Iris Awards to honor achievement and service

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Three women who are leaders in senior advocacy, the law and the arts are the winners of the 2013 Iris Awards, honoring women of achievement in Southwest Washington.

The awards will be presented to Dianna Kretzschmar, health services liaison at Fort Vancouver Convalescent Center, Caretique Memory Care and the Park Lido Assisted Living; Lisa Lowe, managing shareholder in the Vancouver office of the law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt; and Jaynie Roberts, founder and artistic director of Magenta Theater Company.

Kretzschmar, Lowe and Roberts will be honored on March 7, 2013, in Clark College’s Gaiser Student Center. Following a 5 p.m. reception, the awards ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. with KGW news anchor Laural Porter as emcee.

Tickets are on sale at http://tinyurl.com/irisawards. The cost is $25 per person. Seating is limited.

Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps.

The Iris Awards are supported by Clark College, the Clark College Foundation and the Vancouver Business Journal, which publishes the “Women in Business” directory, the only Portland/Vancouver metro area directory of businesses that are owned, directed or managed by women. The Iris Award winners will be featured in the 2013 “Women in Business” directory.

Riverview Community Bank is the event sponsor. This year, YWCA Clark County returns as a supporter of the region’s premiere event honoring women.

The Iris Awards celebrate the lasting and far-reaching contributions of women in Southwest Washington and beyond. They are presented annually during International Women’s Week. Information about the Iris Awards is available at www.clark.edu/cc/irisawards.

Dianna Kretzschmar

Dianna Kretzschmar is described as a strong community leader and passionate advocate for the protection of elderly and vulnerable adults in Clark County.

Kretzschmar has worked in Southwest Washington as a social worker and clinical case manager in long-term health care for 20 years. Kretzschmar is currently the Health Services Liaison for Fort Vancouver Convalescent Center, Caretique Memory Care and the Park Lido Assisted Living.

She previously served as the first program coordinator for the Clark County Elder Justice Center in the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. In that role, she was instrumental in establishing the center, which educates, coordinates and fosters cooperation between professionals and public workers to find and prosecute cases of elder abuse.

Kretzschmar founded Friends of the Elder Justice Center and Pets of Older People (POOP), and has served as Community Outreach Coordinator for the Clark County Vulnerable Adult Task Force. She is a volunteer for organizations including the Southwest Washington Elder Abuse Prevention Coalition (SWEAP), the Children’s Center, and the Southwest Washington End of Life Coalition.



Kretzschmar is often called upon to speak at events across the region about elderly and vulnerable populations. Her nominator called her “an expert in the field of aging,” as well as “a force for good in Southwest Washington.”

Lisa Lowe

Lisa Lowe is a member of the Board of Directors and Partner in Charge in the Vancouver office of regional law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. She is a member of the Washington State Bar Association and is a current member and past secretary of the Southwest Washington Estate Planning Council. Lowe graduated from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College, with a Juris Doctor degree.

Lowe has served as general counsel for the Port of Vancouver since 1998. In 2010, Lowe was appointed chair of the Washington Public Port’s Legal Committee. She was the first person from outside the port system to be appointed to that post.

Lowe currently serves as the first female chair of Identity Clark County and is an emeritus board member and past member of the executive committee of the Columbia River Economic Development Council. She has served as president of the Camas-Washougal Chamber Board of Directors, and on the Humane Society for Southwest Washington’s board of directors and as chair of its planned giving committee and co-chair of its annual auction committee. She served as president of the Clark County Bar Association in 2001.

Lowe has been highly involved in Leadership Clark County (LCC). A 2003 graduate of the program, Lowe has served as a board member and been a mentor to LCC project teams working to address community issues.

Jaynie Roberts

Jaynie Roberts is founder, president and artistic director of Vancouver’s Magenta Theater Company, a family-friendly community theater offering plays, improvisation, music, dinner theater and classes. Under her leadership, Magenta’s audiences, performers and volunteers have increased dramatically during the past 10 years.

Roberts attended Chapman University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications, and in theater and film. She took graduate courses at the University of Houston, including theater and writing, and has attended schools in England, Japan and California.

Roberts established the Vancouver Area Theater Alliance to foster cooperation and communications with other performing arts groups in the greater Vancouver area. She has served on Vancouver’s Cultural Arts Commission and has done volunteer work for the YWCA Clark County.

For the past five years, she has taught drama at after-school enrichment programs for the YMCA. Her nominator wrote, “She also teaches drama for home-schooled students, many of them young girls, and encourages them to follow their dreams.”

In 2010, Roberts received the Hermine Decker Award for outstanding and dedicated service to Clark County theater.