Women presidents

Bruce Lipsky/The Times-Union

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By SARA CONRAD
The Times Union

BARBARA TOLLIVER-HASKINS
President of the Women Business Owners of North Florida

Barbara Tolliver-Haskins grew up in Jacksonville and started working with State Farm in the late ’60s, a time when there weren’t many women or African-Americans with the company, much less women supervisors.
But Tolliver-Haskins broke those barriers and climbed the corporate ladder over much of the next two decades, eventually becoming the vice president of operations of State Farm in Lincoln, Neb.

She had another dream, though, and it was back in her hometown that she decided to pursue it. She moved back to Jacksonville to found Executive Coaching Solutions, where she consults with clients to develop their professional and personal development.

Tolliver-Haskins works to bring out the best in people and help them build self-esteem. She also coaches people who have been laid off, helping them develop career strategies.

The success of her company led to Tolliver-Haskins being elected president of the Women Business Owners of North Florida last June.

“One challenge that we as women face and also men is balancing time and managing [our] energy to the point where [we] make good decisions and not trying to get so much done at any one time,” she said.

“It’s been my observation that [women] can do a lot of things and we take pride in multitasking, because we have learned to do that very well. We desire to be responsible and as a result, sometimes because we are accountable personally or because we tend to be focused on making sure things are done well at home and at work, we find ourselves overextending.”

So Tolliver-Haskins works with her clients on “energy management” rather than time management, working on priorities and staying in touch with that person’s values.

“We talk about balance,” she said. “Because we as women tend to be caring and committed to both our families and careers there is always that potential for us to say yes more than we should typically. … It will usually be [women] responsible for dinner, picking kids up from day care. … Traditional roles are still prevalent.”

And Tolliver-Haskins knows what she’s talking about, balancing several roles and activities herself. Besides running her company and being president of the WBO, she also plays golf with the Beaches Golf League and Queens Harbour Ladies Golf Association and sings in the choir at Beaches United Methodist Church. She says her husband, James Haskins, a State Farm agent in Jacksonville, has stood by her over the years.

“He is a non-traditional husband who supported me; he moved with me when I moved to Nebraska,” she said.
The couple have a daughter, Anita Jeter, who lives in Greensboro, S.C., with her husband and children.

Tolliver-Haskins has learned to balance all of this — career, volunteering, family — and now she tries to help others find the same kind of balance. She said it is that ability to be “flexible and open to the desires and needs” of others that makes for good leadership.

CYNTHIA JACOBS
President of Zonta Club of Jacksonville

Cynthia Jacobs has always been interested in women’s issues and equal rights. So when her husband, Bob, heard about the Zonta Club of Jacksonville, a branch of an international organization that works to “advance the status of women worldwide,” he mentioned it to Cynthia, knowing she would probably be interested in volunteering.

Although Jacobs was unfamiliar with Zonta, which established its Jacksonville chapter in 1940, she was intrigued by its international perspective on women’s issues. So she joined in 2002. Seven years later, she was elected president of the chapter.

“The great thing is we bring [in] a lot of different perspectives and a different way of doing things,” Jacobs said.
Each year, the club decides on several fundraisers and service activities that give back to women on an international level.

In September, Zonta was a participant on the task force of the Stop Child Trafficking Now Walk organized by the Northeast Florida Human Trafficking Taskforce. Currently the group is working with Hubbard House to organize a “move out kit” drive to help domestic violence victims and their families transition from Hubbard House to their own homes.

“It’s not a social organization; the purpose is to help women,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs essentially leads other leaders. Members of Zonta have to be in management or executive positions in their careers.

“They’re looking for individuals at that level,” Jacobs said. “Part of it is that you’ll have the contacts and you’ll be bringing a skill set to the club that’s important; they’re looking for people who will approach it professionally.”

And Jacobs has plenty of leadership experience.

When she was in college, she was the director of the student-run women’s center at the University of South Florida. Now Jacobs is the vice president and manager of Appraisal Quality with Secure Collateral, the appraisal division of Equity National.

“We have different backgrounds and experiences and just because someone is a woman, to assume that she is not just like you — I would love to see us get to that point. People say women can’t work together, and I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “I always make sure women I work with have good relationships.”

In addition to leading Zonta’s efforts to help the global status of women, Jacobs said she is “very work-focused.”
She likes to garden, describes herself as an avid antiquarian and an animal lover — she has two cats and a canary and has volunteered with animal care and control.

BETH CLARK
President and CEO of Girls, Inc. of Jacksonville

Beth Clark attributes her path to president and CEO of Girls, Inc. of Jacksonville to her own strong mother, who divorced her father in the 1950s, when divorce wasn’t as common as it is today, with four children to take care of.

For Clark’s part, she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in women’s studies at California State University at Northridge. She lived in California for eight years, managing an accounting office. She also went to school at night and volunteered at the California Women’s Law Center and Interface Children and Family Services, which helped victims of domestic violence, youth crisis and substance abuse.

She moved to Jacksonville in 1993, working at the University of North Florida’s Women’s Center as a victim advocate as well as volunteering at Hubbard House. On top of that, she attended Florida State for her master’s degree in social work, then became a licensed clinical social worker.

In July, Clark became the interim president and CEO of Girls, Inc. of Jacksonville, the North East Florida chapter of the national organization. The position became permanent in January.

Girls, Inc. provides enrichment programs for girls that cover everything from peer pressure to media literacy to unplanned pregnancy.

Clark has also been a counselor for women and children at Community Connections and worked as the executive director of Betty Griffin House for 12 years. She retired in 2008 and got involved with the board of directors with Girls, Inc. before going back to work for women’s issues.

“I had a nice break, but I am enthused to work with issues with women and girls,” she said. “To me they’re not girls’ rights but human rights … a right to be themselves and not behave in ways that are stereotyped for us, whether it’s being extra thin, not to be objectified, a right to economic independence and parenthood.”

Clark has three children and five grandchildren and keeps them in mind when volunteering. That was especially the case when she was a part of the women’s health study that pointed to evidence that hormone replacement was more harmful than beneficial.

“I thought it was important to do for my granddaughters and daughters,” she said.
Now Clark’s son and two daughters have integrated women’s issues into their lines of work. And Clark said her husband, Neil, is “learning a lot.”