Carla Clark | For The Republic 2024 Honorees, Nicole Wheeldon, from left, Cheryl Buffo, Lora Mount and Diane Robbins during the Women in Leadership Luncheon held at the Commons, Columbus, Ind., Friday, August 23, 2024.
Wisdom comes in many forms and can help plant the seed for a trailblazing career in a moment’s notice.
That was the theme of Friday’s Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Women in Leadership Lunch,“Wiser than Me.”
More than 300 women from diverse sectors in the community packed The Common’s for an afternoon of inspiration.
The four honorees this year, recognized for their contributions to their profession and the wider community, were: Cheryl Buffo, Lora Mount, Diane Robbins and Nicole Wheeldon.
The four spoke of tokens of wisdom people from their lives provided them, and encouraged the women in the room to be the person in someone else’s life to share those same lessons.
But before the four shared some of that advice, the City of Columbus’ first female mayor, Nancy Ann Brown Poynter, described the challenges she faced as she embarked upon public office, and reflected on how things have changed since.
When running for county treasurer in 1970, she was told by the male county party chairman at the time that she should think otherwise “because a woman couldn’t get elected — it’s a man’s job.” But, she ran anyway and won.
In 1979, she ran for mayor of Columbus.
“I met with a city Democratic chairman who told me that I could not be elected mayor, because it was a man’s job — a woman could not be elected. Really? I ran and I won, and I was proud to serve for four years,” Brown Poynter said.
Then she shifted to the afternoon’s theme.
“My first words of wisdom? Men aren’t always right, sometimes you have to trust your own gut,” she said. ” … In 1980, there were no women who were leading agencies in our community. Now look at your boards, your agencies, your elected officials, you can hardly find a man around here!”
The honorees
Cheryl Buffo took the stage within a two-block radius she described as “her happy place” where she has spent most of her 30-year career.
“My aspirations have always been pretty simple, just to do the important, meaningful work with people who I respect and admire,” Buffo said, describing what she learned from her mother about integrity and fairness — “the value of hard work, sacrifice, and that the right way is rarely the easy way.”
Buffo, who leads Community Programs for Columbus Regional Health Foundation and serves as program manager for Mental Health Matters, spoke of what he learned from her first friend in Columbus, Deanne Olson, who she met while working at Reams Asset Management Firm.
“It was from Deanne I learned that fair does not necessarily mean equal,” Buffo said. “We all have unique needs, desires, and circumstances, and a great leader will seek to understand and honor our differences, all while ensuring fairness and integrity.”
As Buffo and one of her mentors, Lynne Maguire, were “dreaming, designing and implementing” kidscommons, she learned from Maguire how “great leaders lift up those they work for, as well as those who work for them.”
“It’s from Lynne that I learned how much can be accomplished when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit,” Buffo said.
Lora Mount spent time discussing resilience and the winding roads people sometimes take to find success.
“My path has not always been perfect, but it’s been my path, and it’s been paved by people who are wiser than me,” Mount, co-owner of elder law firm Voelz, Reed, & Mount, LLC, said.
Her mother worked in a factory and her father in an auto-parts store. Although he himself didn’t go to college, her dad made a point of driving through the Hanover College campus when she was younger, telling her that she could go to a school like that someday.
“He inspired my to dream big. Dad also instilled in me early on, the idea that you’re not really successful, no matter how much success or money you have, unless you’re using it to help out the people around you,” Mount said.
Later on in life, after teaching elementary in Jennings County, Mount decided to pursue the career she sought since she was in grade-school — the law.
“I drove home from work during my sixth year of teaching, registered for the LSAT, and the next year I went off to law school at the age of 29, with an 8-year-old, a 4-year-old and a newborn.”
After graduating, she went to work at the firm she now co-owns, describing one of its namesakes James Voelz as “exactly the kind of attorney, the kind of human being, I wanted to be.”
“Jim taught us to work hard, keep your nose clean, and echoed what my dad had taught me, always give back to your community.”
That sentiment led her to co-found the Voelz, Reed, & Mount Foundation, which provides annual grants to organizations serving seniors and individuals with special needs.
“I try to give back in other ways, and I encourage you to do the same,” Mount said.
Diane Robbins, executive director of the Bartholomew County Historical Society, arrived in Columbus in 1993 following time working at Firestone Tire Co. in Illinois as a buyer.
Although she initially stayed home and did some volunteering, Dave Barker eventually came along and thought she would be ideal for a marketing position at kidscommons, which had only recently opened. Barker had her take a predictive index test to see how she would fit.
“He gave me this predictive test, it comes back after a few days, he goes ‘You’re all over the place, you need to take this again.’ And I said, ‘Dave, that might be who I am, but I’m happy to take it again.’”
Robbins did take it again, and spent the next decade-plus at kidscommons.
Overall, Robins credited the many people she has interacted with over the years for her success.
“Those personal interactions with a variety of people are where my wisdom comes from each and every day,” Robbins said. “I hope each of you know that while you have those individuals that have inspired or meant a lot to you, you are also that person to someone else.”
While that may not be clear at a certain point in time, Robbins said, “someone is listening to you, they’re admiring you and they’re absorbing your wisdom.”
Nicole Wheeldon grew up in Oldenburg, described by Jim Roberts, vice president of the Community Education Coalition and former BCSC superintendent, as a place having “more beer and fried chicken available per capita than I believe anywhere else.”
Wheeldon, a plant manager at Cummins Inc. and president of the BCSC School Board, acknowleged that to be true.
“I am the product of this traditional German-Catholic town, full of people who take pride in their community,” Wheeldon said.
After graduating from Batesville High School, Wheeldon went on to Purdue to study engineering and eventually landed a job at Cummins.
By the time she became plant manager of the Walesboro plant in 2019, she was the youngest and first female plant manager at the site. When the stresses of the COVID years had subsided, Wheeldon found herself wanting to contribute in a new way and ran for school board.
Juggling two leadership roles at once had some in her life wondering why she wanted to do so much at once.
“That can-do attitude that my parents instilled in me took over, and in my mind I thought, how could I do anything else?”
“The ability to listen, hard work, empathy, communication, and most of all, being fearless and persistent” are things Wheeldon said are necessary in both roles.
“When I get to my later years, and can finally claim to be wiser than somebody, I hope this is what people will take away from me,” Wheeldon said. “Women can do it all, and in my opinion, you have an obligation to try.”
