Nominations are now open for the
2025 WLP Symposium Awards!
Click here for more info and to submit a nomination.
The 18th Annual WLP Fall Symposium
Ignite the Champion in You featuring Dominique Dawes
Presented by Florida Blue
Premier Sponsor: Northern Trust
Thank you to all who attended the event.
Click here to read the full recap of the 2024 Fall Symposium.
Keynote Speaker
Owner of the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academies, Dominique opened the gyms to continue her commitment to developing a healthy and compassionate culture in the sport of gymnastics. Her first academy opened in the midst of a global pandemic, in July 2020, her second location opened in 2023, and will be opening her third Academy in 2024 located in Columbia, Maryland. Dawes holds minority ownership of the Washington Spirit of the National Women's Soccer League, and she also became part of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons ownership group as a Limited Partner in 2024. Dominique served as the co-chair of the President’s Council for Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition under the Obama administration alongside Drew Brees. Alongside LeBron James and Maverick Carter, she served as Executive Producer of the Peacock docu-series “Golden,” the journey of USA’s elite gymnasts on the road to the Tokyo Olympics, which was nominated for a Sports Emmy.
Dawes holds her degree from the University of Maryland and was inducted into UMD's prestigious Hall of Fame in 2022. In 2024, her hometown of Montgomery County, Maryland honored her career and legacy with a life-size statue to continue inspiring the next generation to follow in her footsteps.
As a wife, mother of four, Olympian and business owner, Dominique Dawes has transcended the world of sports, politics, entertainment and culture.
Leadership Awards
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors visionary leaders and philanthropists throughout the community who are doing extraordinary things to make the Tampa Bay area better place for to live and work. The Community Leadership Award showcases individual excellence in leadership as demonstrated by outstanding initiative, impact of work and inspiration to others.
Congratulations to our 2024 honorees, who will be recognized at the WLP Fall Symposium:
Lifetime Achievement Award: Senator Arthenia Joyner
Sen. Arthenia L. Joyner has been a champion for civil rights and equal justice since girlhood. Currently she is Of Counsel at Swope, Rodante P.A. in Tampa, and has practiced law for 55 years – longer than any Black woman in state history. In 2000, she became Tampa’s first Black female state representative and in 2006, the city’s first Black female state senator, serving for 16 years in the Florida Legislature, including two as Senate minority leader — the first Black female to do so.
Joyner grew up in a racially segregated Tampa and began her long march for equality. As a high school student, she participated in the famous Woolworth lunch counter demonstrations. While a student at Florida A&M University, she was arrested twice while protesting and spent 14 days in the Leon County jail. While serving as President of the National Bar Association, Joyner was arrested once again while protesting Apartheid outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.
A graduate of Florida A&M University College of Law and Florida’s fifth Black female lawyer, she never shied away from the being the first at anything. She was the first Black lawyer in Polk County, the first Black female lawyer in Hillsborough County, first Black female to serve on the board of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, and first Black female appointed to the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce board.
Sen. Joyner entered politics in the early 1970s when she chaired Shirley Chisholm’s presidential campaign in Tampa. She went on to chair Tampa’s presidential campaigns for Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton, and co-coordinator of Gov. Lawton Chiles’ gubernatorial campaign.
Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Senator Joyner to be the first Black person to receive a gubernatorial appointment to the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. Her leadership ability was recognized beyond the state of Florida. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the United States Delegation to the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, China and to the Management Advisory Council of the Federal Aviation Authority.
She is widely recognized for her leadership on women’s and human rights issues and her relentless passion for justice, truth and equal rights. The 2018 naming of Hillsborough County’s 27th library, the Arthenia L. Joyner University Area Community Library, celebrates her in name and with its focus on early literacy and lifelong learning in a community where 46 percent of families have a female head of household.
Community Leadership Award: Rita Lowman
Rita Lowman, a banking powerhouse in the Tampa Bay area for over four decades, began her career nearly 50 years ago as a state administration executive for NationsBank/Bank of America. Now the lead bank director at Encore Bank and former president of Pilot Bank, she has blazed trails in the industry, especially for women. She has managed over 20 acquisitions during her career, including the Nations Bank-Barnett Bank merger in 1997, and is recognized for the branding and community involvement she brings to every event, charity, board and meeting.
Lowman has been honored with awards recognizing both her business accomplishments and volunteer contributions. In 2017, she was elected as only the third female chair in the 130-year history of the Florida Bankers Association, where she contributed her skills as chair of the government relations council. She has also chaired the Florida School of Banking at the University of Florida, the American Cancer Society Cattle Baron's Ball, the American Heart Association Go Red, the American Cancer Society Tampa Bay Council, and the Centre Club. Rita serves as the lead chair for the board of Encore Bank, and serves on the boards of Caldwell Trust Company, Southeastern U.S. American Cancer Society and the ReliaQuest Bowl Association.
In 2022, she was honored as Gracepoint's Guy King Mental Health Champion and received the 2021 Dottie Berger MacKinnon Woman of Influence Award and the 2019 Outstanding Leader of the Year as president of Pilot Bank, both presented by the Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce. The Girl Scouts of America honored her in 2019 with its Women of Distinction award. She was also named a 2023 Florida Trend Living Legend. In addition, Richter Publishing selected Lowman's book, “From the Farm to the Board Room,” as one of the top business books of 2017. Rita and her husband, Gary, live in St. Petersburg and can often be found at their cattle and timber farm, HooperWill Farm, in Waverly Hall, Georgia, named after their two sons.
