Monica Smiley Honored with 2023 Stevie® Award for Women in Business for Lifetime Achievement

Cary, N.C, (December 6, 2023) In recognition of a career of community building and empowerment for women entrepreneurs, Monica Smiley, editor and publisher of Enterprising Women magazine, was bestowed the illustrious Stevie® Award for Women in Business for Lifetime Achievement. Smiley accepted her award at a black tie gala last month in New York City at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

The Stevie^® Awards are among the world's premier business awards; and the Stevie^® Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individual executives and entrepreneurs attaining accomplishments of significance over their entire careers.

Enterprising Women was published by Smiley and her team beginning in May of 2000. She took a leadership role in gathering and engaging women business owners and leaders around the world on a global platform that combined journalism, thought leadership conferences, award recognition and philanthropy. Adding to the mix was the warm and collaborative atmosphere of women gathering in a friendly meeting place to address the critical issues involved in building and advancing their businesses in the context of their daily lives. She built the Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration and Conference, now embarking on its 22nd year, to recognize 100 outstanding women entrepreneurs from the U.S. and around the globe, to showcase proven strategies and cutting-edge ideas, and build relationships.

Smiley is also President of the Enterprising Women Foundation, which she founded in 2014 to advance women’s entrepreneurship in the U.S. and globally. The Foundation launched a program to offer high school girls from the U.S. and Canada, many from under-served neighborhoods, focusing on encouraging more young women who are high achieving in math, science or technology to enter the STEM fields. It also plants the entrepreneurship seed by showcasing women entrepreneurs from each local community who are CEOs or presidents of STEM-based companies. The program now also includes a strong financial literacy component and small group mentoring for the students. Each year the Foundation offers scholarships to send participants to the Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration and Conference to attend workshops, participate in leadership training, and experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be mentored by some of the finest women entrepreneurs from across the U.S. and around the globe. The Foundation is hosting Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum programs in 18 cities in the Fall of 2023 and Winter of 2024.

Today through all these channels, Smiley provides her community with a forum to share their expertise on business challenges to help them accelerate the growth of their companies, while including personal growth, health and wellness, and other important issues. Published in both print and digital editions, the online edition of the magazine reaches one million readers in 185 countries.

A graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, Monica started her career in the newspaper industry, moving to the magazine industry as publisher of a trade magazine in the photography industry. She and her husband John W. Dancer launched a magazine publishing business in the early 1980s. In the late 1990s she and her team researched and found a niche for a magazine to serve the women’s business community. A lifelong champion of women’s rights and women’s economic empowerment, Monica has two sons, three stepchildren and nine grandchildren. She resides in Apex, NC.

About the Stevie^® Awards
The Stevie^® Awards are among the world's premier business awards. They were created in 2002 to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working professionals worldwide. In short order the Stevie has become one of the world's most coveted prizes recognizing women in business for their entrepreneurship, leadership, and businesses acumen.

About Enterprising Women Magazine:
Enterprising Women, with headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, is the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners that chronicles the growing political, economic and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women. The magazine provides a friendly meeting place, a public forum and a national stage for the critical issues confronting women’s businesses and daily lives from the unique perspectives and experiences of entrepreneurial women. Published in both print and digital editions, the online edition of the magazine reaches one million readers in 185 countries. For more information, please visit https://enterprisingwomen.com or call (919) 362-1551.