On Thursday October 18^th Mount Mercy Academy is hosting a free symposium about women in business.  The event is entitled S.E.E.  (Success-Education-Empowerment), Creating a Vision for Women in Business.  The event is being held at the Mercy Center Auditorium, 625 Abbott Road in South Buffalo.  The doors will open at 5:30 PM with the presentation starting at 6 PM.  The symposium is free of charge and is open to the general public.

                Elizabeth Carey Ras (87) will serve as the forum moderator.  Ras formerly worked for WKBW and Buffalo Business First. Presently she is the Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at AAA Western and Central New York.

                All of the women participating in the symposium are graduates of Mount Mercy Academy.  They will speak about topics such as owning a business, business banking, human resources and much more.

Panelists include Anna Guerriero Hartog (00), Maggie Guerriero Mulvaney (04), Jillian Scarcello Cannan (03), Colleen Coyle Pandy (99), Tracy McCormick (84), Meghan Crotty Quinn (02), and Susan Anderson Was (99).

                Hartog and Mulvaney have utilized their college degrees as owners of ParK Edge Sweet Shop.  The sisters have owned the South Buffalo landmark since 2011.  Hartog has an MBA degree and Mulvaney has a degree from the Culinary Institute of America.  The two have also added the Cookie Expressions business to their shop.

                Cannan and Pandy own and operate Buffalo Collective.  The Buffalo Collective is a do-it-yourself pallet studio that hosts parties and events throughout Western New York.  They specialize in creating unique wood décor from scratch.

                McCormick is the owner of Tracy’s Retreat, a day spa in South Buffalo.  She is a licensed esthetician.  She changed her career after 18 years and learned that one is never too old to follow her dreams and it is better to try and fail than to fail to try.

                Quinn is the Commercial Lending Portfolio Manager at HSBC Bank. She coordinates the review process for any company that wants to borrow money from the bank.  She also works with relationship managers in the bank providing credit process approval to customers.  Crotty works with companies in Michigan and Ohio that have revenues of 500 million to two billion dollars.

                Was is the Director of Human Services at Curbell, Inc., a company with a 75 year history in Buffalo.  She was named Buffalo Niagara Human Resources Association’s HR Professional of the Year in 2013. In addition, she was named to Business First’s 40 under 40 last December.

                Mount Mercy hopes to continue the S.E.E. Creating a Vision for Women with a new focus in 2019.