Excellence
We hold a standard of beauty and rigor in everything we create for women.
Leadership
Every voice deserves a room
We build the stages, the skills and the confidence to stand on them.
About PAW
She was always phenomenal. We simply build the room where she can prove it.
Phenomenal Achieving Women is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women through education, mentorship, leadership development, professional growth and community engagement. We equip women with knowledge, confidence, practical skills and meaningful opportunities to become the strongest version of themselves, while creating lasting change in their families, careers and communities.
What began as one conviction is being built as a global organization with a long horizon. PAW is designed to grow across cities and countries, so that a woman anywhere can find a community, a mentor and a path forward.
Our Story
Founded by Dr. Akia Dawson after an encounter that refused to leave her, PAW became a movement built to outlast a single moment of compassion.
Our Vision
A world where every woman has access to the education, mentorship and community that make her ambitions ordinary rather than exceptional.
Belonging
Every woman is received as she is, and stays because she is seen.
Transformation
Knowledge becomes confidence, and confidence becomes a changed life.
Grace
We lead with warmth, dignity and a deep respect for each woman's story.
Our Mission
"To equip women with knowledge, confidence and community so completely that their success becomes inevitable, and their impact becomes generational."
PAW exists to remove the quiet barriers that keep capable women waiting. Through education, mentorship and leadership development, we turn potential into practice, and practice into lasting change for families, careers and communities around the world.
Explore the Library
Meet the Founder
A physician who could not unsee what she saw
Dr. Akia Dawson is a physician, published medical researcher, entrepreneur, speaker and educator, and the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Phenomenal Achieving Women. Her work has always lived at the intersection of science and service.
An encounter with a woman experiencing homelessness became the catalyst for everything that followed. It was not enough to help once. She wanted to build something durable, a structure of education, mentorship and belonging that could hold a woman up long after a single act of kindness had passed. PAW is that structure, and it is still being built.
Today she leads PAW with the same clinical precision she brings to medicine and the same warmth that made women trust her with their stories in the first place.
Board of Directors
The women behind the movement
A leadership table assembled for the long term, each member responsible for a pillar of PAW's growth.
Brings operational discipline to a fast growing organization, translating vision into structures that hold.
Caron Recker, MBA
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Builds the alliances that extend PAW's reach into new communities, industries and regions.
Puneet Joshi
Director of Strategic Engagement and Partnerships
Keeps the daily rhythm of PAW steady so that programs, people and members are always cared for.
Molly Sprinkle
Executive Administrator
Shapes how PAW is seen and heard, and invites the next generation of members through the door.
Dineen Morton
Director of Recruitment and Marketing
Designs the mentorship and growth pathways that carry a member from her first day to her first milestone.
Favour Mbakwe, MD
Director of Member Development
A seat is open
PAW is expanding its board as the organization grows. If you are ready to give your expertise to women everywhere, we would like to meet you.
Board applicationsEducational Resource Library
Programs built to be finished, not just started
One library, six ways in. Each is designed to meet a woman exactly where her week allows.
Upcoming Events
Gatherings worth clearing an evening for
Our first calendar is being finalized. Join the list and you will be the first through the door.
FeaturedInaugural Gathering
Our first season is being written now
PAW is preparing its founding calendar of galas, workshops and mentorship circles. Every detail is being considered with the same care we bring to our members.
- Dates to be announced
- Location to be announced
- Countdown begins the moment a date is set
Signature Gala
The Phenomenal Evening
Hosted by Phenomenal Achieving Women
Dates to be announced
Location to be announced
Stay tunedLeadership Workshop
Rooms Where Decisions Happen
Theme: presence, negotiation and influence
Dates to be announced
Location to be announced
Stay tunedMentorship Circle
Twelve Women, One Table
Hosted by PAW Member Development
Dates to be announced
Location to be announced
Stay tuned
From the moment she is welcomed, to the moment she leads the room.
Community Impact
Founding vision, measured honestly
PAW is in its foundational stage. Rather than borrow numbers we have not earned, we publish the goals we are building toward and the milestones we reach along the way.
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Women we intend to serve in our founding years
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Program pillars in the educational resource library
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Mentorship circles planned for our first full season
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Global community, designed to grow without limit
Community Initiatives
Partnerships with shelters, schools and local employers so that support reaches women where they already are, not only where it is convenient for us.
Organizational Milestones
A founding board seated, a program library designed, and a first season of gatherings in preparation. Each milestone is documented as PAW grows.
Success Stories
As members complete programs and step into new roles, their stories will be told here in their own words, with the dignity they deserve.
I arrived thinking I needed a course. What I found was a room of women who expected me to succeed, and would not let me forget it.
Founding member, healthcare
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Gallery
Moments from the movement
Photographs from PAW gatherings, mentorship moments and the women who make this community what it is.
Video Gallery
Coming to screen
PAW films, event recaps and interviews will live here as our library is produced.
Founder Series
Coming soon
Event Recaps
Coming soon
Member Voices
Coming soon
Ways to Get Involved
Six doors into the same purpose
Volunteer
Give your time, your craft or your calendar. Volunteers make every PAW program possible.
Offer your time
Donate
Fund scholarships, mentorship circles and the resources that stay with a woman for life.
Give to PAWSecure online giving opens soon. Reach out and we will arrange your gift personally.
Sponsor
Put your name behind a gala, a workshop series or an entire cohort of emerging leaders.
Sponsor a program
Partner
Bring PAW into your organization, campus or region as we expand into new communities.
Start a partnership
Attend Events
Come as you are, leave with a network. Our gatherings are where the community becomes real.
See what is coming
Become a Member
The most direct door of all. Join PAW and step into mentorship, programs and a global sisterhood.
Join PAW todayJoin PAW
Membership is an invitation, not a transaction
General Membership
Open to women at every stage. Access the resource library, member gatherings and the wider PAW community.
Leadership Opportunities
Lead a circle, host a workshop or represent PAW in your city as our chapters take shape.
Board Applications
For women ready to give governance level expertise to a growing global organization.
Membership Benefits
- Full access to the educational resource library as each pillar launches
- Priority invitations to galas, workshops and mentorship circles
- Matching with a mentor aligned to your field and season
- A private network of women who answer when you reach out
- Leadership pathways that grow with the organization
Questions, answered
Any woman committed to her own growth and to the growth of the women around her. There is no industry, age or career stage requirement.
Membership structure is being finalized as PAW opens its founding season. Share your details and we will contact you before enrollment opens.
Yes. Volunteering, sponsoring, partnering and attending events are all open paths into the community.
PAW is built as a global organization. Our map and chapter structure are designed to add regions as membership grows.
News and Announcements
What is happening at PAW
PAW Around the World
One community, designed without borders
PAW begins in Cincinnati and is built to extend into regional chapters and local communities. As members join from new places, this map grows with them.
Cincinnati, OhioWhere PAW was founded
Active Growing
Connect With Us
We would love to hear from you
Whether you are joining, partnering, sponsoring or simply curious, every message reaches a real person at PAW.
pawwomen@gmail.comStay close to PAW
Occasional letters on programs, events and the women shaping this community.