Kansas City, MO (Sept. 19, 2008): Four area women business owners and members of the Kansas City Council of Women Business Owners (KC-CWBO) were recognized for their accomplishments at the Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) national conference in Washington, DC, on Sept.9, 2008, according to Becky Wilson, KC-CWBO media relations manager and president of WDS Marketing & Public Relations. Women Impacting Public Policy is a national bipartisan public policy organization with over 500,000 members nationwide.

Kathy Bennett, President, Bennett Packaging of Kansas City, received the WIPP "Member to Watch! Award," presented annually to a woman business owner who serves as an industry leader, creating innovative and extraordinary accomplishments in her business and for the women's business community. Bennett Packaging is a manufacturer of high-quality packaging and display products based in Lee’s Summit, MO.

Jeanne Johnson, co-founder of Server Centric, was honored with the WIPP "Fast 5 Award," presented annually to five WIPP members whose business have demonstrated outstanding growth over the past five years, and have made a national impact on the state of women in business. Server Centric, Kansas City and St. Louis, is a professional services firm specializing in Enterprise Information Technology projects in the areas of virtualization, secure access, and the optimization of application deployment systems. Bennett and Johnson were nominated for the WIPP awards by KC-CWBO director, Nancy Zurbuchen.

 Also recognized by WIPP for their dedication and achievements in public policy issues locally and nationally were Denise Farris, founder and managing member, Farris Law Firm, and Nancy Zurbuchen, KC-CWBO director and organization co-founder, and President of Motional Multimedia. Farris Law Firm specializes is in the areas of general business law, commercial construction, and equine law for the states of Missouri and Kansas. Motional Multimedia Motional Multimedia offers services in all aspects of organizational communications including website development, database development, and project management.

Eight KC-CWBO members attended the conference. A part of their agenda in Washington, DC included meetings with Kansas legislature, Congressman Dennis Moore, Senator Pat Roberts, Senator Sam Brownback and Missouri legislators, Senator Claire McCaskill, Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, Senator Kit Bond, Congressman Sam Graves, and Roy Blunt.  

Women Impacting Public Policy is a national bipartisan public policy organization with a membership of more than 500,000 members that advocates for and on behalf of women and minorities in business, strengthening their sphere of influence in the legislative process of our nation, creating economic opportunities and building bridges and alliances to other small business organizations.