Being the parent of a soldier, in any day and age, can be a fearful, tearful, sleepless experience. Many parents watch their children go off to war-torn nations, sworn to fight for the freedoms of people they have never seen or met, and silently hope and pray for their safe return when their tour is up. Lisa Weber is not one of these parents. To be certain, Lisa was worried about her son, Daniel, who joined the Marine Corps out of high school. She cried. She worried. She prayed. But then she realized that she needed to take a more active role in her son’s situation.

Any mother with six children ages 12, 10, 9, 8, 4 and 2 is a busy gal, but Nancy Lacore takes ‘active’ to a whole new level. In addition to being a super-involved mom (she makes her children’s Halloween costumes by hand and bakes each of their birthday cakes herself), she is also a senior officer in the United States Navy on Active Duty (which means she could be called to head overseas to the war effort at any moment). Nancy’s work, designing innovative war games for the Navy, has her shuttling between Norfolk—where she lives—and Washington D.C. where she routinely briefs the Pentagon and manages a team of contractors. Nancy’s husband is also in the Navy and spends 65% of the year at sea—and Nancy does not have full time help at home! Six little kids + demanding (high stress) work + absent husband + no full time help. It’s no surprise the guys in Nancy’s husband’s squadron call her, “Super Mom!”

Addie Zinone was at work producing a segment for “Access Hollywood” when she got the call that she was being deployed to Iraq. She had never been outside of the US before and now she was going to one of the most dangerous places on the planet wearing the uniform of a United States soldier. “Everyone in my life thought I was crazy when I enlisted in the Army,” Addie says. “I was a college graduate with a good job and what appeared to be this exciting life… but I was looking for something else. I wanted to be part of an entity greater than myself.” Addie knew she had made the right decision by the time she finished basic training. “I loved the discipline, the athleticism and the camaraderie of basic training,” she remembers. “I felt good about myself there.”

Everyone knows a Hillary Tattersall. You know the type: Vibrant, outgoing, full of energy and ideas. A person you automatically click with because she can be your best friend and your biggest supporter. In business, she is the one who is constantly re-inventing herself. So, it's not surprising that this bundle of energy got to where she is today: running a flourishing home-based business, being featured in national magazines, having access to over 300 talented women designers, not to mention hosting a super successful e-commerce website. Or is it?

We live in a constant state of immediacy. Dying are the days of the in-depth coverage that we'd get when reading the morning newspaper. We are too busy for the 6:00 pm evening news and too tired to stay up to get a roundup of the day's events at 11:00. Instead, we set up RSS feeds; our phones 'ping' with our selected breaking news; we follow tweets or Google to hone in on the information we are interested in knowing. Nothing is as it used to be.

As President and CEO of National Public Radio, Vivian Schiller has had to maneuver through this uneven and unbalanced media landscape, but it's a job she's confident she can handle, coming from The New York Times, the Discovery Times Channel and CNN. She earned along the way multiple honors, most notably a couple of Peabody Awards and five Emmys. Obviously she must be doing something right.

The message is so pervasive that most of us don’t even notice it. Whatever you may be buying: car/perfume/dishwasher. Wherever you may be going on a: cruise/safari/day trip, the message is always the same. The barrage of everyday images in the media tell us it will look/smell/work better or be more fun if you are thinner/prettier/younger. Yet, Michelle Cantrell wants to make sure you know, whatever it is they are selling it won’t make you better or more fulfilled. Michelle is the owner of VenusVision (venusvision.com), a site dedicated to promoting self-esteem in all women, no matter what size or shape or age. We spoke to her.

Making a difference in the world is quite a big task for anyone, but Ashburn resident Lisa Kaminsky Millar is managing to do that while taking care of her family and working three jobs. Lisa works in payroll for AeroAstro and teaches online courses for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s hotel/restaurant management program. But it is as the head of The Brad Kaminsky Foundation for Brain Tumor Research (TBKF), founded as a tribute and promise to her brother Brad, that has given her life a purpose and Brad’s death meaning.  

Retire the cape–– you weren't meant to be Superwoman.
–Tracey Parent

Modern motherhood is more than about staying home when your children are born. It’s about putting your career on pause, not about giving it up. I worked for a large IT company and made 6 figures. My role now is transitional. After raising my children I will return to my career.
–Jeannine Mercy