PENSACOLA WOMEN'S ALLIANCE, INC.
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

The Pensacola Women’s Alliance is an organization of professional and business women who are striving to make a difference for women in the community. PWA was formed in 1982 by Diane Miller and Isabella Grimes, two women who had learned about a new business connection for women that was expanding across the country. It was first named “Networking.” Diane and Isabella each asked five women from a cross-section of the business and volunteer community to join them to discuss forming a local networking organization. The first meeting of these twelve women was held in the Nautilus Chamber of the Commons at the University of West Florida. All were vitally interested in the concept and voted to meet once a month for lunch on Saturdays. Over that next year this small group formed a non-profit corporation called the Pensacola Network of Professional Women. They adopted bylaws and affiliated with the Florida Network of Executive Women. That core group of women invited other women to join and soon the membership grew to 25 women. The organization focused on the reality that when women join networks and profit from them, this act has a ripple effect. Women need to support and encourage each other. Each time you help another woman, you are helping all women, and helping yourself. In the years since this organization has formed, the membership has grown and the name of the organization changed to the Pensacola Women’s Alliance. PWA established a mentoring program for young women and strong scholarship programs at the University of West Florida and Pensacola State College. We are not a fund-raising organization. We pay annual dues and these dues have accumulated over the years. Our surplus funds have been used to establish the scholarship programs and make annual contributions. In 2012 we celebrated 30 years of networking and efforts to improve the opportunities for women in our community. is a group of women with diverse backgrounds from the Pensacola area who have formed a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in our community. We achieve this mission primarily by: maintaining a directory of our members and their businesses We provide all these services to our members by using our members’ dues of $160.00 per year. Therefore, we do no fundraising.