Six Visionary Leaders Honored by the Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership

The Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (F&E CWEL) at Babson College marked its 25th anniversary last Friday, with an inspiring celebration during Back to Babson.

With the theme “The Future Is in Her Hands,” the event highlighted a quarter-century of advancing women’s entrepreneurial leadership through education, research, and community impact. F&E CWEL is one of eight centers and institutes within the Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

The silver anniversary celebration culminated with the presentation of the Legacy & Impact Awards to six remarkable women whose vision and leadership continue to shape Babson and the world beyond.

Legacy & Impact Award Honorees

• Candida G. Brush P’14 — A trailblazer in global entrepreneurship research and co-founder of the Diana International Research Institute, Brush, the Franklin W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, has transformed how the world understands and supports women entrepreneurs. In 2023, Brush was honored with the prestigious Bala Iyer Lifetime Achievement in Scholarship Award.
• Maria Casanova-Brown — An entrepreneurial coach, mentor, and designer, Casanova-Brown helped build the Black Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (BWEL) program, embedding mentorship and innovation into its foundation.
• Nan Langowitz — The founding executive director of CWEL, Langowitz launched the nation’s first women’s entrepreneurial leadership center at a four-year business school, setting a new standard for inclusion and impact. A professor of management and inaugural faculty director of the Center for Engaged Learning & Teaching, Langowitz retired in 2024 after 33 years at Babson.
• Audrey McLoghlin — A Babson Trustee and the founder of Frank & Eileen™, McLoghlin’s transformative endowment to CWEL ensures that women’s entrepreneurial leadership remains a permanent part of Babson’s legacy and future.
• Carol Spinelli — A steadfast advocate for women’s leadership, Spinelli, the wife of President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD, was honored for her work as vice president of the Nantucket Community Music Center.
• Amanda Strong ’87 — A Babson Trustee and champion of social and economic mobility, Strong was the first investor in the BWEL program, helping create life-changing opportunities for Black women entrepreneurs nationwide.

The awards, handcrafted from reclaimed materials by PECO—founded by Babson alumnus Roger Brenninkmeyer ’96 and expanded into the U.S. with F&E CWEL Advisory Board member Chris Bignell ’94—symbolize the center’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and purpose-driven leadership.

The celebration also honored the five executive directors who have led F&E CWEL over the past 25 years—Langowitz, Jan Shubert, Susan Danish, Susan Duffy, and Shakenna Williams ’94—each of whom has played a pivotal role in expanding the center’s global impact and empowering women to lead with purpose.