Greetings Accomplished Bold Women Leaders,

I welcome you with abundant joy in my heart.  As I step into this leadership role, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the wonderful ladies of ABWL-NJ.  From my humble beginnings of attending meetings with my Judge (Paulette Sapp-Peterson) in ’97-98, when I clerked for her, I am now honored to lead such a phenomenal organization of black women, New Jersey’s First Women’s Bar Association. Empowered women, empowering women!

I am blessed to have an awesome board that is eager to work and continue the great legacy of this great organization. I am also blessed to have the continued dedication of our administrative assistant, Ann Watkins, and our dedicated committee chairs.  

Some of my personal goals for the organization are to move our funds to a black-owned bank and to strengthen our partnerships with black owned businesses; to brand, network and continue to build our presence in social media; to strengthen our current partnerships and sponsorships, as well as creating new ones; to fundraise year-round; and to begin planning our 50th anniversary extravaganza!

To our new members, we are excited to have you as a part of our membership.  I look forward to meeting you and bringing your ideas to life. 

Last but certainly not least, I pay homage to our founders and all the past presidents. I hope to make you proud during my 2021-2022 presidential term, Accomplished Bold Women Leaders.      

Sincerely,

Jennifer Downing-Mathis

2021-2022 President, ABWL-NJ