The First Annual Denise “Denny” Taft Davidoff Empowerment Award!

Dress for Success Mid-Fairfield County presents the Denise “Denny” Taft Davidoff Empowerment Award to recognize and celebrate exceptional champions of gender equity and women’s advancement. Denny, was a powerful life force dedicated to empowering people in the workforce, marketplace, and community. After graduating from Vassar College in 1952, she started her own public relations firm, Davidoff and Partners, in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was owner, chief executive, and president of this company until she sold it in 1991. Denny was a founding director of the Interfaith Alliance, President of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation, and a member of the Trustee Council of the World Conference on Religion and Peace.

Denny provided 25 years of commitment and service to the workforce of Southwestern Connecticut as a Board Member, Vice Chairwoman, and Chairwoman of The WorkPlace Board of Directors. Her efforts helped grow The WorkPlace from a local, community non-profit to a national leader in workforce development with more than twenty job training programs for a wide variety of jobless and marginalized clients, including the Dress for Success program.

It was a natural fit to name our first annual empowerment award after Denny. She was a mentor to me and hundreds of other men and women who crossed her path, and her legacy will remain for years to come through the organizations and individuals who have been touched by her incredible spirit.

Dress for Success Mid-Fairfield County is proud to present this award to Teresa Younger in recognition of her leadership and dedication to improving the lives and opportunities available to women.

Teresa C. Younger has served as President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the oldest women’s foundation in the United States. Under Teresa’s leadership, the Foundation launched #MyFeminismIs, a multimedia campaign sparking a national conversation on feminism; funded a groundbreaking report on the sexual abuse to prison pipeline; joined leading women’s foundations at the White House to announce a $100 million funding commitment to create pathways to economic opportunity for low-income women and girls; and led a campaign to hold the NFL accountable for violence against women.

A noted speaker, advocate, and activist, Teresa has been on the frontlines of some of the most important battles for women’s health, safety and economic justice. She was honored by Planned Parenthood Federation of America as a Dream Keeper, given Liberty Bank’s Willard M. McRae Community Diversity Award, and named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy” by Inside Philanthropy. Younger previously served as the executive director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut.

This video lends voices to the character and accomplishments of Teresa Younger and why she is so deserving of this recognition.