Published On: Tue, Jul 25th, 2017

Rotary Club of Downtown Boca Raton Names First Woman President

By: Michael Demyan

Longtime Rotary Club of Downtown Boca Raton member Penny Morey was named the club’s new president on June 23 and now has already completed her first month in the position.

After a long history with the Rotary Club, Morey joined the Downtown Boca Raton chapter in 2014. She became the fifth president of the club at their installation dinner at Broken Sound Club, taking over for Lewis Fogel, who was installed last June.

“I liked the fact this club focuses on health and wellness,” she said. “That helped me make a decision that this was the right club for me.”

When the first Rotary Club was founded in 1905, women were not allowed to join and it was not until 1987 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no one can be turned away due to their gender. That same year, Sylvia Whitlock became the first woman to be named president when she was installed at the Rotary Club of Duarte.

Moving forward to 2017, Morey is now the first woman president at the Rotary Club of Downtown Boca Raton, which is now entering its sixth year since it was founded.

“I see this as another opportunity to say women are fully capable of leading,” she said. “I’m very proud that they selected me early on to be the president elect nominee and to move into the president’s chair. It was a huge honor.”

Her first month has gone well as she has had multiple people approach her to tell her how much they like some of the format changes she has made, but not everything can always go smoothly for the leader of a group of people.

Rear from left: Past presidents Alan Kaye, Frank Feiler and Jon Kaye. Front from left: Past president Lewis Fogel, president Penny Morey, 2018 president-elect Michael Walstrom and 2019 president-elect nominee Dr. Allen Konis.

“I had hoped to shorten our board meetings – I failed miserably at shortening the first one,” she said followed by a laugh. “But we’ve got such a wonderful group.”

The Rotary Club is meant to give an opportunity for business professionals to make friends and connections, while using their skills to make their community a better place. Morey has been a standout on both ends.

She started her professional career in New York as the director of the New York State Assembly Intern Program. Among her many achievements, she created the Human Capital Services consulting practice for CBIZ in 2001 and was later recognized by CBIZ for her accomplishments. Six years later, Morey went on to found RemarkAble HR, which provides “solutions for human resource, employment matters and executive recruiting.”

Just like her successes in her professional career, Morey has been very active in the community as she was a nominee for the Junior League Woman Volunteer of the Year Award in 2004. She also served as the board president of the Boca Raton Children’s Museum for 13 years. Her work within the community made her the perfect fit for the position at the Rotary Club.

Now under her direction, the club will look forward to multiple causes such as Alzheimer’s prevention and the Josh the Otter program, which teaches children how to swim at a young age. She also hopes to get the youth more involved with the Rotary Club by interacting with the middle and high school programs.

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