Dynamic collection of speakers talk about their business, expertise, and being a professional woman
Join us on Thursday, July 24, 2025
Makeup and Skincare brought to you by Connie Burch with Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Krysta Cundiff with Style and Grace Salon & Day Spa.
Connie Burch: May Kay Consulting
Connie has been building her business with Mary Kay for 32 years in the Champaign/Urbana area. Her passion is to help build women's self-confidence. Building confidence through self-care is a journey, and she is dedicated to this mission of empowering women.
Krysta Cundiff, Director Esthetician
Style and Grace is a full-service salon and spa offering superior services by a highly trained and personable team who values every individual-they strike the perfect balance of Style and Grace. Krysta Cundiff has been an Esthetician for 14 years. She's obsessed with her dogs. She loves traveling. Microblading and HydraFacial’s are her favorite services that they offer.
Join us on Thursday, August 28, 2025
Executive Director of the Champaign Center Partnership
coordinator@champaigncenter.com
Jenna Manolakes joined the Champaign Center Partnership as the Marketing and Events Coordinator in September 2021 and was promoted to Executive Director in 2024. She is originally from Champaign but for college decided to give a different U of I a try and received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Illinois in Chicago.
While in Chicago Jenna combined her love of theater and event planning and began marketing the shows she would perform in across the city. Soon she moved to Nashville, TN where she worked as a marketing and events coordinator as well as an artist representative in the thriving music industry. In Nashville, Jenna met and married her husband and eventually returned to Champaign.
Since coming back to Illinois, Jenna coordinated The Homer Soda Festival in 2017 before stepping in as the activities director at an assisted living facility. In that position, she worked heavily in both marketing and in-house event planning. When the opportunity to join Champaign Center Partnership as the Marketing and Events Coordinator became available, Jenna jumped at the chance to highlight the vibrant community from which she hailed. Now stepping in as the Executive Director, Jenna is thrilled to expand upon the work of all of the leaders who came before her to ensure the success of local Champaign.
When Jenna is not working you can find her spending time with her husband and her daughter. Jenna can not wait to continue to help foster the growth and prosperity of Champaign Center Partnership, the local businesses and the Champaign community as a whole.
Join us on Thursday, August 25, 2025
Choose Into Joy - 3 Steps to Set Boundaries
As a Transformation Coach and Energy Healer, Susan liberates overwhelmed women to set healthy boundaries, saying no without the drama and yes when it’s authentically aligned, so they can take back their time and energy. Susan spent decades making sure everyone around her was happy without boundaries while her self-worth and identity crumbled. Today she knows who she is and has a boatload of tools and certifications from the journey which she uses to resolve the underlying trauma and emotions that drive people pleasing. Since 2019 Susan has been using those skills to help clients reclaim their confidence and their capacity to speak up to create and maintain healthy boundaries.
We host coffee meet-ups open to all current and future members.