Napa Valley Register: Thompson names Linda Parks as County Woman of the Year
By Napa Valley Register Staff
In celebration of National Women’s History Month, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, is honoring five women in the Fifth Congressional District.
Thompson selected Linda Parks, president and CEO of Lixit Animal Care Products in Napa, as Napa County Woman of the Year.
Parks joined Lixit in 1971 as a buyer. At the time, Lixit only had 10 employees. In 1994, the original owner retired and the employees bought the business using a qualified Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
Today, under Parks’ leadership, Lixit is a thriving business with more than 100 employees, many of whom are adults with disabilities, Thompson said in a news release.
“Lixit is of tremendous value to our community as it enables adults with disabilities to find employment and thereby gain independence,” Thompson said. The average tenure of Lixit’s staff is seven to 15 years.
Parks was named as one of the North Bay Business Journal’s 2015 Women in Business award winners.
Other women honored are:
Contra Costa County: Josephine Orozco, a resident of the city of Rodeo for over 20 years. She has served on the Recreation Advisory Board, the R10, the Rodeo Chamber of Commerce, and the Rodeo Christmas Tree Lighting Committee.
Solano County: Maria Guevara, who is the founder of Vallejo Together, which serves the homeless population in Vallejo by providing meals, connecting homeless individuals to resources and hosting several events including “Unity Day” and the “Youth and Parent Expo.” She previously worked on the staff of Fighting Back Partnership in the Solano Mentor Collaborative Program, with Filipino American Social Services and as a board member of Youth & Family Services.
Sonoma County: Evelyn Cheatham founded Worth our Weight (W.O.W.), a culinary and food-service training program that is offered free of charge to young people ages 16 to 24 who have dealt with significant challenges such as foster care, homelessness or trouble with the law. W.O.W. helps these young people develop a useful skill and worthwhile passion in addition to instilling valuable lessons such as the importance of teamwork, hard work, and respect for oneself and others.
Lake County: Monica Rosenthal has been a Middletown resident for two decades, where she grows wine grapes, owns a small business and is an active member of several local organizations. She served as the District 1 representative on the Lake County Planning Commission from 2007 to 2009, she has represented the 1st District on the Lake County Farm Bureau Board of Directors for the past five years and she is serving her second term on the Napa/Lake Work Force Investment Board to promote employment training and job opportunities in Lake County. After the Valley Fire, Monica worked to help Lake County recover and ensure that the needs of residents were met.