Summer Issue 2025
From The Publisher
We are proud to present our fifth annual Women Leading the Region Awards honoring the extraordinary women who advance Southern Arizona with their vision and dedication. With this year’s dynamic list, we’ve spotlighted more than 70 accomplished women over the past five years. The number of industries thriving with C-suite, female leadership across the region continues to grow, spanning fields from civil service to cuisine, banking to athletics, and construction to medicine. The 2025 Women Leading the Region honorees represent accomplishment and commitment in academia, healthcare, community outreach, aerospace/defense, entrepreneurship, finance, homebuilding, sports management, science and non-profit endeavors. They also lead strongly within their communities, boosting causes that move Southern Arizona forward. We are proud to share their stories in this summer edition.
In 2009, BizTucson was launched with a bold statement and an illustration of our planet on the cover. “Why The World is Watching Tucson” highlighted exceptional leaders who brought worldwide acclaim to our region. The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management was the site of the “Global Visionary Awards” featured in that inaugural edition, which spotlighted visionaries such as Dr. Thomas Grogan, founder of Ventana Medical Systems (now Roche Tissue Diagnostics) and Dr. Raymond Woosley, founder of the Critical Path Institute. These men virtually created the origins of the dynamic bioscience hub for which our region has become renowned.
Journalist Tara Kirkpatrick writes: ”Like many big ideas, Critical Path Institute essentially started on a napkin. At a late summer dinner at Vivace in 2003, founder Dr. Raymond Woosley and a few trusted friends discussed how to speed up a stalled drug development pipeline. The notes they took that night would become a business plan, and ultimately in 2005, the Critical Path Institute. Today, 20 years later, the Critical Path Institute is a Tucson-based, global nonprofit that has changed the trajectory of the industry.
Our next special report features Vantage West Credit Union as the financial institution celebrates its 70th anniversary. It’s fitting that this report appears in our Women Leading the Region issue: Vantage West President/CEO Sandra Sagehorn-Elliott is a 2022 honoree.
Journalist Tiffany Kjos writes: “Competing with some of the biggest players in the finance industry, Vantage West Credit Union has thrived for 70 years by being deeply committed to the community, making banking more accessible, particularly for low- and middle-income members, and by providing proactive, innovative technological solutions.”
From its 1955 inception in a one-room barracks at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base with 600 members and less than $60,000 in assets, Vantage West has grown into the largest credit union based in Southern Arizona. It now serves more than 200,000 members and in the last 10 years has more than doubled its assets – definitely cause for a platinum celebration.
Finally in this issue, journalist Jay Gonzales reports on the merger of two of the leading business organizations in our region. Sun Corridor Inc. and the Tucson Metro Chamber are now The Chamber of Southern Arizona.
The merger demonstrates the quality leadership we have in our community to bring together two organizations that were highly influential on their own to now merge their influence for the overall good of the business community. The leadership should be commended for the smooth transition.
In closing, we are grateful for our loyal readers, the tremendous support of our advertisers and our exceptional editorial team and their high standards of journalism.
Steven E. Rosenberg
Publisher & Owner
BizTucson
