Dress for Success will convene its sixth annual Professional Women’s Group Success Summit July 30-August 1 at the Hotel Palomar in Chicago. Dress for Success Memphis’ Nicole Gates will receive honors as the 1st place winner for her Community Action Project on Infant Mortality a problem plaguing African-American Memphis babies.
The Success Summit is a leadership conference designed for Professional Women’s Group (PWG) members to develop and enhance their leadership skills. The Professional Women’s Group is an international employment retention program, which provides women with support, practical information and inspiration to achieve self-defined success in career and life. There are more than 10,000 members in over 60 Professional Women’s Groups at Dress for Success affiliates globally.
This year, Dress for Success will honor Nicole Gates as the community action project honoree. Nicole and her PWG waged a war against infant mortality in Memphis, TN through a themed project titled M:i MEMPHIS which incorporated the idea of the movie Mission Impossible. Nicole a business owner and Theme Event Planner by trade found that the best way to educate the community would be through five themed missions that would educate on the preventative measures to infant mortality, while also making it engaging. Nicole and her Professional Women’s Group project has reached more than 2500 Memphis moms, dads and families.
Nicole has since the completion of the community action project, formed the Infant Mortality Force Memphis, a grassroots organization devoted to the continuation of educating the Memphis community on the preventative measures to this disparity. “I will continue in the fight against Infant Mortality because I realize that I have to be the change that I want to see and change has no season,” said Nicole.
The rate infant mortality rate in Memphis is the highest in the United States. African American babies in Memphis die at a rate three times higher than the national average. Memphis’ infant mortality rate is higher than the nations of Iran Indonesia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Vietnam.
Nicole is the Founder of the Infant Mortality Force Memphis, now led by Marcy Vaughn & Yolanda Gates. Nicole now serves as the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood & Youth Infant Mortality Campaign Coordinator, helping to lead Shelby County in educating the communities most in need.
On your day of public revealing will you be ready? Sometimes our public revealing happens before we have time enough to prepare for it. 
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