Her Turning Point: Thinking Possibility

By Lucy M. Pritchett


Since childhood Jasmine Ivy has had the heart of an entrepreneur.

Space of Dreams: They Will Come

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Sometimes, with a little nudge, a good idea turns into a great idea.

As School Nurse, She Pays Attention to the Whole Child

By Lucy M. Pritchett


Julie Collings discovered that being a school nurse involves much more than taking temperatures and dispensing bandages.

Her Turning Point: Combining Her Professional and Personal Life

By Lucy M. Pritchett
A promise that Anitra Durand Allen made to herself in college got lost in the ensuing years of her engineering career. Fortunately, a gentle reminder from her husband brought her to her turning point.

Nina’s Entrepreneurial Adventure

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Nina Rodahaffer’s Turning Point came when her desire to care for others led her to a nursing career and, a surprise to her, an entrepreneurial adventure.

Are You Going to the Art Open Studio this Weekend? Marti Kuehn Will Be There

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Marti Kuehn’s Turning Points hinged on her affinity for saying Yes, Yes, and once again, Yes.

"We are training people to take the company to the next level. I love seeing people flourish..." says Cindy Collier

By Lucy M. Pritchett


For many women, moving seamlessly from a career in fashion to a career in freight might take some doing. But Cindy Collier, president and CEO of Mister “P” Express, Inc. in Jeffersonville, carried what she had learned in retail fashion and joined her father in founding the trucking company.

"There are better things ahead than anything you may leave behind." Two years ago Amber couldn't buy her kids bananas — “and this year I took them to Disney World.”

By Lucy M. Pritchett



Her Turning Point begins with a toddler meltdown over bananas and ends with her own meal-prepping business.

Turning Point: From Taylor Swift’s Band to a Courtroom

By Lucy M. Pritchett



Emily Poe Stumler’s Turning Point came when she put down her fiddle and picked up her law degree.

Kathy Morris Made Two Big Negatives into Turning Point

By Lucy M. Pritchett

The saying goes that two wrongs don't make a right, but in this Turning Point, it turns out that two negatives did make a positive.

Just ask Kathy Morris, who on the same day in 2003 received two phone calls: one from her doctor telling her that she had breast cancer and one from her boss telling her that the executive position she held at a local bank had been eliminated.

She Turned Toward the Flower Business

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Sometimes a Turning Point is a turning toward something rather than a turning away. For Jill Doyle that was a turning toward the beauty of flowers.

Jill is co-owner of J. Elizabeth Designs, a special event florist in Lyndon. While she was at the University of Louisville working toward a degree in liberal studies focusing on pre-law, she was also working for Nanz and Kraft Florist and later Colonial Designs, learning both the mechanics and the design principles of the floral business.

Kit Tossmann’s Artistic Path

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Kit Tossmann didn’t have to think for long when asked about the Turning Point on her artistic path.

“Someone wanted to pay me for my art,” she says. “Until then I never really thought of myself as an artist.”

Kit creates with fabric: liturgical banners, stoles and other vestments, and art quilts using inspirational themes under her studio name Kit Tossmann InSpirit Designs.

Amber’s Turning Point Came From Angels

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Amber Shobe’s Turning Point began with a ringing in her ears. But the sound wasn’t caused by a physical condition. She eventually determined its cause was otherworldly.

“This happened about two years ago,” Amber says. She was at the University of Kentucky studying for her master's degree, working, and writing her thesis on environmental sustainability. “I was pretty stressed out, and I started hearing these ringing and buzzing and clicking noises in my ears. This went on for two weeks. I couldn't figure out what it was. I went to an ear doctor. I thought I had tinnitus, but everything checked out.”

Her Stitching Became a Business and a Ministry

By Lucy M. Pritchett

Little did Lydia P. Allen know when she named her textile arts business Peace Works just how much peace her stitching would bring her. You might say her Turning Point came on the tip of a needle.

How Tara Anderson Got Started in Public Radio

By Lucy M. Pritchett

It is amazing how many times a chance encounter or an offhand remark can turn one’s life in a different direction. For Tara Anderson an encounter with a previous professor sent her from a career in classical music to a career in public radio. It also paved the way for a chance to live in New York City — an adventure in itself.

“I'm not a perfectionist.” And, Why That Helps Jane Termini Be Successful

By Lucy M. Pritchett

When Jane Termini and her husband Paul were living in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2002, for his job with GE, she went on a weekend getaway to visit several pottery factories with other members of the American Women's Club. That ladies-only shopping trip became her Turning Point.

China Opened the Eyes of this Puppet Master

Nora Christensen’s Turning Point may not have changed the direction of her life, but it certainly did change her.
By Lucy M. Pritchett

Nora is executive director and puppeteer (also known as The Puppet Lady) of Squallis Puppeteers in Louisville.

Last year she was invited to be part of an educational project in Xiang-E, China, a village in which hundreds of children died when poorly built school buildings collapsed during an earthquake in 2008. The project was established by University of Louisville math professor Wei-Bin Zeng.

From DJ to Derby Diva

Often a turning point in one’s life comes by simply answering a help wanted ad. And when the position being advertised is at an historic Louisville venue then, as in the case of Marigene Witten, it takes you from college admissions counselor to manager of The Mansion, the privatest of private spaces at Churchill Downs.
By Lucy M. Pritchett

Photos by Patti Hartog

But let’s begin at the beginning. Marigene (her name is a combination of her mother’s and father’s names) majored in communications, theater, and comparative literature at Indiana University. While there she was a DJ for the college radio station WIUS. After graduation she moved to High Point, North Carolina to work in marketing and sales at a radio station then became admissions counselor for High Point University. She moved on to become assistant director of admissions with Transylvania University in Lexington and then associate director of admissions at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

How Leftovers Can Change Your Life

One would be hard-pressed to find a woman whose Turning Point pivoted on a can of leftover paint. But Catherine Clore is that woman.
By Lucy M. Pritchett

Cathy lives in a historic farmhouse in Goshen that has been in her husband’s family since Kentucky was still part of Virginia. “The house was built in the 1830s and is made of bricks of the clay that came from the riverbank,” she says. “The wooden floors came from the trees on the land. The bricks were laid using no mortar but are held in place with mud, straw, and hog and horse hair. Because there is no mortar, we have to keep the bricks painted.”

She Thought She Would Be a Teacher, But Joined the FBI

By Lucy M. Pritchett

One class changed Amy Wisotsky's career path. Photos: Melissa Donald 

Not every Turning Point leads from the classroom to crime. Crime-solving, that is.

Meet Amy Wisotsky, who thought she would become a teacher but ended up joining the FBI.