RECAP: Our 10-year Anniversary Celebration at this year’s Annual RISE Gala was a huge success!

On Thursday Nov 13, 2025, we welcomed over 500 guests to our 10th Anniversary Celebration with our 6th Annual RISE Gala at The Manor House in Mason, Ohio. (scroll through for pictures at the end)

Our MC Liz Bonis, from WKRC-TV Local 12 News, guided our evening with her grace and wisdom of her history with W3.

Our keynote, Macarena Cloninger, SVP from Cintas, and her story of persistence and strength, with humor and wit, brought the room to their feet!

Thank you to our Co-Chair presenter’s Ivy Banks, M.Ed., J.D. of Xavier University, Ed Kuresman, CFA of MAI Capital Management, and to our entertainment during dinner: MUSE, Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, Eunwha Lee, and Anupa Mirle and her Nrityarpana School of Performing Arts.

Dwight Packard told a great story and honored our Founder Dr. George Sehi.

Congratulations to our awards recipients:

Mentor of the Year – Marzieh Hatamzadeh, M.S.

Mentee of the Year – Olga Klochkov

Beacon Award – Christopher Hubbard from Sinclair Community College

We graciously thank the following people and businesses for their efforts and contributions to help make this event possible:

Jane Johnson from Quality Publishing

Kris Chari with Rooted Grounds Coffee

Four Bridges Country Club

BAYSORE’S FLOWER SHOP, L.L.C.’s Flower Shop

Sage Hagstrom with Season’s 52

Jennifer Seifert

DJ Mavi

Rick Crockett

Laura Hicks

Sadia Khatri

This year we leveraged more digital tools to help execute our fundraising campaigns:  

SPONSOR A MENTEE – A delicious sugar cookie from Julie McWilliams with Sweet Treats by Julie had a QR code that pointed donations for this campaign. During our Gala, we exceeded our goal by 20%! SWEET indeed!

SILENT AUCTION – This year we had 38 items to bid, and thanks to this digital solution, we almost TRIPLED our donations compared to last year!

ESSAY BOOK – This year we have published our first Essay Book with a collection of our ten best essay stories in the previous 10 years and donating online allowed us to give this book to many guests. 

Thank you to our Sponsors

PRESENTING – $15,000
MAI Capital Management & Mr. John Dovich 

GOLD – $5,000

Butler Tech

City of Mason

Deerfield Township Administration

Greater Ohio Virtual School

Mason Deerfield Lifestyle Magazine (Trade)

Saied Eyada Family Endowment 

SILVER – $3000

Bricker Graydon LLP

Dr. Mehran Attari Family Endowment

Kings Mazda

Northside Bank

Peoples Bank

Sinclair College

BRONZE – $2000

Boutwell Family Endowment

Dr. Javad Salajegheh Family Endowment

Dr. Marian Glancy

Dr. William and Carol Faulkner

Peoples First Savings Bank

Performance Lexus

TABLE SPONSORS – $1000

AES Ohio

Aligning Intimacy

Angel Munafo Apking–Coldwell Banker Realty

Baladi Family Endowment

Cincinnati State Technical and Community College

Cintas

Courage & Covenant

Divine Mercy University

Dr. George Sehi

Dr. Hatamzadeh Family Endowment

Dr. Peyman Shirani & Dr. Pooneh Nabavizadeh

Dwight and Danielle Packard

Gabriella & Cameron Stansberry

Indian American Chamber of Commerce (IACC)

Jen & Carlos Perez

JLN Coaching

Macarena & Mathew Cloninger

Mason City Schools

Miami University Regionals

Northern Cincinnati Foundation

PALS

Renee Hevia & Nazanin Khodadad

Rick Casey–Fifth Third Bank

Sangita Vora

SK Designs (Sadia)

TEC Engineering

The Quigley Team

UC Waddell Center 

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