Meet Our Board of Directors
Phyllis Horton, MBA, BMBAA member, CEC
Founder & President
Phyllis is the President and Founder of Women of Excellence and Leadership, a member of the Central Florida Black MBA Association and a Certified Executive Coach with 25 years’ of Strategic Business and Executive Leadership experience from fortune 500 companies.
Phyllis shares her passion and expertise through motivational speaking, building high performance teams and revitalizing leaders to excel within their career paths. Ms. Horton takes an award-winning boldness towards every client. She knows what it takes to be a top flight executive. Over the past ten years Phyllis successfully expanded several new growth locations for a major university including onsite and online departments.
She has coached and developed multiple mid-level and Executive level leaders who continue to thrive in their leadership roles. Communication, coaching, training and motivation are the forging principles Ms. Horton dedicates herself towards; making a difference in the lives of thousands through her development of mid-level and Executive leaders.
Phyllis is currently the Executive Consultant to Infinite Scholars a non-profit organization that provides national scholarships for high school seniors. The organization averages over $20M in awards each year in Central and Southwest Florida school systems. She also supports Olympic Gold Medalist Bob Beamon previous CEO for Art of the Olympian Museum through their fundraising initiatives each year in an effort to give back to the community. She presently continues to support the Gold Medalist as part of his professional “Think Tank – Mastermind Group”.
Phyllis’ vision is to impact change in the world through “igniting the internal FLAME within” each of her clients one client at a time!
Diane M. Vivian
Vice President of Creative Design, Marketing & Branding
Diane has been freelancing full time for over 20 years. With a BA in Fine Arts from St. Mary's College of Maryland, Diane soon realized that her calling and passion was in print graphics so she set out in her first job as the sole artist for a small ad agency in downtown Chicago, George Reich Advertising. Gaining great experience through
her first exposure and additional positions, Diane made the decision to freelance full time when she moved to Central Florida in 1986. Thousands of projects later, Diane continues to be a positive force in the creative, advertising world. She never has a dull day and always looks forward to any new creative challenge. She feels blessed to have the trust of the clients she has the good fortune with which to work.
Diane is currently single since becoming widowed after almost 20 happy years of marriage and has two wonderful children, a son, 17 and a daughter, 22.
Laura Dorsey-Harris
Vice President of Strategic Operations and Logistics
Laura is the Vice President of Strategic Operations and Logistics for Women of Excellence and Leadership. Her educational background in Organizational Management and her corporate background as Vice President of Operations of a major Midwest bank for 17 years, all contribute to her position within WOEL. Originally, a native New Yorker, from Southampton New York, she currently resides in Kissimmee FL.
In addition to her work with WOEL, Laura strives to use her skill set for the success of many organizations. She is currently on the board of Clarita’s House, which is a non-profit whose mission is to feed the homeless population, especially those with children in the Central Florida area. On that board, she is the Board Treasurer. She is also the Vice President of Operations for Beamon Communications. This organization supports all of the business and philanthropic efforts of Olympic Gold Medalist Robert ’Bob” Beamon. Mr. Beamon holds the record for his historic jump into history during the 1968 Olympics. Almost 50 years later, his record still stands.
Her first passion however is education. Professor Dorsey is a faculty member for the University of Phoenix where she has been teaching English, Academic Wringing and First Year Sequence students for over 13 years. She has been in Educational Administration for the past 17 years. Most recently, she became the SME (Subject Matter Expert) creating new classes in General Education and English Academic Writing for the University’s online environment. She is also a Professor at ITT Technical Institute. She has taught previously at various other Universities in the Central Florida area.
Students in the education arena have benefitted from Laura’s passion. She is the South East Regional Vice President of the Infinite Scholars Program and a member of the Board of Directors. This non-profit program facilitates scholarship fairs for high school seniors seeking funding for college. The St Louis based organization currently has grown in the South East from one fair in Orlando in 2008 to six fairs in Florida and two in Alabama. The Orlando fair has also helped launch the fairs in Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburg. Millions of dollars in scholarship money, from participating colleges and universities, have been awarded to students over these past few years.
As the daughter of a former politician, Laura continues to be involved in the political arena as an Ambassador for Congresswomen Corrine Brown.
When asked what she really does for a living, her standard response is that she ‘changes lives’. Many students continue to be able to testify regarding the mark that she has left as she proceeds to change their life. Her favorite quote is that “education is the passport to the future”.
Janet Perez Eckles
Vice President
of Strategic Programing
View Janet's poignant story through
this video introduction.
Hannah Mebane
Director of Membership
Artist, Hannah Mebane has a long-standing deep passion for photography. "I knew the first time I picked up a camera this wasn't going to be just a hobby, as it gave me such a deep rush and yet a profound sense of peace at the same time". Hanna loves to mix old school with modern in fashion & makeup. She also designs clothing and plans on becoming a respected professional in that field one day. Hannah has loved the Arts, Music and Dance her whole life and believes they all intertwine.
Hannah is originally from Detroit, Michigan. Her father was a very good musician in the Motown days, playing several instruments. Her mother was 5'11, had hazel green eyes and modeled back in the 70's, making it easy to understand why the arts are in her blood.
Hannah has been a resident of Orlando for over 25 years now. She has one child, a son, whose spirit reminds her of her own strong and independent self.
Hannah specializes in headshot, portrait & event photography. Constant education to increase her portfolio of skills and specialties is very important to Hannah. She loves using all her skills & knowledge to help men & women feel good about themselves and see their inner beauty.
