Lincoln Park Resident Julie Smolyansky - Honored by Fifth Third Bank, Donates her check of $5,300 to Test400k

250 community movers and shakers were guests of Fifth Third Bank to recognize and award 8 for their outstanding leadership in local Diverse Communities … it was a fitting tribute to National Diversity and Inclusion Month. This is the sixth year Fifth Third Bank, the first financial institution in the U.S. to start its own charitable foundation, has honored community leaders for making a meaningful difference by helping give a voice to the voiceless, supporting those who feel forgotten, and working to solve problems that need addressing.

Lincoln Park resident Julie Smolyansky - who not only became the youngest female CEO of a publicly held firm when she took over Lifeway Foods at age 27, but has also produced several documentaries and founded Test400k, an organization that has set the goal to test the 400,000 rape kits in backlog - was honored as a Women’s Community Leader by Fifth Third Bank. In addition to the recognition, she was awarded a check for $5,300 by the President of Fifth Third Bank to be given to her charity of choice.

Julie Smolyansky became the youngest female CEO of a publicly held firm when she took over Lifeway Foods at age 27. Since that time, Julie has bolstered the company’s growth trajectory with innovative product development and marketing strategies, boosting annual revenues to over $130 million by 2015 and expanded distribution throughout the United States, Canada and the UK. She was recently named to Fortune Business ‘40 under 40,’ Fortune’s 55 most influential women on Twitter and Fast Company’s Most Creative People In Business 1000. Julie serves as a member of the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council and is part of the 2015 class of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. She has produced several documentaries, including “The Homestretch,” “Honor Diaries" and “The Hunting Ground” and recently founded the nonprofit Test400k.

Before joining her father to work at Lifeway Foods in 1997, Smolyansky was a rape counselor (a certification she still holds) and she never forgot the stories she heard, stories which serve as inspiration for her continuing efforts to support victims and survivors of sexual assault. She was one of the executive producers for The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rapes on college campus and the harassment faced by those victims/survivors who choose to report the assaults. Inspired by a Human Rights Watch report indicating that 400,000 evidence kits collected after alleged sexual assaults in the U.S. dating back to at least 1979 have been sitting in police storage facilities around the country without processing, Smolyansky and her life partner Jason Burdeen launched Test400k, a campaign to resolve the backlog of 400,000 untested rape kits in the U.S. and end violence against women both domestically and globally.

“The impetus for our Community Leaders program was to move away from singular monthly declarations, as we celebrate diversity and inclusion throughout the year and in everything we do,” says Andrew Hayes, Regional Marketing Director for Fifth Third Bank, who began the annual Community Leaders Awards event. “We only pause in April, which is Diversity and Inclusion month, to host this annual breakfast as a way of publicly acknowledging the incredible contribution of our honorees, and announce that a $5,300 donation will be extended to each as a way for them to pay it forward, however they wish. It’s a powerful way of both expressing our commitment to all the communities we serve, as well as inspiring others to get involved, make a difference, and celebrate both our differences and our commonalities.”

Each honoree will use their $5,300 donation to help further a cause in which they are involved or help individuals or organizations in their community.

Julie Smolyansky is donating her $5,300 contribution from Fifth Third Bank to Test400k.

Photo Credit (all photos): Ed Gordon/Edge Graphics

Captions:
1) Honoree Julie Smolyansky, Fifth Third Bank President Bob Sullivan

2) Jason Burdeen, co-founder of Test400k, with life partner and Honoree Julie Smolyansky

3) Matt Eltringham - Fifth Third Bank, Honoree Julie Smolyansky, David Rodriguez - Fifth Third Bank, Kristen Field - Lifeway Foods