Sisters in charge

BARBARA MANZI

President and CEO of Manzi Metals, Inc.

BARBARA MANZI was in high school when she had a so-called "aha moment." While growing up in Cape Cod, Mass., a high school teacher urged her to learn to cook and sew because, she said, being poor and Black was all that Manzi would ever accomplish. The discouraging words propelled Manzi to become one of today's foremost metal distributors in the United States through her company Manzi Metals, headquartered for 17 years in the Hernando County Airport Industrial Park in Brooksville, Fla., just north of Tampa.

Manzi Metals is a major distributor of raw metals such as stainless steel, aluminum, carbon, copper, brass, titanium, monel, and some high-temperature exotic alloys. The company services aircraft, automotive, shipyard, and missile industries in the United States and Canada, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Motors.

Revenues in 2005 were $7 million. "I just can't believe this is happening to me," says Manzi, who married Louis C. Manzi Sr. after high school, and did, in fact, learn to cook and sew.

While she has a strong will to succeed, she believes in helping others and displays strong maternal instincts toward others, which should come as no surprise. She is the mother of two, including a son, Louis K. Manzi Jr., who is the company's vice president in charge of sales and quality assurance.

Manzi started the business following stints in retail and working as an apprentice selling metals on New York's Long Island, where she learned the basics of the business. "Starting [my own business] was difficult ..." she says. "I wanted to do something a little out of the norm. I just had to try and then work a little harder."

LISA STEVENS

Assistant Curator for Giant Pandas and Primates, Snithsonian's National

Zoological Park

YOU would think that a horse, an Australian cattle dog, three greyhounds, a cat and a corn snake at home would satisfy one's affection for animals. But when you have to go to work and manage care for orangutans, gorillas and giant pandas, you must really love animals. For Lisa Stevens, caring for animals is her reality. "I am fascinated by wildlife," says the assistant curator for giant pandas and primates at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.

Stevens, dubbed the "Panda Lady," is responsible for all aspects of care for the giant pandas and primates. A curator for 24 years, she has been at the National Zoo for about 28 years, starting as an animal keeper for the big cats and bears.

Despite having a natural attraction to nature and its various creatures, Stevens credits her passion for animals to her constant traveling during her childhood. With her father in the Army, she lived in many places around the globe, including overseas in Okinawa, Japan, and Bangkok, Thailand, and came in contact with various animals.

When she was 10 years old, her parents encouraged her to take horseback riding lessons. "I learned to ride and started hanging around a riding stable, and watched the veterinarians work on the horses," she says. "I think that was my earliest interest in veterinarian medicine, just by watching the vet work on the horses at the polo dub there in Bangkok."

Stevens earned a bachelor of science degree in zoology/pre-veterinary medicine at Michigan State University. She later received additional training at the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's School for Professional Management Development for Zoo and Aquarium Personnel.

So what does the "Panda Lady" enjoy most about her job? "I enjoy being in a position where I can influence how animals are cared for, and I can ensure that they get the best care every day," she says. "It's very important as a zookeeper that we do everything we can on a day-to-day basis to make sure that animals under our care get the very best because they are ambassadors for their species ..."

VELMA P. SCANTLEBURY, M.D.

Professor of Surgery and Director of Transplantation,

University of South Alabama's Regional Transplant Center

VELMA P. SCANTLEBURY, M.D., a practicing surgeon at the University of South Alabama's Regional Transplant Center in Mobile, Ala., became the first African-American woman in the field of transplantation surgery in 1989.

As professor of surgery and director of transplantation at the University of South Albama's Regional Transplant Center, Dr. Scantlebury is recognized by the medical community as one of the best doctors in America. She has performed more than 200 living donor kidney transplants and more than 600 deceased donor kidney transplants in children and adults.

"I have to give thanks to God for blessing me with the ability to help others," Dr. Scantlebury says. "My passion is to educate the African-American community and to empower dialysis patients with the knowledge and understanding that they too can have a better life through the gift of transplantation."