ENKELIS, Liane 1948-

PERSONAL: Born 1948; married Richard Enkelis (an attorney). Education: University of Southern California, B.A. (journalism).

ADDRESSES: Office—1785 East Washington Blvd., #96, Pasadena, CA 91104; fax: 626-798-7070. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Photojournalist. Taught photojournalism at San Jose State University.

WRITINGS:

(With others) On Our Own Terms: Portraits of Women Business Leaders, Berrett-Koehler (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

On Being One Hundred: Thirty-one Centenarians Share Their Extraordinary Lives and Wisdom, Prima (Roseville, CA), 2000.

Contributor to publications, including Business Week, Forbes, Smithsonian, U.S. News & World Report, New York Times Magazine, Time, Black Enterprise, Islands, Americana, Technology Review, Electronic Business Today, and publications of the National Geographic Society.

SIDELIGHTS: Liane Enkelis, whose photographs have graced the covers of national magazines, includes among her clients leading publications and corporations. Enkelis's photographs are also featured in books, including On Our Own Terms: Portraits of Women Business Leaders. The subjects are fifteen women presidents and CEOs whose companies have annual revenues of at least $10 million, and they reveal how they made it to the top, in spite of gender bias, and how they learned to balance work with family. They represent a cross-section with regard to age, ethnicity, geographical location, and experience, with some being leaders of nonprofits. The idea for the volume began with Enkelis, who in photographing corporate officers realized that very few of the portraits she was taking were of women. The team that produced the book eventually included Karen Olson, a graphic designer, and Marion Lewenstein, an editor.

Profiled are Wilma Mankiller, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, who heads a government and tribal businesses. Kathy Taggares sold everything she owned and cashed in her life insurance to start a food processing business that became a nearly $30 million operation. At the age of thirteen, the woman who now runs K. T.'s Kitchens in Glendale sold her 4-H project Black Angus steers, then used the money to pay the rent on her parents' house.

Several of the women are immigrants, including Josie Natori, who founded the lingerie and accessories business that bears her name. Dian Owen became chairman of the board of Owen Health Care of Houston, overseeing more than 2,000 employees and $320 million in revenues.

Jacqueline Stanfield reviewed On Our Own Terms in the Social Sciences Journal, saying that it "is an excellent example of teamwork and collaboration, and how these 'feminine' attributes can result in a successful project." Don Kazak, who reviewed the volume in the Palo Alto Weekly, wrote that readers, "especially students, can use these stories to realize that while there is a glass ceiling in corporate America, it can be broken by women who have the right combination of talent, drive, an eye for details, and an instinct for making the right choices."

Enkelis photographed people over one hundred years old in black and white for her On Being One Hundred: Thirty-one Centenarians Share Their Extraordinary Lives and Wisdom. The book includes people who fought World War II and others who survived the Holocaust. Theodore J. Young helped design the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., while Cora Luchetti is a survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Frederica Sagor Mass was a screenwriter for silent films, and Louise Scott danced at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. All have passed through the history of the twentieth century. John Swain wrote in Zoomers online that "we can be deeply inspired and guided by these amazing individuals."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, December, 1995, Sue McKimm, review of On Our Own Terms: Portraits of Women Business Leaders, p. 122.

Palo Alto Weekly, January 3, 1996, Don Kazak, review of On Our Own Terms.

Publishers Weekly, October 23, 1995, review of On Our Own Terms, p. 64.

Social Science Journal, April, 1997, Jacqueline Stanfield, review of On Our Own Terms, p. 259.

ONLINE

Liane Enkelis Home Page,http://www.lianenkelis.com (March 25, 2003).

Zoomers,http://www.thorn.home.sonic.net/zoomersmagazine/ (January 2, 2003), John Swain, review of On Being 100: Thirty-One Centenarians Share Their Extraordinary Lives and Wisdom. *