Rice, L'Cena Bell Brunskill

Excerpt from her article in The Crescent, 2014: The 67th Convention of Gamma Phi Beta was held in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1996 and took on a new look with programming created for today’s woman. L’Cena Brunskill Rice was elected International President and she knew one of her biggest tasks as the newly-elected leader was to carry out the goals and fulfill the mission and visions as set forth at the Future Visions Workshop that took place that same Convention. These goals included: become a member-driven organization, bring ‘lifetime membership’ to life, strengthen our financial position, grow 15 percent in size and provide relevant programs based on future trends. “We built on that foundation to create the Sorority’s first strategic plan to respond to the issues identified. It has since been revised and revamped with each successive International Council,” L’Cena says. The year 1999 marked our 125th year as a Sorority. At the time, we had chartered 152 collegiate chapters and had more than 150 alumnae chapters. Each issue of The Crescent that year was themed by one of our Core Values and accompanied by a series of Sorority history articles. “A special 125-year anniversary celebration was hosted in New York City and Syracuse, New York, in November to coincide with Founders Day,” L’Cena explains. “We stayed two nights at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and ate dinner on the top floor of the World Trade Center the first evening.” L’Cena Brunskill Rice served as International President from 1996-2000.