Brandywine Valley Women Leaders 2025

As part of our celebration of 2025’s Women’s History Month, we’ve interviewed six exceptional women from our area. This collection of women leaders represents diverse fields — from the arts and philanthropy, to banking and hospitality, to government service and those who help small businesses.

These inspirational women come from a range of backgrounds and life experiences. Yet every one demonstrates excellence in her field, no matter if she’s the third-generation woman leader or the first in her family in her chosen profession. All generously shared their stories, their challenges and their successes.

Following this year’s theme of “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” we hope these stories — and the advice to future generations of women leaders — will inspire you, this month and beyond.

Abigail Adams

Executive Artistic Director Emerita, People’s Light

People’s Light is celebrating its golden anniversary. For half a century, the Malvern theater company has brought professional theater, world premieres and acclaimed educational programming to Chester County. And Abigail Adams has played a major role in shaping People’s Light into the renowned cultural institution it is today.

Growing up in Rose Valley, Adams developed her passion for the stage at the Hedgerow Theater Company, taking classes and working as an apprentice in the summers. After high school, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she learned the values she wanted to instill in her own theater. “After three years, it was pretty clear that I didn’t want to be an actor unless I could choose the play, director and cast,” she said.

Unsure of her next steps, Adams returned home and reached out to Danny Fruchter, a fellow Hedgerow alum and cofounder of the fledgling People’s Light, which she soon joined. “Everybody did everything in those days,” Adams recalled. In those early years, she acted in shows and wrote children’s plays, but more and more found herself drawn to directing.

In the four decades that followed, Adams directed over 80 plays at People’s Light, earning two Barrymore Awards along the way. She rose through the ranks to associate artistic director, then artistic director and later executive artistic director — breaking the mold in a largely male-dominated field. All the while, Adams taught aspiring actors at New York University, Bryn Mawr College, Carnegie Mellon University, Ontario’s Shakespeare Festival and Swarthmore College, where she was a faculty member for 10 years.

Adams’ approach as People’s Light’s artistic director mirrored how she directs her plays. “I thought of the institution as an artistic enterprise, an ongoing rehearsal in which we were constantly adjusting what we did based on what we were learning,” Adams said. “My job was to keep an eye on the big picture.”

Over the years, Adams worked with many talented people who shaped her leadership style — actors, fellow teachers and directors, consultants. Her most important mentor, however, was her late husband, Lee Devin. “He was a marvelous acting teacher and a very fine writer about theater. He helped shape a lot of my ideas,” said Adams.

Though Adams stepped down as executive artistic director in 2022, she’s stayed on part-time as the senior director of special projects and continues to direct plays. When it comes to her legacy at People’s Light, Adams is most proud of the values she’s instilled in the organization: “putting people first, curiosity, a wide-ranging aesthetic and working together as an ensemble.” Her legacy also extends across generations. “There are a number of women in the People’s Light company … that you could say I mentored,” Adams said. “I’ve felt I’ve been the one who benefited most!”

As People’s Light enters its 50th season, Adams is excited by where the theater is headed. “It’s a very challenging time, but People’s Light will continue to address those challenges with vigor, turn them into opportunities and thrive.”

For Future Women Leaders

“Here are my five pieces of advice: Do what you need to do to be healthy. Seek thought partners who can both challenge and affirm. Take the long view. Listen deeply but follow your intuition — you’ve been hired to be the scout up ahead. Values and mission should infuse all that you do. And remember that in any organization, it’s always a ‘we,’ never an ‘I.’”

Lydia Willits Bartholomew

Board Chair & Vice President, National Bank of Malvern

The only woman-owned bank in Pennsylvania — and one of just 17 in the country — is located in Malvern and has been in Lydia Willits Bartholomew’s family since its founding in 1884. “The women in my family have been active in the bank for generations,” said Bartholomew about the National Bank of Malvern.

The legacy of women bankers started with Bartholomew’s grandmother, Aida Highley, who inherited shares in the bank in 1905 when her father, William Penn Evans, a bank founder, died. Aida joined the board upon her husband’s death in the 1920s.

Bartholomew’s mother, Lydia Willits, happened to be born in the brick Victorian building on King Street that’s still the main bank branch location, back when the upper floors were apartments. “My mother was also my mentor and champion. She remained involved in the bank until shortly before her death in 2012 at age 99,” said Bartholomew.

Beginning as a teller at age 15, Bartholomew became branch manager in 1975 before ultimately holding her current position as Board Chair. Her daughter, Jamie Bartholomew Aller, is now General Counsel for the bank — making the fourth generation of women playing vital roles in a profession that’s overwhelmingly male at the higher levels. Although the current CEO, a 40-year employee, is male, most of other roles at the bank are filled by women.

Strong women bankers kept the bank running through the Great Depression in the 1920s and the Recession of 2008. Bartholomew’s grandmother was also active in the women’s suffrage movement, marching for women’s voting rights in West Chester, and her mother worked with Margaret Sanger on family planning. When asked how she learned the banking business, Bartholomew said, “I learned from my mother. On the job, going into the bank on weekends. My mother started Saturday banking in Chester County. And she started drive-through banking.”

Founded on Quaker values, this small, independent, full-service community bank has played a significant role helping residents and small businesses for generations. Quaker values of stewardship put the bank at the forefront by helping family farmers and other landowners, especially those with land under conservation easements. “We’ve played a key role in preserving thousands of acres of land,” said Bartholomew.

And Quaker values of equity ensured over the generations that women got fair treatment when seeking loans to start their businesses. “My mother was keen to support women in business, especially those who had real estate to secure their loans.” And that support continues.

Quaker values of community also helped the bank survive — with its $200 million in assets and about 4,000 individual and small business customers. “We have Olympic equestrians as well as shop owners who come into our bank,” said Bartholomew. Many local equestrians are no doubt attracted by Bartholomew’s decades-long avocation, including at the reins of her carriage in steeplechase parades and Devon marathons.

Today, granddaughter Lydia Aller is primed to join the next generation of female bankers — sometime after she finishes the sixth grade at Episcopal Academy.

To Future Women Leaders

“Believe in yourself. Treat people the way you’d like to be treated. Be friendly. Meeting new people builds your skills as a leader. Have the courage to meet challenges and seize opportunities. Think of your job as a journey from one generation to the next.”

Glenda Brion

Founder & CEO, Community Warehouse Project

Glenda Brion has been helping families in need for decades. Raised by a single mother, Brion grew up knowing how financial hardships can impact a family. “I didn’t realize until much later in life how much that influenced my interest in helping those who are struggling financially,” she said.

Early in her career, Brion worked for Legal Aid of Chester County, helping clients facing eviction stay in their homes. Later, she joined Friends Association, a West Chester nonprofit that works with children and families facing homelessness. Starting as a volunteer, she went on to serve as a board member and development director.

Her work at Friends Association led Brion to realize a simple yet important need in the community: furniture. While Friends Association helps families secure housing, many have few belongings to furnish their new home. Using her fundraising contacts, Brion developed an “SOS list” of generous donors to call when families needed furniture. “I was shocked by how much quality stuff people had to donate,” she said.

After a “short retirement stint,” Brion decided to start the Community Warehouse Project (CWP), a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes gently used furniture to those in need. Partnering with over 100 agencies, including Friends Association and Safe Harbor of Chester County, the organization brings Brion’s important work to individuals and families across the county. In the last fiscal year, CWP served 546 households, including 742 adults, 601 children and 124 veterans.

Brion leads her team, comprised of 50 volunteers, a board of directors and a single staff member, first and foremost by modeling. “Everyone knows that I will do the grunt work necessary at the warehouse: unloading donations, organizing the furniture, et cetera,” she explained. This involves prioritizing what’s most important — beds and bedding, then dishes, a sofa, dresser and so forth — and focusing on what they can do, rather than worrying about what they can’t. “As long as we’re following our mission, I know it will all fall into place as best it can.”

Brion draws inspiration from Regina Lewis, Friends Association’s former executive director. “She was no-nonsense but with a smile on her face,” Brion recalled. “She had a lot of confidence in her leadership. She wasn’t afraid to make hard decisions, even if they were sometimes controversial.”

Through it all, Brion has been driven by her mission to help children. “My experience at Friends Association shaped me for what was yet to come with the Community Warehouse Project: being a volunteer, holding the hand of a child who was in the shelter, taking them to a parade in West Chester, seeing firsthand what these families were facing with homelessness and the difficulties that caused for children,” she said. “Ultimately, that’s what motivates me the most.”

You can help families in need by supporting the Community Warehouse Project: donating clean, gently used furniture and household items, shopping CWP’s Amazon wish list, contributing financially or volunteering. Learn more at CommunityWarehouseProject.com.

To Future Women Leaders

“I think it is very important to use your time and experiences to do the kind of work you love and have a passion for. I am convinced that if you do what you believe in, you will become a leader because you want your passion project to be successful. This can happen at any age, so don’t give up! Believe in yourself and follow your instincts.”

Carolyn Comitta

Pennsylvania Senator

“I always wanted to be the first woman on the moon,” said Senator Carolyn Comitta when asked what goals she’d yet to attain. Moving from the classroom to the boardroom to 20 years in government service, Comitta has kept alive this childhood dream, sparked from evenings looking at the starry sky, searching for Sputnik.

Growing up in Downingtown, graduating from Downingtown High School and West Chester University, Comitta’s local roots run deep. Early experiences participating in the first Earth Day, Outward Bound and living in Chester County led to a lifelong passion for protecting the environment, still prominent in her policy agenda. Playing musical instruments and being in the band evolved into ongoing support for the arts.

Other early influences came from books — “Anne of Green Gables,” “Silent Spring,” “Miracle Worker” (story of Helen Keller and teacher Anne Sullivan) — and strong female role models from history, like Abigail Adams, wife and mother of presidents. “I’ve often asked myself what Abigail Adams would do,” said Comitta.

Beginning her career as a teacher and curriculum advisor in Octorara’s school district started Comitta on a path of teaching, learning and communicating. After a break to raise her family, she was urged (again) to run for West Chester Borough Council in 2006. “After talking to a hundred people, I decided I was ready,” said Comitta. “And I loved it! I loved engaging with people.”

Next, lunch with West Chester University’s first woman president, Madeleine Wing Adler, prompted Comitta to run for mayor of West Chester. Again, she talked with a hundred people and decided she’d give it a try. “I was the first woman and first bipartisan-elected mayor of West Chester,” said Comitta, a Democrat, who was also the write-in Republican candidate. “The mayor’s office was a chance to bring people together. That’s what I wanted to do.”

After two terms as mayor, Comitta was committed to public service, leading to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, which she won in 2016 by only 25 votes.“If there was ever a lesson of how every vote counts, this was it!” she said. Her reelection was by a comfortable 13-point margin.

When a Pennsylvania senate seat opened up in 2020, Comitta asked herself, “Am I good enough? Then I looked around and realized I could do at least as well as others in leadership roles.” This time she didn’t need to ask a hundred people. She won with 57% of the vote and continued her advocacy for issues that mattered to her district — quality education, affordable healthcare, clean air and water, a competitive economy.

Grateful for the support of other women leaders, Comitta prioritizes mentoring others, especially young women and students through such efforts as the Student Advisory Council for high school students who learn about government service and share their perspectives. Her past and present committee assignments — Environmental Resources and Energy, Education — and appointments — Commission on Women, Women’s Health Caucus — demonstrate lifelong values.

“I’m working to leave behind a stronger, safer, cleaner, healthier planet for future generations,” Comitta said. Perhaps so a young woman can walk on the moon.

To Future Women Leaders

“Take good care of yourself — both for yourself and so you have the energy and joy to help others. Lead with you own gifts. And try not to be your own biggest critic — too many women do this. Fortunately, young women now are getting better at being less self-critical.”

Sydney Grims

Director of Business Development, Fearless Restaurants

A third-generation restaurateur, Sydney Grims was quite literally raised in the family business. Some of her earliest memories are in the pastry kitchen at Passerelle, her father’s (Fearless Restaurants’ Marty Grims) French restaurant in Wayne. At 12, she started checking coats on Saturday nights. “It was a great way to learn the value of a dollar,” Grims reflected. She spent her first paychecks at the Anthony Wayne Theater and saved up for a pair of sunglasses, which she’s kept to this day.

In high school, Grims worked as a greeter at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia. “On my first day, Snoop Dogg walked in, and the Dalai Lama walked out,” she recalled. When the 2008 recession threatened her job, Grims was determined to stay at the hotel. She took a job as a laundress alongside two women from Cambodia who taught her hard work and compassion, sharing their experiences as immigrants. This experience served her well in her career, when she’s worked with people from around the world.

Grims went on to Cornell’s prestigious Nolan School of Hotel Administration, graduating magna cum laude. While in school, she interned for Hersha Hospitality Trust but soon realized her true passion was in restaurant operations. “I wanted to be with people, not behind a desk,” said Grims. After graduation, she moved to Manhattan, where she worked for industry giant Hillstone Restaurant Group and later as hospitality director for billionaire and philanthropist Ron Perelman, overseeing service in his 18 homes, yachts and superjet.

In 2017, the University of Pennsylvania approached Fearless Restaurants to open a new eatery near campus. Her father tapped her for the job, and Grims returned home to the family business, opening Louie Louie, a French-inspired bistro, in 2018.

By the end of 2025, Grims will have opened 10 restaurants with Fearless, including The Deck at Moshulu, Rosalie at the Wayne Hotel and new White Dog Café locations in Glen Mills and Chester Springs. The latter was their largest investment, taking four years to develop the historic Vickers Tavern property, now one of Fearless Restaurants’ biggest — and busiest — locations.

Though Grims has seen many successes, it hasn’t always come easy. Her biggest challenge has been adapting to the Fearless company culture, vastly different from her experiences in New York, where leaders rule with an iron fist. “It’s hard to unlearn bad culture, and to learn and enact good culture, when you were taught through a fear-based approach,” Grims said. She credits Joel Halperin, her mentor at Hillstone, for teaching her to be a positive leader, as well as her father and coworkers at Fearless.

In 2025, Grims has two more restaurants on the horizon. Triple Crown Restaurant, Events and Garden opens at the Radnor Hotel this spring. Later this year, a second Testa Rossa, Fearless’ “funky” Italian American kitchen, comes to Wayne (the first opened late 2024 in Glen Mills).

Looking ahead, Grims aspires to one day return to the hotel business. She dreams of another local hotel on the Main Line and later, a bed-and-breakfast somewhere — maybe Italy, New England or North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. “I want to provide boutique, customized service that I would feel really proud of,” Grims said.

To Future Women Leaders

“Have an outlet outside of work that you’re passionate about, something that keeps you going every day and really sets your soul on fire. Don’t be afraid to negotiate your salary. Know that it’s okay to outsource things — you can’t do everything. Most importantly, surround yourself with good friends. Female friendships are really important, so surround yourself with women who challenge you and are in a similar place professionally.”

Katie Walker

President, Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce

When Katie Walker was named president of the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce in 2021, there was no shortage of confidence that she would succeed — after all, she’d done it before.

Walker described her career path as “a little nontraditional.” A psychology major at Cabrini University, she was unsure what to do after graduation. She spent a year selling ads in the Yellow Pages, and though it was an important learning experience, it wasn’t the right fit for her. That’s when she heard from a friend that the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce was looking for a membership salesperson.

In her six years with that chamber, Walker rose to Vice President of Membership Development, leading a sales team and growing the chamber to over 1,000 members. When the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce sought a new president, Walker told her boss, chamber president Jack Holefelder, that she was interested in the position. “He was amazing, as any boss should be for employees looking to grow,” Walker said. He coached her through the application and interview process, and Walker got the job.

At just 27, Walker faced questions about her age and experience level. “There were assumptions to overcome,” she said. And she certainly overcame them — Walker again grew the chamber’s membership, this time to be one of the largest in the county.

After nearly seven years as chamber president, Walker was ready to try other leadership roles, first at the YMCA of Greater Brandywine then as executive director of Greater Harleysville and North Penn Senior Services, SkillsUSA Council and the Association of Title IX Administrators, a national organization. At the onset of the pandemic, Walker moved back to West Chester to be closer to friends and family. She reached out to Christy Cosgrove, incoming chamber board chair, hoping to volunteer with the chamber. Instead, Cosgrove offered Walker her old job back. “I had never considered it,” she admitted. “But next thing you know, I was president again!”

Through all the moves she’s made in her career, Walker is especially proud of the relationships she’s built. “Being part of a chamber of commerce, you get to meet so many smart, hardworking, interesting people,” she said. “I’ve always really admired small business owners who take a risk and build something from the ground up, especially those who take it one step further — giving back to the community, sponsoring events, sitting on boards, volunteering.” This emphasis on relationships has shaped Walker’s leadership style. “I’ve never really been comfortable with people calling me their boss,” she said. “I’m a big believer that as a leader, your role is to hire, work with and encourage your team members to be even better than you.”

After successfully navigating the chamber through the pandemic, Walker is optimistic about West Chester’s future. “We have a new hotel, new restaurants and an amazing partnership with West Chester University,” she said. The chamber runs around 85 to 90 events per year, from the Christmas parade, attracting 20,000 spectators annually, to networking events and ribbon cuttings.

“I absolutely love this community. I live here, I have a five-minute commute, my friends and family are all close by,” said Walker. “My focus is here in West Chester.”

To Future Women Leaders

“Embrace your unique perspective and lead with confidence. Stay true to your values, build strong networks and never underestimate the power of collaboration. Prioritize continuous learning, resilience and self-care. Leadership is about inspiring others, so foster an inclusive environment where every voice matters. Stay focused, stay passionate and lead with purpose.”