Saint Ursula Academy is remembering Alicia Tidwell, a beloved staff member who left us too soon. Alicia Tidwell was an inspiration and mentor to so many young people and her impact on the Saint Ursula Academy community, and the entire Cincinnati community, will be felt for many years to come.  

Alicia came to Saint Ursula Academy in 2021. During her three years at SUA, she gave 110% and made an impact immediately. She developed relationships with all of the area Chambers of Commerce and reached out to partners of organizations who support all-female initiatives. Each day she made it a priority to make every girl who attends SUA feel that she belongs. She worked tirelessly to seek ways to provide the financial resources for all of our students through fundraising and networking. And she was a great listener and provided wise counsel to the students and to her colleagues. Her door was always open when someone needed to talk. 

 

Also served as moderator for Students in Cultural Unity (SICU) and the Purple Ribbon Clubs. Her office was home to many girls during lunch and after school. While VP was her official title, students, faculty, staff, and parents knew her as a friend, mentor, encourager, supporter, and cheerleader.

 

Alicia was instrumental in developing programming and advanced the school's efforts to create a culture that is inclusive to all students. With the leadership team, she helped Saint Ursula Academy win the Cincinnati Business Courier CLIMB Award (Cincinnati Lifts Inclusion and Minority Business).

 

Before she came to Saint Ursula Academy, her love and wisdom touched her colleagues at Luxottica, Health Care Access, and many clients of Riskversity, which provides expert risk management services for modern organizations across a variety of industries.

 

While at Luxottica, she was the Senior Manager of Diversity and Inclusion-North America.  In this role, she initiated, developed, deployed, and provided oversight to many Employee Resource Groups across North America.  Additionally, she led a national LuxTiger (Technology, Integration, Growth, Empowerment thru Relationships) mentoring program, raising over $4 million in donations and sponsorship to provide support for a diverse group of employees across 6000+ retail locations.  She spent her time, energy and effort to bring opportunities for students at Withrow University High School to reach, succeed, and graduate from a post-secondary institution of higher learning.

 

During her time at Health Care Access, Alicia served as a Community Engagement Manager.  Through her community connections and grant writing abilities, she acquired funds to support numerous clients of Health Care Access. She worked to understand the mission of various non-profit agencies across Cincinnati in order to provide access to services for her clients.  One of her notable projects was working with Cincinnati Public Schools to understand the barriers of pregnant students and ensure those students had access to resources to support them through their pregnancy and beyond.

 

At Riskversity, Alicia shared her mentoring experience by organizing Executive Coaching Sessions, worked with companies with minority talent recruitment, facilitated events promoting community in the workplace, and continued mentoring and coaching business leaders.

 

When Alicia wasn’t making an impact at one of her jobs, she was always ready to lend her expertise and experience to groups aiming to make a difference in the lives of others. Her vast volunteer experience included:

 

 

She was honored with multiple awards over the years:

 

Alicia’s leadership and passion for inspiring everyone around her to love deeply will be greatly missed.