Ms. Harkness began her legal career as an estate and trust officer in 1979 in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1981 she moved to Washington, DC and became a legislative assistant to a Senator on Capitol Hill. She managed banking, housing, taxes, and Indian affairs. After a few years, Ms. Harkness started her family and began a career of volunteer service. She was a Girl Scout leader for five years, volunteered in the schools, and at “So Others Might Eat.” Once her children left the nest, she began working at Crossway Community, a three-year skill-building and residential living program for economically disadvantaged single mothers and their children. At Crossway Community, she worked on fund raising, writing grant applications, working in the before school breakfast program, and wrote the application for the first charter school in Montgomery County.  She was on the Board of Hope for Children, a non-profit dedicated to supporting the education and welfare of children whose parents were affected by AIDS and poverty. In 2012, after moving to Chicago, Ms. Harkness was on the Board of “Save Abandoned Babies (SAB),” a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of the safe, legal options under the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act. The work at SAB included fund raising, lobbying and educating the community about the law. Ms. Harkness graduated from the University of Mississippi with a B.A. in psychology, sociology, and philosophy and a J.D. from the law school.

“My hope is to help unite and empower women for the greater good. Impact 100 accomplishes these goals by bringing women together to support non-profits in a meaningful way in the greater Washington area.”