Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria’s cancer bout changed her perspective AND priorities, but didn’t stop her from leading a busy professional life that’s earned her Woman of Impact kudos.

El Paso Electric CEO Mary E. Kipp often wears cowboy boots to work on casual Fridays.

The El Paso native and 2016 Woman of Impact grew up in rural Lordsburg, N.M., then toted her Southwestern aura to Williams College in Massachusetts, University of Texas law school and Washington, D.C.

Marcela Navarrete is a perfect example of how hard work pays off.

This former Austin High School volleyball and soccer player earned an accounting degree from UTEP.

A CPA, the El Paso Water Utilities’ VP of Strategic, Financial & Management Services is honored, surprised and grateful at being named a 2016 Woman of Impact.

When Judy Robison thinks about what impacted her life, her aunt Maxine Phillippi comes to mind. It led to a college degree, Washington, D.C. digs, Department of Agriculture job.

This was because Robison grew up on an Oklahoma farm, watched her parents eke out a meager living, and thus realized early on the value of getting an education.

“Oh, Helen, go to high school! Those are the best years of your life! And if God calls you, you will know!”

Helen Santamaria heeded that teacher’s advice. Sister Helen, a 2016 Woman of Impact, felt the call in March 1961, her senior year at Loretto Academy in El Paso.

That September, Santamaria entered the convent and hasn’t looked back on her busy life of service.

Trust that somebody whose last college final exam on Edgar Allen Poe’s works would wind up as executive director of the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation. And that the same person would be the “PT” in the musical group PT and the Cruisers.

She is Patty Tiscareño and a 2016 Woman of Impact.