Four Corners Summit Honors Local Leaders, Draws 450 Attendees
More than 450 people attended the Four Corners Professional Women’s Summit on Nov. 7 at the Farmington Civic Center, where the Farmington Chamber Foundation recognized two downtown business owners and a nonprofit professional for leadership that supports local economic and healthcare resilience. The event also included 50 scholarship students and keynote presentations, underscoring investments in workforce development and community vitality.
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On Nov. 7 the Farmington Civic Center hosted the Four Corners Professional Women’s Summit, an event that brought together business leaders, nonprofit professionals and students to highlight leadership and investment in San Juan County’s economic and social infrastructure. Organized by the Farmington Chamber Foundation, the summit drew more than 450 attendees, including 50 scholarship students, signaling strong local engagement with workforce pipelines and community leadership development.
The Chamber Foundation presented Business Women of the Year honors to Beverly Taylor and Tara Taylor of Artifacts 302, a downtown Farmington business, and named Audra Winters of the San Juan Medical Foundation as Nonprofit Professional of the Year. According to organizers, awardees emphasized sustaining downtown vitality and the role of community-centered healthcare support in maintaining local quality of life.
Keynote addresses came from Theresa Larson of Movement Rx and Lamiaa Laurene Daif of Exit Velocity. The speakers and award winners reinforced themes of entrepreneurship, community health, and professional development that have direct implications for San Juan County’s local economy. The presence of 50 scholarship recipients highlights a tangible pipeline for training and connecting students to local employers and nonprofit work, an investment in human capital that can contribute to long-term economic stability.
For downtown businesses like Artifacts 302, public recognition from a chamber-backed summit can translate into greater visibility and community support, which in local economies often helps increase foot traffic and consumer spending. For the San Juan Medical Foundation, recognition of nonprofit leadership underscores the critical role of healthcare organizations in community well-being and workforce retention—particularly in rural and semi-rural counties where access to services and health outcomes are closely tied to local economic performance.
The size and composition of the summit—several hundred attendees with a notable cohort of scholarship students—also suggest an active civic infrastructure that connects education, business, and nonprofit sectors. That cross-sector engagement matters for policy discussions at the municipal and county level, where decisions about downtown development incentives, training programs, and support for nonprofit services can shape economic trajectories.
While the summit celebrated individual achievements, its broader significance lies in the signals it sends about local priorities: sustaining a vibrant downtown commercial district, supporting community-based healthcare, and investing in the next generation of professionals. Those priorities align with conventional economic levers that communities use to stabilize employment, retain residents, and attract visitors. Organizers and participants left the Farmington Civic Center with reinforced networks and public recognition that may spur collaboration between businesses, nonprofits, and educational programs in San Juan County.
