Effective leaders don’t come from one mold. The women featured below have excelled in nontraditional industries due to their talent, vision, perseverance and the (sometimes unlikely) mentors who guided their trajectory. They shared their stories with us — where they started, their rise to leadership and their thoughts on mentoring the next generation of powerful women.

I’ll admit, my best mentors have been men, and I am grateful for their unwavering support and guidance. I’ve also experienced the confusion and frustration when a female collaborator turned competitive, when a hand that could have opened a door instead shut it in my face. 

For me, and all the mothers I know, the experience of being a parent has influenced every aspect of our lives, including our careers. I have found that women who make great leaders also make great mothers, and great mothers also have the skills to be great leaders. But employers don’t always see that connection.

In 2012, we reported on the growing number of men seeking plastic surgery in the Capital Region (“Male Enhancement” by Allen Young, March 2012). We caught up with one of the doctors interviewed, Dr. Debra Johnson of the Plastic Surgery Center of Sacramento, to see what the makeup of her waiting room looks like now.

I have an hourly employee who I cannot get to stop working off the clock. I’ve asked him to only work while on the clock, but the problem persists. I think he’s trying to be helpful, but I’m worried about our liability on the matter and am unsure how to address it with my employee.

We’ll be hearing a whole lot of buzz about wage parity this year — in part because groundbreaking research conducted by New York University, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Haifa in Israel identifies flat-out gender bias as the elephant in the room affecting wage parity. This new study, titled “Occupational Feminization and Pay,” is the single most comprehensive study on wage parity in the U.S. to date.

Thoughtful leaders build teams and environments where people get stuff done effectively. Celebrating the successful efforts of employees is a great way to encourage future successes. What else do celebrations reinforce?

Women have made huge strides in corporate America. But they continue to encounter hurdles far higher than those faced by their male counterparts, particularly in fields still dominated by men. Women remain vastly underrepresented at virtually every level of the corporate ladder.

Jobs have returned to Sacramento. Many surveys, such as the Sacramento Business Review, show that the region’s employment rates have returned to pre-recession levels. Nearly 25,000 jobs came back just last year alone. Unfortunately, two-thirds of that growth is in retail and hospitality jobs that typically pay low wages, while higher-paying jobs achieved only modest gains. Can we do better?

Hot Italian is one of the hottest food brands in Sacramento, and Lepore is a leading proponent of sustainable building design. Her brick-and-mortar restaurant in midtown Sacramento, the Hot Italian Pizza & Panini Bar, has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as silver LEED-certified.

Of the four largest private employers in the region, three of them are health systems — Kaiser (10,000 employees), Sutter (9,000) and Dignity Health (7,000). And whether it’s a new trend, a bit of gender-equity karma or just a wonderful coincidence, in this critical sector of the economy, all four of the region’s health centers are led by female executives.

Sarah Sciandri is looking for a woman, but finding one is tougher than she thought. The 34-year-old likes her job as a marketing manager for the Sacramento architecture firm Nacht & Lewis, but she wants a female mentor to help move her career forward.

An African-American employee is told that he “doesn’t sound black,” a Jewish employee hears that she “doesn’t look Jewish” and a gay staffer’s supervisor tells him he “doesn’t act gay.”

Those are real-life stories, according to several experts on workplace discrimination.