TOP 20 IMPACT MAKERS AWARDS 2019
Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein and Jordan Fein
Top 20 Inspiring Mother/Daughter Impact Maker Award
Photo credit: Alexander's Fine Portrait Design
Saturday, January 5, 2019
The Ballroom at Bayou Place
In 2015, seventh-grader Jordan Fein and her mother, Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein, partnered with Gina Gaston Elie and her daughter, Lauren Elie, to found Flower Power Gives. The nonprofit salvages florals from luncheons, galas, and weddings to donate to civic groups, charities, shelters, and other worthy causes. Since its inception, Flower Power Gives has salvaged over $500,000-worth of flowers.
With their mothers as their guides, the two young founders took responsibility for enlisting donors, recipients, and volunteers and coordinated pickup and delivery. They also developed a website and launched social media marketing for the organization. Jordan and Lauren have been honored for the work they do with Flower Power Gives with the 2018 YWCA Outstanding Youth Award and received Honorary Mention/First Runner Up for the 2017 Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The pair was also named one of Houston Chronicle’s Most Fascinating People of 2016. In 2018, Jordan and Lauren were honored by CKW LUXE magazine with the Shooting Star Award.
Jordan is now a high school sophomore at The Kinkaid School. At Kinkaid, she has achieved academic honor roll every semester, was inducted into the French Honor Society, was selected as a participant for the Kinkaid – Texas Heart Institute Field Trip, and joined Dr. Rick Hodes’ breakout session learning about his patients in Ethiopia.
Jordan has traveled to all seven continents and has developed a passion for animal rights and conservation. While visiting a manatee sanctuary with her family in Iquitos, Peru, Jordan became interested in marine biology.
An avid volunteer, Jordan has been an integral part of the Kinkadian yearbook staff since eighth grade; has volunteered for Beth Yeshurun and Jewish Family Service; and, with her family, serves Thanksgiving lunch to the homeless every year. In addition to her charitable work with Flower Power Gives, Jordan cochaired the Rockin’ Resiliency Luncheon for the Women’s Fund in 2015 and The Health Museum’s 2017 “Never Count Us Out” Luncheon and served as co-honorary chair for the Rare Pearls Luncheon in 2018 with her mother and Gena and Lauren Elie. She also cochaired the Easter Seals of Greater Houston Hats Off to Mother’s Luncheon with her mother and Millette Sherman and her daughters.
Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein, a pediatric radiologist, advocates for strengthening humanity education within the curriculum and practice of medicine. She teaches at the McGovern Center for Humanities & Ethics and has worked with elementary school students through the Houston Bar Association’s Interprofessional Drug Education Alliance. She has served as president of the Houston Radiological Society, chair of Medical Specialty Societies for Harris County Medical Society, president of the Houston Symphony League, and president of the Beth Yeshurun Sisterhood to name only a few of her past service affiliations.
Some of her current board memberships include: the American Medical Women’s Association, Houston Symphony, Houston Ballet, and the Institute for Spirituality and Health. Kelli’s commitment, and the standard of excellence she brings to the numerous professional and nonprofit organizations with which she is affiliated, has resulted in many honors. Some of these include: being named one of the Women on the Move, being inducted into the March of Dimes/Houston Chronicle Best Dressed Hall of Fame, and being named one of Channel 13/Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America’s Women of Distinction. Kelli humbly received the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award with her husband, Martin Fein.
In service to the community, Kelli has chaired/cochaired events for the American Jewish Committee’s Institute of Human Relations, Brookwood Community, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, Children’s Museum of Houston, Community Immunity, Easter Seals, Fund for Teachers, and Habitat for Humanity, to name only a few. The opportunity to work with the remarkably inspired staff and volunteers of many vital institutions in the community has been a privilege and an honor for Kelli.
Transcending her career as a physician, Kelli is blessed as a mother, stepmother, and grandmother. In the spirit of tikkun olam, helping to repair the world, Kelli encourages her children to give back to the community. Flower Power Gives is an excellent example of a successful outcome of that encouragement. Kelli feels a visceral sense of eternal responsibility to all children of the world. This motivates her involvement in her community and beyond.
Kelli is indebted to the many mentors who have helped her along life’s path. Ever mindful of the shoulders of giants upon which she stands, Kelli continues the legacy of promoting excellence and success in the younger generation, thereby emboldening young women and men across the globe to heal the world.
Utilizing the inspiration they have been given to use their intelligence and empathy, Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein and her daughter, Jordan Fein, have brought about positive changes in the community that benefit many.
It is for all the reasons mentioned above, and many more, that Dr. Kelli Cohen Fein and Jordan Fein have been named a Top 20 Inspiring Mother/Daughter Impact Maker for 2019.