Women in Business Luncheon - Breaking Barriers: Women Who Mean Business

Join us for our women in business series summer luncheon featuring four women who are leading the way in their respective industries.

Patricia Allen - Savannah River Remediation
Patricia M. Allen is Environment, Safety, Health and Quality Assurance (ESH&QA), Contractor Assurance (CA) Director for Savannah River Remediation (SRR). In this capacity, she is responsible for integrated safety management, environmental compliance, radiological protection, industrial safety, industrial hygiene, training, procedures, emergency preparedness, quality assurance and contract performance.

Ms. Allen has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of nuclear operations, support, engineering, research and development, safeguards and security, environmental, safety and health, and technical management.  She has made a significant contribution to #SRS’s safety culture through a U.S. patent for rubber overshoes that emulate a slippery surface. Allen’s shoes have been used in a mobile slip simulator (which she also developed), allowing employees to safely experience techniques for walking across a sheet of ice or any other similarly slippery surface. The simulator has also been used at several #DOE sites. 

She also serves on the boards for the National Management Association (local chapter), North Augusta Chamber of Commerce - 2019 Board Chair, United Way of Aiken County and SRS Heritage Foundation. Ms. Allen holds certifications for Safety Trained Supervisor (STS) and Certified Performance Technologist (CPT).

Dr. Julie Blankenship - Brantley Chiropractic
Dr. Blankenship is a native of North Augusta. She attended two years at the University of South Carolina before completing an additional five years of education and Life University in Atlanta, Georgia.  She graduated for Life University in 1994 with a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degree. She also attained a post-graduate c-ray pathology and physiotherapy certification.  While in school, her research for the Atlanta Chapter of United Cerebral Palsy, utilizing a specific upper cervical technique, was published.  She continues to use this technique in her practice.  She has her national and state board certifications in Chiropractic for South Carolina and Georgia.  Dr. Blankenship is also board certified in the Atlas Orthogonal technique, which allows for an extremely precise and low-force method for adjusting a patients cervical spine (neck).

In July of 1995, Dr. Brantley at the time went into practice at 503 Georgia Avenue. She then built and  moved into her current office on West Avenue in 2002, where associated and massage therapists joined her practice. She is the president of Brantley Chiropractic, P.C. and a member of both the American and South Carolina Chiropractic Associations.  She is past president of the Augusta Lions Club and also served as an ambassador, chairman and board member of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Blankenship was most recently recognized as the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce 2018 Small Business of the Year.

Amy Hane, Long Term Liaisons
Amy received her Bachelor of Science degree and her Master’s of Social Work from the University of South Carolina.  She worked in the areas of mental health and hospice prior to working in home health and care management.  It was in her role as a Home Health social worker, that she gained an extensive knowledge of the long term health care arena and realized that much of our aging population and their caregivers struggle with how to make decisions related to care and in turn she founded Long Term Liaisons, LLC in 2011.  Her background has helped her develop an extensive knowledge of in-home care services, assisted living communities, nursing homes, long term care insurance, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration and additional resources necessary to educate and empower her clients and their families. 

She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and an Advanced Professional Member of the Aging Life Care Association. She is a licensed Master Social Worker in South Carolina and Georgia and is a Certified Advanced Social Work Case Manager.   


LTC Rachael O'Connell - Cyber Command Battalion
Lieutenant Colonel Rachael L. O’Connell was born and raised in Rochester, New York. She attended Mary Baldwin College and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.  She commissioned into the United States Army in 2002 as a Chemical Officer through the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)/Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership (VWIL). Upon completion of her assignment as Brigade S2 at Fort Riley, KS, LTC O’Connell became a graduate student at National Intelligence University (NIU), DIA HQ at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C. and received her Master’s Degree in Science and Technology Intelligence with a concentration in Weapons of Mass Destruction. 

Immediately following her tour at NIU, she completed her Intermediate Level Education (ILE) at the Fort Belvoir, VA Command and General Staff College.  She was then assigned to the 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber) as a Cyber Operations Planner and Officer in Charge of Training, Readiness, and Exercises (TREX) (2014-2015).  She voluntarily transitioned from MI Branch to Cyber in 2015 and has since served as the 101 Combat Mission Team Lead (CMT) for 782^nd Military Intelligence Battalion (2015-2017); Battalion Operations Officer, S3 for 781^st Military Intelligence Battalion (2017-2018); and Brigade S3 for 780^th Military Intelligence Brigade (2018).  She is currently serving as the Battalion Commander for the Cyber Training Battalion at Fort Gordon, GA.