SocialMiami Remembers: Maria Browne
The champion for Women of Tomorrow is remembered by the organization's co-founder Jennifer Valoppi.
It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of Maria Browne a WOT Philanthropic Founder, longtime supporter of our organization and wife of our co-Founder Don Browne.
Maria has been an important advocate and wise advisor to this organization, and to me personally for more than two decades.
She helped champion our first gala at the NBC6 studios back in the spring of 2002, at a time when the country was reeling from 9/11 the previous September and NBC was racked with an anthrax threat.
It set the stage for every fundraising event since.
She had a knack for garnering celebrity guests and new donors, championing fundraising for the Cushman School, and being there whenever we needed her.
Maria was the ambassador and first lady of NBC6 and Telemundo, well known to all of us who worked there.
We all know that Don has long been an advocate for women and minorities in the workplace and it was Maria, his equal, who was no doubt his heart, his inspiration and his strongest supporter.
Maria, a Cuban exile, also had a successful career as one of the first female executive bankers in South Florida and was the first Hispanic Miss Florida USA.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Don, their sons Chris and Ryan, their daughter-in-law Julie and their granddaughter and new grandchild on the way. We will miss her dearly.
In Lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to Women of Tomorrow for a scholarship fund that is being established in Maria’s name. Donate Now – Women of Tomorrow Mentor & Scholarship Program, Inc. (thankyou4caring.org)
— Jennifer Valoppi , Founder & President, Women of Tomorrow Mentor & Scholarship Program
Jennifer Valoppi is a multi-Emmy Award winning TV journalist, award winning author and social entrepreneur, who has been recognized 10 times on the floor of the United States Congress and is a recipient of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Points of Light Award, the highest honor in Florida.
As an author, Valoppi recently re-released her best-selling sci-fi novel, Certain Cure: Where Science Meets Religion (Murray Hill Press 2020/2008) and is in the process of writing book two of the trilogy. THE WAY IT WAS: My Life with Frank Sinatra (Hachette Books/October 24, 2017), is a candid and eye-opening look at Frank Sinatra, a personal friend of Valoppi’s, written by Valoppi as told by his long-time manager, Eliot Weisman.
As Founder & President of the Women of Tomorrow Mentor & Scholarship Program, Valoppi designed and directs the unique program aimed at helping minority and at-risk young women life up to their full potential. WOT currently mentors 4000 girls annually in 160 public high schools in South Florida and Metro Detroit with a network of hundreds of highly accomplished professional women. Now in its 26th year, 24,000 young women have been touched by the program and over $8 million dollars in college scholarships have been awarded to its graduates.
Valoppi makes frequent appearances discussing issues of journalistic ethics, female empowerment, mentoring, and her books. She is a veteran TV news anchor and host in Miami, New York and Los Angeles and has hosted numerous network, local, cable and nationally syndicated programs as well as consulting on and appearing in film.
Valoppi was the lead anchor at NBC6 Miami from 1994-2005, taking the station from a distant #2 to #1 in the ratings in a matter of two months and remaining there through her tenure as anchor.
