A member of the Arlington Rotary Club and leader at an Arlington homelessness nonprofit has received a local leadership award.
Liz Nohra received the Inter-Service Club Council of Arlington’s 2025 Community Leader Award at the organization’s 86th annual awards luncheon, held at Washington Golf & Country Club last week.
Professionally, Nohra is vice president of philanthropy at PathForward, formerly the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network, where she puts her humanitarian instincts into practice.
“Arlington is the most caring community I’ve ever known,” she said.
A resident of the county since 2009, Nohra moved back to her native Ohio during the pandemic. Despite the familiar surroundings, she said, it wasn’t the right fit.
“My heart was broken without Arlington, and I needed to come back,” Nohra said.
In remarks, Nohra noted two mentors: Her father, who shaped her views on community service through his own actions, and civic leader and PathForward CEO Betsy Frantz, who “has inspired me beyond words.”
Her fellow Rotary Club members “give their heart and their soul” into community service, she added.
Jeff Englander of the Optimist Club of Arlington oversaw the selection process. He said Nohra was selected from among several strong submissions by member organizations this year.
“We get some really phenomenal nominations,” he said, adding that he farms out the selection to friends and colleagues across the country to ensure impartiality.
“All of them called me up and said Liz was amazing,” Englander said.
The Inter-Service Club Council has presented annual awards since the 1950s. Until 2022, it bestowed Man of the Year and Woman of the Year Accolades, and has presented a single Community Leader Award annually for the past three years.
Nohra’s two predecessors in receiving the honor were Charlie Meng of the Arlington Food Assistance Center in 2024 and Peter Olivere of Arlington Neighborhood Village in 2023.
The luncheon’s keynote speaker was Anita Friedman, director of the Arlington government’s Department of Human Services.
Friedman discussed her parents’ efforts escaping Europe during World War II, when other relatives were killed in the Holocaust, and what her mother and father taught her about the opportunities she had been given.
“In my parents’ minds, it was imperative to give back,” Friedman said.
She did so by joining the Peace Corps, serving in challenging environments in Paraguay, Peru and El Salvador. The experience, she said, taught her to “work with people at the grass-roots level, especially those who were marginalized.”
That background led her to the Department of Human Services and her philosophy of engagement.
Friedman said that a top-down approach to assistance is usually ineffective. Instead, leaders must “ask the people who are being impacted” for their input.
“They not only understand the problem, they usually have good solutions,” Friedman said. “The community wants to have a role in their future.”
“We needed to hear that,” said Sandy Bushue, president of the Inter-Service Club Council.
Bushue, a member of the Arlington Optimists, said the county is blessed in many ways but has ongoing challenges with economic and other disparities. She said one thing that makes Arlington special is its commitment to aiding those less fortunate.
“We do amazing work — we live in a great county,” she said. “I complain about it, but I love it.”
