It was one of our toughest assignments yet: pick ten Western North Carolina women—just ten—who have interesting, newsworthy or otherwise noteworthy projects coming up in 2010. We started out with a very long list. (And we very much appreciate everyone who sent ideas our way.) To the women who didn’t make our list: keep up the good work. It was encouraging to hear about so many of you getting grants, starting new businesses, taking on big jobs and projects or otherwise shaking things up in our community this year. The ten women we selected are quite a diverse crew: a blogger, a publisher, a rock club marketer, two philanthropists, two artists, two politicians and a hospital administrator. Some are well known, others less so. Some are veterans in their fields, a few are just getting started. They’re not your typical power players. (Okay, so a couple of them are.) But they’re all powerful in different ways, and for very different reasons. They’re cool. And hot. And bound to make a splash in 2010.

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