Dr. Jen Randall Reyes, a Buckhannon native who directs West Virginia Wesleyan College’s graduate counseling program, is one of WV Living magazine’s 2026 West Virginia Wonder Women.
The magazine honored the new class at its annual luncheon, with Jan Rader as keynote speaker, according to a release from New South Media, the magazine’s publisher. WV Living’s website lists 34 honorees.
Randall Reyes grew up in Buckhannon and earned a master’s degree in international affairs, planning to become a diplomat, according to her profile in the magazine. After September 11, 2001, she turned to counseling and spent nearly 20 years working in trauma and addiction before coming home. Wesleyan named her director of its new master’s program in clinical mental health counseling in 2023.
“I was operating under the false assumption that I had to get out, be more, and do more,” Randall Reyes told the magazine. “I learned we need people to stay here and be passionate about where we live.”
She credits Buckhannon teacher Roianne Hackett and counseling mentor Dr. Christine Schimmel with shaping her path, the profile says. She also serves with West Virginia CASA.
Debbie Schoonover, a lifelong Barbour County resident, is also in the class. She rose to chief operations officer at Barbour Community Health Association during 25 years there and is now retired, according to her profile.
So is Marsha Waybright, a Randolph County native. My Buckhannon reported in September that Waybright was appointed in June as a Tygarts Valley Conservation District supervisor for Tucker County and founded the West Virginia School of Traditional Skills.
“So many women have accomplished extraordinary things without receiving the recognition they deserve. We created Wonder Women to change that,” WV Living Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Nikki Bowman Mills said in the release.
The others listed on the magazine’s 2026 page are Christy Baker (who grew up in Webster Springs), Niesha Campbell, Janice Cooley, Lisa Cooper, Jessica Deshler, Samantha Esposito, Stephanie Hockenberry, Jessica Hott, Torie Jackson, Jennifer Justice, Alicia Kalka, Dakota Karper, Tina Ladd, Clara Lehmann, Jassi Mason, Helen McGinnis, Brittany Miller-Baker, Nicole Moskes-Haverty, Mary Page Nemcik, Jill Newman, Ashley Onyewuchi, Valerie Piko, Jennifer Potter, Emily Rouse, Martha Gillespie Sams, Susan Shumaker, Susan Snowden, Jenny Totten, Ava Turner, Kirsten Williams and the Jefferson County Council on Aging.
The program began in 2014, according to WV Living’s website. Profiles of the 2026 honorees are available online, and the release says their stories appear in the magazine’s latest issue.
Community Bulletin
Family medicine physician Andrew Colebank, DO, has joined WVU Medicine St. Joseph's Hospital at the Brushy Fork Rural Health Clinic in Buckhannon, where he is now scheduling patients of all ages for appointments beginning in October. Read more →
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