Online educator Lynda Weinman and journalist Starshine Roshell will be honored at the 2011 Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. June 1 at Hotel Mar Monte, 1111 East Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara.

This year’s theme is “From Ink to Internet: Honoring Visionaries in Communication.”

Weinman is co-founder and executive chair of Carpinteria-based lynda.com, one of the largest online education companies in the world. Started in 1997 and ranked the 12th-fastest growing company in education by Inc. magazine last year, lynda.com has gained international recognition as a top resource for online learning.

Roshell is a nationally syndicated columnist and the author of two books, Keep Your Skirt On and Wife on the Edge. Her column appears weekly in the Independent and won a first-place award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. The association gave her a second-place award for business reporting. She teaches creative nonfiction writing at SBCC and UCSB Extension.

“I am continually honored and humbled by the recognition we receive for our work in education, especially from our members, who tell us that the way we teach and communicate with them drives our their success beyond their expectations,” Weinman said. “I also am grateful that organizations like yours recognize the value of our work.”

“Writers are like actors — insecure and in need of constant validation,” Roshell said. “Writing is a solitary task, and if you knew how many days I sat staring at my computer screen thinking, ‘No one is going to care about this. No one is going to read this. I should open a cupcake boutique,’ you would consider me more pathetic than award-worthy. But knowing that someone is reading, someone is caring, keeps my at my keyboard and keeps me committed to searching for a better word to use, a better way to make that point, a better ending to each story.”

Tickets for the luncheon are $50 in advance and $55 at the door. Santa Barbara Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications is for communication professionals in the region to provide access to role models and leaders in the communication fields, as well as exposure to current trends and related research and technologies to members. For more information, click here or email awcsb1@gmail.com.

— Kathleen Barry represents the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications.