Professional BusinessWomen of California

Speakers confirmed to date. Stay tuned for more.

Keynote Speakers

Amanda Gorman

First-Ever Youth Poet Laureate of the United States of America

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history. She is a committed advocate for the environment, racial equality and gender justice. Amanda’s activism and poetry have been featured on the Today Show, PBS Kids, and CBS This Morning, and in the New York Times, Vogue, Essence, and O magazine. After graduating cum laude from Harvard University, she now lives in her hometown of Los Angeles. In 2017, Amanda Gorman was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word – a program that supports Youth Poets Laureate in more than 60 cities, regions and states nationally. Amanda enamoured the crowd at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration with the performance of her poem The Hill We Climb. A special edition of her inaugural poem will be published in March 2021. Her debut picture book, Change Sings, and breakout poetry collection, The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, will be published in September 2021.

Dr. Bernice A. King

Chief Executive Officer, The King Center

Dr. Bernice A. King is a global thought leader, orator, peace advocate, and CEO of the King Center, which was founded by her mother, Coretta Scott King. From this position, Dr. King continues to advance her parents’ legacy of Kingian Nonviolence, which she rebranded Nonviolence365™️. Through her work at the Center, she educates youth and adults around the world about the nonviolent principles modeled by her parents. Under her leadership, the Center has implemented numerous initiatives, such as the annual Camp N.O.W. Leadership Academy, Nonviolence365 Trainings, and Beloved Community Talks.

Dr. King graduated from Spelman College with a BA in Psychology and from Emory University with a Masters of Divinity and Doctorate of Law. She also received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Wesley College. She is a trained mediator, a member of the State Bar of Georgia, International Women’s Forum, National Council of Negro Women, and 2020 Class of Leadership Atlanta. Dr. King was recently honored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation with the Co-Chair Phoenix Award. A noted author, she has to her credit Hard Questions, Heart Answers, a compelling and inspiring book.

Dr. King is an innovative leader dedicated to taking her parents’ legacy and teachings, the King Center, and the work of creating a more peaceful, just, humane world with Nonviolence365 into a new era.

Angela Ahrendts DBE

Chair of the Board, Save the Children International and Former SVP, Apple Retail and CEO, Burberry

Angela Ahrendts DBE is Chair of the Board, Save the Children International and former Senior Vice President, Apple Retail and Chief Executive Officer, Burberry.

At Apple, Angela integrated physical and digital businesses to create a seamless customer journey for over a billion visitors a year. Under her leadership, Apple redesigned stores, reimagined the customer experience, recrafted roles for 70,000 employees, and launched Today at Apple — a transformative program that encourages connection, inspires learning, and unlocks creativity for customers and communities worldwide.

Prior to Apple, Angela served as Chief Executive Officer, Burberry for nearly nine years, leading the company through a period of phenomenal global growth and repositioning it as a global luxury brand.
Before that, Angela was Executive Vice President, Liz Claiborne Inc. and President, Donna Karan International.

Angela has a BA and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Ball State University. She was a member of the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council and named Honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2014. Angela has consistently been recognized by Forbes, Fortune, and the BBC as a Top 100 Global Executive. She is a member of several boards of directors, including Ralph Lauren Corporation, Airbnb Inc., and WPP plc.

Valerie B. Jarrett

Senior Advisor to President Obama; Chair of the White House Council for Women and Girls (2009-2017)

Valerie Jarrett is the President of the Barack Obama Foundation and a Senior Distinguished Fellow at The University of Chicago Law School. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward, published in April 2019. She serves as Board Chairman of Civic Nation, Co-Chair of The United State of Women and senior advisor to Attn. Jarrett also serves on the boards of Walgreens Boot Alliance, Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Lyft, Inc., 2U, Inc., Ariel Investments, Time’sUp, The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, The Innocence Project, Sesame Street Workshop and the Economic Club of Chicago.

Ms. Jarrett was the Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama from 2009-2017, making her the longest serving senior advisor to a president in history. She oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Ms. Jarrett has a background in both the public and private sectors. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Habitat Company in Chicago, the Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago, Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and she practiced law for ten years in the private and public sector. She also served as the director of numerous corporate and not-for-profit boards including leadership roles as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, Vice Chairman of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees, Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Chair of Chicago Transit Board. Ms. Jarrett has also received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” Award.

Jarrett received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

Gloria Steinem

Writer, Lecturer, Political Activist and Feminist Organizer

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer. In 1972, Gloria co-founded Ms. magazine, and remained one of its editors for fifteen years. In 1968, she helped to found New York Magazine, where she was a political columnist and wrote feature articles. As a freelance writer, she was published in publications including Esquire and The New York Times Magazine.

Her books include the bestsellers My Life on the Road, Revolution from Within, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Moving Beyond Words, and her most recent, The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!

Gloria helped to found the Women’s Action Alliance, a pioneering national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, which continues to work to advance the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed offices. She also co-founded the Women’s Media Center.

She is the founding president of the Ms. Foundation for Women and a founder of its Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Gloria is currently working with the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College on documenting the grassroots origins of the U.S. women’s movement, and on a Center for Organizers in tribute to Wilma Mankiller, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Gitanjali Rao

Scientist, Student, and TIME’s 2020 Kid of the Year

Recognized as America's Top Young Scientist, Gitanjali Rao received an Environmental Protection Agency Presidential award for inventing Tethys—an early lead detection tool in water. Gitanjali is also the inventor of Epione—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and Kindly—an anti-cyberbullying service using Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language processing.

She was honored as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Science in 2019 and TIME’s Top Young Innovator and first-ever Kid of the Year in 2020 for her innovations and STEM workshops, which have inspired over 38,000 students globally in the last two years.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Director General, World Trade Organization

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General designate of the World Trade Organization and a global finance expert, economist, and international development leader. Most recently, she served as Board Chair for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. She was Nigeria’s Finance Minister and Foreign Minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015), the first woman to hold both positions. She is renowned as the first female and Black candidate to contest for the Presidency of the World Bank Group and was its Managing Director from 2007 to 2011. While at the World Bank Group, she oversaw its $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia, where she spearheaded initiatives that put gender issues in the spotlight and drove advancements in women's health and education.

Up until her recent Director General designation, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was also Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and Chair of the Board of the Nelson Mandela Institution. She was also a member of numerous boards and advisory groups, including Twitter Inc., the African University of Science and Technology in Nigeria, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Harvard University International Advisory Board. She founded Nigeria’s first ever indigenous opinion-research organization and the Center for the Study of Economies of Africa and is the recipient of numerous distinguished awards, including Forbes African of The Year, the International Service Award of the World Affairs Councils of America, Aminu Kano Award for Leadership, TIME’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World, and Forbes’ Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has received honorary degrees from prestigious colleges and universities worldwide. She has authored several books and numerous articles, including Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons and Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria. She is committed to inspiring the next generation of leaders.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Marine Biologist, Policy Expert, Writer and Founder, Urban Ocean Lab

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for coastal cities, and is co-creator and co-host of the Spotify/Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet. With Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, she co-edited the anthology All We Can Save, and co-founded The All We Can Save Project. Recently, she co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Waitt Institute, developed policy at the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, served as a leader of the March for Science, and taught as an adjunct professor at New York University. Dr. Johnson earned a BA from Harvard University in environmental science and public policy, and a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biology. She publishes widely, including in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and TIME, and she blogs on Scientific American. She was named one of ELLE’s 27 Women Leading on Climate. Outside Magazine called her “the most influential marine biologist of our time.” Her mission is to build community around solutions to our climate crisis.

Jessica Cox

Motivational Speaker, Consultant, and Guinness World Record Holder

Born without arms, Jessica now flies airplanes, drives cars, and otherwise lives a normal life using her feet as others use their hands. She holds the title of the first person without arms to earn a black belt in ATA Martial Arts and the Guinness World Record for being the first armless person in aviation history to earn a pilot’s certificate. Convinced that the way we think has a greater impact on our lives than our physical constraints, Jessica chose to pursue a degree in psychology at the University of Arizona. Since then she has developed a Possible Thinking Process and Achievement Model, which she has shared with audiences in 26 countries on six continents. Using these tools, Jessica teaches others how to courageously conquer challenges with creativity and unrelenting drive.

Nagin Cox

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars2020 Perseverance Rover Engineering Operations Deputy Chief

Nagin decided as a teenager that she wanted to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She achieved those early career goals and has held leadership and system engineering positions on interplanetary robotic missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Kepler exoplanet hunter, InSight, the Mars Curiosity Rover, and now the 2020 Perseverance Rover. She was also involved in the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) team, which will prototype making oxygen on Mars. She is currently a Tactical Mission Lead on the Mars Curiosity Rover as well as the Deputy Team Chief for the Engineering Operations Team for the Mars2020 Rover.

Before her time at JPL, Nagin served in the US Air Force, including duty as a Space Operations Officer at NORAD/US Space Command. She holds engineering degrees from Cornell University and the Air Force Institute of Technology as well as a psychology degree from Cornell. Nagin is honored to be the namesake for Asteroid 14061 and has received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals. She enjoys sharing stories of people behind the missions with audiences across the world. Her TED Talk on Mars Time has been viewed more than two million times.

Jasmine Crowe

Chief Executive Officer, Goodr

Jasmine Crowe is an award-winning social entrepreneur, TED Speaker, and leader who is working to make the world a better place one cause at a time. Jasmine’s goal is to foster change and create awareness about the leading socioeconomic issues and challenges of today, including poverty, food waste, and hunger. In 2017, after years of feeding people experiencing homelessness from her kitchen, she launched Goodr, a sustainable waste management company that leverages technology to combat hunger and reduce food waste. She has been featured on CNBC, Oprah Magazine, Inc., Forbes, The New York Times, and named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 100 influential female founders.

Under Jasmine’s direction, Goodr has redirected nearly 10 million pounds of surplus food from restaurants, event centers, airports, and businesses to millions of people who are food insecure. During the pandemic, Goodr introduced food distribution by organizing pop-up grocery stores for the community as well as launching a grocery delivery program. Since March 2020, Goodr has provided over twelve-million meals to people in need.

Anat Baron

CEO, Stashwall, Global Business Innovator, and Brand Builder

Anat Baron has been at the forefront of consumer trends shaping our world throughout her career. Anat’s eclectic background has included working internationally with hotel brands including Four Seasons, Holiday Inn and Radisson. She left her hospitality roots with a move to Los Angeles and became a Hollywood executive and producer. Anat is perhaps best known as the powerhouse behind Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Within three years, she grew Mike’s into a $200 million juggernaut—establishing a new category in the hypercompetitive alcoholic beverage industry. After leaving Mike’s, she combined her entertainment and business know-how to create Beer Wars, an award-winning feature-length documentary that examines capitalism and free enterprise in 21st-century America. Anat is currently the CEO of StashWall, Inc., an early-stage technology startup. As a speaker and futurist, she offers fresh perspectives on the big ideas and important questions shaping our future.

Stephanie Lampkin

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Blendoor

Stephanie Lampkin is Founder and CEO of Blendoor — diversity analytics and hiring software that helps exceptional companies attract and retain diverse talent. She has an 18-year professional career in the tech industry founding two startups and working at major tech companies including Microsoft, Deloitte, and TripAdvisor. Stephanie has a BS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Kara Goldin

Founder and CEO, Hint, Inc.

Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water. She has received numerous accolades, including being named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 Northern California and one of InStyle’s 2019 Badass 50. Previously, Kara was VP of Shopping Partnerships at America Online. She hosts the podcast The Kara Goldin Show. Her first book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, was released October 2020 and is now a WSJ and Amazon Best Seller. Kara lives in the Bay Area with her family.

Roz Ho

VP and Global Head of Software at HP

Roz Ho has led large global cross-functional teams including engineering, product management, marketing, and sales. She holds numerous patents in software and hardware innovations and was inducted to the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2018. As the Global Head of Software for Print at HP Roz currently leads a team that is responsible for integrating and modernizing all firmware, software, and cloud computing platforms and systems across HP Print. Roz had spent over two decades and held several key roles at Microsoft, including engineering roles in MS Office, General Manager of the Macintosh Business Unit, and eventually Corporate Vice President of Premium Mobile Experiences. Prior to joining HP, Roz held several senior executive leadership positions at TiVo as well as Ericsson Media Business Group.

A champion for women in technology, Roz has been involved in organizations dedicated to increasing the impact of women on all aspects of technology and has spoken at numerous conferences. She was featured in a documentary exploring the impact of gender in technology that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. She has also served on non-profit boards focusing on helping young people reach their potential. In her spare time, she loves to ski the steep and deep and travel to remote locations all over the globe with her family.

Dr. Syra Madad

Senior Director, Systems-wide Special Pathogens Program, NYC Health + Hospitals

Syra Madad is a nationally recognized leader and epidemiologist in public health and special pathogen preparedness and response. Over her career, Syra has led multiple infectious disease responses including to Ebola, Zika, Measles, candidaauris, and COVID19. As part of the NYC Health + Hospitals Incident Management Team, she currently provides ongoing support in infection prevention and control, infectious disease emergency management, and health care and public health strategic direction, policy, and guidance.

Syra has shared her expertise in over 50 publications and 70 scientific and medical conferences around the world and frequently appears in and is quoted by major media outlets. She plays one of the lead roles in the Netflix docuseries, Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak, which follows a handful of leaders working on the frontlines to prevent the next outbreak, and appears alongside Dr. Anothy Fauci in the new documentary The Vaccine: Conquering COVID, premiering on Discovery February 21, and streaming on Discovery+. Syra has held multiple faculty appointments, serves on numerous editorial boards, advising committees, and councils, and has been recognized through many awards including the prestigious J.V. Irons Award for Scientific Excellence and Fortune’s 40 Under 40.

Patricia K. Poppe

Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Patricia K. Poppe recently joined Pacific Gas and Electric after five years as President and CEO of CMS Energy and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy, where she focused on connecting the utility more closely with its customers and adapting lean operating system principles throughout the business. She held multiple leadership roles during her decade-long career with the Michigan company, served as a Power Plant Director at DTE Energy, and held a variety of plant management positions in the automotive industry.

Patricia serves on the executive committees for the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association. She is also a member of the Whirlpool Corporation Board of Directors. She earned an MA in management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and received a BA and MA in industrial engineering from Purdue University.

Jeffrey Rosen

President and CEO, National Constitution Center

Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center. He is also a Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School and a Contributing Editor of The Atlantic. Jeffrey is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He is the author of seven books including biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft. His most recent book is Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law. His essays and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, on National Public Radio, in the New Republic, where he was the legal affairs editor, and in The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer.

Kim Racine

Executive Director of Environment, Health, and Safety, Genentech

Kim Racine has been a leader on environment, health, and safety issues for over 20 years. She began her career in environmental consulting then transitioned to working in-house for high tech and medical device companies where she developed and implemented risk management programs and management systems and found passion in ergonomics, emergency preparedness, and sustainability.

Kim joined Genentech in 2014 as the leader in the Environment, Health & Safety Department where she oversaw improvement efforts for several programs. She became head of the company’s Environment, Health, and Safety Department in 2018 and has since led the organization to becoming more customer-focused -- realigning and simplifying her division’s work around the customer’s needs. More recently, Kim has served as the lead of Genentech's COVID-19 Task Force.

Kim holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is also a Certified Safety Professional, Certified Hazardous Materials Manager, and Lean/Six Sigma Brown Belt. She is passionate about climate change, leadership, and continuous improvement.

Ije-Enu N. Udeze Nwosu

Head of Impact Spending, Kaiser Permanente

UK born. California raised. Daughter of Nigeria. As a global child, Ije knows representation matters and so does connection. Currently, Ije serves as the Head of Impact Spending at Kaiser Permanente, leading its national Total Health Spend Optimization portfolio to ensure that spending decisions are environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially equitable. With a focus on bolstering spending in communities with the highest needs, Ije has oversight of sustainability, national supplier diversity, and economic community impact. In addition she leads KP POWER, amplifying gender-focused activities that attract, retain, and equitably advance women at Kaiser Permanente. She was formerly the Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, she was with the University of California system.

Ije serves on the boards of Girls Inc. of Alameda County, MAKERS@, Linkage - Advancing Women Leaders, and the Center for Environmental Health. She was named a Top 40 Under 40 executive by the San Francisco Business Times and was recognized by Modern Healthcare with the Up and Comer award and as one of the Top 10 Minority Executives in Healthcare to Watch. She co-founded Utuh USA, Inc. to promote economic revitalization in Eastern Nigeria and The Pink Couch, a movement focused on changing the world one uncomfortable conversation at a time. Ije earned an MBA from Pepperdine University, a BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, completed an Executive Leadership Residency at Harvard Business School and is a Carol Emmott Fellow.

Ije believes if no one is asking you to dance, then throw your own party! Don’t wait for permission or an invitation. Once you decide it is worth it, anything is within your reach.

Mahzarin Banaji

Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

Mahzarin Banaji is Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. At both Harvard and Yale, where she taught previously, she received awards for teaching excellence. Mahzarin was elected to the American Academy of Arts Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the British Academy, and the National Academy of Sciences. She received the Deutsch Award for Social Justice, the Lewin Award for the Integration of Science and Social Action, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology’s Award for Scientific Impact, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution. She was recognized by the Association for Psychological Science’s William James Fellow Award for “a lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology.”

Lisa Epifani

Manager, ESG and Sustainability, Chevron

Lisa Epifani leads Chevron’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Sustainability team, which manages engagement with investors and other stakeholders on related issues. In addition, the team advises Chevron’s executives and the Board on ESG trends and stakeholder expectations, leads Chevron’s ESG reporting activities, and coordinates experts across Chevron on ESG matters. Lisa joined Chevron in 2014 as the Manager of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs (LRA) in Chevron’s Corporate Affairs group.

Previously, Lisa was a partner with the Van Ness Feldman Law Firm in Washington, D.C. and served in various governmental roles developing energy policy and strategy. She was appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. Lisa also served at the White House on the National Economic Council as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush covering energy and environmental issues. She was Counsel on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee under then-Chairman Domenici. Lisa received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1997 and a Bachelor of Arts in the Plan II Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. She was a Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2009.

Marne Dunn

Change and Culture Program Manager, Intel Corporation

In her 26 years in the corporate world, Marne Dunn has served in business, technical, and management roles in IT, business platforms, corporate affairs, and human resources. She’s currently focused on evolving Intel’s culture to support the future of work, a multi-year journey impacting every employee around the world. Dedicated to supporting employees through transition, Marne earned an integral coaching certification from New Ventures West. She is an Intel Employee Services Corps alum andavid volunteer with a passion for developing and empowering others through coaching. Her career highlights include large scale SAP deployments, SAP SME, vPro ROI development, and the Africa Intel She Will Connect Program.

Shannon Smith

Head of Enterprise Portfolio Delivery and Agile Transformation, SVP Bank of the West

Shannon Smith is an inspirational leader and change agent focused on delivering business value and successful outcomes that translate to business advantage for the Bank of the West. She leads agile transformation and change, as well as the bank’s strategic planning and deployment, including the delivery of all high risk/high dollar projects and capabilities.

Previously, as Executive Vice President and Director of the Project Office at Zions Bancorporation, Shannon co-developed the Technology Office strategy, developed and implemented portfolio management and strategic planning, and created focused program domains aligned to the business to achieve business outcomes. Shannon was also the executive lead for special projects, including the implementation of agile at Zions.

Prior to Zions, Shannon held senior industry- and military-related technology and project management roles, as well as various senior management positions in software development, Graphical User Interface development, software quality assurance, software configuration management, and release management. She has also completed multiple Six Sigma Projects as an Enterprise Six Sigma Black Belt, delivering impactful efficiency outcomes. Shannon completed a Bachelor of Business Administration from Westminster College in Utah.

Jackie Speier

United States Congresswoman and PBWC Founder & Emerita Board Member

Representing the 14th District of California, Congresswoman Speier formerly served as a California State Senator, where she authored groundbreaking legislation in health care, privacy, consumer protection, child welfare, education, and prison reform; and served as Assistant Pro Tem of the State Senate, Chair of the Senate Finance, Banking and Insurance Committee, Chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, and others.

Dominica Anderson

PBWC President and Board Chair

Managing Partner, Duane Morris

Dominica C. Anderson, member Duane Morris’ Executive Committee, managing partner Las Vegas office, practices in both the firm’s Las Vegas and San Francisco locations.

She also is a member of the firm’s governing Partners Board and Vice-Chair of the Duane Morris Women’s Impact Network for Success Steering Committee. Ms. Anderson has over 35 years of experience in high stakes commercial litigation, including banking; shareholder disputes; breach of contract; unfair competition; business interference; false advertising; securities; antitrust; defamation; e-commerce and intellectual property issues throughout the U.S.

She is a member of Duane Morris’ Insurance Practice Group and the firm’s Commercial Litigation Group. She is also a trusted advisor to and represents iconic and budding fashion designers and retail entities as part of Duane Morris’ Fashion, Retail, Luxury and Consumer Goods practice group.

Kumasi Aaron

Emcee

Anchor, ABC7 Bay Area

Kumasi Aaron is the weekday news anchor of ABC7 Mornings, contributes to Midday Live and provides rich content across ABC7's multiple platforms. Her commitment to journalism is driven by a passion for compelling and impactful storytelling.

Her assignments have taken her across the country, covering breaking news of hurricane destruction, inauguration at the nation's Capitol and devastating fires in Northern California. In addition, she has guided powerful conversations around the topics of race, social justice, and allyship.

Kumasi embraces authenticity and is committed to encouraging others by example to do the same.

Kathleen (Katy) Brown

Moderator

Vice President, Enterprise Commercial, West Region, Microsoft and Vice Chair, PBWC

Katy Brown is Vice President for Microsoft’s Enterprise Commercial West Region with $2.1B + in revenue, responsible for directing sales, services and partner efforts across Northern and Southern California, CO, AZ, UT, NV, OR and WA.

A twenty-four-year Microsoft veteran, Katy has a proven track record for delivering strategic initiatives and sales programs to drive overall growth. Before her current role, Katy held the position of Regional Vice President for Northwest Region and previously the General Manager for the NorCal District. She also held the position of General Manager – US National Sales Excellence, where she lead a world-class sales team, orchestrating breakthrough development on customer satisfaction, innovation on sales enablement tools, planning and processes, and the overall leadership of the Sales Excellence community.

In her pursuit of sales excellence and customer loyalty, Katy has been recognized with several awards for her sales achievement, management, and leadership. Katy is especially proud of her team for winning the FY14 and FY16 District of the Year and, most recently, in FY20 with West Region winning, Region of the Year.

A native of San Francisco, Katy has a B.S. in managerial economics from the University of California, Davis. Her executive education includes IBM Advanced Business Institute and advanced leadership courses at Microsoft. Katy has three daughters, Sarah, Molly, and Emily, and enjoys running and yoga in her spare time.

Shirley J. Gordon

PBWC Board Secretary, CPCU, CL

Retired Vice President, Operations, State Farm Insurance

Shirley J. Gordon joined State Farm® in 1973 as an accounting intern in Bloomington, Illinois. Over the course of her 46 year State Farm career, she held numerous Operations leadership positions within Accounting, Management Planning & Information, Service and Systems, P&C Operations and Executive. She retired June 1, 2020 as Vice President Operations in Underwriting.

Shirley received a B.S. Degree in Business Management from Hampton University, a MBA Degree from Illinois State University, and a Juris Doctorate Degree from Empire College School of Law. She earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 1984, Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation in 1987, and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designation in 1989.

Shirley is a philanthropist who has served in a variety of leadership roles within the community. She is currently member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Kern County, Co-Chair of the Scholarship and Board Development Committees of the Professional Business Women of California (PBWC), Advisory Committee for Leadership California, and past Vice Chair of the FAIR Plan of CA. She is also a director for the Bridge to the Future – Rites of Passage Mentoring Program in Santa Rosa, a Steward at Cain AME Memorial Church, and a life member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority – Kappa Omega Omega Alumni Chapter and the NAACP.

Kathy Novak

Moderator

Reporter, KCBS All News Radio

Kathy Novak is a reporter for KCBS All News Radio.

Previously, she was a correspondent for CNN International and Al Jazeera English in Seoul, South Korea, where she covered everything from North Korean nuclear standoffs to the latest K-Pop dance crazes. Before Seoul, Kathy was a reporter and anchor for the Australian network, SBS. There she reported for TV, radio, and the website and covered stories including Australian wildfires, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and elections around the world from Papua New Guinea to Kuwait.

Now calling the Bay Area home, Kathy joined KCBS just in time to cover the biggest story of her nearly 20-year career: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deepti Srivastava

Head of Product, Observable and PBWC Chair Young Women’s Professional Summit And Director At Large

Deepti Srivastava is passionate about technology and its ability to be a positive change enabler. She currently leads product strategy at Observable, a fast-growing, data visualization startup. Previously, Srivastava worked on best-in-class Cloud Database products at Google Cloud. Prior to that, she was at Oracle Corporation creating scalable database and cloud computing technologies. Srivastava is a strong advocate of STEM education, especially for girls. She has served on several panels across the San Francisco Bay Area as an expert on women’s leadership and technology. Srivastava enjoys dancing and has performed on stage with Salsa and Bollywood dance troupes. She also enjoys snowboarding and all things fashion.

Dion Lim

Emcee

Anchor and Reporter, ABC7 Bay Area

Dion Lim is an Emmy Award-winning TV news anchor and reporter at ABC7/KGO-TV in San Francisco and author of Make Your Moment: The Savvy Woman’s Communication Playbook to Getting The Success You Want, which was named a top book in 2019 by Parade Magazine.

Dion made her mark as a minority woman climbing the competitive TV news ladder, becoming the first Asian American woman to anchor a full-time morning, then primary newscast in Kansas City, Charlotte, and Tampa Bay.

A sought-after speaker and emcee, she has hosted events with varied audiences - from news legend Dan Rather to Hollywood celebrities like Patrick Dempsey to community groups, such as a Leadership Summit for Immigrant Women. Dion has contributed to the Huffington Post and written a series for Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. She was named one of America’s Top 18 Leaders in TV by Broadcasting & Cable Magazine.

María Teresa Kumar

Founding CEO of Voto Latino and Voto Latino Foundation

María Teresa Kumar is the founding CEO of Voto Latino and Voto Latino
Foundation and an Emmy-nominated on-air analyst for MSNBC. As the country’s largest Latinx voter registration and mobilization organization, Voto Latino has played a decisive role in American elections and been a major voice countering disinformation in
the Latino community. Under María Teresa’s leadership, this work has garnered numerous awards and recognitions.

María Teresa began her career as a Senior Legislative Aide on Capitol Hill where she worked on appropriations and trade policy. She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, an international affairs graduate of the University of California at Davis, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a World Economic Forum Young Global
Leader, and a board member of Emily’s List. María Teresa has dedicated her career to engaging the public to build democracy and protect human rights.

Catherine Cheney

Moderator

Senior Reporter and West Coast Correspondent, Devex

Catherine Cheney is the West Coast correspondent for Devex, the media platform for the global development community. She reports on the role of Silicon Valley, and technology and innovation more broadly, in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Catherine is a graduate of Yale University, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in political science and graduated as a Yale Journalism Scholar. She has since worked for a range of publications including World Politics Review, POLITICO, and NationSwell, a digital media company she helped to build. Beyond her reporting for Devex, Catherine often serves as a speaker or moderator on the issues she covers, and she also works with the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit that trains and connects journalists to cover responses to problems.

Kimberly Mutcherson

Moderator

Co-Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School

Kimberly Mutcherson is Co-Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School in Camden. She is an award-winning professor whose scholarship focuses on reproductive justice, bioethics, and family and health law. She has presented her scholarship nationally and internationally and publishes extensively on assisted reproduction, families, and the law. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics and the Columbia Law School Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

She received her B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Columbia Law School where she was a Stone Scholar. At Columbia, she received the Samuel I. Rosenman Prize for excellence in public law courses and outstanding qualities of citizenship and leadership in the law school. She also received the Kirkland and Ellis Fellowship for post-graduate public interest work. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers School of Law in 2002, Professor Mutcherson was an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at the New York University School of Law, a consulting attorney at the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (now the Center for Reproductive Rights), and a Staff Attorney at the HIV Law Project.

Cheryl Jennings

Moderator

Emmy Award Winning Journalist

Journalist Cheryl Jennings has been honored with nine Emmys during her 45 years of radio, television, and online reporting. She’s also received seven Gracie awards by the Alliance for Women in Media for her stories on women’s issues and was presented with the first-ever lifetime achievement award by the Professional BusinessWomen of California leadership team in 2018.

Cheryl has hosted "in conversation" events with high-profile professionals including Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Khaled Hosseini, Deepak Chopra, Carlos Santana, Maria Shriver, Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue, and celebrity chef Jacques Pepin. She has traveled for stories to Afghanistan, Kosovo, South and North Korea, Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Israel, and the West Bank. Cheryl worked at ABC TV in San Francisco for 39 years, anchoring the award-winning 5pm news for 28 years. Most recently, she founded her own media company, Bay Area-based Cheryl Cam Media, to use social media for positive news locally and internationally. She enjoys mentoring visionaries of all ages in leadership roles to guide them in their message, media strategy, and online presence.

Liz Kreutz

Moderator

Anchor and Reporter, ABC7 Bay Area

Liz Kreutz is an Anchor and Reporter at ABC7 News Bay Area. Beginning her career in New York City, she worked at Glamour Magazine, PBS’ POV social justice documentary series, and Good Morning America before landing at ABC News. Liz spent nearly six years at the network covering major news stories, including the 2012 presidential and 2014 midterm elections, Sandy Hook shooting, and election of Pope Francis, and was ABC News' embedded reporter covering Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Prior to joining ABC7 News Bay Area, Liz was Evening Anchor and Reporter at ABC10 in Sacramento, where she was part of a small team that won a local Emmy Award for continuing coverage of the California wildfires. She also served as the station spokesperson for the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign and on the Board of Directors for the Sacramento Press Club, where she co-chaired the scholarship program for aspiring journalists. Liz is deeply committed to sharing other people's stories and giving voice to those who need it most.

Susannah Heschel

Moderator

Chair, Jewish Studies Program and Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth

Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, and Jüdischer Islam: Islam und jüdisch-deutsche Selbstbestimmung, and she and Umar Ryad have just co-edited, The Muslim Reception of European Orientalism. She has also edited Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays of Abraham Joshua Heschel. She is currently writing a book, together with Sarah Imhoff, on Jewish Studies and the Woman Question. Susannah is a Guggenheim Fellow and has held fellowships at the National Humanities Center and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. She has received four honorary degrees and held research grants from the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation.

Jobina Fortson

Moderator

Breaking News and Traffic Anchor, ABC7 Bay Area

Jobina Fortson’s love for storytelling began in elementary school and has led to a successful journalism career. While studying at Howard University, Jobina interned at networks and local television stations in the D.C. area and was honored with a White House Correspondents’ Association Scholarship presented by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. After graduation, she began reporting for WMDT-TV on Maryland’s eastern shore. Here she dug into all aspects of news production, pitching in as a reporter, anchor, producer, photographer, and even floor director. After Maryland, she worked for WAVE-TV in Louisville, KY, prompting new appreciation for the Kentucky Derby, hot chicken, and many great people in the Bluegrass state. She is now proud to tell her community’s stories on ABC7 Mornings and to help people get out the door from the Traffic Center. Originally from Atlanta, Jobina is always on the look out for good BBQ.

Alexandra Roddy

Moderator

PBWC Past President and Director at Large, Vice President, Ecosystems and Alliances, IBM Cloud

Alex Roddy, past President and Board Chair, is Vice President, Ecosystems and Alliances, IBM Cloud. She is a collaborative, creative, high-energy executive who is deeply committed to ensuring that workplace cultures change to become more open and inclusive so that the halls of power better reflect the diversity of our communities.

Valerie Red-Horse Mohl

Moderator

CFO, East Bay Community Foundation

Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, of Cherokee ancestry, is the Chief Financial Officer of The East Bay Community Foundation. In this role, she leads initiatives focused on 100% mission alignment of portfolio investments, impact investing, racial equity, social justice, ESG, and leadership diversity. She is also Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Red-Horse Financial Group, Inc. and has more than 25 years of in-depth experience in the financial services and investment banking industry with a unique expertise in the Native American tribal government sector.

Valerie has raised, structured, and managed over $3 billion in capital and currently holds seven Financial Industry Regulatory Authority registrations. She is the former Executive Director and CEO of Social Venture Circle, a non-profit leading the way in the field of social impact investing and sustainable business. She is also the CEO and Founder of Red-Horse Native Productions, Inc., a film and television production company primarily focused on bringing important documentaries about overlooked and underserved subjects to the screen.

Valerie serves on boards of several organizations, including Stanford University’s Center for the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, the National Boys and Girls Clubs Native American Services, NDN Fund (a Native CDFI), and the Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion Collaborative. . She was inducted into the National Association of Women Business Owners Hall of Fame in 2008. She earned a BA with Cum Laude honors from UCLA and has founded several nonprofit ministries on tribal reservations nationwide.

Nicole Soluri

Chief Executive Officer, PBWC

Nicole serves as PBWC’s Chief Executive Officer, and brings over 15 years combined experience in senior executive and legal roles, and nonprofit and government leadership, across industries. Nicole previously served as a member of PBWC’s board of directors, including three years as Board Chair and President. Most recently,

Soluri served as an appointee of Governor Brown in key positions within the State of California, including Chief Deputy Director and Chief Counsel. Nicole began her career as a lawyer with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California. Nicole received her J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law, and her B.A. from Santa Clara University. She also serves on the board of the Sacramento Children’s Home and is a member of the Northern California chapter of the International Women’s Forum.

Liz Tunquist

Moderator

Operations Director, PBWC

Liz brings over a decade of experience in the marketing industry with a focus on operations and project management. Through her leadership, she has successfully overseen hundreds of projects through to completion and supported teams to driving productivity and profitability.

As Operations Director at PBWC, Liz is responsible for developing and managing systems within the organization to create sustainable, scalable and efficient programs that benefit our community. She lives in the CA Central Valley with her husband and three children, while her eldest daughter currently serves in the U.S. Army.

Jessica Grounds

Moderator

Co-Founder, Mine the Gap

Jessica Grounds is a recognized thought leader who has founded and led multiple organizations to advance women in leadership. As Co-Founder of Mine the Gap, she equips leaders, industries, and organizations such as Amazon, National Geographic, and Facebook to create and sustain gender-inclusive work environments.

Jessica is also the Co-Founder and former Executive Director of Running Start, an organization that trains young women to run for elected office. She led Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC) and served on its Board of Directors for fourteen years. She has advised and consulted hundreds of political candidates and organizations, and served as the Director of Women Ready for Hillary leading up to the 2016 presidential election. She is the former Senior Vice President for political consulting firm Stones’ Phones.

Jessica is on Marie Claire’s List of 50 Most Influential Women. The American Association of Political Consultants’ named her a top 40 Under 40. She holds a Masters in Leadership from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Jessica has published cutting-edge research on women’s leadership in Congress and the private sector. Her work has been profiled in numerous publications including Fast Company, NPR, ELLE, Politico, and Forbes.

Luz Peña

Emcee

Reporter, ABC7 Bay Area

Luz Peña is a bilingual Emmy® award winning reporter at ABC7/KGO-TV in San Francisco.

Her passion for storytelling has led her to cover some of the most pressing stories of our time and made her one of the top 40 Latinos in American Media by the Huffington Post.

Luz started her journalism career in NY with Fox News network. She was later tapped to work for the national Spanish broadcast network MundoFOX in LA, where she hosted a news and digital media segment. While in LA, Luz also worked for Fox Deportes as a host. She then moved on to KDTV Univision Bay Area as a multimedia journalist.

Luz has won 11 Emmy awards, an excellence in journalism away from the Society of Professional Journalists, and an LA Press Club Award.
She received a BA in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science from Hofstra University in New York.

Laila Butcher

Student and 2021 PBWC Charles Schwab Scholarship Award Recipient

Oakland native Laila Butcher participates in the Social Justice Academy at her high-school in San Leandro, California. She volunteers and interns for Peacemakers, Project Avary, Project WHAT, and
Cinnamongirl Inc.; and she is a member of Children of Incarcerated Parents (CIPs) and First Generation College Students. Laila also holds membership in the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) and the University of California President’s Pre-College Scholars Program. She is passionate about social justice, art, and spiritual healing.

Laila has overcome much adversity throughout her childhood, but has proved to be resilient. She will attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Fall 2021, where she plans to major in psychology. Laila aspires to be the founder and CEO of a nonprofit for children of incarcerated parents to combat the effects of trauma and promote mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.

Claire Alford

Student and 2021 PBWC Scholarship Award Recipient

As the Founder and President of the Culture Community and Cuisine Club, high-school senior Claire Alford has led peers in exploring cultures while addressing the needs of underserved students in the community. She founded and managed projects including: a learning garden on a formerly toxic Superfund waste site; health screening and hygiene products for students; a fund to pay for school lunches before the free lunch program takes effect; and winter break food baskets for 15 high school families. As the three-year captain of the Righetti Varsity Girls’ Golf team, Claire has earned the Mountain League MVP title two years in a row, advanced through CIF State playoffs as an individual, represented her chapter in the nationally-televised PURE Insurance Championship and won the Sandy Tatum Leadership Award.

Claire plans to attend medical school and expand accessible healthcare across the world and develop new health technologies as a physician. She will research health technologies and health strategies to make healthcare available and effective in regions with fewer resources.

Dr. Katie Rose Mahon Sanfilippo

Postdoctoral fellow in Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London

Dr. Katie Rose Mahon Sanfilippo is currently a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is also an associated lecturer in music at the University of Cambridge. Her overall research interests concern the perception, function and application of music. She has undergraduate degrees in psychology and music from Loyola Marymount University, an MSc in Music Mind and Brain and a PhD in psychology from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her PhD investigated the potential of a community-based music intervention to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms in pregnant women from The Gambia, West Africa. Her current research is exploring the application of music-based interventions to support maternal mental health across different cultural contexts in Africa and the UK. She has worked with various policymakers, charities and health organizations to promote maternal mental health in the education and health policy agendas in The Gambia. She also has experience working in the charity sector in the UK. She has helped to design and conduct evaluations for organizations that use music to aid in the well-being of different marginalized populations.

Seminar Speakers

Dr. Emily Anhalt

Psychologist, Emotional Fitness Consultant and Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer, Coa

Dr. Emily Anhalt is a psychologist, emotional fitness consultant, and the Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Coa, your gym for mental health. She studied psychology at the University of Michigan and attained Masters and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology in Berkeley, California. For the past twelve years, Dr. Anhalt has been working clinically with executives, founders, and tech employees, and has conducted extensive research with prominent psychologists and entrepreneurs about how leaders can improve their emotional fitness. Dr. Anhalt has matched more than 500 people into therapy, and has collaborated with some of the fastest-growing technology companies and VC firms in the world including Google, Asana, TEDx, Github, NASDAQ, Unilever, Bloomberg, and True Ventures.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith

Board-Certified Internal Medicine Physician, Speaker, and Author

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a board-certified internal medicine physician, speaker, and author. She is an international wellness expert featured in numerous media outlets including Prevention, MSNBC, Women’s Day, FOX, Fast Company, Psychology Today, Inc., and as a guest on The Dr. Oz Show. She is the author of numerous books including her newest, Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, including ground-breaking insight on the seven types of rest needed to optimize your productivity, increase your overall happiness, overcome burnout, and live your best life. Over 100,000 people have discovered their personal rest deficits using her free assessment at RestQuiz.com.

Dr. Dalton-Smith received her BS in Biochemistry at the University of Georgia and graduated with honors from Meharry Medical College in Nashville. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Baker College and Davenport University in Michigan teaching courses on health, nutrition, and disease progression.

Stephanie Benedetto

CEO and Co-Founder, Queen of Raw

Corporate attorney turned fashion tech and sustainability entrepreneur, Stephanie Benedetto is the Co-Founder of Queen of Raw, a marketplace to buy and sell unused textiles, keeping them out of landfills and turning pollution into profit. Prior to starting Queen of Raw, Stephanie worked as a lawyer in the fashion, media/entertainment, start-up, and technology industries and co-founded a sustainable textile manufacturing facility. An advocate for women in business and sustainability, her companies have been featured across media outlets, including National Public Radio, Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue,Fortune, and Fast Company. Among other honors, Stephanie is a 2020 Inc. Female Founders 100, NASA/NIKE/IKEA/DELL LAUNCH.org Innovator, MIT - Solve Global Challenge Winner, and an LVMH Innovation Award Finalist. She is a Member of Pledge 1% and New York Circular City Initiative and Founding Member of Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network.

Anna Fieler

Board Member, Shake Shack, J.Crew Group, and Quinstreet; Founder, Madison Park Ventures

Anna Fieler is a member of the Board of Directors of Shake Shack, J. Crew Group, and Quinstreet. Concurrent with her board service, Anna is the founder of Madison Park Ventures, which invests in companies that advance well-being, connection, and productivity. Anna brings more than 20 years of leadership experience building, growing, and transforming businesses as an executive in technology companies including eBay, Shutterfly, and POPSUGAR, with particular expertise in digital marketing, digital transformation, and e-commerce. Anna holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University.

Tandra Jackson

Vice Chair, KPMG Growth and Strategy

Tandra Jackson is the Vice Chair of Growth and Strategy at KPMG LLP. In this role, she is responsible for leading the firm’s growth strategy, anticipating and responding to signals of change in the marketplace, and aligning the firm’s investments in innovative new services and capabilities.

A recognized leader in the Houston market and across the region, Tandra is the recipient of many awards including the 2019 Impact Award from the National Black MBA Association, is a 2019 Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame Inductee, and was named a 2018 Women Who Mean Business by Houston Business Journal, as well as 2017 Women Worth Watching by Diversity Magazine. She has authored pieces on business, innovation, people, community, and philanthropy for various media outlets, and serves on several non-profit boards in her community.

Tandra’s 27 years of professional experience spans areas such as business process improvement, systems selection and implementation, IT and internal audit, and governance and compliance across multiple industries, including energy and chemicals, industrial manufacturing, and healthcare.

Passionate about making a difference in her community and society, Tandra is a member of Louisiana State University’s Dean’s Advisory Council and the Advisory Board of the National Association of Corporate Directors’ Houston Chapter. She also serves on several non-profit boards including WomenCorporateDirectors; CEOs against Cancer; and the Houston Zoo, where she is the Audit Committee Chair.

Eve Rodsky

New York Times-Bestselling Author of Fair Play

Eve Rodsky is working to solve an age-old problem: women shouldering the brunt of childrearing and domestic life responsibilities regardless of their work status. The author of the New York Times bestseller Fair Play, Eve uses her legal training and years of organizational management experience to help couples rebalance the work of running a home and reimagine their relationship, time, and purpose.

Eve received her BA in economics and anthropology from the University of Michigan and her JD from Harvard Law School. After working in foundation management at J.P. Morgan, she founded the Philanthropy Advisory Group to advise high net worth families and charitable foundations on best practices for harmonious operations, governance, and disposition of funds. Through this work, she realized that her expertise in family mediation, strategy, and organizational management could be applied to a problem closer to home – a system for couples seeking balance, efficiency, and peace in their home

Adam Smiley Poswolsky

Millennial Workplace Expert and Author, Friendship in the Age of Loneliness

Adam Smiley Poswolsky is a millennial workplace expert, keynote speaker, and author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, The Breakthrough Speaker, and Friendship in the Age of Loneliness. Smiley’s TED talk on “the quarter-life crisis” has been viewed over 1.5 million times, and he has spoken in front of 50,000 people in 20 countries, including at some of the world’s top companies. Smiley has spoken at the world’s top companies and advised heads of state and foreign leaders about millennial talent, multigenerational engagement, and fostering belonging in the digital age. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Fast Company, CNN, and the World Economic Forum, among many other outlets. Smiley is a proud graduate of Wesleyan University, and can usually be found dancing in San Francisco.

Y-Vonne Hutchinson

Chief Executive Officer and Founder, ReadySet

Y-Vonne Hutchinson (she/her) believes that big problems require big toolkits. She loves using interdisciplinary approaches to solve complex problems and is most happy when she is building a bridge between research and practice. Prior to launching ReadySet, she worked as an international labor and human rights lawyer for nearly a decade. She has worked with foreign national governments, the US Department of State, and the United Nations.

Y-Vonne is a member of Harvard Law’s Institute for Global Law and Policy network and an expert on labor relations and diversity in the workplace. She’s presented on diversity, inclusion, and labor issues at Harvard Law, MIT Sloan, and UC Berkeley, as well as conferences around the globe. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School. She also serves on the Women of Color Council for the Anita Borg Institute. Her favorite pastimes include baking pie, playing with her puppy, traveling, and watching unfortunate action movies.

Jevan Soo Lenox

Chief People & Culture Officer, Stitch Fix

Jevan Soo Lenox is the Chief People and Culture Officer at Stitch Fix and is responsible for employee-related initiatives that ensure the company finds, grows, and keeps the brightest, kindest, and most motivated talent in the world. Previously Jevan held key people operations and business leadership roles at high-growth, consumer-centric companies including Square, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Minted. Jevan began his career at McKinsey & Company where he spent nearly a decade in both consulting and recruiting leadership roles in North America and Asia-Pacific. Jevan received an A.B. in East Asian Studies from Harvard College, an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar, and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Lisa Braithwaite

Public Speaking Coach, Trainer, and Author

Lisa Braithwaite is on a mission to help purpose-driven business and nonprofit leaders build visibility, credibility, and awareness for their work through engaging presentations.
She coaches and trains people to deliver meaningful and memorable experiences by ditching perfection and creating connection, which is the theme of her book Presenting for Humans.

Her approach to public speaking is influenced by her theater and education degrees, and 16 years providing community outreach, advocacy, and training in the nonprofit sector before starting her business in 2005.

Lisa's been hired by companies as diverse as Microsoft, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, Massachusetts Association of Realtors®, and AgWest Commodities, for her unique approach to presentation skills training. She's been interviewed for her public speaking perspective and shared her expertise in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Men's Health, Toastmaster Magazine, Nonprofit Communications Report, Inc., and on numerous blogs and podcasts. She's a Certified Virtual Presenter of Excellence and a member of the National Speakers Association. Residing in Ojai, California with her husband Rudy, she is mom to two rescue kitties, Benjamin and Ernie, who are Instagram celebrities.

Lisa’s philosophy is that public speaking is fun, it's an awesome way to express yourself creatively, and it offers an accelerated approach to developing an intimate and trusting relationship with your target audience.

Dr. Knatokie Ford

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fly Sci Enterprise

Dr. Knatokie Ford is Founder and CEO of Fly Sci® Enterprise, an education and media consulting organization focused on leveraging the power of storytelling to promote social change, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As a social entrepreneur and international advocate for STEM and media inclusion, Dr. Ford has worked with a number of leading organizations, consulting on upcoming children’s STEM shows like Netflix’s Ada Twist, Scientist and Eureka! on Disney Junior. She also oversaw development of YouTube’s first-ever Creating Inclusive Content course and currently serves as an Executive Advisor for the Association of National Advertisers’ SeeHer movement where she spearheads the #WriteHerRight initiative.

Dr. Ford previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) where she designed and led the Image of STEM project, one of the Obama Administration’s top 100 science and technology accomplishments. Prior, as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at OSTP, she managed concurrent projects on education technology and improving the nation’s healthcare system.

Dr. Ford has served on the Barbie Global Advisory Council, YouTube Kids Global Advisory Committee, and the Toy Association’s STEM/STEAM Strategic Leadership Committee. She received her PhD in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University and her BS/MS in Chemistry/Biological Chemistry from Clark Atlanta University.

Carol Isozaki

Founder & President, Strategic Brand Intelligence

Carol Isozaki is a mom, an executive coach, leadership expert, and speaker with over 20 years of client service, human capital, and leadership development expertise. Her signature Plan to be Amazing!TM call-to-action messaging changes the way leaders think about themselves and lead others. She recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of her consulting practice, Strategic Brand Intelligence, where she has supported clients including The Walt Disney Company, eBay, Bank of America, Workday, Genentech, AICPA, Adobe, Leading Women in Technology, and San Francisco Bar Association.

Carol regularly speaks at global leadership, corporate, and industry conferences; developed and teaches the curriculum for a time-tested executive development program; actively supports women's leadership programs; trains HR leaders in her highly regarded coaching methodology; and is a sought-after executive coach/trainer with a proven track record. She is certified in The Personal Brand Company's award-winning framework and while with PricewaterhouseCoopers, twice received their Market Leadership Awards for her leadership development innovations. Carol earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business from San Jose State University.

Carine Schneider, FGE

President, AST Private Company Solutions, Inc.

Carine Schneider is a leader in the private market and global compensation industry with deep experience in consulting, technology, and financial services. She is the President of AST Private Company Solutions, Inc. and serves on its Board. AST markets Astrella, a SaaS solution that manages ownership for private companies. She was named one of 17 Women to Watch in 2017 by Brown Brothers Harriman Center on Women and Wealth and one of the 100 Influential Women in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Carine was formerly the President of Nasdaq Private Market (NPM), CEO of Certent, Founder and CEO of Global Shares, Partner at PwC, and the founding Executive Director of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP). She started her career as Manager of Shareholder Relations at Oracle Corporation before and after the IPO. Carine served on the Board of Directors of both Certent and Global Shares and founded the Global Equity Organization (GEO) that now has over 6000 members worldwide. She is now Chair Emeritus after serving as Chair for 18 years.

Carine received her degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a frequent speaker and has authored various articles and chapters in industry publications, including presenting at President Obama’s Global Entrepreneurial Summit.

Sarah Paiji Yoo

CEO and Co-Founder, Blueland

Sarah Paiji Yoo is CEO and Co-Founder of Blueland, which is reimagining cleaning products to eliminate single-use plastic packaging. Sarah is a serial retail entrepreneur passionate about sustainability and innovation. Prior to Blueland, she was a Partner at LAUNCH, a leading startup studio, and launched and operated several consumer brands including M.Gemi, Rockets of Awesome, and Follain. She was previously co-founder and CEO of Snapette, the largest mobile platform for local fashion shopping, which was sold to leading e-commerce platform Pricegrabber in 2013. Sarah was featured on this season's Shark Tank and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Forbes, TIME, InStyle, and Glamour. She attended Harvard College and Harvard Business School and currently lives in New York City with her three-year-old son Noah, newborn baby Colin, and husband Ken.

Nir Eyal

Author, Speaker, and Investor

Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir was previously a lecturer in marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. He co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Review as “the prophet of habit-forming technology.”

Nir is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Indistractable received critical acclaim, winning the Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award as well as being named one of the Best Business and Leadership Books of the Year by Amazon and one of the Best Personal Development Books of the Year by Audible.

In addition to blogging at NirAndFar.com, Nir’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Time Magazine, and Psychology Today.

Nir is also an active investor in habit-forming technologies. Some of his past investments include Eventbrite (NYSE:EB), Anchor.fm (acquired by Spotify), Kahoot! (KAHOOT-ME.OL), Canva, Refresh.io (acquired by LinkedIn), Product Hunt, Marco Polo, Presence Learning, and Cutback Coach.

Nir attended The Stanford Graduate School of Business and Emory University.

Kim Scott

Co-Founder & Author, Just Work LLC

Kim Scott is the author of Just Work: Get Sh*t Done Fast and Fair as well as Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. Trier-Lynn Bryant and Kim co-founded the company Just Work LLC to help organizations and individuals create more equitable workplaces.

Kim also co-created an executive education company and workplace comedy series based on her best-selling book, Radical Candor. Jason Rosoff and Kim co-founded the company Radical Candor, LLC to help people cultivate caring and candid relationships at work by implementing a feedback-first culture.

Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. Earlier in her career, Kim managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.

Trier Bryant

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Just Work LLC

Trier-Lynn Bryant is Co-Founder and CEO of Just Work LLC. She is a strategic executive leader with distinctive tech, Wall Street, and military experience spanning over 15 years. She previously held leadership roles at Astra, Twitter, and Goldman Sachs, and proudly served as Captain in the United States Air Force, leading engineering teams while spearheading diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives for the Air Force Academy, Air Force, and Department of Defense.

Trier advises leading companies like Equinox, Airbnb, SoundCloud, Alto, Rockefeller Foundation, and others on their talent and DEI strategies. She has an unwavering commitment to helping employees create more equitable, inclusive, and thriving workplaces and prosperous companies. She has been featured as an influential DEI practitioner by outlets including USA Today, CNN, and SXSW.

Trier earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering with a minor in Spanish and Leadership from the United States Air Force Academy (Beat Army, Sink Navy), where she played Division I volleyball. She enjoys spending time with her close-knit family, which taught her to live by the motto ". . . good enough isn't."

Lauren Dillard

Executive Vice President of Investment Intelligence, Nasdaq

Lauren Dillard is Executive Vice President, Head of Investment Intelligence at Nasdaq. Investment Intelligence empowers the investment management community through transparency, data and analytics, and cutting edge technology platforms. It includes market data from equity and options markets, index licensing that enables the creation of ETFs, and other lower‐cost investment products, investment analytics, and technology platforms that service institutional investors.

Before joining Nasdaq, Lauren served as Head of the Investment Solutions unit at The Carlyle Group, where she managed more than $40 billion in assets and 200 professionals across offices in six countries. She served as a member of Carlyle’s Management Committee and played a significant role in the firm’s strategic transactions, including the firm’s initial public offering. She also served as Carlyle’s COO and CFO of Investment Solutions and led the firm’s global tax and equity units. Prior to joining The Carlyle Group, Dillard served in the tax practice of Arthur Andersen.

Lauren currently serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of SL Green Realty Corp, chairs the board’s Compensation Committee, and is a member of its Audit Committee. She is involved in multiple organizations advancing broad spectrum diversity across finance and technology.

Karen Catlin

Coach, Speaker, Author, and Advocate for Inclusive Workplaces

After spending 25 years building software products and serving as a Vice President of engineering at Macromedia and Adobe, Karen Catlin witnessed a sharp decline in the number of women working in tech. Frustrated but galvanized, she knew it was time to switch gears.

Today, Karen is a leadership coach and a highly acclaimed author and speaker on inclusive workplaces. With a client roster that includes Airbnb, DoorDash, eBay, Intel, and Intuit, as well as motivated individuals, Karen coaches women to be stronger leaders and men to be better allies. Her offerings include tactics for increasing visibility, being more strategic, managing stakeholders, negotiation, and cultivating ally skills. Her writing on these and related topics has appeared in Inc., the Daily Beast, Fast Company, and The Muse. She has also authored three books: Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces, The Better Allies Approach to Hiring, and Present! A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking (co-authored with Poornima Vijayashanker).

Karen’s TEDx talk, “Women in Tech: The Missing Force,” explores the decline in gender diversity in tech, why it’s a problem, and what can be done about it. In 2015, the California State Assembly honored Karen with the Wonder Women Tech Innovator Award for outstanding achievements in business and technology and for being a role model for women.

Erica Dhawan

Speaker, Author, and Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Cotential

Erica Dhawan is the world’s leading authority on 21st-century collaboration and connectional intelligence. She challenges audiences and organizations to innovate faster and further, together. Her newest book, Digital Body Language, decodes the new signals and cues of effective collaboration and teamwork in a digital-first workplace.

Erica is the Founder and CEO of Cotential, a global organization that helps companies, leaders, and managers leverage 21st-century collaboration skills and behaviors to improve performance.

She is co-author of the bestselling book Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, which was named #1 on Porchlight Book Company’s What Corporate America is Reading list. Thinkers50 called Erica “the Oprah of management ideas” and she was featured as one of the Top 20 Management Experts by GlobalGurus. She hosts the award-winning podcast Masters of Leadership.

Erica speaks on global stages ranging from the World Economic Forum at Davos to TEDx and for companies such as Coca-Cola, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, SAP, and Cisco. She writes for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company.

She has degrees from Harvard University, MIT Sloan, and The Wharton School.

Mary E. Stutts

Author and Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader

Mary Stutts is an executive and board member with a track record of success in brand transformations for companies including Genentech, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Comcast NBCUniversal, UnitedHealth Group, and Kaiser Permanente. Currently she is the Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations for Sumitovant Biopharma. She was the first Chief Inclusion, Diversity, and Health Equity Officer for Stanford Health Care.

Mary’s journey from a 5-year old foster child to becoming one of the leading voices calling for inclusive leadership, health equity, and a diverse workforce is demonstrative of her passion for empowering others. Her book, The Missing Mentor: Women Advising Women on Power, Progress and Priorities, has been dubbed a surrogate mentor for career women.

Mary formed The Center for Excellence in Life (TCEL), a 501c3 organization focused on developing women, underrepresented youth and aspiring professionals for leadership positions. TCEL’s virtual internship program for underrepresented youth has received nationwide recognition and media coverage. She sits on the board of Zogenix and on the advisory boards of Wellist, Slone Partners, and RealChemistry.

Mary earned a Master’s degree in Health Administration at the University of Southern California and is a graduate of the Executive Program on Organization and Strategy at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Brittney Castro

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Financially Wise Inc.

Brittney Castro is a Certified Financial Planner™, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, Accredited Asset Management Specialist, entrepreneur, highly sought-after speaker, and host.  She is the Founder and CEO of Financially Wise Inc., a Los Angeles-based financial planning and education firm whose mission is to teach individuals and couples the art of proactively managing their finances. Financially Wise, Inc. offers services ranging from fee-only financial planning, online money courses, and financial wellness workshops to speaking engagements and brand partnerships.Its success can be attributed to Brittney’s simple yet highly effective method of approaching finance and her commitment to working with clients in a fun, personalized, compassionate, relatable, and non-judgmental way.

Brittney is a noted financial expert and a go-to resource for national media outlets and platforms including CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CBS, Glamour, Entrepreneur, Woman’s World, and many more. She was elected one of the 40 under 40 in 2020 by Investment News, one of 22 Women To Watch by Investment News in 2018, and was ranked 6th on Investopedia’s 2017 Top Influential Financial Advisors list.

Brittney also serves as the in-house CFP® for Mint and as the Head of Education for Altruist, which allows her to spread financial literacy to the masses through media interviews, video content, and social media campaigns.

Dayna Schmidt-Johnson

Content Manager, TEN35

Dayna Schmidt-Johnson has spent more than a decade rising through corporate America, propelling herself from a $12/hour part-time role in her chosen field to a nearly six-figure career in a few short years. Dayna learned everything the hard way and is here to share the tips and tricks that make negotiating a great salary and benefits as painless as possible. Even in an economic downturn and a pandemic, she was able to rise through the ranks and negotiate huge raises along the way, ensuring current and future success. In addition to her award-winning corporate communications work, Dayna is passionate about coaching individuals to find and reach their own professional goals. Dayna is currently a Content Manager for TEN35 and in her spare time writes astrology content for the Writual Society.

Dr. Bindu Garapaty

Vice President of Talent, Inclusion, and Equity, Impossible Foods

Dr. Bindu Garapaty isImpossible Foods’ first VP of Talent, Inclusion, and Equity. With a doctorate degree in clinical psychology and years of experience in organizational leadership, she brings a deep understanding of human behavior, well-being, and evidence-based practices to the workplace. In her current role, she oversees inclusion, diversity, and equity initiatives; talent and career development; and Impossible Foods’ five employee resource groups.

Dr. Garapaty thrives on building catalytic connections, giving back, and creating new experiences in her personal and professional communities. She was the recipient of Watermark’s Emerging Executive of the Year Award in 2017 and was named a Woman of Influence by Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2018. Currently, she serves as the Chief Executive Officer of The Happy Leader— an executive coaching consultancy — and as a Women in Management program facilitator at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Prior to joining Impossible Foods, she served as the Director of Talent Development and Inclusion at Gilead Sciences and the Director of Marketing Talent and Leadership Development at Juniper Networks.

Dr. Garapty holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from Michigan State University and a Master’s and a Psy.D from Illinois School of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Whitney Casares, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P

Pediatrician, Author and Speaker

Whitney Casares, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a board-certified pediatrician, author, speaker, and full-time working mom. She’s a boots on the ground advocate for the success of women in the workplace and at home. Dr. Casares is a Stanford University-trained private practice pediatrician whose expertise spans the public health, direct patient care, and media worlds. She holds a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from The University of California, Berkeley, and a Journalism degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is a Mama Mindset Thought Leader.

Her book, The New Baby Blueprint: Caring for You and Your Little One (American Academy of Pediatrics, March 2020), is quickly earning media attention and consumer applause. The first of its kind to address the unique needs of modern women as they transition to motherhood, The New Baby Blueprint questions our assumptions about what moms and their babies really need in the first few months of life with a no-apologies, straight-talk approach.

Her forthcoming book with the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Working Mom Blueprint: Winning at Parenting without Losing Yourself (American Academy of Pediatrics, May 2021), gives practical, expert-rooted advice and support for modern working moms who are ready to level-up their motherhood experiences and find success in the workplace and at home. Her work focuses on moving modern moms from feeling conflicted to centered.

Wellness & Entertainment

Ayra Starr

Singer (Lagos, Nigeria)

Songbird Ayra Starr is impossible to ignore. Born in Benin Republic, the 19-year-old was raised between the beach city of Cotonou and the cultural hub of Lagos, Nigeria. The mix of cultures inspires her global approach to music, art and life. She is inspired by the regal earthiness of Angelique Kidjo, Rihanna's free spirit and feisty confidence, 90s fashion music icons such as Aliyah, and the edgy aesthetic of emo-pop.

Ayra’s sound is truly unique and versatile, drawing from influences like classic Yoruba and Beninese music, and artists such as 2Face and Wande Coal. Her music speaks for a generation of young people around the world, especially girls who are finding themselves, united by angst and emojis. Her strength comes from a close-knit family of music lovers, including her brother with whom she often writes songs. Her music inspires and makes clear that this new voice is a powerful one.

Listen and stream Ayra's music on your platform of choice: https://mavinrecords.lnk.to/ayrastarr

Jill Dailey

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The Dailey Method

Jill Dailey is a true innovator of the dance barre fitness revolution on the West Coast. A degreed Kinesiologist, Jill soon found that her true passion was helping people transform their lives through fitness. Seeking the most advanced methods to sculpt the body, Jill became an early trainee of the famed Lotte Berk method. Taking what she learned through the Lotte Berk program in New York City, Jill brought the ballet barre to California. Focusing on micro-movements and stretches to strengthen and condition, Jill’s classes soon built a buzz in San Francisco. Clients couldn’t get enough of the fresh, evolving workouts—and the extreme results.

In 2000, Jill opened The Dailey Method in San Francisco’s Marina District. Amassing passionate devotees, The Dailey Method was soon expanding to new studios as an explosive community was born. Throughout the process, she has never lost sight of her original goal of improving the lives of those she teaches. Jill loves The Dailey Method because it gives people confidence, community, and a way to effect positive change in their lives. She is currently working on being able to allow greater exposure to The Dailey Method's powerful benefits by offering online classes and trainings.

Finding inspiration from the human body and movement, two mantras (and hashtags) that can often be seen in Jill’s Instagram feed are 1) #alwaysbeastudent – Jill feels we can always continue to learn more and see things in a different way by taking classes and exposing ourselves to new information and 2) #livingadaileylife – which to Jill, means happy, enjoying life, having a community, eating healthy, loving to workout and enjoying time with family and friends. Living a Dailey Life is living a balanced life.

Brendan Simon

Kaiser Thrive Wellness Breaks

Program Coordinator, Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre

Brendan Simon is an award-winning creative and performing artist and a member of the inaugural class of Lincoln Center Education’s Teaching Artist Training Program. He teaches best practices in arts-based education nationally.

He is the recipient of Kaiser Permanente’s 2017 Community Health Innovator Award for devising the company’s Resilience Squad programming with a brilliant team of Teaching Artists. The program transformed schools throughout Northern California with mindfulness, stress management, and healthy communication curriculum. In 2018, he co-created RISE UP, a national initiative for educators to foster resilience in school environments despite the adverse childhood experiences and traumas affecting students.

Brendan believes the future of theatre exists at the intersection of joyful activism and the visibility of underrepresented communities.

Georgia Legg

TRX Coach

A former dancer, actor, and professional singer, Georgia Legg started her fitness journey five years ago. Today, she’s one of the top trainers in London, known for injecting performance flair into her workouts. Georgia prides herself on tailoring each experience to the individual, and making sure everyone feels as if they have gotten some one-on-one “G” time. Don’t be fooled by her exceptionally warm and welcoming personality. She runs the most formidable TRX classes on the block.

Emily Steines

boopbod Visionary & Founder, Mind-Body-Energy Coach

Emily Steines has over a decade of experience teaching women to tap into the power of their body and mind. She's a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, an SFG Kettlebell Trainer, a Holistic Health + Life Coach, Breathwork Facilitator, and Mindset Coach. Her mission is to equip all women with the tools to own their unique superpowers, shift their energy state, and experience radical self-love.

DJs Amira & Kayla

While most 15 years old kids are playing the latest video games on their smartphone, twin sisters, Amira & Kayla are making a name for themselves around the world as famous DJs. When behind the turntables, this duo gets the party started, kicks the crowd in gear and makes sure the momentum never ceases. Amira & Kayla’s love for music and their devotion to the DJ craft is rooted firmly in family. Their father taught them how to DJ at an early age. This unique sister act have quickly gone from playing small parties to deejaying major corporate events, lighting up social media with viral videos and making high-profile appearances on major television, online, and radio programs.

Some of Amira and Kayla’s TV appearances include: The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Steve Harvey, Wendy Williams, Harry, The Real, ESPN, Revolt, Show Time At The Apollo, and Telemundo. The girls also appeared in three national Target commercials, Reebok Campaigns, J Balvin Mi Gente Remix video featuring Beyonce, and have been featured online in media outlets such as The New York Times, BuzzFeed, UPROXX, Now This, Yahoo, Elle USA, Harpers Bazaar, Vanity Fair Italy and more.

When Amira and Kayla are not appearing on TV or online, they can be found deejaying for major celebrities, sporting teams, brands, and exclusive VIP events. Praise for the twins is coming from their fans and today's hottest DJs, Music Producers & Entertainers. Amira & Kayla have quickly gained a large online following including super
stars like Rihanna. Everyone seems to agree Amira & Kayla are two amazing kids with awesome musical talent who prove you’re never too young to follow your dreams!

Randy Flora, MA

Spiritual Wellness Provider, Canyon Ranch in Tucson

Randy’s passion and expertise lie in teaching guests how to approach movement and exercise from a spiritual perspective to promote greater vitality and consciousness.

Randy joined Canyon Ranch in 1997. He has taught mindfulness in fitness for 8½ years, and qi gong and meditation for 17 years. He began working in the Fitness Department in 2002, then moved to the Spiritual Wellness Department in 2016 upon completion of a master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.
In his free time, Randy enjoys backpacking, writing and art, and fundraising for local charities.

Pamela Wiznitzer

Mixologist

Since 2006, Pamela has been working throughout NYC and around the world at many notable venues. She was nominated as one of the top 10 bartenders for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 "American Bartender of the Year" award at Tales of the cocktail and was named the "2014 Bartender of the Year" by the Village Voice. Additionally, she was named as one of Food & Wine Magazine's top 10 Rising Star Mixologists, an inductee to the "Dames Hall of Fame" in 2015 and one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine's "40 Under 40" in 2015. Pamela has a Master’s degree in Food Studies, with a concentration on spirits and alcohol, at NYU’s Steinhardt School. She has been featured in multiple publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Magazine, Bloomberg as well as reoccurring media appearances the Food Network, Vh1, and NBC.

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