Executive Alliance Podcast

In this episode, Rebecca talks with Tamla Olivier, president and CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric, about her career path beginning in human resources. Olivier reflects on the pivotal shift into business leadership, a painful lesson in self-advocacy after being passed over for a VP role, and a former colleague’s comment that her move into a business-leadership role was a “diversity rotation.” She also opens up about the pressure of constantly having to prove she’s earned her seat.They also discuss Olivier’s board work at BGE, PHI, and Century Aluminum, and how she weighed joining a board with little diversity before deciding to help drive its transformation from the inside. The conversation closes with her advice to her younger self: stay in the driver’s seat of your own career, use your voice sooner, and know that you deserve to be in every room you enter.

In this episode, Rebecca talks with Linda Roszak Burton, a board-certified health and well-being coach, executive coach, and former president of Executive Alliance, about the hidden cost of high achievement in leadership. Roszak Burton explains how the pandemic revealed a blind spot in leadership development: programs built around strategy and decision-making rarely address the physical and emotional resilience leaders need to sustain it all. She shares how overused strengths, like drive and high achievement, can quietly work against leaders, and discusses practical tools from her coaching practice, including breathing techniques, “one percent” habit-building, and the power of gratitude as a stress-management and healing practice.They also discuss the particular pressures women carry as emotional anchors at home and at work, the research behind self-compassion and self-criticism, and how Roszak Burton’s own journey through grief after losing her younger sister led her to the gratitude research and writing that now shapes her coaching. The conversation closes with her advice for women early in their careers: start by getting to know yourself, your values, and your strengths, and build the sustainability to match your ambition.

In this episode, Rebecca talks with Dr. Frances "Toni" Draper, fourth-generation publisher of the AFRO American Newspapers, celebrating its 134th anniversary this year as the oldest continuously operating Black-owned newspaper in the country. Draper traces the paper's origin story back to her great-grandfather John Henry Murphy Sr., a formerly enslaved Union Army veteran who purchased the AFRO's name and printing press with $200 from his wife Martha, and recounts how generations of Murphy women, from a board member to a Coppin professor, helped build and sustain the family business through wars, segregation, and changing technology.They also discuss Draper's own path into journalism, from being handed the family checkbook as a teenager to being named publisher in 2018, and how she balances honoring the paper's traditions with evolving for a new media landscape. The conversation closes with Draper's reflections on ministry as a calling beyond the pulpit, her leadership philosophy of being "firm but fair," and the legacy she hopes to leave at the AFRO and beyond.

In this episode, Rebecca sits down with four Distinguished Women honorees from Girl Scouts of Central Maryland's signature fundraiser: Shelly Elliott of Holmatro, Karen Bond of the Judge Alexander Williams Center, Jill Reamer of Peak Partners USA, and Ellen Shiery of Merrill Lynch. The group discusses what the honor means to them, from Karen's reflection on what it means to be seen and affirmed as a woman in 2026, to Ellen's data on how little philanthropic giving reaches women- and girl-focused organizations. They share personal stories of being seen and mentored, including Karen's memory of a boss who made her feel valued through the smallest gestures, and Shelly's story of failing her first college exam and being pulled back up by a mentor who refused to let her get lost in the shuffle.They also dig into how community and belonging get built, from Karen's philosophy of "talking to every stranger" to Ellen's take on loneliness among girls and adults alike, and how putting down phones can rebuild connection. The conversation turns to the mentorship pairing each honoree will do with a high school Girl Scout, and closes with Ellen's note on the generational wealth transfer headed toward women in the decades ahead. The Distinguished Women Awards event takes place November 12th at Preston Hall in Baltimore.

In this episode, Rebecca talks with Shelly Elliott, CEO of Holmatro, about leading a manufacturer of life-saving rescue equipment through decades of change. Elliott, a chemical engineer by training, traces her unconventional path from Exxon Mobil's refining world to Alcoa Arconic's window manufacturing and finally to Holmatro, where she leads a company that builds the cutter, spreader, and ram tools first responders use to extricate people from car crashes, and increasingly, forcible-entry tools for law enforcement and schools. She discusses Holmatro's decades-long partnership with IndyCar's safety team, what happens on scene in the critical minutes after a crash, and how she's helped broaden the company's mission beyond firefighters to military, federal, and law enforcement markets.They also dig into Elliott's leadership philosophy, from the six core values that guide hiring and strategy at Holmatro, to a defining moment early in her tenure when she halted production over a quality concern rather than hit a revenue target. Elliott shares how team sports shaped her approach to leadership, how motherhood and a supportive partner have reshaped her relationship with work, and the advice she'd give to other women and to her own younger self about taking risks, changing course, and staying grounded through it all.