Women CEO In Reflection

Jennifer Marvin is Vice President of Women in Engineering at Online Leadership Training, a career coaching and leadership training company and a Senior Project Engineer at The Boeing Company.  She is also the Founder and Owner of BossBabe Yoga a boutique yoga studio near Seattle, Washington. Jennifer also serves as the President-Elect of Housing Hope a non-profit ending homelessness.Jen makes mental health a priority following her brother’s death to suicude and her own diagnosed mental health issues. She is a mentor to young woman who suffer from bipolar disorder and a coach for women leaders.BossBabe Yoga currently just on Facebookwww.theleadershiptraining.com

Bridgette L. Smith recently retired from her executive role at Google and became Founder and CEO of Founder Playbook, a micro-accelerator for diverse founders where she helps them become investor-ready and get access to capital and Investor Playbook, a micro-accelerator for women investors. Since launching her popular Investing With ConfidenceTM workshops in May 2023, Bridgette has launched two new angel groups and has educated more than 3,000 women on how to invest in private companies and build generational wealth. Bridgette's current investment portfolio includes more than 150 pre-seed to pre-IPO startups led by women, BIOPOC and LGBTQIA founders, 13 Venture Capital Funds, Hedge Funds, Private Equity Funds and multiple alternative assets, including real estate and a new documentary called Show Her the Money. Founder Playbook and Investor Playbook https://calendly.com/bridgettesmith

Cheryl Mobley is the CEO & Founder of reCalibrate, a boutique advisory firm for those who dare to lead - especially those who have what it takes to lead against the current. Her firm identifies chokepoints so leaders can take their organizations to the next level.Prior to reCalibrate, Cheryl was a hospital president, where her hospital consistently excelled and hit 99th percentile performance in their metrics which led her to create the Be99 Guiding Questions Framework to share with leaders who want to unlock that level of performance inside their own organization.Cheryl recognizes so many of us who lead dive headlong in the wrong direction and wondering why ‘work’ is so exhausting. For those bold enough to take a U-turn, ‘work’ can change for the better. reCalibrate www.recalibrate.today; www.cheryllynnmobley.com

Liz Waller is the "CEO" of her family helping her husband, children & grandchildren navigate through the challenges & joys of life and soon audiences will get to know them when BAM FAM, a reality TV show starring the Waller family premieres in December on Amazon Prime Video.  

Mariam Ispahani is the Founder and CEO of Sonali Bioplastics, a climate tech company solving the plastic pollution problem with plant based products which reduce carbon emissions leading to a healthier planet. Mariam is a serial entrepreneur having co-founded a few startups in the technology space and founded two startups in the renewable space. She is also a member of cohort 1 of Founder Pitch Week.

Stephanie Louis is the Co-Founder and CEO of SOTRO Innovations, a hair care technology company, launching a proprietary line of hair care tools designed to mimic a spa-like, professional salon experience in the comfort of one's home. Their flagship product is a patent-protected, first-of-its-kind collapsible micro mist hair steamer and hooded dryer combo that consolidates the ability to treat, moisturize and style hair all within one travel and storage-friendly machine. Stephanie won the grand prize in the hair tool category in Gabrielle Union's 2023 "Lift As We Climb" Grant Competition and she is also a member of cohort 1 of Founder Pitch Week.

Kelly Ann Winget is an innovative, emerging manager in the private equity space, and the founder of Alternative Wealth Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm focused on blended portfolios of alternative assets. Hailing from a fifth-generation oil and gas family, Kelly's upbringing exposed her to diverse groups early on. From working at a car wash at 15 to managing valet teams, radiology offices, demolition crews, tanning salons, and bounce houses, Kelly consistently sought out challenges that expanded her horizons. Her experience in blue-collar roles and male-dominated sectors uniquely equips her to empathize with others' experiences. As a savvy business consultant, Kelly effectively secured capital for startups, oil and gas firms, manufacturing ventures, and real estate. With nearly $1 billion raised for family offices through modest investments, she witnessed exclusive access to wealth-generating opportunities and resolved to democratize such access. Founded in 2020, Alternative Wealth Partners aims to democratize investments and financial education. Kelly's sharp intellect and dedication drive her to redirect funds from financial frivolity to impactful ventures. Her approachability and open-mindedness set her apart, fostering meaningful conversations and informed decision-making. As the force behind AWP, Kelly is committed to enhancing financial understanding. AWP offers diverse funds, from fully varied private equity to tax-advantaged energy and real estate investments. With two successful funds managed and a third launching soon, Kelly challenges norms, showing success through genuine connections and diverse portfolios. Beyond profits, Kelly empowers investors to influence their communities. Her revolutionary investment approach has garnered a dedicated following from all walks of life. She's an inspiration to aspiring investors, an advocate for diversity and inclusion, and a beacon of authenticity in a complex financial world.

Cheryl Contee is CEO at The Impact Seat Foundation, where she leads early stage portfolio companies to success, provides resources for underrepresented founders, and helps build a new investment paradigm. In addition to her role at the TISF, Cheryl is the Founder and Chair of Do Big Things, a mission-based digital marketing agency. She was also the National Board Chair for Netroots Nation, the co-founder of Attentive.ly, and a New Media Ventures board member. In 2023, Cheryl is launching the re-edition of her Amazon best-selling book, Mechanical Bull: How You Can Achieve Startup Success.

Melissa Bradley is a General Partner at 1863 Ventures. Serial entrepreneur, investor, professor and researcher. Expertise in (impact) investing, technology, financial services, (social) entrepreneurship, venture capital, social responsibility and media. Significant start-up experience, successful investments facilitated for start-up and emerging companies, extensive board leadership and engagement and aspirational golfer.

Arlan Hamilton, founder at Backstage Capital and HireRunner.co, is a serial entrepreneur, author, and prolific speaker.She founded Backstage Capital in 2015 to invest in founders who are people of color, women and/or LGBTQ. Since its founding, Backstage has raised nearly $30 million and invested in 200 startups led by underestimated founders. Arlan is also the founder of HireRunner.co, a startup that connects outstanding employee talent with inclusive companies.Arlan published her book, “It’s About Damn Time,” in 2020, detailing her journey from homelessness to venture capital trailblazer. Arlan also hosts the popular podcast “Your First Million”, and in 2018, was the first non-celebrity Black woman to grace the cover of Fast Company magazine. Arlan's latest book, "Your First Million: Why You Don't Have To Be Born Into A Legacy Of Wealth To Leave One Behind" is available for preorder and will be out on January 2nd, 2024.Arlan is a big proponent of paying it forward and supporting other underestimated people in the tech industry and beyond. She’s a limited partner in 27 funds led by emerging, underestimated managers, and she and her mother, Mrs. Earline Butler-Sims, have established scholarship programs for Black students at Oxford University, HBCU Dillard University, and Harvard Law.

My name is Carmen  Febres Cordero, I am from Venezuela, I am a mom, wife, creative, entrepreneur, worker, daughter, friend and multitasking! These are the tags that I considere for myself. I am not a big fan of the numbers but I grow up in a town that have one of the best universities in my country, and I choose  to study accountant for my bachelor degree, although my real dream was become a journalist. In order to start something similar I decided the last year, study a Master Degree in Creative Writer. Ten years ago began my journey  as an immigrant and I have had to learn and work in many many things. One of my passion as well, is cooking. I have the best teacher, my mom, and together we created “amoreegusto”, a brand that for us is like our baby, we create different kind of product with international fusion and we make catering for many types of event. The last year we had the big opportunity, consolidate one product, and we created a gourmet empanada with different kind of fillings. Right now we are focus in open a place for every day, this is our goal! Because we start in the farmers market in our town and people always ask  all the time about where they can find us, I think they push and motivate us to continue growing up our business! We have a bunch of projects for amoreegusto but the most important is work with passion and love like our name says!

Alicia Wilson, Esq. is the Managing Director and Global Head of Philanthropy for the North America Region for JPMorgan Chase.  At JPMorgan, Alicia oversees the local philanthropic strategies across 40+ markets in North America, collaborating intentionally with senior leaders across the firm’s corporate responsibility and business units to drive meaningful impact across JPMorgan’s business footprint in the U.S. and Canada. This includes helping to steward the $2 billion philanthropic commitment as part of the firm’s broader Racial Equity Commitment.Prior to joining JPMorgan, Alicia served as Vice President of Economic Development for Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System and Associate Professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland. At Johns Hopkins, Alicia led a core cross-institutional team focused on developing and implementing Hopkins’ institution-wide strategies and initiatives as an anchor institution in and around its campuses both within the United States and abroad.  Alicia spearheaded the elevation and expansion of Hopkins signature commitment to its communities through investments in real estate, economic and neighborhood development, healthcare, and education.  Alicia is actively involved in civic and charitable organizations.  She currently serves on the boards of Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland School of Law Board of Visitors, the CollegeBound Foundation, Kennedy Krieger Institute, and the France-Merrick Foundation. She is also co-founder of the Black Philanthropy Circle at the Baltimore Community Foundation.  Alicia is also Chair of the CollegeBound Foundation and as such is the first CollegeBound Foundation alum, first woman, first African-American and youngest Board Chair in the thirty history of the organization.  Alicia also serves as Parliamentarian within the Harbor City Chapter of the Links, Incorporated and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.   For her accomplishments and public service, Alicia has received over fifty professional awards and honors.  Most recently, Alicia was recognized as Pro Bono Partner of the Year for 2022 by the Equal Justice Council and was selected as the 2022 Whitney M. Young Award recipient for her service to youth by the Boys Scouts of America, Baltimore Area Council. Her professional and civic leadership have propelled her to the forefront of local and national media attention.  Most recently, Alicia was recognized as one of the 15 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2023 by the Baltimore Sun. In mid-2022, Savoy Magazine recognized Alicia as one of the “Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America”. She was also named a 2022 “Women Who Wins” and Newsmaker of the Year for 2021 by the Afro-American Newspaper. 

As president and director of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Fay Twersky is a trusted, values-aligned leader, working with the Blank family, defining areas of giving and directing philanthropic resources in service of a better world. Fay also serves on the Executive Leadership Team of the Blank Family of Businesses – the full portfolio of socially minded enterprises, including the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United, PGA TOUR Superstore, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and AMB West, a collection of Montana Ranches.Fay joined the Blank Family Foundation in February 2021 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, California, where she served as Vice President. Fay created, launched, and led Hewlett’s Effective Philanthropy Group In this position, Fay promoted effective philanthropic practices within Hewlett and well beyond. Among her notable contributions to the field, was serving as the founding Co-Chair of the Fund for Shared Insight, a funding collaborative of more than 100 funders supporting more than 600 nonprofits who are committed to amplifying voices of those least heard in our communities and responding to their preferences, ideas and insights.Fay spent one year working in Jerusalem, as a Senior Advisor to the Managing Director of Yad Hanadiv (The Rothschild Family Foundation), the largest independent foundation in Israel. She advised on issues of strategy, organization and learning. Prior to that, Fay served as director and member of the leadership team of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, developing the impact planning & improvement division. While at Gates, Fay co-founded Youth Truth, a breakthrough student feedback system focusing on the student experience in schools. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Fay was a founder of BTW – Informing Change, a strategic consulting firm working with nonprofits and philanthropy nationally.Fay is a frequent author and commentator on trends in philanthropy. Her publications include several Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) articles including, “Time for a Three-Legged Measurement Stool,” about balancing monitoring and evaluation with feedback from community members at the heart of our work; “How Philanthropic Collaborations Succeed and Why they Fail,” on the value of funders working together on intractable problems but also some of the pitfalls in doing so; “The Artful Juggler,” on what it takes to be a successful foundation CEO; and “Listening to Those Who Matter Most, the Beneficiaries.”Fay is a trustee of the Van Leer Foundation based in The Hague. She is board chair for the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and serves on the Executive Committee for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Fay is also a member of the Atlanta Committee for Progress and the International Women’s Forum of Georgia.In 2022, Fay was named one of nine most influential people in Atlanta by Axios Atlanta and is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta class of 2023.Fay holds two bachelor’s degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, with high honors, from the University of California, Berkeley, and has a master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Fay and her wife Jill have two wonderful children – Jaz and David Nathan—and an adorable dog named Zadie.

Kathleen is an entrepreneur and investor focused on helping to find, incubate, and grow ideas for solving our greatest challenges. As a Partner and founding team member of Builders + Backers, Kathleen leads the Idea and Venture Development Team, working with hundreds of early-stage Builders to turn their ideas into ventures. To date, this team has deployed nearly $1.5M in funding to over 400 Builders.As an investor, Kathleen focuses on early-stage startups developing technologies that disrupt to democratize. Her angel investments focus on her interest and experience in consumer goods, outdoor recreation, and logistics.Previously Kathleen has founded and grown multiple consumer products companies, including one of the earliest treadmill and standing desks companies in the US. She helped to take these companies from idea to manufacturing, e-commerce and retail success, and licenses with international brands.Prior to launching her first e-commerce business, Kathleen was an accomplished attorney and founding partner of a law firm. She served clients of all sizes and helping to secure tens of millions of dollars in judgments for them.Kathleen is an experienced public speaker who has been featured at conferences around the U.S. and abroad. Her articles and interviews have appeared in FastCompany, Tech.Co, PBS, Forbes.com and Livestrong.com.

Currently, Dana serves as a Program Manager at the Emerson Collective. There, she manages a wide range of relationships between community partners, government stakeholders, philanthropic institutions, and equitable development entities as part of her work on the Sycamore and Oak equitable development project. Sycamore and Oak will grow from a 26,000 square foot retail village to a 250,000 square foot redevelopment site that includes Black and locally owned small businesses, office space, mixed use housing, and restaurants. Dana’s work supports the overall community engagement strategy, project design, approval process and implementation. Additionally, leads the strategic development of a community economic strategy to link project economic success to individual economic opportunity for members of the existing community.Previously, Dana has worked for a mix of nonprofit, government and philanthropic institutions including the Democracy Alliance, the Washington DC City Council, Aspen Institute and Children’s Defense Fund. Dana is a graduate of Howard University.

Former Peace Corps volunteer Rahama Wright is a social entrepreneur who works at theintersection of beauty, business development, and policy. Her entrepreneurial journey hasspanned bootstrapping, securing venture funding, landing retail deals, and navigatingmanufacturing, supply chain development, marketing, and sales. She is the Founder/CEO ofYeleen Enterprises (Shea Yeleen, and the Yeleen Beauty Makerspace). Shea Yeleen, a socialimpact beauty brand, manufactures pure plant-based shea butter body care products thatnourish the skin and empower its producers by creating living wage jobs for women in Ghana.Shea Yeleen products can be found at Macy’s, MGM Resorts, and select Whole Food Markets.The brand has been featured in a variety of media outlets including O, The Oprah Magazine,The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Washington Business Journal, and MSNBC.The Yeleen Beauty Makerspace will provide manufacturing, business, and educational supportfor early-stage companies that manufacture and/or sell hair, skin, and body products. Anin-demand speaker, panelist, and leading voice on African women’s economic and businessdevelopment, Wright is serving her fourth term as a member of the Presidential AdvisoryCouncil on Doing Business in Africa and delivered talks at The United Nations, the World Bank,and the Sustainable Brands Conference.Rahama is also the Founder of the DC Pop-Up, a collective of women and minority ownedbusinesses in the DC metro area that are a part of the Made in DC Program. The DC Pop-Up isa curated retail experience that markets and sells products on behalf of makers ranging fromart, jewelry, apparel, house wares, and specialty foods. The goal of the collective is to provideinclusive business opportunities that address gender and racial inequality.Rahama resides in Washington, D.C., and is an avid traveler who has visited and worked in 36countries.

Nora Aly - Nora is Vice President of LMN Printing, a family business of Trade and Commercial printing specialists for over 45 years. Nora is also a Yoga Therapist, Yoga Teacher and Instructor. Studying yoga since the age of 15, she is in continuous education of Yoga Mind and Body practices and its connection. Today, Nora is focusing on the healing of physical, emotional and mental health through Yoga Therapy with her clients.   Nur Health www.Nuryoga1018.com

Allison London Brown is the CEO and co-founder of LUMINELLE, and a co-creator of the device, which is an advanced endoscopic system with a camera and biopsy tool that allows physicians to perform gynecological procedures in their offices more safely and more efficiently. With Luminelle, women and their doctors can identify problems sooner and get a prompt diagnosis of cancerous tissues without hospitalizations.Allison has 20+ years of diverse medical device, consumer and pharmaceutical experience in Healthcare and she has launched over 90 products/services throughout her career.https://www.luminelle360.com/

Lisa Curtis is the Founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods, the leading brand pioneering the sustainable superfood moringa. Lisa began working on Kuli Kuli while serving in the Peace Corps and has grown it into a multi-million dollar social enterprise. Previously, Lisa wrote political briefings for President Obama in the White House, served as a United Nations Youth Advisor, and worked at an impact investment firm. She has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and Inc Magazine’s Top 100 Female Founders list.Kuli Kuli Foodswww.kulikulifoods.com

Angie Mizzell is an author, speaker, and conversation catalyst who helps high-achieving women release a lifetime of ‘shoulds’, pave their own way, and come home to themselves. Her memoir, "Girl in the Spotlight", is a coming of age story about breaking cycles of the past and stepping into a life of courageous freedom. Through her speaking engagements, memoir, and weekly newsletter Hello Friday, Angie shares personal stories that encourage readers to let go of false identities, meet and face grief and loss, and choose mindful presence over external ambition. Angie Mizzell angiemizzell.com (website) angiemizzell.substack.com (newsletter) girlinthespotlight.com (direct book link)