SPEAKERS
Co-Hosts
Cheryl O’Donoghue MS (she/her)
CEO, Emotional Intelligence Leadership Resources
Founder, Aspire2STEAM.org
Biography
Cheryl is an author of female empowerment books, CEO of EiLeadershipResources.com and longtime advocate of DEI initiatives. She is passionate about the work of Aspire2STEAM.org, a nonprofit she established to provide scholarships and mentoring to overlooked young women and girls pursuing education and careers in STEAM. Many scholarship recipients are working to pay for their own training, certification or college while attending classes and supporting their families. Many had to put their educational goals on hold due to the pandemic. Those supporting Aspire2STEAM.org change lives and are the hands that help underrepresented young women up and over these significant barriers.
LinkedIn: @Cheryl O’Donoghue MS and @Aspire2STEAM.org
Twitter: @Aspire2STEAM.org
Facebook: @Aspire2STEAM.org
Aly Wood (she/her)
Customer Success Rep, Diversity Inclusion & Belonging Committee
Articulate
Biography
Aly is a SaaS Customer Success professional with a passion for DEI and policy reform that actually makes a difference. She desires to bring a down-to-earth approach to diversity and inclusion that leads to true empowerment for those of underrepresented identities. Aly is currently pursuing a degree in Organizational Leadership with a focus on D&I. In her spare time, she is focused on building Tech(ish), a new social club, which will cater to first-gen, non-technical, and others underrepresented in technology. She is in the fight towards real equity for Womxn of Color in the workplace and beyond.
Speakers
Stephanie Benedetto (she/her)
CEO & Co-Founder
Queen of Raw
Biography
Corporate attorney turned fashion tech and sustainability entrepreneur, Stephanie 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 in NPR, Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, WWD, ELLE, Cheddar, Parade, WCBS, United Nations, Fortune, Entrepreneur, WIRED, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Fast Company. Stephanie is a 2020 Inc. Female Founders 100, NASA/NIKE/IKEA/DELL LAUNCH.org Innovator, a Grand Prize WeWork Creator Awards Winner presented by Ashton Kutcher, a Cartier Women’s Initiative Laureate, an MIT – Solve Global Challenge Winner, a Climate Change Finalist in Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity, a Finalist for The Elevate Prize, a thredUP Circular Fashion Fund Recipient, 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, along with Aveda, Kering, and Stella McCartney.
Allie Brandenburger (she/her)
Co-Founder & CEO
TheBridge
Biography
Allie Brandenburger is Co-founder & CEO of TheBridge (thebridgework.com), a non-partisan organization breaking down silos and connecting professionals across tech, policy and politics. Allie is unique in her ability to speak the language of innovation and regulation, and helps companies and individuals translate between and navigate these ecosystems. She has extensive experience at the highest levels of politics, government, advocacy and tech. Allie has worked with some of the most innovative tech companies and coalitions, advocating on a broad range of tech policy issues. Allie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/abrandenburger.
Priyanka Brahmbhatt (she/her)
Executive Director
Panamax, Inc
Biography
Priyanka Brahmbhatt is the Executive Director at Bankai Group as well as at Panamax, the technology company of Bankai Group. She is responsible for various roles in her career such as carrier executive, product strategist, and lead technology PR executive and overseeing the operations of the company.
Priyanka has been a part of the Forbes Council since 2018 in NYC. She was elected for Forbes 30 under 30 2020 and has already been nominated for 2021. She has served as a UNSDG program panelist and is currently a UN Youth delegate advocating for climate change, women in tech, mental health awareness, and socio-economic empowerment of the marginalized. A successful entrepreneur, Priyanka founded her own company in 2015 and held various important roles such as Customer Success Director in summer 2016 for Red Books, Product Placement Strategist in Jameson Ireland in 2017, and Next-gen Connectivity Analyst at Google, Ireland in 2017.
She also serves as the President of BeeHively Group and is working on launching a new company to support millions of artisans and women from the developing regions.
Madison Butler (she/her)
VP, People + Impact
GRAV
Biography
Madison Butler is a New Englander at heart but moved to Austin in 2017. Her work is focused around creating equitable spaces and creating scalable strategies to achieve psychological safety. She is an outspoken advocate for mental health, destigmatizing trauma, DEI and the ability to be “human at work”. She is passionate about facilitating hard conversations through storytelling, data and tough empathy. Madison is committed to deconstructing the status quo and rebuilding corporate America, one organization at a time. Her mission is to ensure that no one ever feels like corporate spaces were not made for them, and they can live, work, and exist out loud. She is a start-up enthusiast and is passionate about building inclusive teams from the ground up with early stage companies. Madison is committed to helping change the narrative around what it looks like to be “human at work”, and hoping to help alleviate unconscious bias in corporate America.
John Comacchio (he/him)
Senior Vice President & CIO
Teknion
Biography
John Comacchio is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Teknion Corporation, where he is responsible for providing enterprise-wide technology vision, leadership, and management. He is a member of the Leadership Team and the Executive Committee. Passionate about mentorship and developing future leaders, he is a mentor in the Teknion Mentor program.
Previously, John was a Principal at KPMG Consulting, General Manager US Interactive Toronto, the Information Technology Officer at Nissan Canada, and a member of the Nissan North America CIO Council. John also sits on a series of Technology Advisory Boards, bringing external strategic insights into view.
John holds a Master of Business Administration, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario
Lawrence Fauntleroy (he/him)
Director
CUNY 2X/Tech Talent Pipeline
Biography
I spent 26 years in healthcare. I left healthcare as the IT Director of Enterprise Business Systems at Mount Sinai and in 2018 I had an opportunity to come back to my Alma Mata and join Lehman College as the Director of the CUNY 2X Tech Talent Pipeline initiative. I have the opportunity to help lead Lehman’s diverse and talented graduates into the future where they join the tech industry or make their own space in the industry. We make intentional efforts to bring more women into the program and showcase their talents!
Angela Ferrante (she/her)
CEO & Founder
Laudable
Biography
Angela is the founder and CEO of Laudable, a startup making it easier (and more affordable) for marketers to produce video content. Laudable is out to kill boring B2B marketing (ahem, the white paper) and make company content more authentic. Angela was previously the founding Chief Marketing Officer at Sparkfund, a venture-backed energy technology company. Before Sparkfund, she started the alternative energy group at a Boston-based insurance company. She graduated with a B.S. in Business from the University of Southern California and is originally from outside of Boston.
Jennifer Flynn (she/her)
Chief Information Officer, Military Systems Operations
GE Aviation
Biography
Information coming soon.
Trish Foster (she/her)
Executive Director, The Center for Women and Business
Bentley University
Biography
Trish Foster serves as Executive Director in the Center for Women and Business (CWB) at Bentley University, where she sets strategy and guides thought leadership. She is a sought-after speaker, developing and delivering a variety of DE&I programs for organizations. She has also authored numerous DE&I reports. Topics include: intersectionality; mentorship and sponsorship; allyship across difference; inclusive culture; and more.
As a passionate advocate for inclusion and allyship, Trish spearheaded formation of a student group for allyship and co-led development of Bentley’s Women’s Leadership Group. She is a member of Bentley’s Diversity Council and Racial Justice Task Force.
Previously, Trish served as VP of Ogilvy Public Relations and senior VP of FleishmanHillard PR.
Yuchen Han (she/her)
VP of Engineering Products
BlocPower
Biography
Doris Han is the lead engineer at BlocPower. She focuses on developing smart energy solutions for buildings and work cross functionally between building science, product and data team. She is leading the design and development of engineering software that serve clean energy project at scale at BlocPower. Doris Han holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
Kyra-Lee Harry (she/her)
Founder & CEO
Future Change Makers Academy
Biography
Kyra-Lee is an Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, STEMM Activist and Civic Engagement Leader whose ten years of experience led to the creation of events impacting more than 1000+ lives globally. She founded F.C.M.A, an online learning platform dedicated to helping youth find their own unique voice by sharing their own stories. Through interactive video series using artificial intelligence research, F.C.M.A aims to amplify the youth voice and influence change. Kyra-Lee is a recognized & dynamic leader whose outstanding passion led her to give a TEDx Talk, and be featured in various publications online and in-print.
Paula Hunter (she/her)
Executive Director
Mojaloop Foundation
Biography
Paula Hunter manages the day-to-day affairs of the Mojaloop Foundation with responsibility for strategic planning and direction, membership development, budgeting, evangelism for the Foundation and its mission, and outreach to strategic partners. She has almost two decades of executive technology association management experience beginning in 1999 when, while working for Compaq, she was a founding board member for the ASP Industry Consortium. Ms. Hunter recently served as Executive Director of the NFC Forum, a nonprofit standards organization. Her experience also includes key roles in several technology companies, ranging from small start-ups to large multi-national corporations.
Tasha Jones (she/her)
President
Twenty39
Biography
Tasha Jones is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Founder of Twenty39 with more than twenty years’ experience in the Defense and Intelligence communities as an analyst, engineer and leader. Tasha is a recognized problem solver and turnaround PMP who is adept at re-engineering processes, projects and programs. After leaving the Navy and attending the New York Institute of Technology for her MBA, Tasha joined the US Department of Justice where she spearheaded multiple high-visibility project turnaround efforts for major IT systems. She founded Twenty39 with a mission to use data to solve complex problems for mission critical markets.
Jenna Kelly (she/her)
Senior Conference Producer
Bonhill plc
Biography
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Nasheen Liu (she/her)
Partner & SVP, CIO Program Strategy
The IT Media Group
Biography
By the age of 22, Nasheen has lived on three continents, learned to speak three languages, and begun to embark on a journey that led to three careers.
A seasoned and sought-after executive, Nasheen has two decades of success in strategy development, software marketing, and executive engagement in the technology industry.
As a founding partner and SVP, CIO Program Strategy of the IT Media Group, Nasheen oversees the planning and implementation of the company’s strategic initiatives that impact the Canadian IT executive community. She chairs a cross-industry CIO Advisory Board that provides guidance on compelling issues and topics for CIOs and the IT vendors that serve them.
Before the IT Media Group, Nasheen was with Oracle (Sun Microsystems), heading up the company’s software marketing portfolio in Canada. Previously, she held key marketing and management positions at leading technology companies such as Infor (Workbrain) and IBM (Platform Computing).
Nasheen is the host of the popular “Executive Insights” videocast series. She gives back by providing pro bono coaching, mentoring and sponsorship to her network and referrals, from new grad to senior execs.
Marley Melbourne (she/her)
Student
Havergal College
Biography
Marley is a high school student in Toronto, Canada who recently founded CASUAL Zine, an independent art collective and culture magazine. CASUAL works to digitally connect and promote young artists internationally.
Marley is passionate about combating anti-black racism and discrimination. She has advocated for gender and racial representation in tech and business at Women in IT conferences and on CP24 News. She has also been interviewed by Unsinkable Youth and The Math Guru.
Ashley Miller (she/her)
Managing Director
Accenture
Biography
Ashley has spent her career at the intersection of business and IT strategy, helping companies to get the most out of their IT investments. At Accenture Ashley is the Global Market Engagement Lead for Technology Innovation. She spends her days with clients, startups and account teams, driving strategies to help clients leverage the next generation of start-up partners to accelerate their business transformation. Previously Ashley was the Director for the Accenture San Francisco Innovation Hub. In 2019 Ashley was named Top 40 Under 40 by the San Francisco Business Times. Ashley holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
Chriss Nelson (they/them)
President
Trans Minors Rights
Biography
Chriss Nelson is a 27-year-old software developer from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They are also an LGBT activist and public speaker. They’ve given talks at several universities, churches, and
businesses regarding a breadth of issues affecting their local community. In 2018, they founded Trans Minors Rights; an organization aimed at helping transgender youth in Pennsylvania to make their own decisions regarding puberty blockers. You can find more about this organization at transminorsrights.org and follow them on social media @TMRexecs.
Evelyn Nomayo (she/her)
Leader & Founder
Phase Innovate
Biography
Evelyn is a full-stack developer, a data scientist, an educationist, a technology consultant, and a woman in tech evangelist. She is the current winner of the Diversity in Tech International Role Model Award and the top three nominees of the Woman of Europe Business award 2020. Her career began as a banker and has worked, contracted and successfully delivered projects for several Multinationals, SMEs and Governmental organisations as a Software Developer and Trainer.
Her passion for supporting and increasing the number of women and the underrepresented communities in tech-led her to found Phase Innovate.
In recent times, Evelyn was part of a team as a mentor and developer in winning the prize of a world technology entrepreneurship challenge that featured over 5,400 participants across the globe.
She is currently a PhD fellow in Trinity College Dublin researching Latency Reduction in IoT Architecture using emerging technologies.
Kelly Nuckolls (she/her)
Vice President of Marketing & Alliances
InfoSystems
Biography
Kelly Nuckolls is a dynamic professional with an aptitude for both the creative and business side of marketing strategy, and she proves expertise in strategically integrated marketing for technology solution providers that increases awareness and optimizes revenue streams. She is well-versed in today’s IT challenges and has the ability to translate technical capabilities into modern ROI, including next-gen solutions such as automation, cloud and edge computing, cybersecurity and resilience. Honored multiple times on CRN’s prestigious Women of the Channel list, Kelly’s ability to cohesively integrate solutions from multiple vendors showcases a fresh perspective and a comfortable, best-of-breed sales strategy.
B. Pagels-Minor (they/them/their)
Senior Data Product Manager
Netflix
Biography
From Mississippi to Chicago to Silicon Valley, B. has built their career around building great products for amazing brands while also working to enrich their community around them. B. is a trans nonbinary lesbian whose pronouns are they/them/their.
B. is a native of Mississippi who relocated to Silicon Valley in 2018. B. is an enthusiast for anything technology related, as well as randomly obscure trivia facts.
B. loves product development and improving the processes of developing successful products. B. is a thought leader on product and culture development within technology companies. They are passionate about creating a culture of accountability and sustainable processes that allow teams to ‘just’ do the work well.
Salwa Rafee (she/her)
Global Managing Director, Healthcare & Public Sector Security
Accenture
Biography
Healthcare Industry Expert and Global Managing Director at Accenture Security, leading our community of security executives in NA, Europe and Growth Markets to enable the transformation to digital health and provide world-class solutions to secure medical data and protect the health sector.
Over 20 years of progressive leadership roles in managing global business in Government, Healthcare, Life Sciences, and Education Industries. Salwa leads teams of SMEs, MDs, Technical Architects, and Senior Executives in the development of corporate strategies to create and deploy innovative solutions that leverage integrated technologies and industry differentiation across multiple domains.
A Biomedical Engineer by training, she believes in the role of technology to improve our lives, leveraging AI / ML / DL, digital transformation, cybersecurity, data analytics, blockchain, and hybrid cloud to help our clients deploy the best industry cross-brand solutions.
Mike Raven (he/him)
Co-Founder
AQai
Biography
Plant-based futurist, radical collaborator, rapid researcher, speaker, and entrepreneur.
Consultant in service to companies such as Sony, Reuters, UN Agencies, 38 Degrees, Microsoft, LG, GSK, IBM and more.
Co-Founder of LEAPS – accelerating Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals using unique design-style sprints.
Co-Founder of AQai, missioned with improving humanities adaptability at speed and at scale, to help ensure no one gets left behind, in the fastest period of change we, or any human, has ever experienced. Pioneering the democratization of coaching, with AGI Digital Human AQ Coaches for all of humanity.
Chapter founder and trustee at Journeyman, qualified Naturopath, Schumacher College Alumni & UN SDG (Global Goals) Ambassador.
Proud and humble Husband to a double term HR Director for the Obama Administration and an LGBTQ campaigner.
David Ryan Polgar (he/him)
Content Advisory Council Member, Tik Tok
Founder, All Tech is Human
Biography
Speaker information coming soon.
Keesa Schreane (she/her)
Host, Refinitiv Sustainability Perspectives & Author, Corporations Compassion Culture (Wiley)
Biography
Keesa C. Schreane, author, Corporations Compassion Culture (Wiley, March 2021).
Keesa is Global Strategic Partner Director at London Stock Exchange focusing on risk and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. She is also host and producer of Refinitiv Sustainability Perspectives Podcast, where she speaks with C-Suite and senior leaders about their agendas around impact investing strategy, sustainable finance, and social impact. Her efforts and dedication have provided her with valuable insights from corporate leaders, academics and not-for profit executives about social impact initiatives, human capital, and ESG practices.
She’s been a featured columnist in publications such as Essence, Latina, and Black Enterprise magazines and an on-air contributor with NASDAQ and other television news outlets.
Twitter: @keesacamille
Stacey Turmel (she/her)
Managing Director
The Internet is for Everyone
Biography
Stacey Turmel is an attorney with more than 25 years of regulatory compliance and business litigation experience, along with 5 years of higher-education compliance programming. In private legal practice, Stacey litigated patent, trademark and copyright infringement matters along with employment discrimination and corporate compliance issues. Stacey is currently the CEO of The Internet is for Everyone, LLC, a Web Accessibility Compliance company that offers website/mobile app accessibility compliance evaluation along with legal case analysis and expert witness consulting. Stacey is regularly sought out by businesses and organizations for her success in minimizing lawsuit risk related to web accessibility compliance.
Tiffany Yu (she/her)
CEO
Diversability
Biography
Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to amplify disabled voices; the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, a monthly micro-grant that has awarded $47.5k to 48 disability projects in 8 countries; and the host of TIFFANY & YU, the podcast. She serves on the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council and was a 2020 Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit. At the age of 9, Tiffany became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took the life of her father. She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and has also worked at Bloomberg and Sean Diddy Combs’ REVOLT Media & TV. She is a 2x TEDx speaker and spoke on 5 sessions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. She has been featured in Marie Claire, the Guardian, and Forbes.
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