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INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN
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Women-Owned Business Ownership in America on the Rise
There were 6,861 more women-owned firms in 2018 than in 2017, up six-tenths of a percent to 1.1 million, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey (ABS).

Dear Reader,
For our inaugural year, we received over 350 nominations in varying fields, from manufacturing to technology.

A Look at Progress for Women in Corporate Leadership Roles
The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) with Ascend, C200 and Catalyst has released its second annual report: “Women CEOs in America: Changing the Face of Business Leadership.” The report, which draws on data and includes the most comprehensive breakdown of women in corporate leadership in the U.

From CPA To CEO
And now, she’s gone from CPA to being the CEO of Phonexa at the tender age of 31, as Davtyan oversees an average of $200 million in revenue yearly for the global company that provides marketing solutions for calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more.

WITI Survey Shows Gender
WITI (Women in Technology International), the leading worldwide authority on women in business and technology, recently announced the results of a groundbreaking survey focusing on unconscious bias, parity, career aspirations and what companies can do to enhance gender diversity and inclusivity.

Three Trojan Women Who Have Made History
Its first valedictorian, Minnie Miltimore, was chosen froma graduating class of three in 1884. Vada Somerville Watson, the first Black woman licensed to practice dentistry in California, graduated in 1918.

Women Comprise 41%
Women comprise 41% of the supply chain workforce in 2021, up from 39% in 2020, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Every leadership level saw an increase in representation,...

Inspired by innovations in the health and wellness
A main driver of Smarty’s success has come from the growth of DTC marketing in healthcare. As a result, the company developed an approach for how regulated clients can operate in the social sphere while remaining compliant and mitigating risk.

Women Continue Breaking the Glass
As we reflect on the challenges we faced and opportunities 2021 brings, the Women Business Collaborative (WBC) and Equilar have shared good news from the private sector: The number of women and diverse women appointed to boards of public companies continues to increase.

The Latest in Family Law: A Conversation with the Expert
Probably the ability to have court hearings held online because of the pandemic. That certainly comes with pros and cons. While it wasa necessity during the pandemic, there is and was always the possibility of technical problems.

Staffing Industry Sees Gender Parity, But Wide Pay Gap Persists
The WBC Staffing Leadership Council – a workstream within the Women Business Collaborative (WBC), in partnership with executives representing staffing industry associations, American Staffing Association (ASA), National Association of Professional...

What Women Want (and Want to See)
Branding should begin with a deep sense of humanity. This has always been our mantra and only in understanding that fact can we ignite the love affair between brands and consumers.

The Challenges and Successes of Women
To confront or defy boldly the challenges we women face. This is a conversation I have been curious about my entire life. At thirteen, watching women burn their bras in 1968 in New York, as I was beginning to wear one, was impactful.

PANEL RECAP: MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION
The first panel of the event was an in-depth discussion with leading female executives about mentoring the next generation of women leaders.

PANEL RECAP: WORK-LIFE BALANCE
The concept of balancing time at work with time spent pursuing personal activities is a delicate juggling act that has been placed undera more intense and focused spotlight recently, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PANEL RECAP: WOMEN IN TECH
In the third panel, three leaders in their respective industries discussed the need for female diversity in all fields and shared their thoughts on what more can be done to ensure women and young girls are encouraged to go into the STEM workforce.

HONOREE RISING STAR
Andrea Brenholz is the strong female CEO of a large Silicon Valley company that has a national footprint. Simply put, she represents the next generation of the staffing world: one where Hispanic women and minorities have fair shots at success.

FINALISTS RISING STAR
As a member of Scali Rasmussen’s Data Protection, Privacy, and Cybersecurity team, Monica Baumann received certification through the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the world’s preeminent organization for credentialing privacy professionals.

HONOREE ENTREPRENEUR
Chastity Heyward is a proven leader in business and education. She is currently the franchise owner for Sylvan Learning Center in Murrieta, CA and has been able to maintain over 300% growth for the business since ownership.

HONOREE CEO: SMALL COMPANY
Allison Long Pettine is a business executive, investor, and entrepreneur who’s passionate about supporting leaders who strive to positively impact society.

FINALISTS CEO: SMALL COMPANY
Belva Anakwenze is the principal of Abacus Financial Business Management, a minority and female-owned boutique business management company in Los Angeles. She is an L.A. native and graduated from UCLA.

HONOREE COMPANY EXECUTIVE: SMALL COMPANY
As a founding partner of Vivera Pharmaceuticals at the age of 29, Karpinski became one of the youngest co-founders ofa biopharmaceutical and biotech company.

HONOREE CEO: MIDSIZE COMPANY
Having spent more than 30 years in the beauty industry in senior roles with companies like Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Perricone MD, Korres, Too Faced Cosmetics, and most recently as the CEO and board member of ILIA Beauty, Lynda Berkowitz has a solid background that is relationship-based, results-driven and founded in partnership.

FINALISTS CEO: MIDSIZE COMPANY
Jennifer Barnes is the CEO of Optima Office, an outsourced accounting and human resources firm with over 70 employees. Optima also provides fractional CFOs and COOs to companies in every single industry.

HONOREE COMPANY EXECUTIVES: MIDSIZE COMPANY
Tonner is passionate about helping brands navigate and master the world of influencer marketing and built a strategic, multi-disciplinary team to help clients succeed.

FINALISTS COMPANY EXECUTIVES: MIDSIZE COMPANY
With a prolific track record spanning nearly 30 years in commercial real estate brokerage, Christine Deschaine is senior vice president at Kennedy Wilson Brokerage, a division of Kennedy-Wilson Properties, Ltd., specializing in the leasing and sale of retail property.

HONOREE NON-PROFIT EXECUTIVE
Rima Nashashibi is founder and president of Global Hope 365, a local non-profit dedicated to ending harmful practices towards women and girls such as child marriage, human trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence.

FINALISTS NON-PROFIT EXECUTIVE
Kelly Bruno, president and CEO of the National Health Foundation (NHF), is a proven leader in the non-profit arena, with over 20 years of experience at the forefront of her field.

HONOREE CEO: LARGE COMPANY EXECUTIVES
As chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG), Donna Langley, DBE, continues to impact culture and champion unique storytelling across a plethora of content platforms while at the helm of one of the world’s premier studios.

HONOREE COMPANY EXECUTIVES: LARGE COMPANY
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Linda Duncombe and her team found ways to reassure City National’s clients and communities that the bank would continue to support them.

FINALISTS COMPANY EXECUTIVES: LARGE COMPANY
Alma Banuelos isa senior vice president and national head of trust and estate services with City National Bank and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Trust. Banuelos is a proven leader with 30 years of trust and estate administration experience.

Micheline Abounassar
A renowned fine artist and Glendale resident for 20 years, Micheline Abounassar is a descendant of the Durighello family, who enriched the Louvre museum in France. Her entrepreneurial spirit is reflected in her charitable donations that come from sales of her work.

Rabia Ahmadi
Rabia Ahmandi is an accomplished speaker, lecturer, and grants officer from Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2017, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband and their two young children. On the first day she met Miry, Ahmadi asked to volunteer at Miry’s List to help other families.

Kalley R. Aman
Kalley R. Aman is a shareholder and serves as one of Buchalter’s officers of the corporation as the senior vice president, chief legal officer, and assistant secretary. She is also a member of the firm’s Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Hospitality, Restaurant, Food and Beverage Practice groups.

Mona Andrews
Mona Andrews is the founder and CEO of Stay In The Game, which provides work opportunities designed to keep caregivers engaged and employed. She is also the founder and CEO of Executive Financial Enterprises, Inc., an international business process outsourcer for over 20 years.

Mitra Ahouraian
Mitra Ahouraian is the founder and principal attorney at Ahouraian Law, a corporate and entertainment law firm based in Los Angeles. She holds degrees from UCLA and Loyola Law School, with a specialty from UCLA in Entertainment Studies and an emphasis in Business & Legal Affairs.

Palbinder Badesha
Palbinder Badesha, Riverside/Corona franchisee of Express Employment Professionals, makes the company’s values her way of life. She is frequently described as genuinely amazing, generous, full of warm and welcoming energy, empathetic, curious, driven, and a true friend.

Jennifer Stephens Acree
Jennifer Stephens Acree is the Founder and CEO of JSA Strategies, a Los Angelesbased communications agency specializing in servicing consumer technology, digital media and esports/gaming industries.

Barbara Armendariz
Barbara Armendariz is president and founder of SharpLine Commercial Partners, a full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm. Armendariz is one of very few minority women in the commercial real estate industry that has started her own brokerage firm.

Stacey Beaman
Stacey Beaman entered the fitness space on the marketing side, expanding her brand’s digital presence to an audience in 49 countries! She started teaching dance fitness in 2015, while fiercely advocating for size inclusivity.

AnnMarie Baines
AnnMarie Baines is an educator, researcher, and public speaking coach devoted to promoting self-expression, advocacy, and community through inclusive education.

Donna Baranski-Walker
Donna Baranski-Walker is an MIT engineer and the founder/executive director of Rebuilding Alliance, a non-profit that has been working in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip for nearly 20 years.

Tara Barauskas
Tara Barauskas discovered affordable housing as a profession while attending undergraduate studies and instantly fell in love with the idea of doing good while making a living.

Tania Bhattacharyya
Tania Bhattacharyya found the world of fundraising and change-making at her alma mater, the University of California, Irvine, while pursuing her psychology degree. After graduating, she was raised in the non-profit behavioral healthcare field as a fundraiser, marketer, and eventually executive director.

Christie Bishop
Christie Bishop isa global marketing executive with 20 years of expertise. As EVP & group head of Edelman Los Angeles’ Integrated Brand team, Bishop oversees 40+ communications leaders dedicated to the success of major brands, resulting in strong employee morale, client satisfaction and record growth.

Yukun Bi
Yukun Bi brings 13 years of branding and digital media experience to her role as Hylink’s head of planning, specializing in creating cross-cultural brands that captivate audiences globally. Bi’s advertising career began at Maritz Canada, and later she joined Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai as director of digital strategy.

Brianna Bitton
Brianna Bitton is the co-founder of O Positiv, the wellness company that creates innovative products to address and destigmatize real issues – from period pain to constipation – faced by women of all ages, while also spearheading conversations to revolutionize how people perceive supplements.

Jessica Blevins
Jessica Blevins is a gamer, activist, entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, digital personality, and expert in gaming and esports who’s breaking barriers across the space. Aside from her affectionate personality, Blevins is a businesswoman, managing the world-renowned Team Ninja brand and beyond.

Lan Belinky
Lan Belinky was destined to lead a global skin care brand. In her teens, her family moved from Japan to the United States, where her father began the creation of Boscia in her family home.

Robin Borelli
Robin Borelli is the head of CI&T’s financial services practice. She is an accomplished digital strategist and executive leader with more than 20 years of experience leading multi-disciplinary teams at BBVA, Charles Schwab and consulting firms.

Elizabeth Benson Forer
Elizabeth Benson Forer, MSW, MPH, joined Venice Family Clinic as CEO in 1994, when it served 10,000 patients annually at one location. Through her visionary leadership and the creation of new clinical programs and partnerships, the clinic now serves over 27,000 people in need at 14 locations.

Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski
Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski draws upon over two decades of management experience and a lifetime love of music and the arts coupled with her “insider” perspective as daughter of renowned triple Grammy and Tony award-winning vocalist, producer, radio...

Luciana Brafman
Luciana Brafman is the chief executive officer at Time To Act Entertainment, a content company with the mission to raise awareness, galvanize social responsibility, and inspire activism that promotes real change in the world. In her view, “Children are our best hope but they can’t be prepared if they’re not involved in the conversation.

Tiffany Boyle
For more than 10 years, Tiffany Boyle has leveraged her business-oriented sales and packaging skills to bring hundreds of films and documentaries to fruition. Since 2020 alone, she has optimized clients’ financial and business positions in more than 35 films and documentaries.

Lindsey Carnett
Marketing Maven founder Lindsey Carnett embodies motivation, grit and passion. She is obsessed with winning for her clients to the tune of cumulatively billions of dollars of sales on their behalf. As a former NCAA captain of the California Lutheran University women’s soccer team, she gives 110% to her team.

Libby Brockhoff
As one of the few female agency owners in the advertising industry, Libby Brockhoff has pioneered a new agency model and way of working as the founder and CEO of Odysseus Arms.

Esther Hoonae Chaing
Esther Hoonae Chaing has been working her magic in the Los Angeles community for nearly halfa century. She arrived in Los Angeles in 1972, shortly after graduating high school in Seoul, Korea. Like most restaurant owners, Chaing was shaken by the events of 2020.

Paris Hinson Buchanan
Paris Hinson Buchanan has served as a creative leader on many household brands on a global basis. She is a native Californian and a proud graduate of Chico State. Not only is she one of a few women in a leadership position in the field of advertising but she also has accomplished this while raising four children and two grandchildren.

Ayiko Broyard
Ayiko Broyard joined Walton Isaacson in September 2007 as the lead for the Lexus Black marketing and advertising business. This position was extended to include the automaker’s LGBTQ+ marketing when it was awarded to WI in 2008 and its Hispanic marketing business in 2009.

Jackeline Cacho
Jackeline Cacho is considered to be the “Queen of Edutainment” in Spanish language programming nationwide, a successful author and internationally renowned speaker. Now, she is about to launch a new revolutionary financial literacy campaign - making financial secrets accessible to all Latino families in the United States.

Clemencia Carroll
Clemencia Carroll is originally from Colombia. She is a resident of the City of Long Beach, where she has lived for more than 20 years with her family.

Ka Man Chan
Ka Man Chan manages the entire financial operations of Key Code Media, ranging from the banking and vendor credit relationships to systems integration of ERP to CRM, creating a fluid strategic plan for the 90 employees located throughout the United States.

Corinna Cherian
Corinna Cherian is senior vice president and senior counsel at City National Bank. She is based in City National’s Los Angeles headquarters. Cherian advises the bank’s senior management on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and regulatory compliance and general corporate matters for various business units.

Andrea Cherng
As chief brand officer, Andrea Cherng leads the growth and development of the largest American Chinese dining concept in the world, Panda Express, through strategy development, menu and concept innovation, marketing, and quality assurance.

Verna Grayce Chao
Verna Grayce Chao, executive vice president in charge of City National Bank’s Treasury Management Solutions, started out 2020 focused on building out the bank’s entertainment payments ecosystem — and then the solutions her team created became more important than ever.

Cassandra Chase
Cassandra Chase is a local business owner and social entrepreneur committed to providing marginalized communities with opportunities and essential resources.

Taylor Coleman
Since joining the Howard Building Corporation, Taylor Coleman has been pivotal in creating a fresh new perspective to the company’s client presentation materials through her ability to write compelling copy coupled with the use of various new technology mediums, resulting in an increase of awarded work.

Karen A. Clark
Karen A. Clark serves as senior vice president and multicultural strategy manager at City National Bank. In this role, she is one of the key drivers of the bank’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

Gillian Christie
For over 27 years, Gillian Christie, CEO and founder of Christie & Co, has aimed to change the world by using communication to help ethical companies grow.

Hermine Chobanyan
Hermine Chobanyan is an experienced business banking relationship manager with a bachelor of science in business management and a demonstrated history of working in the banking industry for over 15 years. Chobanyan provides high-touch and solutions-oriented banking to business customers throughout the Southern California region.

Megan Cox
Megan Cox is an MIT graduate, beauty entrepreneur, and cosmetic lab owner. In 2013, she started her beauty brand, Amalie Beauty, out of her dorm at MIT. She spent the next three years in China, running her e-commerce brand remotely and working with factories on the line.

Kristin Daher
Since founding Powerhouse Communications in 2015, Kristin Daher has continually advanced its standing as one of Southern California’s premier, female-led firms.

Melody Cooper
Originally a playwright from New York, Melody Cooper worked on Stage 13’s “Two Sentence Horror Stories,” now on Netflix. She also served as story editor on the 22nd season of NBCUniversal’s “Law&Order: SVU.” Cooper also writes the comic book “Omni.

Amy Cotteleer
As chief experience officer for Duncan Channon and previously as founder of award-winning experiential, social and influencer agency A2G in Los Angeles, Amy Cotteleer has been predicting new ways for brands to create two-way relationships with consumers for more than 15 years.

Jackie Dacanay
Jackie Dacanay joined Fairmont San Francisco 15 years ago as a coordinator in the Human Resources department. Within a short period of time, she has established herself as a resource to her department, her property, the region of the company and the community she’s worked in.

Jen Costello
Jen Costello joined TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles in 2013 and has risen through the ranks in the last seven years, becoming the agency’s first female chief strategy officer earlier this year. She has driven impact across every aspect of the agency and has been integral in defining its next chapter and work to become Chiat’s legacy for its future.

Janet Cruz Padrón
Janet Cruz Padrón is the founder of the financial empowerment platform, Latina Money. By fusing education, media, technology, and storytelling, Latina Money is empowering women to lift the taboo and harness the tremendous power that money has to write and rewrite cultural narratives.

Roshni Cox
Bringing years of experience in marketing and strategy, Roshni Cox serves as the head of brand partnerships for GreenPark Sports.

Katrien De Bauw
Katrien De Bauw is the global president of TBWA/Media Arts Lab, the bespoke advertising agency dedicated to Apple. Throughout her career, De Bauw’s belief in the power of creativity is seen through her work with some of the world’s most creative brands in delivering campaigns that transform business.

Lisa Dauffenbach
Lisa Dauffenbach co-founded Mosaic Laboratories, having an established track record in oncology research and implementing efficient and profitable laboratory operations.

Amanda Davis
Amanda Davis is the founder and chief idea officer of Hudson Davis Communications. With nearly two decades of experience in B2B marketing, Davis has worked for some of the world’s biggest companies across a variety of verticals including entertainment, travel, real estate, finance, mining, manufacturing, and more.

Carol DeNembo
Carol DeNembo is vice president of marketing for Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a leading family-style pizza chain. When the brand was acquired in 2017 and operations moved to Newport Beach, DeNembo wasa significant addition to the leadership team.

Ravit Darougar
Ravit Darougar is the CEO of 4Ever Magic Cosmetics. A self-made, hard-working immigrant who knows the struggles women endure to succeed, Darougar has cosmetic vision and the soul of a chemist, having created a customized exclusive formula to launch her company’s first signature product: Double Shade Seductive Eyebrow Gel.

Laurie Dalton-White
Laurie Dalton-White is the founding executive director of the Conferences for Women – a sister network of nonprofit professional development events hosting 50,000 professionals annually across Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston & Philadelphia. The 2022 CA Conference for Women will be held March 2nd, 2022 virtually during Women’s History Month.

Hilary Howard DeCesare
Hilary Howard DeCesare is an awardwinning entrepreneur, Certified Neuro-Transformational Coach, CEO of The ReLaunch Co., featured speaker in Silicon Valley and conferences nationwide, as well as a relentless philanthropist.

Dr. Yasmin Davidds
Dr. Yasmin Davidds is an organizational psychologist and emotional intelligence practitioner whose extensive and multifaceted career has focused on entrepreneurship, negotiation skills, and leadership cultivation, with a particular focus on empowering and developing members of disadvantaged communities, including women.

Olivia DeRamus
Olivia DeRamus is the founder and CEO of Restless Network, an innovative social networking app and digital resource for women.

Mary Dominguez
For the past 17 years, Mary Dominguez has been general manager of The Oaks of Pasadena, Rose Court Medical Office Building and other rental properties for Pasadena Oaks Life Properties.

Anna Donlon
Anna Donlon is the executive producer of the character-based tactical shooter video game, “Valorant,” developed and published by Riot Games. Leading a team of veteran game developers, including 150+ engineers, coders, artists and publishers, Donlon steers the direction and production of the recently launched competitive PC shooter.

Christina DiPaci
Christina DiPaci is founder and CEO of Paradiso Gardens, one of the largest independent craft cannabis farms in California. Well-versed in the cannabis trade for more than 10 years, DiPaci does it all from compliance to finance, while also having a hand in strain selection, packaging design and brand development.

Hayley Dickson
Hayley Dickson seeks to help clients unlearn shame, fear, and paralysis when it comes to their financial reality. She realizes that even among highly educated groups, members of our communities have too long gone without the important resource of a sound financial education.

Laura Douglas
In 1996, Laura Douglas, along with Chuck Roehm and Norm Boshoff, sat on Roehm’s sailboat in the Puget Sound and talked about their dreams for Turner Group and how they wanted to serve the manufacturing industry. They talked about service, how they wanted to treat people and how we wanted to be remembered.

Lauren Dennis-Perelmuter
Lauren Dennis-Perelmuter officially launched The Art Box Academy in the spring of 2020 as she saw an immense need to ensure children and students who were home due to the pandemic and school closures still had access to handson innovative creative art lessons and projects.

Amanda DiGiacomo
Amanda DiGiacomo started Atlas Financial Solutions after realizing her true passion is helping those in her community. She strives daily to share her knowledge, experience, and skills to elevate small business owners around her. Since founding Atlas, DiGiacomo has helped hundreds of people in her community, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nancy Duitch
Founder and CEO of Sera Labs, Nancy Duitch has over 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and leader in the consumer products industry. She has founded and developed several diverse businesses from start-up to public company level and has generated over $3 billion in revenue for some of the most well-loved consumer brands.

Kendra Doyel
Kendra Doyel is vice president of merchandising for the Kroger Co.’s Ralphs Grocery Company division based in Los Angeles. She oversees sales and merchandising for 185 stores located throughout Southern California to as far north as the Central Coast.

Brie Eley
Brie Eley is a classically-trained actress and content creator. While fostering her own career, she started Here and Ready, a private networking collective servicing more than 1,200 Black actresses across the U.S. and Canada.

Annie M. Ellis
Annie Ellis has been practicing employment law for businesses for overa decade at large firms before starting her own practice, with a current focus on COVID-19 compliance. To better represent businesses, she felt that it was important to know what it means to run a business.

Danijella Dragas
Born and raised in Oxford, England, Danijella Dragas earned a BS in Economics/International Trade and Banking from the prestigious University of London. Dragas was employed by Bear Stearns Investment Banking Firm for over 18 years, where her specialty was asset management and capital markets and investment banking.

Kelly Estrella
Kelly Estrella is the executive vice president of client solutions at Allied Global Marketing, a marketing firm focused on serving the entertainment, culture and lifestyle industries with integrated solutions across paid, earned and owned media, creative design and strategic consulting.

Stacy Durand
With nearly three decades of performance marketing experience, Stacy Durand is a nationally recognized advertising expert. She has managed billions of dollars in television, connected television budgets and helped her clients drive tens-of-billions in revenue.

Jami Beaton Eidsvold
Jami Eidsvold is founder and CEO of Smarty Social Media, which is based in Santa Ana. She has more than 20 years of experience in communications, digital marketing and brand strategy with a focus on social media in the healthcare industry.

Sharon Evans
Sharon Evans is a 25-year veteran in the non-profit advisory service, business development and financial service sectors. She has extensive expertise in supplier diversity and economic development. As an advocate for small businesses, she works to advance inclusivity and expand pathways of opportunity for entrepreneurs across the state.

Carla Galindez
Carla Galindez grew up in Northeast Los Angeles (NELA) and is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. As a college student, Galindez vowed to dedicate her life to assisting those members of our society with the most limited financial means. Through her own personal trials and tribulations, she has become a fierce advocate for her indigent clients.

Tracey Faux Pattani
An accomplished advertising industry veteran with deep roots in digital marketing, Tracey Faux Pattani has worked with some of the world’s most recognized global brands throughout her career.

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein is the Founder and CEO of The Gotham Group, the only major management/production company in Hollywood owned solely bya woman.

Cynthia Grande
Cynthia Grande is the founding attorney of The Grande Law Firm. She works with families and business owners to help them find solutions for their legal concerns. With offices in the Southern California and Bay Area, she has worked with over 1,000 families to create new futures in the areas of immigration and bankruptcy law.

Renee Fraser, Ph.D.
Renee White Fraser, Ph.D., is founder/CEO of Fraser Communications, a $35 million advertising agency. Clients include Lexus, Hyundai, State of California, and Los Angeles County Public Health. As the CEO of the largest woman-owned agency in the West, Fraser is a dedicated advocate for women in leadership.

Brynn Gibbs
Brynn Gibbs, founder and chief executive officer of Consumer Fusion, founded the company in 2013 after she began helping close family friends with fake negative review removal for their businesses. From that, Consumer Fusion grew into a leader in removing fake and illegitimate negative reviews.

Nury Gomez
Nury Gomez, MBA is the founder of Accounting Breeze and a part-time accounting professor at Pepperdine University’s Business School of Management. Using her strong passion for accounting, she founded the company now known as Accounting Breeze. She has built her company from the ground up, using her strong morals and values as support.

Camilla Grozian-Lorentzen
As Senior Vice President of KERN, Camilla Grozian-Lorentzen oversees all client relationships, including AT&T, American Express, Citigroup, Blue Cross of Idaho and SoCal Gas. She leads the company to provide integrated crosschannel recommendations, deploying a mix of tactics to achieve the highest sales and revenue for clients.

Jodie Grenier
Jodie M. Grenier is the chief executive officer of Foundation for Women Warriors, a 100-year-old non-profit organization that honors and empowers women veterans in their transition to civilian life.

Demetria L. Graves
Demetria L. Graves is a certified family law specialist and the managing partner of The Graves Law Firm, serving Los Angeles County with offices in Beverly Hills and Pasadena. Graves assists individuals who wish to amicably dissolve their family matters.

Katie Grassini
Grassini wasa trial lawyer when she took over the family winery as the CEO while in her thirties. With Grassini as the CEO, the winery has grown, and for the last few years both the winery and tasting room were voted number one in Santa Barbara.

Shelby Hartman
Shelby Hartman is co-founder of Double-Blind, a media company at the forefront of the psychedelic movement. She worked in broadcast news production for CBS Newscovering presidential elections, protests, natural disasters, and other breaking news.

Vicki Gunvalson
Victoria Gunvalson, well-known star of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” is a woman of many talents that has helped to inspire many throughout her journey. She continued to grow her insurance practice during her time on the hit reality series, teaching and inspiring hundreds of agents the difficult world of online insurance sales.

Capri Haga
Capri Haga is senior vice president of risk management for Public Storage. She is responsible for identifying the risks Public Storage may face and developing strategies for managing those risks. Haga also has oversight of the Storage Insurance Program offered to all tenants of Public Storage.

Monica Gutierrez-McCarthy
Monica Gutierrez-McCarthy, M.S., is a service-centered leader and strategist driven by her unwavering vision to create notable change in her community’s health sector. Passionate about both people and business, she currently serves as the senior vice president and chief operating officer for Eisner Health.

Dianne Gubin
Dianne Gubin is Co-CEO of C-Sweet, which fosters executive-level professional networks for female colleagues in leadership positions to promote innovation and create new opportunities for trusted and confidential exchange and business/career development.

Brandy Han
Brandy Han is Senior Vice President and Group Head of Capital Markets at City National Bank. In this role, she’s responsible for four areas of the Specialty Banking division that support the entire bank: foreign exchange, interest rate risk management, international banking and trade finance, and syndications.

Felena Hanson
Felena Hanson is a long-time entrepreneur and marketing maven. Her latest venture, Hera Hub, isa spa-inspired shared workspace and business accelerator for female entrepreneurs. This as-needed, flexible work and meeting space provides a productive environment for growing businesses.

Genie Harrison
Genie Harrison is an employment lawyer advocating for victims of all forms of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation. She is a top women’s and civil rights lawyer who handles high-profile cases while annually donating hundreds of hours giving back.

Nancy Hoffman Vanyek
Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, ACE, is CEO of the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce and the first and only woman to head the organization in its 110-year history. At the age of 23, she started as the communications manager of the (then-called) Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce.

Natalie Hockey
Believing the fashion industry should be accessible and inclusive to all women regardless of status, privilege or past, along with the founding of Treasures From Angels, Natalie Hockey actively works with Los Angeles’ most vulnerable and underserved women to create new opportunities and hope.

Nicole Hoeksma Gordon
Nicole Hoeksma Gordon, a partner at The Sohagi Law Group, advises public agencies on complex environmental and land use matters at the administrative, trial, and appellate level.

Angela Hsu
Angela Hsu serves as the senior vice president of marketing and ecommerce for Lamps Plus, the nation’s leading lighting retailer, reporting directly to its founder and CEO. At Lamps Plus, Hsu leads a versatile group of 40 that engages in marketing, e-commerce, omni-channel integration, marketplaces, brand and creative services.

Neysa Horsburgh
Neysa Horsburgh is the Chief Strategy Officer of Psyop. Since joining in 2007, she has expanded the company’s capabilities, shaping their trajectory into the content powerhouse it is today with a roster of award-winning directors and artists.

Erica Hidalgo
Erica Hidalgo, CEO of Evolution Beauty Bar, is an inspirational role model for many in multiple communities. She grew up in a harsh and impoverished environment. Seeing beyond her environmental surroundings, her ambition allowed her to grow to find flourishment like the rose that arose from concrete.

Bel Hernandez Castillo
Bel Hernandez Castillo has been at the helm of Latin Heat Media since its inception as the first entertainment trade publication focused on Latinos in entertainment. Hernandez Castillo’s work led to her being named “The Godmother of Latino Hollywood” by Moviemaker Magazine.

Beth Hilbing
Beth Hilbing is the Co-CEO for C-Sweet for executive women. C-Sweet is a national organization dedicated to women working with each other at the highest levels. Women prospering in the workforce, succeeding as entrepreneurs, and promoting women’s economic empowerment is the organization’s mission.

Julia Huang
Julia Huang, founder and CEO of Intertrend Communications, was born and raised in Japan and immigrated to the United States from Taiwan. As a Taiwanese woman whose time was divided living across Asia, she arrived in the States with a strong perspective on what it means to be Asian and identifieda gap in the marketing and advertising market.

Carolyn Hunt
Carolyn Hunt is regarded as an authority in the film and television finance and distribution arenas. She represents financial institutions; senior, mezzanine and equity venture and production funds; major independent production companies, sales...

Caroline Jackson
Australian-born and educated Caroline Jackson has worked around the world, providing her with a global perspective on her 20-plus years in the industry. Today, Jackson is the managing director and co-founder at the new creative agency Special Group U.S.

Anne Jacoby
Anne Jacoby’s entrepreneurial drive led her to launch her own firm, The Spring Street Solutions Company. Through culture strategy, workshops, leadership programs and executive coaching, Jacoby helps innovative companies drive the mindsets and behaviors that inspire more innovation, connection and inclusion.

Scharrell Jackson
Scharrell Jackson is a chief operating officer who joined Lendistry in 2021 to lead the firm’s operations. As a top-tier executive with over 35 years of experience, Scharrell drives an innovative model forward for Lendistry that results in sustainable business practices, scalability, and financial profitability.

Julia Jacobson
Julia Jacobson founded Aster Farms when cannabis helped her regain her life after a decade long battle with chronic migraines. As an exited CEO, she brings an expertise in entrepreneurship and business development to the Aster Farms’ team. Jacobson leads the company’s high-level vision, has successfully raised over $4.

Jennifer Jackson-Harris
Jennifer Jackson-Harris is a third-generation automotive professional who combined her love for the industry with her passion for education. Currently, she serves as the finance and insurance product manager for Toyota& Lexus Financial Services, managing the Los Angeles Metropolitan area.

Ruksana Hussain
Ruksana Hussain is an award-winning journalist with 20 years’ experience working with media and corporate clients, covering diverse beats and industries. She is the publisher and editor of Traveler and Tourist - a digital subscriber-only monthly lifestyle magazine with a global audience.

Evie P. Jeang
Evie P. Jeang is the CEO and founder of Surrogacy Concierge. Her company represents intended parents throughout their fertility journey from matching with donors, reviewing agency agreements, screening surrogates, drafting gestational carrier agreements, establishing parent-child relationships, and ultimately hospital delivery.

Margaret Johnson
Margaret Johnson is a 24-year veteran of Goodby Silverstein & Partners and leads the agency’s creative department as chief creative officer. Johnson’s signature creative product is innovative work with a humanitarian edge.

Janine Jarman
Celebrity hairstylist and founder of Hairroin Salon, Janine Jarman has worked with a wide range of celebrities. She also launched Curl Cult, a permanent texture styling service that includes a curl and texture supportive retail line for the professional beauty industry.

Kate Jeffers
Kate Jeffers is president and partner of leading independent advertising agency, Venables Bell + Partners (VB+P), where she runs the day-to-day operations and drives its long-term vision. Headquartered in San Francisco, the agency counts Audi, Chipotle, 3M and Reebok among its clients.

Wafa Kanan
Wafa Kanan is the President and CEO of Unique Image. Her expertise in branding, creative, and multimedia delivers solutions and influences positive change. As the engine that launches every marketing campaign, Kanan dives into the core challenges and volume of information, revealing the true essence of her clients’ brands.

Alanah Joseph
Alanah Joseph is the senior marketing manager at HubSpot, overseeing the HubSpot Podcast Network. Joseph is a results-driven, digital marketer and content strategist that’s focused on driving brand awareness and audience engagement for top brands.

Mollie Kaiser
After a career in social work and then during her subsequent 14 years in the finance industry, Mollie Kaiser has worked in investment management at notable financial institutions. While this satisfied one aspect of clients’ financial needs, Kaiser sought a more comprehensive approach, which led her to join Strategic View Advisors in 2016.

Monica M. Jaramillo
Monica M. Jaramillo co-founded the entertainment marketing firm, LABEL the Agency, whose clients include Airbnb, Cedars-Sinai, Fox, Netflix, Seratopical by Sera Labs, Virtue/Vice Media, Team IMPACT and Voice For The Animals.

Emily Kane Miller
Emily Kane Miller is a social impact veteran who has built a career at the nexus of government, non-profits, business, and philanthropy.

Kika Keith
For Kika Keith, tackling the beast of reforming cannabis social equity in Los Angeles has been a long journey, one she never expected would last for as long as it has. Keith is founder of Life Development Group, co-founder of the Social Equity Owners and Workers Association (SEOWA), and nowa Social Equity cannabis retail license owner.

Yun Kim
Yun Kim became CEO of Emperor’s College in 2006, and later CEO and president. Eastern medicine at the time was an emerging field in the U.S. and little was understood while integrative medicine (integrating Eastern and Western) was just beginning.

Amber Kelleher-Andrews
Amber Kelleher-Andrews is CEO of Kelleher International, the largest privately owned matchmaking firm in the U.S. Awarded top global matchmaker from 2010 to present, Kelleher International continues to set the gold standard today for upscale personalized matchmaking in a billion dollar industry that continues to grow.

Ahyoung Kim
Ahyoung Kim started her professional career in the apparel industry as a retail merchandiser for single-store retail brands followed by opening her boutique children’s clothing store, Lux Tots. Five years ago, Kim was recruited by an investor in China to launch a textile business in Los Angeles.

Linda Knight
Linda Knight arrived at her role as CCO of Observatory just around the time of the pandemic — to drive some of Observatory’s most important content for brands. Knight directs creative teams to crack problems with big, yet simple ideas that can play in any number of mediums.

Gayane Kirakosyan
Gayane Kirakosyan has over 18 years of investment banking experience advising companies on debt and equity capital raises, mergers and acquisitions and financial restructurings/bankruptcies. Throughout her career, Kirakosyan has closed over $2.8 billion in transactions across a wide variety of industries and structures.

T. Katuri Kaye
Katuri Kaye has spent her legal career consulting employers and multi-employer trusts on all aspects of their employee benefit plans, including health and welfare, Section 125 cafeteria, and qualified retirement plans.

Danielle Krettek Cobb
Danielle Krettek Cobb joined Google to introduce some of her unconventional design and people magic to the beginnings of its evolution from a software engineering company toa design-driven, moonshotvisioning-“everything” company.

Jill Lim
Being a veterinary practice owner, business consultant, and professional educator are the perfect combination of a love for animals, medicine, customer service, education, and business management. Jill Lim is an active partner in three veterinary start-ups.

Michele Lanza
After more than 20 years of HR experience, Michele Lanza knows the value a company realizes when employees can bring their full selves to work. As a member of a number of the Work Wider communities, she is committed to creating support systems for underrepresented communities.

Jennifer Lieser
Jennifer Lieser is a partner at Kaplan Marino, whose practice focuses on federal and state white-collar crimes and complex criminal litigation.

Deb Lemon
An innovative marketer since her early days at Nike (where she created the iconic Nike Women’s Marathon), Deb Murray Lemon has spent the past 24 months strategizing, executing, and leading.

Judy Lewis
An accomplished female leader in corporate America, Judy Lewis is the chief financial officer for NORMS Restaurants, an iconic SoCal diner chain serving up homestyle hospitality since 1949, headquartered in Bellflower.

Linda D. Kornfeld
Linda Kornfeld, among the nation’s most prominent insurance recovery attorneys, represents corporate policyholders in high-stakes litigation and assists her clients in recovering hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance assets.

Brandi Kolosky
Brandi Kolosky is known as a polymathic business and marketing leader. She is known for pushing the boundaries of B2B and B2C globally. In 2020, she also accepted the role as chief growth officer of Plensy to interrupt, innovate, and revolutionize the financial ecosystem with a patent-pending DeFi lending points system.

Amanda Ma
Amanda Ma is the founder and chief experience officer of Innovate Marketing Group (IMG). She is an industry professional with 17 years of experience in event production, event launch, activations, experiential marketing, design and execution.

Anastasia K. Mann
Anastasia K. Mann founded Corniche Travel (now The Corniche Group, Inc.) in 1987, a company that today grosses more than $35 million annually.

Azucena Maldonado
What began asa passion for the game of golf has evolved intoa business empowering women to shatter the glass ceiling with a golf ball. Azucena Maldonado founded the LGA, the Latina Golfers Association, and considers herself to be a social-entrepreneur.

Deidre Lind
Deidre Lind is an award-winning philanthropic leader with effective, impactdriven results. Lind served as the founding president of the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, which was created to build a diverse array of public/private partnerships focused on innovation and impact.

Lana Manganiello
Lana Manganiello is a business development coach and trainer at Equinox Strategy Partners. She has spent the entirety of her career focused on marketing and business development for a variety of professional service firms.

Melissa Lippert
Melissa Lippert spent and a half years at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf as the director of operations before joining United Pacific. She has been instrumental in integrating acquisitions and driving website, mobile and loyalty initiatives, In addition, Lippert is excellent at organizing cross functional teams and driving the group toward common goals.

Nina Marino
Nina Marino’s complex litigation and white-collar crime practice is both national and international. She negotiates with the U.S.

Rebecca Love
Rebecca Love is the co-president of Marko Metals, Inc., a full-service ferrous and non-ferrous metal broker and recycler. After graduating Boston University in 2006 and a short stint in public relations, Love joined Marko Metals in an operations role.

Laura McHolm
One of the few women at the helm of a moving company, Laura McHolm had an unlikely start as co-founder of North-Star Moving Company. McHolm firmly believes that running a moving business meansa lot more than lifting things – it’s about lifting up the community.

Stephanie Medina
Stephanie Medina is the president of disability services at 24 Hour Home Care, a division that supports individuals and families with developmental disabilities. She is responsible for all of the division’s business functions that support and deliver services to the 21 regional centers in California.

Lisa Helfend Meyer
Los Angeles family law attorney Lisa Helfend Meyer is recognized as a strong litigator and trial attorney who achieves favorable outcomes for her clients in high stakes divorce and custody disputes. Lisa has successfully tried complex family law matters in multiple states.

Tricia Meyer
Tricia Meyer is founder and managing attorney of Meyer Law, one of the fastest growing law firms in the United States, with offices in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. She helps businesses across the country and notable clients include companies that have appeared on “Shark Tank” to companies gracing the “Inc.

Dawn Maroney
Dawn Maroney’s deep health care career can be defined in one word: impact — both on the companies for which she works and the populations they serve. She serves dual roles as markets president of Alignment Healthcare and CEO of Alignment Health Plan.

Amanda Miller
Amanda Miller is producer and executive producer based in Los Angeles. With an emphasis on world-building and characters, Miller focuses on storytelling that leverages her considerable experience in animation.

Sara Z. Mijares
Sara Mijares is an advisor for non-profit, cultural, artistic, and tourism organizations and an expert business promoter, She has recently entered into an event collaboration with the “Convencion Internacional de Chile 2022” in Tabasco,...

Danyelle McGill
Danyelle McGill is an experienced vice president of strategic marketing with a demonstrated history working in the entertainment, arts, and lifestyle industries on global and targeted (local, African American, Hispanic, LGBTQ+) marketing campaigns.

Rochelle Mills
Rochelle Mills is president and CEO of Innovative Housing Opportunities (IHO), a non-profit developer of high-quality affordable housing, providing supportive services and economic empowerment programs. She oversees the growth and implementation of IHO’s vision, portfolio, and long-term impact.

Renee Miller
Renee Miller is founder of The Miller Group, a woman-owned, culturally diverse, award-winning digital branding and advertising agency. She has been recognized as one of Los Angeles’ leading creative directors. She is also a successful businesswoman who cherry picks clients, based on her ability to contribute successfully to their bottom line.

Crystal Muilenburg
Crystal Muilenburg joined Evolus in February 2019 as the VP of Corporate Communications & Public Relations. She was instrumental in the successful launch of Jeuveau in the U.S. and a key strategist in the successful navigation of an ITC case that was resolved in February 2021.

Valerie Moizel
A leader in the marketing and advertising world, Valerie Moizel is the CEO and CCO at The Woo, a Los Angeles-based creative agency. She and her former partner built The Woo from the ground up immediately following Moizel’s graduation from Art Center College of Design.

Allison Moss
Allison Moss has 22 years of prior marketing and management experience working with some of the biggest beauty companies in the business. Yet her passion for wanting to bring cleaner, safer beauty & personal care products to market brought her to where she is today as the founder & CEO of Type: A Brands.

Kimberly Miller
Kimberly Miller is the global chief experience officer at Initiative. Protecting the agency’s unique culture, she oversees programs that strengthen the experience of more than 900 employees in the U.S. and 4,000 globally.

Laurel Mintz
Laurel Mintz, J.D., M.B.A., is the CEO and founder of award-winning, Los Angeles-based marketing agency, Elevate My Brand. Her gift is connecting with people and their stories. After all, companies are made up of people and stories are just narratives that are the foundation of great marketing.

Carrie Murray
Carrie Murray is a speaker, podcast host, and the founder of Business Relationship Alliance (BRA), a network of powerful female entrepreneurs devoted to advancing women-owned businesses by providing the community, collaboration, empowerment and support needed to flourish as an entrepreneur.

Kristin Olszewski
Kristin Olszewski is the founder and CEO of Nomadica, the sommelier-curated line of sustainable, low-intervention wines. Prior to entering the wine space, Olszewski earned her degree in sustainable agriculture and gender studies, and was pre-med at Harvard when she realized her true passion was in wine, not what was laid out before her.

Tami Pardee
Founder and CEO of Pardee Properties, Tami Pardee has established dramatic new standards of success in real estate. She created a cutting-edge concierge brokerage model, using specialized teams to create life-changing client experiences in buying and selling homes.

Michelle Ngo
Michelle Ngo was appointed chief financial officer in December 2020 after serving as senior vice president and treasurer since 2009. She has demonstrated a strong ability to not only adapt but also thrive in the midst of changes.

Becky Patel
For over 30 years, Becky Patel’s leadership has been key to making the organization what it is today while shaping the general agency in multiple states. As chief executive officer, she is instrumental in every facet of the business. Now, she is CEO of Amwins Connect.

Angie Myers
As a mom of six, Angie Myers’ laundry was never ending because her kids always used more than one towel at a time. So she created the ideal solution: the patent-pending My “Buddy” Towel. It’s a towel and an onesie in one. Just slip on, zip up and go. No more battling to keep the bath towel from falling off, either.

Thedora Nickel
Thedora Nickel has over 30 years of experience in a wide variety of positions across financial services. A dynamic and innovative business leader, she held a number of senior operational roles at Bank of America during her 26-year tenure.

Sabrina C. Narain
Sabrina Narain leads the Automotive Practice Group at Sanders Roberts and specializes in handling warranty defense, product liability, and business litigation matters. She is the first female partner at Sanders Roberts, a top-tier litigation boutique located in downtown Los Angeles.

Melissa Orr
An accomplished CEO, entrepreneur, board member and advisor, Melissa Orr was ona mission to find ‘up and coming’ female entrepreneurs to mentor and grow with and help them realize their dreams.

Kiera Peltz
Kiera Peltz is an international STEM education leader focused on preparing the next generation of leaders and innovators for the future of work. She is the CEO of The Coding School (TCS), a 501(c)(3) tech education non-profit that aims to ensure future social mobility, prosperity and innovation through computer science education and training.

Alma Ramirez
Alma Ramirez has over 20 years of media and marketing experience, playing a critical role for accounts as lead planner and negotiator for all traditional media. She has established strong relationships with both local and national media vendors, an expert at securing the best pricing and maximum added value with all media buys.

Stephanie Perdue
An expert marketer with 17+ years in the restaurant industry, Stephanie Perdue is recognized as a catalyst for insight-driven strategy, category-leading innovation, and disruptive integrated marketing. She is the vice president of brand marketing at Chipotle overseeing brand strategy, advertising, innovation, experiential and brand activation.

Stacey Ramirez
Having survived leukemia as an infant, Stacey Ramirez was born to be a winner. She started as an intern at Haskel, a 75-year-old industrial manufacturing company with roots in aerospace, based in Burbank. She quickly moved her way up the ladder, from intern to EHS leader, then supply chain manager, and ultimately leader.

Nichole Perkins
Nichole Perkins is the founder of PrimaFoodie. A self-described food warrior, Perkins is fueled by her belief that a healthy, empowered, conscious lifestyle can be accessible to everyone. Having struggled with various autoimmune conditions, Perkins started on a journey of selfhealing through food.

Vikita Poindexter
Vikita Poindexter, CEO of Poindexter Consulting Group, LLC, has been known throughout her 30+ years career as the consummate professional and go-to person for human resources. She is an acknowledged expert in her field.

Natalie Perez
Natalie Perez is a cinematographer and filmmaker and the co-founder of She TV Media, a video and virtual event production company based in Los Angeles. Her work includes narrative and documentary films, shorts, and web-series.

Megan Powers
Megan Powers is an account director at Illuminator,a Bay-Area digital advertising agency. As an experienced digital, social, and experiential marketer, she brings exceptional energy, creativity, and thoughtfulness to each of her client brands. Powers is a strategic thinker, sounding board, partner in the trenches, and champion of creative work.

Elsa Ramo
Elsa Ramo provides comprehensive legal services to producers, financiers, creators and owners of film, television and digital content as well as projects across a range of budgets and production levels. She established her own law firm to enable up-and-coming filmmakers and producers to bring their stories to life.

Teresa Razo
Teresa Razo is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and a pillar to the community. Her Cambalache and Villa Roma restaurants provided a tremendous amount of support to the community during the pandemic.

Sarah Robarts
In 2000, Sarah Robarts founded Ballantines Public Relations (BPR), a luxury and lifestyle public relations agency headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in New York, San Diego and the Bay Area. Robarts’ professional network and connections span across numerous industries, including hospitality, tourism, entertainment, art, design and wellness.

Sol Ricagni
Sol Ricagni is the general manager and partner of Migrante Agency. She is an award-winning creative executive who has worked with some of today’s most exciting brands and non-profits. At Migrante, Ricagni wears multiple different hats, from leading creative projects to overseeing the accounts, to running the operations of the company.

Diane Reynolds, MFT
Diane Reynolds is an infant-family early childhood mental health specialist, trainer, and leadership coach. She has spent 27 years dedicated to advancing equityinformed reflective practice introducing parents, schools, and organizations to mindful approaches to care.

Wendy Raquel Robinson
Wendy Raquel Robinson is a Best Actress NAACP Image Award recipient, known for her groundbreaking roles as ambitious, leading women on television.

Dawn Reese
Dawn Reese is the SVP and U.S. managing director of UM Studios, UM’s dedicated creative content group. She leads the UM Studios team across all U.S. offices and partners with UM’s roster of iconic brands, developing original, branded and performance content across all platforms to achieve business objectives.

Caitlin Robertson
As an award-winning SVP of business development at Reach Agency, Caitlin Robertson is an energetic leader with experience building and scaling teams that drive profitable growth, cultivate authentic relationships, and deliver bestin-class work. She’s at the helm of creating innovative and impactful programs for global brands.

Beth Ryan
With successful foster program models under her belt and a network of committed volunteers, Beth Ryan recognized an opportunity to scale the program to serve a greater number of young people in need in 2017.

Maria S. Salinas
Maria S. Salinas is the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the largest business association in Los Angeles County, representing member companies and serving the interests of more than 235,000 businesses across the Los Angeles region.

Mary Rogers
Mary Rogers is an experienced general manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospitality industry. She is skilled in all aspects of hotel operations including condo hotel operations, sales, catering, event management, financial, leadership, and pre-opening.

Nicole Rodrigues
Nicole Rodrigues is the founder & CEO of the award-winning, strategic public relations agency and marketing machine, NRPR Group. She is a recognized expert and leader across specialties, renowned for her ability to bridge the communication gap between technology and various consumer industries.

Lori A. Roth
Lori A. Roth is the co-managing partner of Prager Metis,a member of Prager Metis International Group. Additionally, she is a partner in the Audit and Accounting, and Advisory Services departments of the firm. She has been in the accounting industry since 1984.

Margaux Rotter
Margaux Rotter has had a passion for architecture and building since she was a young child. She worked for Morley Builders asa project engineer after college, with one of her projects being BLVD’s award-winning Ace Hotel.

Katy Saeger
At Katy Saeger’s company Harmonica, she serves as interim CMO for clients, leveraging her bi-coastal public relations and marketing agency, which has led a number of name brands and organizations, through hyper growth and acquisition.

Tiffany Rubin
Tiffany Rubin brings personal experience as an athlete, intensity and intentionality as director of youth programs for the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF). She oversees Dodgers RBI (DRBI), LADF’s youth development program, which now provides over 10,000 young Angelenos with baseball/softball opportunities annually.

Jennifer Sawday
Jennifer Sawday isa partner at TLD Law, LLP. She serves a wide range of clients in all matters related to probate, trusts, estate planning — and related litigation. She also handles pre- and post-death administration for clients who serve as personal representatives, executors, and trustees for trusts and estates.

Lara Schmoisman
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lara Schmoisman is the founder and CEO of The Darl,a powerhouse business and marketing-public relations strategist. She is also the host of both the “Coffee N5” (English) and “Marketing Simplificado” (Spanish) podcasts, and an international speaker.

Jessica Schaefer
As the founder and CEO of Bevel, Jessica Schaefer is responsible for the communications and public relations strategies fora robust portfolio of clients, including leaders in fintech and venture capital.

Carol Schary
When Carol Schary began her construction business career, there were very few women in offices or job sites. She went to industry conventions and sat in meetings where she was typically the only woman in attendance. Things have changed a lot in the last 20 years.

Michele Perrone Sileo
Michele Perrone Sileo has 25+ years of creative agency experience and a knack for sparking new client relationships. As Eleven’s most senior female executive, Sileo is essential in shaping and driving the company’s growth. Since joining Eleven in 2004, she has cultivated a strong roster of clients.

Heather Smith
Heather Smith is an immersive and interactive storytelling technology pioneer and visionary. She is the CEO and founder of StoryFile, an online, automatic, cloud-based AI technology that provides the opportunity to record and preserve stories and legacies so that people anywhere, anytime can havea conversation with that pre-recorded person.

Margaret Sohagi
Margaret Sohagi’s practice for the last 30 years has focused on assisting cities, counties, and other public agencies navigate the legal complexities of land use, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Tiffany Thurston Scott
Tiffany Thurston Scott co-founded Róen Beauty in 2018 and launched her first products in March 2019. As CEO, Scott has navigated the challenges of running a start-up and in the midst of a global pandemic with color cosmetics being hit and stores closing.

Virginia Scripps
As Press Kitchen founder and CEO, Virginia Scripps has built a successful and unique public relations enterprise from the ground up, spanning more than 20 years and serving successful businesses across entertainment, advertising and technology.

Natalia Sephton
Natalia Sephton is an innovative leader with a track record of improving profitability through building high performing teams, establishing effective scorecards, and driving for results. She is a collaborative leader specializing in strategic planning, operations, supply chain management, project management, and lean implementation.

Dr. Debi Silber
Dr. Debi Silber is the CEO and Founder of The PBT Institute and a holistic psychologist, health, mindset and personal development expert and the author of the #1 bestselling book: “The Unshakable Woman, Trust Again: Overcoming Betrayal and Regaining...

Nicole Sexton
Nicole Sexton was named the president and CEO of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in 2017. EIF was established in 1942 to unify Hollywood’s generous giving to maximize the amount of charitable dollars raised annually, and guarantee that worthy charities receive these contributions.

Wendy Spinner
Wendy Spinner is an L.A.-based UBS private wealth advisor and endowment & foundation consultant who – along with her team at The Spinner Group – partners with family foundations and philanthropic organizations to help them fulfill their missions. She passionately lives the ethos of “doing well by doing good” in all aspects of her life.

Ariana Stein
Ariana Stein grew up in southeast Los Angeles in a family of seven. She was the first to graduate from high school and college, and began working in the corporate world of retail facilities management.

Amy Stanton
Amy Stanton is an award-winning CEO, author, and the founder of Stanton & Company (S&Co), a marketing and public relations firm based out of Los Angeles.

Kirsten Hicks Spira
Kirsten Hicks Spira is a lawyer, a dedicated pro bono advocate, a pillar in the local Los Angeles community through her service, and a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in her law firm and the legal community. In her legal practice, Spira represents the country’s largest law firms in their most pressing professional responsibility matters.

Dynasty Taylor
Dynasty Taylor is a locally known social worker born and raised in South Los Angeles in a notorious neighborhood called the “Jungles.” She noticed how the youth in underserved communities were at a disadvantage of being successful by growing up in the daily struggles of poverty.

Cynthia Y. Sun
Cynthia Y. Sun is a senior associate and practices in the areas of general liability, product liability, breach of warranty, breach of contract, consumer fraud, and general business litigation. Sun has represented a variety of clients, from individuals and small businesses to Fortune 500 companies and public entities.

Frances Tang
Frances Tang is the founder of Awkward Essentials,a personal hygiene company known for its marquee product, Dripstick, that makes post-sex easier than ever. She grew up in the Bay Area assuming she would someday go to college and get an office job. Initially she did just that, findinga marketing job that paid the bills but left her feeling uninspired.

Susan Taylor
Susan Taylor joined Juice It Up! in 2019 and was soon elevated to the role of president and CEO the following year – an obvious choice to lead the 25-year-old brand with nearly 30 years of progressive experience in the restaurant franchise industry to her credit.

Genevieve West
Genevieve West is the first female vice president at Howard Building Corporation (HBC), a tenant improvement general contractor. West’s expertise, agility, and reliability have been instrumental not only in business development, but in the development of company culture, inclusion, and sustainability efforts.

Amber Wallace
Amber Wallace is president & CEO of Dowitcher Designs Inc., an award-winning integrated marketing agency providing marketing, creative, and technology solutions from Southern California offices to clients globally.

Taina Angeli Vargas
Taina Angeli Vargas co-founded Initiate Justice in September 2016 with the intention of activating the political power of people directly impacted by mass incarceration.

Tunua Thrash-Ntuk
With nearly two decades of experience in community development, economic development and affordable housing, Tunua Thrash-Ntuk serves as executive director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation Los Angeles (LISC LA).

Marissa Waldman
Marissa Waldman is CEO and co-founder of Leaderology, a company specializing in leadership development. Since the beginning of her career, she has placed a high premium on relationships as a means to helping others achieve their highest potential.

Katie Wagner
Katie Wagner spent more than 15 years as a journalist, working for news outlets all over the world, including ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN & National Public Radio (NPR). After graduating magna cum laude from Boston University witha B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and a B.

Rachel Thomasian
Rachel Thomasian is a licensed marriage and family therapist; co-author of “BreakUp and BreakOut;” founder and director of Playa Vista Counseling; co-founder of ShrinkSync; and a mother of two children. She is both genuinely caring and extensively trained and has been professionally helping individuals, couples, and families since 2007.

Erica J. Van Loon
Erica J. Van Loon is an experienced IP trial lawyer. She has a winning track record litigating copyright, trademark, patent, rights of publicity, trade secrets, invasion of privacy, defamation, business interference, and other media and entertainment claims.

Maya Watson
Maya Watson is the head of global marketing at Clubhouse, leading the creator, partnerships, community, editorial and communication teams for all marketing initiatives. At Clubhouse, Watson is the head of media partnerships and leads marketing initiatives for the creator, community, editorial and communications teams, reporting directly to the CEO.

Gelena Wasserman
Gelena Wasserman was born in Odessa, Ukraine and came to the U.S. as a fouryear-old child due to religious persecution. She had a great career representing top entertainment and technology companies in L.A. She yearned for more and started Skya Ventures in 2015.

Shawn R. White
Shawn Ray White is an experienced corporate executive and dedicated public servant. In October 2021, she joined Smith Family Circle, LLC, the Will and Jada Pinkett Smith family office, as general counsel. Most recently, she served as a member of the executive team and general counsel for the Barack Obama Foundation.

Molly Wang
Molly Wang ’s story is a little different from most. As a first generation Chinese-American and single mother, building Lafonn is her American dream come true. In 1998, she came to the U.S. with a mere $200 in her pocket, and more importantly, with an intense fire and passion to do something significant.

Adele Wilson
Since 2007, Adele Wilson has been with Streetlights helping to redress the gender and race inequities behind-the-camera.

Denita Willoughby
Denita Willoughby is the president and CEO of The Willoughby Group. She is an experienced and inspiring business leader with 25 years of senior management and executive experience at Fortune 200 companies.

Shauna Williams
Shauna Williams joined Walton Isaacson in 2011 as an agency producer rising to VP, head of production because of her exceptional ability to manage and inspire teams, delight and drive business results for clients, and innovate in collaboration with creative teams.

Melanie Williams
Melanie Williams has dedicated her career to helping brands and businesses better understand and serve today’s consumers. As the SVP, Head of Strategy for Quantasy + Associates, she leads a team of cultural strategists who focus on uncovering the unique perspectives, experiences, and needs of diverse and often-overlooked communities.

Lara Yeretsian
Lara Yeretsian is well-known in the criminal defense bar and a regular presence on CourtTV, Law & Crime, and other crime programs. She has written extensively about criminal justice issues and passionate about providing a voice for those upon whom society has turned its back on.

Lena Wilson
Lena Wilson has worked in the field of child welfare for over 30 years and passionate about working with children and families at risk by empowering them to reach their highest potential. She found her initial calling to the field as a youth specialist ina small residential setting.

Meredith Yinger
Meredith Yinger is a Los Angeles based independent filmmaker, voice artist and entrepreneur. She lives for the opportunity to bring inclusive, female-forward, and important stories to life through the magic of film.

Sarah Zapp
Sarah Zapp is an entrepreneur, awardwinning journalist and relationship curator. She is the CEO and founder of Beyond Board and alsoa speaker and panelist on the topic of building relationships and board diversification, who was recently featured at a national TED Women’s conference and Goldman Sachs Women’s Symposium.