2018 Speakers

Shawn Achor

is the New York Times best-selling author of The Happiness Advantage and Before Happiness. His most recent book, titled Big Potential: How Transforming the Purs... Read Full Bio

Sharyn Alfonsi

has contributed reports to 60 Minutes since 2015. Her investigation of the misuse of jailhouse informants in Orange County, CA, drew national attention to a cri... Read Full Bio

Marjorie Clifton

is founder of [email protected], and principal of Clifton Consulting, LLC. She has two decades of experience in communications and policy, and is also a published aut... Read Full Bio

Tyler Haney

is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Voices, a brand whose mission is to inspire more people to be active on a daily basis. A graduate of Parsons School of Design,... Read Full Bio

Nina Shaw

is a founding partner in the entertainment law firm of Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano. Her practice is in the television, motion picture, and... Read Full Bio

Reese Witherspoon

is an award winning actress and producer who has created the kinds of unforgettable characters that connect with critics and audiences alike. She won an Academy... Read Full Bio

Quita Culpepper

is an anchor at KVUE in Austin, Texas. She is one of Austin s most celebrated and trusted TV journalists. Since moving to Austin at the age of thirteen, the c... Read Full Bio

Myrna Estrada

is vice president and regional general manager for Safeco Insurance. She leads the central region distribution operation for Safeco Insurance, which is a Libert... Read Full Bio

Mary Abbajay

is the president of Careerstone Group, LLC, a full service organizational and leadership development consultancy that delivers leading-edge talent and organizat... Read Full Bio

Luvvie Ajayi

is a New York Times-bestselling author, speaker and digital strategist who thrives at the intersection of comedy, technology, and activism. A fifteen-year blog... Read Full Bio

Penny Baldwin

is a senior vice president and the chief marketing officer at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. In her role, Baldwin leads the company s marketing efforts worldwide... Read Full Bio

Carolina Barcenas

is vice president of data science and AI for data products at Visa. She is responsible for exploring and developing advanced ways for leveraging data to create ... Read Full Bio

Susie Gray Biehle

has been publisher of the Austin American-Statesman since December 2012. Prior to this role, she was EVP and general manager for USA TODAY, where she was res... Read Full Bio

Lisa Bodell

is a best-selling author, and the founder and CEO of futurethink. She s helped thousands of senior leaders at companies like Google, Pfizer, and Lockheed Ma... Read Full Bio

Lauren Smith Brody

is the author of The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Big Success After Baby (Doubleday/Anchor). She s the founder of The Fi... Read Full Bio

Colette Pierce Burnette

Ed.D is the president and chief executive office of Huston-Tillotson University, Austin s oldest institution of higher learning and the only historically bla... Read Full Bio

Kailei Carr

is the CEO of The Asbury Group, which specializes in image, presence, branding, and leadership development for executive women. Through her signature approach ... Read Full Bio

Courtney Carver

changed her life by simplifying it after a devastating diagnosis in 2006. She s the founder of bemorewithless.com and minimalist fashion challenge Project 3... Read Full Bio

Patrice D’Eramo

PATRICE D ERAMO leads Americas marketing and communications with Cisco, an organization focused on delivering personalized, real-time compelling customer expe... Read Full Bio

Bobbi Dangerfield

leads global business services, a cross-functional organization focused on end-to-end sales enablement, order management, customer order support and business in... Read Full Bio

Emily O’ Halloran

EMILY O HALLORAN is the digital lead for the southwest region of Accenture. In her role, O Halloran helps clients redefine how they serve connected custome... Read Full Bio

Melinda Yee Franklin

currently serves as the managing director of corporate and government affairs in the western region for United Airlines. Based in San Francisco, she is responsi... Read Full Bio

Carol Fulp

is president and CEO of The Partnership, Inc., New England s premier organization dedicated to enhancing the competitiveness of the region by attracting, deve... Read Full Bio

Anne Grady

is not your typical motivational speaker. She is a best-selling author, two-time TEDx speaker, trainer, survivor, optimist, inspirer, and a truth-bomb dropper. ... Read Full Bio

Alison Green

writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she answers readers' questions daily on workplace and management issues. From what to say when you drank too much... Read Full Bio

Martie Haselton, PhD

is the world s leading researcher on sexuality and the ovulation cycle. She is a professor of psychology at UCLA, and the Institute for Society and Genetics. ... Read Full Bio

Sally Helgesen

is considered the gold standard among experts on women s leadership, and was the first to focus on what women have to contribute to organizations rather than ... Read Full Bio

Jessica Honegger

is an award-winning social entrepreneur, and author of the book Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared. Honegger is the f... Read Full Bio

Catherine Kaputa

is a brand strategist, speaker, author, and founder of SelfBrand, a New York City-based personal branding company - www.selfbrand.com. From Madison Avenue, to ... Read Full Bio

Kendra Logan

is a recognized influential and inspirational leader in the area of change management, learning and development, career planning, networking and diversity and i... Read Full Bio

Lori Nishiura Mackenzie

is executive director of Stanford University s Clayman Institute for Gender Research, home to eminent scholars and activists forwarding gender equality. She d... Read Full Bio

Jackie Maniscalco

is an energizer at the intersection of healthcare and technology, and is currently an associate director in information technology at Merck & Co., Inc. She ... Read Full Bio

Ashley Diaz Mejias

has devoted her work to researching and writing on racial bias. She has written for blogs and led curricula for institutional conversations on race, systemic bi... Read Full Bio

Michelle Milford Morse

is the vice president for Girls and Women Strategy at the United Nations Foundation. For nearly twenty years Morse has served organizations dedicated to promoti... Read Full Bio

Nathalie Molina Niño

is a serial entrepreneur, a super connector and an investor, focused on high-growth, innovative businesses that deliver a measurable economic benefit to women. ... Read Full Bio

Ann M. Oglesby

is vice president, technology, for Phillips 66. She has more than thirty years of experience in the oil, natural gas and petrochemicals industries. Prior to ass... Read Full Bio

Emily Ramshaw

is the editor of The Texas Tribune. Under her leadership, the Tribune has won six national Edward R. Murrow Awards, IRE's Gannett Award for Innovation in Watchd... Read Full Bio

Katie Ray-Jones

is the chief executive officer of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. In addition, Ray-Jones has managed an emergency shelter, transitional and permanent ho... Read Full Bio

Selena Rezvani

teaches women at all levels to negotiate like a boss. She also consults to employers on how to make work truly work for women - by architecting workplace ... Read Full Bio

Tara Roberts

is vice president of products and user experience for Oracle adaptive intelligence. She leads the planning, design, delivery, and management of Oracle s artif... Read Full Bio

Alice Rutkowski

is a vice president at SAGIN, where she serves nationally as executive communications coach. Rutkowski joined SAGIN with more than thirty years of experience in... Read Full Bio

Dani Rylan

is the founder and commissioner of the National Women's Hockey League. Rylan launched the NWHL in April 2015 with aspirations of growing the landscape of women'... Read Full Bio

Hana Schank

is a writer, design researcher and technologist. Her most recent book is The Ambition Decisions: What Women Know About Work, Family and the Path to Building a ... Read Full Bio

Renee Schroeder

leads the core technology solutions organization which develops and maintains a variety of products and websites. Her teams are responsible for technology capab... Read Full Bio

Emily Sheeren

is a principal at ghSMART. She serves private equity and corporate clients in the areas of leadership assessment, leadership development and organizational chan... Read Full Bio

Denise Shepherd

is a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting, and leads consulting s strategic talent and inclusion portfolio, including talent strategy and the design and deve... Read Full Bio

Lea Sims

is the assistant vice president in enterprise innovation with responsibility leading the Member and Employee Innovation Programs. She joined USAA in 2006 and ha... Read Full Bio

Amanda Singer

is vice president of M&A integration management for Arm, the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property (IP) supplier. She is responsible for ens... Read Full Bio

Deborah Sengupta Stith

is a music writer with the Austin-American Statesman. After her brief career as a mediocre bass player fizzled out in the early aughts, Stith started writing a... Read Full Bio

Elizabeth Wallace

is the author of The Ambition Decisions: What Women Know About Work, Family, and the Path to Building a Life (Viking, 2018). Wallace worked for over a decade ... Read Full Bio

Leslie Ward

is senior vice president of legislative affairs, corporate external affairs with AT&T. She has been ranked as one of the top corporate lobbyist in Texas sin... Read Full Bio

Claire Wasserman

is a community builder, and an advocate for women in the workplace. She founded Ladies Get Paid, an organization that gives women the tools and support they nee... Read Full Bio

Dr. Jen Welter

became the first female to coach in the NFL when she joined the Arizona Cardinals as a linebackers coach in the summer of 2015. That experience and the leadersh... Read Full Bio

Gwen Wunderlich

is CEO and partner of Wunderlich Kaplan Communications, and creator and partner of The Enternship. Wunderlich is a trend-spotter whose tactical use of social m... Read Full Bio

Kristi Grosse

is a peaceful warrior, and has fought for peace within her own body for over twenty five years. After conquering numerous health challenges including cancer, br... Read Full Bio

Dr. Rajani Katta

is a nationally recognized expert in dermatology and allergic skin reactions, who has extensively researched how diet affects the skin. Her advice on skin care ... Read Full Bio

Margie Becker

is a storyteller, lifelong activist, and small business owner. And now, she s the founder of PayHerForward.com, empowering women with an online marketplace co... Read Full Bio

Terry P. Mitchell

prides herself in being the steer-head and foundation to multiple organizations. E'lon & Company develops software and mobile technologies, Enhance Body Scu... Read Full Bio

Toni Harris Taylor

is a motivational marketing speaker and coach who helps entrepreneurs and sales professionals to take drastic steps to get known, get connected and get paid. Ta... Read Full Bio

Sara Hirsh Bordo

previously held positions in media and entertainment including executive director of interactive marketing at Paramount Pictures, VP of digital marketing at MGM... Read Full Bio

Mary Champagne

is the senior procurement manager at Tokyo Electron America, a leader in global semiconductor equipment industry. She has over seventeen years of experience pro... Read Full Bio

Elsa Dithmer

is senior manager, responsible for generating North America demand across Planview s portfolio of work and resource management solutions. Prior to joining Pla... Read Full Bio

Laura Donnelly

has been a journalist, a book publicist for Maya Angelou, former President Jimmy Carter and Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton. She was a documentary filmma... Read Full Bio

Kennetta Piper

is a recovering people pleaser, empty nester, and eternal soul searcher. Through her work first in corporate America, and then through education (teaching, coun... Read Full Bio

Natalia Sylvester

is the author of the novels Chasing the Sun, which was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad, and Everyone Knows You Go Home, named a Best Book of 20... Read Full Bio

Connie Bergquist

is a staff software engineer at Visa Inc., and currently focuses on long term architecture and performance as a scrum master for her own development team for Vi... Read Full Bio

Karyn Desai

is senior director or digital products with Visa. She is a program management professional with over fifteen years of exceptional communication, presentation, a... Read Full Bio

Velincia Jones

is a director of technology business operations, leading a team of business analysts who establish multi-year financial efficiency programs in support of a $1.2... Read Full Bio

Heather Muckle

is a director on Visa s HRIS team. Her role is focused on supporting HR COEs with system strategy and roadmaps, managing the intake and onboarding processes f... Read Full Bio

Jennifer Wassum

is the director of corporate IT program management with Visa, Inc. She is an accomplished product and program manager with more than fifteen years of experience... Read Full Bio

Jamie Zerwas

is a senior program manager for key clients and initiatives in Visa s CyberSource organization. Currently, she is accountable for managing multiple key clie... Read Full Bio