MEET OUR 2023 SPEAKERS
Dr. Brittney Ezell
Dr. Brittney Ezell’s fascinating career spans coaching elite athletes, launching innovative startups, and driving business growth in a new industry. After a 20-year career as Division 1 Women’s Basketball Coach, Dr. Brittney Ezell pivoted her career from athletics to business leadership, where she now serves as an Executive Vice President for the startup Elite Entertainment Experiences (E3), CEO of Keller Williams in Johnson City, Tennessee where she leads a team of 200+ real estate agents. Recently, she’s been working as the director of relationships within KW Sports+Entertainment.
Dr. Lelia De Andrade
Dr. De Andrade, a Portland resident, currently serves as the Deputy Secretary of State for Equity and Inclusion following her role as Vice President of Community Impact with the Maine Community Foundation. Additionally, Dr. De Andrade worked as Associate Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence in Portland and as an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Bowdoin College. In 2020 and 2021 she served as Co-Chair of the City of Portland’s Racial Equity Steering Committee.
Bushra Amiwala
Bushra has spoken at countless colleges and universities, organizations and international companies, with live audiences ranging from 25 to 15,000 people. She is a recent graduate from DePaul University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Indo-American Democratic Organization (IADO), GenerationVote, Women Empowering Women in Illinois Legislation (WeWill) and SheVotesIL. She holds her elected seat on the Skokie Board of Education, as its youngest member, is a candidate at Kellogg, Northwestern School of Management pursuing her MBA part-time and continues to work as a Solutions Consultant at Google.
Liz Bailey
Liz Bailey is a practitioner of self-education, adventure, healthcare, and love. Having raised two wonderful children who shine light in their respective areas of expertise, she takes pride in her role as a parent. In 2014, Liz began her journey to broaden knowledge in the fields of happiness, joy, and health-span. Enthusiastic about various physical activities like running (technically jogging), yoga, hikes, and spending time at the beach, Liz also cherishes moments with loved ones and enjoys making new friends. Her passion lies in being present, thriving in the moment, and continuously expanding her knowledge beyond the confines of the medical office and classroom.
Allison Bishop
Allison Bishop is a financial coach in Portland with more than twenty-five years’ experience as a CPA. She started her financial coaching business eight years ago when she recognized a lack of resources to help people make wise financial decisions. She helps her clients to identify and prioritize their financial goals, and then come up with a realistic plan to make progress towards those goals. She often helps her clients navigate complicated life transitions, such as starting a family, approaching retirement, and divorce.
Julia Coit & Lindsey Coit
We are management consultants and leadership coaches with backgrounds in psychobiology, organizational development, and public health. We bring over 25 years of collective experience from academia, global non-profits and Fortune 500 companies to design leadership training, team-building experiences, and coaching programs that increase job satisfaction, productivity, and long-term retention.
Erin Curren
Erin Curren left a prestigious academic job to pursue her love of movement and has never looked back! Now, in addition to teaching regular Nia classes and performing with The Teller's Garden, a Portland-based playback company, Erin works as a Newfield Certified Coach, serving others on their journey to pursue what brings them joy. Erin received her B.A. from Colby College and her Ph.D. from Columbia University, and is a 1st Degree Nia Black Belt. With over 13 years of continuous sobriety, Erin finds her joy through dance, improv, and creative pursuits of all colors and stripes!
Kim Dawson
Kim Dawson has been a business strategist since 2015, and an entrepreneur since the second grade, selling arts and crafts door-to-door in her neighborhood. Kim’s journey includes owning a local health and fitness studio to co-founding a successful software startup.Kim is the host of The Sassy Strategist Podcast, and the author of Passion to Profits: Your Guide To Building a Successful Business You Love, which made the Amazon Bestseller list in 2018. Kim is currently working on her second book scheduled to be released in 2024. Kim’s mission is to help women become financially independent while living extraordinary lives.
Terri Decoster
For Terri, leaning into conflict has been her passion and purpose for 20 years as a family mediator, co-parent educator, and divorce coach. Terri compassionately guides individuals through stressful family transitions that result from separation, divorce, and re-partnering to a place of peace by teaching conflict management and communication skills.
Sandy Demarast
Sandy Demarest is an author, speaker, and coach. She founded Demarest Directions 13 years ago. She specializes in supporting women who are at crossroads gain clarity, create possibilities and bring their dreams to center stage. She works with individuals, groups and organizations. Her purpose is bring women together to consciously make changes and choices that align with who they are or want to be in their next chapter. She creates community so other women don’t feel alone through gatherings, group coaching and REWIRE Retreats.
Tosca DiMatteo
Tosca DiMatteo is a Transformational Coach and founder of TOSCA Coaching and Consulting LLC. With proven experience as a brand marketing executive working for companies including Unilever and Kimberly Clark, Tosca knows how personal transformation leads to career and business breakthroughs. Tosca is a thought leader, writer, speaker and facilitator on the topics of personal transformation, inner critics, boundaries, authentic leadership and branding. Tosca supports individuals and organizations in their transformation goals by unearthing their deepest insights and then co-creates their authentic path forward. Tosca received her MBA from Michigan State University and is an ICF certified professional coach.
Jodi Flynn
Jodi Flynn is the CEO and Founder of Women Taking the Lead, a leadership development company that works with organizations and boards to close the performance gap by attracting, developing and successfully promoting more women into senior levels of leadership. She helps organizations realize these benefits through coaching, consulting, leadership development programs and keynotes. Featured in Entrepreneur and Forbes magazines she is the host of the nationally recognized Women Taking the Lead podcast, and an Amazon bestselling author with her book, Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing.
Bibigi Haile
Bibigi Haile founded The Beauvoir Group to give women in middle and senior management roles the license to be Unapologetically Visible.As a sought-after keynote speaker and strategic advisor to women, Bibigi has rightfully owned spots on national stages sharing her approach to women’s visibility, imposter syndrome, and personal branding.When she isn’t on stage, she’s still speaking – her podcast Speaking with Women explore the experience of women and work. Bibigi is also and especially the mother of a wise 7-year-old, a podcast and book nerd, and a running enthusiast.
Joy Kacik
Joy is a partner in Kacik Consulting Services, LLC and brings a rich background (through 28 years as a regional director and negotiator for the Pennsylvania State Education Association and 14 years as a private consultant) in organizational development, strategic planning, team building, leadership development, training design, facilitation, negotiations and coaching. She is a conference speaker, a consultant who helps teams and leaders work better together and move to the next level of synergy and performance, and she is a Certified Professional Coach, focusing on helping individuals grow their careers and develop their leadership skills.
Alyssa Wright
Alyssa Wright runs Wright Collective, a community-driven company that has helped hundreds of social change organizations successfully create sustainable funding models resulting in over $60,000,000 of resource flow. Everyone that has worked with Alyssa knows that she is a true partner. Her experience and wit has also allowed her to become a sought-after international speaker on philanthropy and fund development as well as a regular contributor to ForbesWomen, Global Giving, and Network for Good. Alyssa is a powerful Millennial voice in the social change movement.
Karen Pambianchi, ACC
Karen Pambianchi, ACC, is the founder of Swift Water Life Coaching, LLC. She has been a life and leadership coach since 2015 and holds an Associate Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation. Karen believes coaching is a powerful tool to help clients see the potential their life holds and walk with them as they live it out. Her mission is to help professionals find the work-life harmony that allows them to feel like rock stars at work as they climb the ladder of success, be present, and enjoy all that life has to offer outside of the office.