Michelle was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer. She is not only surviving but thriving as she embarks on her biggest project and why she feels she is on the planet to emcee TheRealShare.com  – We’re building a life we love through shared experiences.  Lisa Mae and Michelle have a long history together supporting each other through putting together some of the world’s largest conferences and sharing real experiences of how to navigate through life’s journey.

Michelle Patterson’s name conjures up many credits – visionary, market maker, author, acceleration executive, founder, passionate, talk show host, author and dynamic speaker.  She is a woman of many talents and dimensions. Michelle works with companies as a Strategic Advisor to help them get their messages out to the world. She is the founder of the Global Women Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit public charity created to bring women together to create global change by empowering them to transform their communities. Its mission supports women to effectuate this change through serving as a world-wide conduit for connecting community, mentoring, education, and financial support.  

Ms. Patterson had the good fortune to interview California Governor George Deukmejian when she was 12 years old.  Governor Deukmejian was just starting the California Women’s Conference to advance women’s causes. Nearly 30 years later, Ms. Patterson took over the reins of the well-known California Women’s Conference as CEO continuing its thirty year tradition as the nation’s preeminent conference for women – a perfect example of the objective Governor Deukmejian set out when he first started the Conference.   

A successful event promoter; a lauded business accelerator (youngest Regional VP and National Sales Trainer for Robert Half, the world’s largest specialized recruiting firm); a sought-after media commentator (The Huffington Post, CNBC, Fox Business News, Bloomberg, a regular guest on ESPN radio and hundreds of TV and radio stations); an energetic and engaging public speaker; host of a weekly radio show on Women Network Talk Radio; Ms. Patterson is also the headlining author for a women’s anthology, Women Change the World, featuring notable celebrity contributors as well as five other books.   Ms. Patterson was invited to speak as a keynote to the United Nations on the topic of Women and the difference they are making in our world. 

Projects she has spearheaded include building out Groupon Getaways with 200,000 attendees nationwide; Taste of Ladera with over 20,000 in attendance; Cannabicity, an online virtual community for everything Cannabis, and TouchPointe Technologies, bridging innovation and talent around the world.

Recently Ms. Patterson was honored with the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Corporate Advocate award at their 23rd annual Women’s Summit, as well as the Women’s Elevation Award presented by Pepperdine University at their Global Perspectives Conference.   She is currently a board member for Loyola Marymount University Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, her Alma Mater where she served as Student Body President.

In 2014, Ms. Patterson was knighted Dame Michelle Patterson for her humanitarian work by the Knights of the Orthodox Order of St. John Russian Grand Priory, a thousand year organization known for their work founding hospitals.   She was also honored as “Woman of the Year” by the World Boxing Council at their annual conference in Las Vegas, and she graduated from Leadership California (class of 2015), a unique program designed to develop and mobilize female leaders. 

In 2016, Ms. Patterson was awarded a “Lifetime Achievement Award” by President Barack Obama and the Corporation for National and Community Service for her lifelong commitment to building a stronger nation through service. 

Beyond her notable business success, Ms. Patterson is most passionate about her family.  She lives in Orange County, California with her husband of twenty years, Eric, a successful corporate CFO, and their two beautiful children, Jaclyn and Chase.

Missy Young is the CIO (Chief Information Officer) at Switch. She drives the company’s solutions architecture to create a fundamental and sustainable change in the way clients ultimately design and implement intelligent data strategies. As a technologist, Missy has played an imperative role in the company’s evolution from the most innovative data center company in the world to the world’s only hyperscale retail colocation ecosystem that it is today.

Ms. Slater’s time working for the Department of State has spanned across the globe starting in 1980 at Embassy Maputo to soon being the Dean of the School of Applied Information Technology at the Foreign Service Institute.  Lizzie was born and raised in Africa, where her first Information Technology job was managing Durban’s first computerized medical accounting business.  She joined the Foreign Service family in 1980 taking jobs in Embassies in Mozambique, Mauritius, Grenada, and Malawi before joining as a direct hire.  Her career took her to Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, Washington, Thailand, Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, and Egypt changing career tracks in 1998 to the Information Technology field. 

Lizzie has survived cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, rocket attacks, and the bombing of the Embassy in Dar es Salaam.  Despite being severely injured in that bombing, she stayed on to reconstruct an operating embassy and its communication systems, before transferring to Nairobi (the other bomb site) to do the same there.  She is the recipient of the Department’s prestigious “Thomas Morrison Information Technology Award” for her work in Afghanistan. During her two year stint in Iraq she was the lead for the transition of communications assets from the U.S. Military to the Department requiring extensive travel throughout Iraq during the war. 

Lizzie is married to retired Foreign Service Officer Charles Slater, and they have a son, Forbes.  She enjoys golf, cooking, and visiting her far-flung family.

Gabriela M.C. is an author, mental health advocate, and entrepreneur, daughter of Mexican
immigrant parents raised in Baldwin Park, CA. Gabriela received her bachelor in Sociology at
the age of 19 from UCLA and her Master of Social work at 23 from USC. As a first generation
college graduate, she believed it was important to share her journey with others and as a result
published her first book “16 and A College Student.” Gabriela believes in sharing her experience
as a first generation college student in hopes of helping others by shedding light on the journey
itself in higher education. Gabriela is now a mother of two, therapist, and business owner,
dedicating herself to mentoring the youth of underrepresented communities by sharing her story
and encouraging others to do the same.

I grew up in the Bay Area as a first generation American. My interest in statistics began in high school when I naively took an AP Statistics course and it was the only AP test I passed. Like many Asian families, my mom compared me to people around us and told me she saw a very successful Chinese female on television next to the Governor that did his analysis; she wanted me to be like her. I ended up choosing Statistics as a major, married that with my interest in technology, and didn’t end up anything like her (to this day, I still don’t know who this woman is). I have worked for a range of companies in the Bay Area – Autodesk, Westfield Digital, New Relic, Womply – from data analytics to now Product Management of data pipelines. Data as a product is still a fairly new concept and I love being able to pioneer this experience!

Shelley is an educator, leadership developer and creative. For twenty years, she has taught students, trained teachers and leadership teams in systemic change, led school district initiatives and managed teams for success. As a manager in LAUSD, she led the team of administrators in retaining new teachers and succeeded with retention rates averaging 90% for the last five years, ranking in the top ten of urban school districts throughout the nation with the highest retention of new teachers.

As a trainer, Shelley has led hundreds of teachers in the effective use of language in the classroom, classroom management strategies and lesson planning for success. Her leadership trainings with educational leaders, university deans and executive staff reveals how to build collaboration, community and create “ Triple C.”

Prior to starting a career in public education, her joy for teaching crafts began as a kids arts and crafts program coordinator for a city parks and recreation department. Being creative has shown throughout Shelley’s career providing paint parties for teachers and office staff. A desire to teach and create with crafts, lead her on a journey to bridge the two. CRAFT + LIGHT opened in August 2019 on 2nd Street Naples Long Beach, CA. CRAFT + LIGHT is a modern crafts studio that inspires creativity and exploration. The studio provides a variety of craft workshops and produces trainings for teams in both public and private sectors to create, enjoy one another and grow.

After volunteering as a university student in the Minneapolis Public Schools, Bethany was compelled to inspire a love of math in urban students and joined Teach For America, where she taught high school math and science at Da Vinci Schools in Hawthorne, California. Her non-profit experience began with empowering teacher voice in policy decisions as a ProgramCoordinator for Educators 4 Excellence. Bethany then discovered her passion for bringing exceptional talent into all classrooms as a Recruiter with PUC Schools and selector for TeachFor America.

Bethany has recruited EnCorps Teaching Fellows for the last five years and now leads EnCorps’ recruitment team. Bethany earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota and Secondary Math Teaching Credential from Loyola MarymountUniversity.

John Shen is the CEO of American Lending Center that has sponsored 84 EB-5 projects and created approximately 10,000 full time jobs in 19 states. He is also a founding partner of Sunstone Management Inc., a private fund management firm offering fixed income, growth, and venture opportunities to international high net worth investors. He currently serves as an Economic Development Commissioner for the city of Long Beach.

CJ was born in St. Louis, MO, one of seven hearing children born to Deaf parents who communicate in American Sign Language. At age 7 he was struck very ill with spinal meningitis, and consequently lost his hearing. After he became deaf, he attended Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD), which teaches in his native American Sign Language.  After his illness, CJ’s residual hearing was too good to qualify for MSD.  So his deaf father, Clarence, fought the MO school system to get CJ a place in the all deaf school.  In this communication-rich environment, he flourished from a shy hearing boy into a deaf leader.  He was class president, a cub scout, varsity football quarterback, a state pole vault record holder, and voted class valedictorian.

CJ played Joseph in the 2017 summer hit  “Baby Driver”, directed by Edgar Wright and co-starring Ansel Elgort.  This role made CJ the first black deaf actor in an international Blockbuster. Also in 2017, he played Uriah, a leading role, in the indie horror film “Door in the Woods” directed by Chase Goforth. Soon you can see him as Odin in “Castle Rock”, a HULU Original production written by Stephen King. CJ is thrilled to be working with the brilliant James Cameron on the Avatar Sequels.  CJ will be seen this season of United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell.

CJ never sits still.  He has developed 3 one-man shows that have toured the US, Japan, Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, and Canada. He co-wrote and directed 6 classic fairy tales for children’s television, a series called “Once Upon A Sign”. CJ produced the International Sign Language Theater Festival, which hosted theater artists from all over the US, Russia, and Mexico.  CJ’s perseverance and talent make him ready to tackle any role.

CJ  is a legend in the deaf world, acclaimed for his humor and inspiration. He has done it all: TV, movies, educational films, and theater.  He has toured with his stand up comedy all over the world. He continues to use his never-ending passion for acting, producing, and directing to give back to the deaf and sign language community.

Chrissy Morgan is a specialist Cyber Security Recruiter with Tiro Security in Los Angeles. She is a record setting top biller with two strong years of technical recruitment experience. Chrissy has been recognized for focusing on quality relationships and using a consultative approach to coach candidates, matching them to great careers. Prior to recruitment, Chrissy worked in mental health services and studied psychology. If you or a friend are seeking a change, contact Chrissy via LinkedIn or email at Chrissy.morgan@tirosec.com

Dr. Jacqueline Schaffer is the author of the #1 International Best Selling book, How to Get Clear Skin, a complete, medically sound, guide to skincare, and dietary guidelines that affect the skin, and the founder of Schique Skincare, a producer of natural and ethically sound beauty and skincare products.  As a public figure, she has been recognized and nominated alongside Jessica Alba, Jen Atkin, David Olsen, Gregg Renfew, Anna Tran, and others in the LA Fashion Beauty Awards. She has appeared on the TVSN Network, CBS, NBC, Money Inc., Enterpreneur, to name only a few, introducing her philosophy and natural products to millions of viewers.

Stephanie spent 7 years as a Producer for one of the largest media companies in the world. She had an exciting, rewarding, and fast-paced role there, where she got to network and mingle with many influential public figures. However, after a scary panic attack at work, Stephanie decided to follow her long-time passion for health and wellness. 3 days after leaving her job as a producer, she journeyed to Rishikesh, India to study yoga, meditation, and breath work. From there she knew there was no turning back. Stephanie studied under master yogis, and returned with a true desire to spread knowledge of those traditional practices in wellness. She is an avid adventure seeker and travel junkie, always on the move. Stephanie has visited over 25 countries, lived in Costa Rica, and Spain, and is fluent in Spanish. Stephanie considers Atlanta home, where she attended Spelman College; although originally from Chicago. In her free time, you can find her cooking, boxing, hiking, traveling, playing with her dog Beamer, or trying new restaurants.

Netta Peterbursky is a software engineer working at Google. She moved from Israel to California in 2006. She has over 20 years of experience working as a software engineer and she also owned and operated an IT company.

Jacob is a company culture & team-building expert who utilizes his “part entertainer, part educator” style to engage with audiences. He is the founder of I Make Work Fun where he has 4 main types of services: 1) Team-Building “Funshops” (because who wouldn’t choose a Funshop over a workshop?!) 2) One-on-One “Coachultant” sessions 3) Speaking Engagements and 4) Event MC Services. Jacob is out to prove that work and fun are NOT opposites. Work doesn’t have to suck!

Jocelyn Monahan is an Associate Analyst at Riot Games. Her work involves analyzing player data in order to improve Riot’s multiplayer systems and conducting research around diverse players’ social experiences. Previously, she worked in Riot’s Publishing division. She holds an MSIS from UT Austin and has a bearded dragon named Max.

Jordan Schmidt serves as the Public Affairs Manager at Riot Games, creator and publisher of League of
Legends. His primary focus is regulatory and policy strategy. He also founded the Urf Academy, Riot
Games’ world-wide game design education effort for underrepresented groups, bringing more than
1,000 students from the Los Angeles area through Riot Games’ campus for game design and narrative
writing fundamentals classes.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Communications Management from the University of Southern California,
Annenberg School of Communication and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies from Chapman
University – where he served as an adjunct professor in Corporate and Strategic Communications.
He is an active advocate for Mental Health Awareness as a writer and empathetic ear.

Leveraging my skills and 7 years of post-graduate degree recruiting experience working in high-volume, fast-paced environments, I engage with employers to provide them with business services for the City of Long Beach’s Workforce Development Board and Innovation Network (Pacific Gateway), a Bureau of the City’s Economic Development Department. I help connect companies to resources, future employees and potential funding streams to help serve their needs and ensure local businesses and companies (throughout the Greater Los Angeles area) are strong and growing. This, in turn, helps to create employment opportunities for customers of our agency who are recently dislocated workers, underemployed residents, adults, and youth of our region.

I have previously worked as an IT recruiter for a Technology Solutions firm and then later as a Senior Technical Recruiter for Molina Healthcare where I supported their 600+ IT department. I filled over 250 positions at Molina ranging from entry level desktop support techs, system administrators, network engineers and software developers to Senior IT Directors and even a few Associate Vice Presidents of Applications.

A native Californian born and raised in Redondo Beach, I have lived abroad in Costa Rica and Israel and have a Master’s degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. Outside of helping people and working to ensure the City of Long Beach’s economy is running strong, I enjoy surfing, rock climbing, SUP boarding, snowboarding, being outdoors, hiking, camping, and exercising.

Katie Wilson has been at Google for over 12 years and is the Head of Ecommerce, Southwest for Google Customer Solutions. Her team partners with some of the largest & fastest growing businesses to leverage Google advertising platforms & technology to meet their business objectives. In her prior roles at Google she has worked as an Account Executive on some of our largest retail partners and helped launch Google Pay with merchants. Prior to Google, Katie has worked for LVMH’s eCommerce site and a boutique media agency for nonprofits. Katie graduated from UCSB and studied abroad at Cambridge University. She is a mom to two wonderful kids Hazel (5) and Wade (1).

Maria Yap is Vice President of the Digital Imaging Organization and leads product development for Photoshop and Lightroom, Adobe’s renowned imaging products. Over her 20 years at Adobe, Maria has applied her strong focus on the customer, helping to build products such as Acrobat, InDesign, Creative Suite, Photoshop and Lightroom.

Before joining Adobe, Maria founded her own company of designers and production experts, where she brought her unique insight as an Adobe customer to her product strategies. She continues her passion for creativity through photography, crafting and gardening

Kenyatta Powers is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Human Services (DHS) in Maryland State Government. Kenyatta has served DHS for over 20 years as both a consultant and an employee in several different leadership positions. As CIO, she functions as a senior-level technology executive combining project management, technical expertise, and business proficiency to develop, execute, and manage strategic, statewide technology projects for the Department.

She is a speaker, mentor to several young women in technology and a passionate advocate for exposing women and the underrepresented to the field of Computer Science. As such she is the founder of Taste of Technology that brings awareness of Information Technology careers and opportunities to the underrepresented youth in the community. This will empower youth to become innovators, leaders in their communities and builders of their own future through exposure of Computer Science and Technology.

Amanda Rees is a recruiter at Weedmaps, specifically focused on hiring for their Revenue and Operations teams. She joined the company back in 2017 and has helped to grow the company from just under 200 people to over 400 people in two short years. She is passionate about recruiting and loves having the ability to make a difference in both individuals and the organization. If you’re interested in learning more about Weedmaps’ products, growth, or industry impact, please feel free to stop by and say hello!

Netta Peterbursky is a software engineer working at Google. She moved from Israel to California in 2006. She has over 20 years of experience working as a software engineer and she also owned and operated an IT company.

As an experienced leader with a passion for assisting people and organizations achieve their goals, Joanie has experience in both the finance and tech space, including executive level management, strategic planning, and policy development. She has a successful record of collaboration with public and private stakeholders and is a seasoned speaker on a range of matters including optimizing data for analysis, trends for utilizing AI to improve financial-close processing, strategic investing, and scaling for optimal growth. Joanie is currently the CFO for VIA Programs, the Director of Finance at Women In Games International (WIGI), and serves on the Board of Directors Finance Committee for Techbridge Girls. She was also recently recognized by the CalCPA and AICPA’s Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee as a 2019 Women to Watch in Finance & Accounting Experienced Leader for her significant contributions to the profession and her community.

Sigi Marmorstein is a Telehealth Consultant with over 65+ Successful Telehealth Implementation projects. Her role as a Telehealth Consultant is the culmination of a 20-year career in health care spanning employers such as Davita, Kaiser Permanente, USC, Adventist Health and West Coast University.  Sigi has years of experience in the health care industry as an emergency room provider, operations manager, project management, business owner as well as academia.  Consistently throughout her diverse career she remained devoted to finding solutions to improve patient access to care using health technologies and have won several awards for such programs. Her latest venture BabyLiveAdvice is a social enterprise that was meant to support families and reduce maternal-child morbidity and mortality through education and support. 

She is recognized in several publications and a recurring, invited speaker on Telehealth at key conferences.  She serves on the Nursing advisory board at HRSA, member of the AANP, CANP and the California Action Coalition and still moonlight in ER as a Nurse Practitioner. 

“I started Baby out of my own experience as a mother. I was an NICU/Peds nurse when I first became a mother and a nurse practitioner with my second.  Although I was educated and receiving care at Kaiser. My boys and I had gone to harsh labor experiences, and both ended up in NICU. I remember dealing with my pregnancies and later with motherhood with much anxiety and stress. Reading all I could read, asking a lot of questions and needing much more questions answered.  As a Nurse and a Nurse practitioner I met with mom who were less knowledgeable and had little or no access to care and I saw that they suffered like me. I started “baby” in hope that I can solve their problems. Through demonstration projects and pilots, I found out that my assumptions were right and that BLA can increase access to care, reduce adverse health outcomes and help women and families better cope with pregnancy and parenthood” 

Mary Lockwood is a technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in business management and leadership. 

In her role as the Managing Director, U.S, for Mindera Software, Mary is responsible for growing a fast paced U.S. company that is on the bleeding edge of innovation. She has experience scaling high-performance teams, leading revenue growth and sales, marketing, and customer success to achieve rapid growth and scalability. With more than 400 employees worldwide, it has been said that the sun never sets on a Mindera workday.

Mary built a career on her innate ability to quickly identify the core drivers of business, anticipate consumer needs, and stay in front of the ever-changing demand for innovation online. She uses this experience as a consultant, speaker and author, working with fellow business owners who are ready to scale their own businesses. 

Mary has an extensive brand portfolio, which includes companies such as Black and Decker, IMAX, Feed the Children, Qualcomm, Burger King, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and California Bank and Trust.

She was a finalist in San Diego’s Business Woman of the Year awards, is a published author, and is a sought-after speaker on topics related to Women in Leadership and Women in Technology. 

Sarah Haynes is the current Co-founder, Co-CEO and Chairwoman of Bolt Mobility. Sarah is a goal-driven professional with over 25 years of experience in business and program development, philanthropy, business strategy, human resources operations and executive coaching. Her deep understanding of how people interact has provided her with award-winning leadership abilities to develop and retain talent.

A natural progression of roles, such as Director, Chief of Staff, Founder, PFO, Co-CEO and Chairwoman, have afforded her the opportunity to lead teams and guide investors and all community stakeholders and partners through strategy formation and execution. Sarah’s ability to align perspectives and nurture relationships among multiple teams, assess and mitigate risk, and manage compliance has helped organizations execute against their strategic agenda and accomplish growth objectives.

Sarah has worked in multiple sectors, including: micromobility transportation, business development, venture capital, behavioral health, collaborative consumption, etc. She has an established track record of developing and operating successful businesses that thrive as a result of her contributions in risk management and leadership development. Sarah’s other specialties include: multi-modal training program development, personal management and motivational coaching.

Sarah has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology and holds a certificate from the Professional Management Certificate Program (PMCP) from Georgetown University. Her extensive education includes graduate, undergraduate and certification programs from an array of Universities, which include: University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University, NSU, and University of Maryland.

Sarah was previously a member of the full-time faculty on clinical research at Georgetown University School of Medicine where she served as a health educator and a team leader/project management for an NIH funded research protocol aimed at improving health outcomes for minority populations in five major hospitals in Washington, D.C. Sarah was also a policymaker shaping community and organizational behavior in large institutions.

She has lead recruitment efforts for the various teams and risk mitigation and compliance efforts. Sarah also previously served as the Chief of Staff for Sherpa Capital, a leading venture capital firm with over $650M under management. Her role at Sherpa Capital included creating due diligence research, organization policy, team building, coaching, maximizing human potential and organizational development. Sarah is also instrumental in the creation and maintenance of community relationships and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

In the past, Sarah has been an active Program Volunteer with the YMCA of Silicon Valley, where she helped individuals set and achieve individual wellness goals. She has held a position on the steering committee for UNICEF USA to support disaster and humanitarian relief and has helped to alleviate poverty in Puerto Rico through The Pishevar Family Foundation.

Tracy M. Colunga is the Director for the City of Long Beach Office of Civic Innovation. The Office of Civic Innovation is partnering with departments on several projects including Police Recruitment, Long Beach Airport Customer Experience (CX), Census 2020, and the African American Cultural Center Visioning Process. Under her leadership, the Office of Civic Innovation worked closely with the Long Beach Police Department to understand trends and patterns of people cycling in and out of the justice system. The City of Long Beach launched the Long Beach Justice Lab to strategically break the cycle of incarceration. She has focused her career around community improvement. She holds a master’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Luskin School of Public Policy and a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN. She is a part-time lecturer at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). Tracy and her family reside in Long Beach, CA.

Leveraging my skills and 7 years of post-graduate degree recruiting experience working in high-volume, fast-paced environments, I engage with employers to provide them with business services for the City of Long Beach’s Workforce Development Board and Innovation Network (Pacific Gateway), a Bureau of the City’s Economic Development Department. I help connect companies to resources, future employees and potential funding streams to help serve their needs and ensure local businesses and companies (throughout the Greater Los Angeles area) are strong and growing. This, in turn, helps to create employment opportunities for customers of our agency who are recently dislocated workers, underemployed residents, adults, and youth of our region.

I have previously worked as an IT recruiter for a Technology Solutions firm and then later as a Senior Technical Recruiter for Molina Healthcare where I supported their 600+ IT department. I filled over 250 positions at Molina ranging from entry level desktop support techs, system administrators, network engineers and software developers to Senior IT Directors and even a few Associate Vice Presidents of Applications.

A native Californian born and raised in Redondo Beach, I have lived abroad in Costa Rica and Israel and have a Master’s degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. Outside of helping people and working to ensure the City of Long Beach’s economy is running strong, I enjoy surfing, rock climbing, SUP boarding, snowboarding, being outdoors, hiking, camping, and exercising.

Maria Alvarez is General Manager of Shared Engineering Services in the Artificial Intelligence and Research Division at Microsoft. She is responsible for a team that supports Bing, Ads, Microsoft News, Maps, and Microsoft Research. Her team provides engineering tools and services for security, privacy, accessibility, compliance, design, user research and content. They also enable, accelerate and influence the empowerment of every engineer at Microsoft through learning and insights and foster a customer-obsessed product development community. Additionally, Maria is the executive sponsor for the AI+Research Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) Council that drives organization-wide strategic DIB initiatives. She believes in the value of D&I and is a strong advocate for building a diverse work force and an inclusive culture. Maria is a technical leader with almost 30 years of experience. She held technical positions at Symantec, HP, CoCreate Software, Yahoo and served as CTO of Panda Security in Spain before joining Microsoft in 2011. Maria has an M.S. in Computer Science from California State Polytechnic University.

Kathy has been consulting and executing on complex cultural, organizational, and systemic change for the last ten years. She has worked with media & entertainment companies, retailers, city government, and non-profits across the United States and the United Kingdom to help organizations achieve strategic and operational goals. She spent the first part of her career with Accenture where she designed and operationalized large scale change management programs to enable sustainable change. After Accenture, she spent a few years with Slalom Consulting where she got the opportunity to partner with the City of Los Angeles to help the City develop their first Gender Equity Toolkit and revamp Gender Equity action plans across City Departments. For the last year, Kathy has been with The Walt Disney Company where she’s led Organizational Development and Diversity & Inclusion efforts for corporate.

Kathy is passionate about establishing more inclusive workplaces and social environments. She is currently obtaining her certification on human-centered design to enable her to develop solutions that incorporate all unique human experiences. Outside of her job, Kathy co-founded an organization that aims to address the significant gender and sexual orientation imbalance within the music industry by offering sound focused workshops, and a platform and community to sustain these skills.

Dr. Ngozi Orubo is currently a Senior Systems Reliability Engineer with General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy where she is recognized for her expertise in process and program management. Her unique ability to connect and bridge teams across complex multi-business/functional environments enables performance improvement through GE’s most valuable asset: people.

She is also a fearless advocate for diversity in STEM related fields, taking a leadership position at GE in creating opportunities for young girls to learn about Engineering in hopes of encouraging them to explore technical career paths. Recalling her own experiences as a young girl interested in a career in science, Dr. Orubo knows first hand the importance of representation in the building of dreams. Through her experiences of being the only girl of color in her classroom from elementary school through many of her years in higher education, up to and including her doctoral program, and her dedication to understanding and accepting people from different backgrounds, Dr. Orubo also discovered the passion to be a change agent in STEM education and advancement.

The heart of Dr. Orubo’s work is to encourage women to embrace their strength and break down the barriers that can limit women from excelling and reaching their full potential. She believes this can be done through the recognition of our differences as strengths instead of weaknesses or hindrances. It is through that understanding that transformative environments with intentionality around inclusion and advancement of women in STEM are possible.

She is a member of the GE Renewable Energy Greenville Women’s Network Steering Committee and chair of the GE Renewable Energy African American Forum. Dr. Orubo completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in Materials Science and Chemistry from the University of Houston – Main Campus and her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from Texas A&M University – Main Campus. She currently resides in Greenville, SC with her husband, Stephen, and their two children, Lydia (5) and Aden (2). When not working, she enjoys cooking, traveling the world, and spending time with her family.

Upon completion of her Masters in Computer Science, Oksana began her career in video gaming. From the start, Oksana’s passion for games showed through her decisive and diligent work as she moved from Engineer through the ranks to Technical Director at Petroglyph Games. She found that she was also truly invested in production, process, and people, pivoting into the role of Executive Producer. From there, she spent a year serving as a Lead Producer at Molten Games assisting in the creation of the fledgling video game studio from the ground up with ex-Blizzard, Relic, and SOE developers. Upon joining Riot Games, she worked on League of Legends as the Delivery Lead. During that time, she recognized the need for the Riot Platform Group (RPG), proposed the formation, and executed her vision – earning her fifth promotion in just two years at the company. RPG powers League of Legends and Riot’s other recently announced games globally, providing content delivery, accounts and social systems, ecommerce, global infrastructure, live services, localization, player support, and more.

In 2018, Ryann Richardson made history, becoming the 50th Anniversary Miss Black America and taking up the mantle of the country’s first pageant and nationally televised celebration of women of color. Before that, the tech marketer-turned-founder and Diversity & Inclusion leader spent 10 years building brands and shaping internal culture for companies spanning from early-stage startups to billion-dollar “unicorns” to the Fortune 500. Her work earned her a spot as the youngest honoree on Savoy Magazine’s list of Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and set her on the path to discovering her unique purpose as a champion for underrepresented voices.

As President and Co-Founder of diversity-focused HR-tech platform, ExecThread, she helped underrepresented executives capture elusive C-Suite career opportunities. Now in her second act as a founder, her company, Ellington Lafayette Co. is building a new type of tech incubator, focusing exclusively on startups that drive social equity for women, people of color, and other marginalized communities.

Ryann led East Coast regional marketing and partnerships at Uber. She’s credited with directing the company’s marketing presence at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and later developed Uber’s first comprehensive multicultural marketing strategy. Ryann also co-founded Uber’s employee-led Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.

Ryann was previously Vice President and Head of North American Marketing for UK-based private aviation marketplace app, Victor, and early in her career, worked on the national expansion of the MetroPCS wireless brand, launching its Mid-Atlantic markets after T-Mobile’s acquisition of the then regional company.

Today, Ryann travels the US as a Keynote Speaker focusing on access and equity for women and people of color and giving talks on “Authenticity and Assimilation”, “Building Purpose-Driven Careers” and “The Politics of Race, Beauty, and Power”. She featured as an expert commentator in the upcoming feature documentary, Subjects of Desire, exploring the evolution of American beauty standards and the appropriation of Black cultural aesthetics. Ryann is a native of the Washington, DC area and now calls Brooklyn, New York home.

Stephanie spent 7 years as a Producer for one of the largest media companies in the world. She had an exciting, rewarding, and fast-paced role there, where she got to network and mingle with many influential public figures. However, after a scary panic attack at work, Stephanie decided to follow her long-time passion for health and wellness. 3 days after leaving her job as a producer, she journeyed to Rishikesh, India to study yoga, meditation, and breath work. From there she knew there was no turning back. Stephanie studied under master yogis, and returned with a true desire to spread knowledge of those traditional practices in wellness. She is an avid adventure seeker and travel junkie, always on the move. Stephanie has visited over 25 countries, lived in Costa Rica, and Spain, and is fluent in Spanish. Stephanie considers Atlanta home, where she attended Spelman College; although originally from Chicago. In her free time, you can find her cooking, boxing, hiking, traveling, playing with her dog Beamer, or trying new restaurants.

Allison Liemhetcharat is a roboticist & software engineer, who is interested in using artificial intelligence to solve real world problems. At rideOS, Allison leads the development of simulation, and works closely with partners to integrate their self-driving vehicles into the rideOS services. Prior to rideOS, Allison worked for over 2 years at Uber Advanced Technologies Group in Pittsburgh. She was Tech Lead of Simulation for over a year, and subsequently worked on the Motion Planning team, and has experience with both the offline and online aspects of self-driving vehicles. Before joining Uber ATG, Allison was a scientist at the Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore, and worked on a number of robotics projects. She also mentored over 30 students in research-related projects, ranging from high school to PhD students. Allison holds a Ph.D. and MS in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Sarah Moshman is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TEDx speaker whose work has been featured on Upworthy, Marie Claire, CNN, and Good Morning America. In 2014 Sarah set out to direct her first feature doc The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things which has been screened over 700 times around the US and around the world in schools, groups, organizations and corporations starting conversations about gender equality. With Indieflix as the distributor, the film has been sponsored by major brands like Nordstrom, American Girl and Microsoft to spread this message far and wide. Sarah’s second feature doc, Losing Sight of Shore follows the incredible journey of four women who rowed a boat across the entire Pacific Ocean and was released globally in 190 countries on Netflix in May 2017. NEVERTHELESS is Sarah’s third feature documentary which takes a look behind the headlines of #MeToo and Time’s Up to shine a light on the sexual harassment crisis and how we can shift our culture and rebuild. Sarah is a filmmaker and activist dedicated to telling stories that uplift, inform and inspire as well as showcase strong female role models on screen.

sarahmoshman.com

Elijah is a highly engaging communicator, leadership coach, and emerging technology executive who helps enterprises navigate the complexities of innovation through crafting deployable strategy and custom development. Elijah is featured guest speaker/strategist at places like Virgin Orbit, Hyundai America, the School of A.I., The Timmy Awards, SUE Talks, and the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California Irvine. Elijah teaches that our fundamental understanding of work is under attack and that leaders will undoubtedly accelerate growth through AI adoption, market disruption and upskilling the 7 areas of emotional intelligence/EQ.

With 18 years of B2B experience, Elijah helps catalyze outcomes that move client efforts from cool science projects to scalable ROI. Elijah’s also releasing a new book called Pain’s Promise, where he powerfully shares how to leverage life’s deepest challenges to unlock latent power from incredible pain.

Shannel comes from being the #1 district manager at a billion-dollar global corporation and has used that knowledge to build her own brand, #beautyandhustle, into a million-dollar empire. Beautyandhustle began as a Facebook community that in turn turned into a community of followers wanting to purchase products from Shannel. She began an apparel line and shorty after launched a lipstick line through Facebook. Beautyandhustle recently was recognized and sponsored by Facebook in their new ad campaign, #moretogether, which has given her brand exposures to millions of new consumers. She shares the exact actionable steps that has allowed her company to not only grow but to capture worldwide attention from companies like Facebook. She has been able to take her retail operational background and combine it with her social media attraction marketing to build out her dream company. Shannel loves to empower others to find success in their lives through her words of wisdom and guidance.

I grew up in the Bay Area as a first generation American. My interest in statistics began in high school when I naively took an AP Statistics course and it was the only AP test I passed. Like many Asian families, my mom compared me to people around us and told me she saw a very successful Chinese female on television next to the Governor that did his analysis; she wanted me to be like her. I ended up choosing Statistics as a major, married that with my interest in technology, and didn’t end up anything like her (to this day, I still don’t know who this woman is). I have worked for a range of companies in the Bay Area – Autodesk, Westfield Digital, New Relic, Womply – from data analytics to now Product Management of data pipelines. Data as a product is still a fairly new concept and I love being able to pioneer this experience!

Shelley is an educator, leadership developer and creative. For twenty years, she has taught students, trained teachers and leadership teams in systemic change, led school district initiatives and managed teams for success. As a manager in LAUSD, she led the team of administrators in retaining new teachers and succeeded with retention rates averaging 90% for the last five years, ranking in the top ten of urban school districts throughout the nation with the highest retention of new teachers.

As a trainer, Shelley has led hundreds of teachers in the effective use of language in the classroom, classroom management strategies and lesson planning for success. Her leadership trainings with educational leaders, university deans and executive staff reveals how to build collaboration, community and create “ Triple C.”

Prior to starting a career in public education, her joy for teaching crafts began as a kids arts and crafts program coordinator for a city parks and recreation department. Being creative has shown throughout Shelley’s career providing paint parties for teachers and office staff. A desire to teach and create with crafts, lead her on a journey to bridge the two. CRAFT + LIGHT opened in August 2019 on 2nd Street Naples Long Beach, CA. CRAFT + LIGHT is a modern crafts studio that inspires creativity and exploration. The studio provides a variety of craft workshops and produces trainings for teams in both public and private sectors to create, enjoy one another and grow.

Martha Hernández has a successful track record strategizing and delivering critical human capital initiatives, technical implementations and integrations. After 15 years in the private and public sector, Martha made a bold move and quit her job as an executive of Talent to invest all her time into building madeBOS, Inc., an innovative AI-powered platform that enables companies to implement highly effective organizational change and performance by inspiring, motivating and empowering employees to stay longer and be more productive through clear and realistic career paths.

Martha is passionate about adding transparency in the talent selection and promotion process, access to opportunity, diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Martha recently became a best-selling author. Her book “I Have What it Takes” now at Target, Amazon and Barns & Noble is a combination of stories and principles aimed at igniting underrepresented and under-resourced talent’s natural leadership. Martha is a proud Oakland native and her educational background starts with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Spanish Literature from Occidental College. She later became a graduate of Mills College Institute for Civic Leadership Program, as well as Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. Most recently, Martha completed an AI Business Strategy certification from MIT.

WEBSITE: www.madebos.com

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hernandezmartha/

Amanda Rees is a recruiter at Weedmaps, specifically focused on hiring for their Revenue and Operations teams. She joined the company back in 2017 and has helped to grow the company from just under 200 people to over 400 people in two short years. She is passionate about recruiting and loves having the ability to make a difference in both individuals and the organization. If you’re interested in learning more about Weedmaps’ products, growth, or industry impact, please feel free to stop by and say hello!

Susan K Beeney unknowingly began her focus of helping grieving people when she began her hospice nursing career at the age of 37. Working as a staff/hospice nurse on a cancer-blood disorder unit of the local VA Medical Center, brought daily opportunities to experience first-hand exposure with grief and loss. These losses plus the ones she already had experienced in her own life, put her on a pathway to become a specialist and author of grief. New Hope Grief Support Community was birthed out of these pathways of destiny.

Anisa Addison is a 20-year-old student, activist and certified health coach. After devoting the end of her high school and beginning of college career to educating herself on health for all races, she has decided to make change in the community by sharing nutrition education and food resources with low income families due to discrimination or gentrification in hopes for a change to be seen in our system. Currently, she is pursuing a B.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics from Arizona State University and is creating inclusive communities to further the education of self identity in relation to community.

I grew up in the Bay Area as a first generation American. My interest in statistics began in high school when I naively took an AP Statistics course and it was the only AP test I passed. Like many Asian families, my mom compared me to people around us and told me she saw a very successful Chinese female on television next to the Governor that did his analysis; she wanted me to be like her. I ended up choosing Statistics as a major, married that with my interest in technology, and didn’t end up anything like her (to this day, I still don’t know who this woman is). I have worked for a range of companies in the Bay Area – Autodesk, Westfield Digital, New Relic, Womply – from data analytics to now Product Management of data pipelines. Data as a product is still a fairly new concept and I love being able to pioneer this experience!

Jocelyn Monahan is an Associate Analyst at Riot Games. Her work involves analyzing player data in order to improve Riot’s multiplayer systems and conducting research around diverse players’ social experiences. Previously, she worked in Riot’s Publishing division. She holds an MSIS from UT Austin and has a bearded dragon named Max.

Jordan Schmidt serves as the Public Affairs Manager at Riot Games, creator and publisher of League of
Legends. His primary focus is regulatory and policy strategy. He also founded the Urf Academy, Riot
Games’ world-wide game design education effort for underrepresented groups, bringing more than
1,000 students from the Los Angeles area through Riot Games’ campus for game design and narrative
writing fundamentals classes.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Communications Management from the University of Southern California,
Annenberg School of Communication and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies from Chapman
University – where he served as an adjunct professor in Corporate and Strategic Communications.
He is an active advocate for Mental Health Awareness as a writer and empathetic ear.

CJ was born in St. Louis, MO, one of seven hearing children born to Deaf parents who communicate in American Sign Language. At age 7 he was struck very ill with spinal meningitis, and consequently lost his hearing. After he became deaf, he attended Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD), which teaches in his native American Sign Language.  After his illness, CJ’s residual hearing was too good to qualify for MSD.  So his deaf father, Clarence, fought the MO school system to get CJ a place in the all deaf school.  In this communication-rich environment, he flourished from a shy hearing boy into a deaf leader.  He was class president, a cub scout, varsity football quarterback, a state pole vault record holder, and voted class valedictorian.

CJ played Joseph in the 2017 summer hit  “Baby Driver”, directed by Edgar Wright and co-starring Ansel Elgort.  This role made CJ the first black deaf actor in an international Blockbuster. Also in 2017, he played Uriah, a leading role, in the indie horror film “Door in the Woods” directed by Chase Goforth. Soon you can see him as Odin in “Castle Rock”, a HULU Original production written by Stephen King. CJ is thrilled to be working with the brilliant James Cameron on the Avatar Sequels.  CJ will be seen this season of United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell.

CJ never sits still.  He has developed 3 one-man shows that have toured the US, Japan, Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, and Canada. He co-wrote and directed 6 classic fairy tales for children’s television, a series called “Once Upon A Sign”. CJ produced the International Sign Language Theater Festival, which hosted theater artists from all over the US, Russia, and Mexico.  CJ’s perseverance and talent make him ready to tackle any role.

CJ  is a legend in the deaf world, acclaimed for his humor and inspiration. He has done it all: TV, movies, educational films, and theater.  He has toured with his stand up comedy all over the world. He continues to use his never-ending passion for acting, producing, and directing to give back to the deaf and sign language community.

Sarah Haynes is the current Co-founder, Co-CEO and Chairwoman of Bolt Mobility. Sarah is a goal-driven professional with over 25 years of experience in business and program development, philanthropy, business strategy, human resources operations and executive coaching. Her deep understanding of how people interact has provided her with award-winning leadership abilities to develop and retain talent.

A natural progression of roles, such as Director, Chief of Staff, Founder, PFO, Co-CEO and Chairwoman, have afforded her the opportunity to lead teams and guide investors and all community stakeholders and partners through strategy formation and execution. Sarah’s ability to align perspectives and nurture relationships among multiple teams, assess and mitigate risk, and manage compliance has helped organizations execute against their strategic agenda and accomplish growth objectives.

Sarah has worked in multiple sectors, including: micromobility transportation, business development, venture capital, behavioral health, collaborative consumption, etc. She has an established track record of developing and operating successful businesses that thrive as a result of her contributions in risk management and leadership development. Sarah’s other specialties include: multi-modal training program development, personal management and motivational coaching.

Sarah has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology and holds a certificate from the Professional Management Certificate Program (PMCP) from Georgetown University. Her extensive education includes graduate, undergraduate and certification programs from an array of Universities, which include: University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University, NSU, and University of Maryland.

Sarah was previously a member of the full-time faculty on clinical research at Georgetown University School of Medicine where she served as a health educator and a team leader/project management for an NIH funded research protocol aimed at improving health outcomes for minority populations in five major hospitals in Washington, D.C. Sarah was also a policymaker shaping community and organizational behavior in large institutions.

She has lead recruitment efforts for the various teams and risk mitigation and compliance efforts. Sarah also previously served as the Chief of Staff for Sherpa Capital, a leading venture capital firm with over $650M under management. Her role at Sherpa Capital included creating due diligence research, organization policy, team building, coaching, maximizing human potential and organizational development. Sarah is also instrumental in the creation and maintenance of community relationships and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

In the past, Sarah has been an active Program Volunteer with the YMCA of Silicon Valley, where she helped individuals set and achieve individual wellness goals. She has held a position on the steering committee for UNICEF USA to support disaster and humanitarian relief and has helped to alleviate poverty in Puerto Rico through The Pishevar Family Foundation.

Jesús G. Román is Vice President of Government Affairs for Verizon.  In this capacity, Jesús is tasked with fostering partnerships with cities in connection with all aspects of Verizon’s business, including for advanced wireless connectivity and smart community projects.

Jesús also serves as Managing Associate General Counsel for Public Policy and Regulatory Matters with responsibility over proceedings at the Public Utilities Commissions in West area states.  

Jesús started his legal career at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, and worked at a law firm in Puerto Rico for nearly three years before beginning at Verizon in 2003.

He obtained his legal degree in 1993 from the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law, where he was a member of the California Law Review.  He received a Master in Public Affairs, with an emphasis on Domestic Policy, from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and received his undergraduate degree from UCLA. 

Jesús is licensed to practice law in California, Puerto Rico and various federal courts.  He has volunteered on several non-profit Boards, including the San Francisco School Volunteers, La Raza Centro Legal, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility and the UCLA Alumni Association’s Scholarship Program, among others.

He is happily married to Ronda Román and they have a 10-year old daughter, Mía Paz.

Avetis Antaplyan is the Founder & CEO of HIRECLOUT, the premier Tech Recruiting and Consulting firm behind hiring at the best tech companies in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He along with his outstanding teams have helped 100+ companies build their core engineering, product and tech teams that led to very successful IPOs, acquisitions, mergers and most importantly stronger, more sustainable and more diverse teams.  In addition to helping companies grow, he and his team have helped thousands of professionals go from good to great careers and many times grow from mid-level positions into Executive leadership roles. He is all about client, candidate and employee experience and growth.

Dawn Saenz has resided in the Los Angeles community since 1994. Her career with CyberSN began at an IT staffing firm called Motion Recruitment where the future Founder and CEO of CyberSN, Deidre Diamond, was a sales leader. Dawn supported the growth of Motion from 5 up to 35 offices. In 2014, she was the first staffing SME hired by Deidre to support the build-out of CyberSN’s cybersecurity staffing services. Dawn has built a deep network of cybersecurity talent in Southern California and across the US with CyberSN, and she has also been instrumental in growing CyberSN’s latest physical office in San Francisco. Dawn is dedicated to supporting the non-profit organization, brainbabe.org which is addressing the cybersecurity talent shortage by providing jobs for all gendered STEAM students. She is passionate about building teams with retention and happiness in cybersecurity.

Sarah Haynes is the current Co-founder, Co-CEO and Chairwoman of Bolt Mobility. Sarah is a goal-driven professional with over 25 years of experience in business and program development, philanthropy, business strategy, human resources operations and executive coaching. Her deep understanding of how people interact has provided her with award-winning leadership abilities to develop and retain talent.

A natural progression of roles, such as Director, Chief of Staff, Founder, PFO, Co-CEO and Chairwoman, have afforded her the opportunity to lead teams and guide investors and all community stakeholders and partners through strategy formation and execution. Sarah’s ability to align perspectives and nurture relationships among multiple teams, assess and mitigate risk, and manage compliance has helped organizations execute against their strategic agenda and accomplish growth objectives.

Sarah has worked in multiple sectors, including: micromobility transportation, business development, venture capital, behavioral health, collaborative consumption, etc. She has an established track record of developing and operating successful businesses that thrive as a result of her contributions in risk management and leadership development. Sarah’s other specialties include: multi-modal training program development, personal management and motivational coaching.

Sarah has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology and holds a certificate from the Professional Management Certificate Program (PMCP) from Georgetown University. Her extensive education includes graduate, undergraduate and certification programs from an array of Universities, which include: University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University, NSU, and University of Maryland.

Sarah was previously a member of the full-time faculty on clinical research at Georgetown University School of Medicine where she served as a health educator and a team leader/project management for an NIH funded research protocol aimed at improving health outcomes for minority populations in five major hospitals in Washington, D.C. Sarah was also a policymaker shaping community and organizational behavior in large institutions.

She has lead recruitment efforts for the various teams and risk mitigation and compliance efforts. Sarah also previously served as the Chief of Staff for Sherpa Capital, a leading venture capital firm with over $650M under management. Her role at Sherpa Capital included creating due diligence research, organization policy, team building, coaching, maximizing human potential and organizational development. Sarah is also instrumental in the creation and maintenance of community relationships and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

In the past, Sarah has been an active Program Volunteer with the YMCA of Silicon Valley, where she helped individuals set and achieve individual wellness goals. She has held a position on the steering committee for UNICEF USA to support disaster and humanitarian relief and has helped to alleviate poverty in Puerto Rico through The Pishevar Family Foundation.

Jesús G. Román is Vice President of Government Affairs for Verizon.  In this capacity, Jesús is tasked with fostering partnerships with cities in connection with all aspects of Verizon’s business, including for advanced wireless connectivity and smart community projects.

Jesús also serves as Managing Associate General Counsel for Public Policy and Regulatory Matters with responsibility over proceedings at the Public Utilities Commissions in West area states.  

Jesús started his legal career at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, and worked at a law firm in Puerto Rico for nearly three years before beginning at Verizon in 2003.

He obtained his legal degree in 1993 from the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law, where he was a member of the California Law Review.  He received a Master in Public Affairs, with an emphasis on Domestic Policy, from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and received his undergraduate degree from UCLA. 

Jesús is licensed to practice law in California, Puerto Rico and various federal courts.  He has volunteered on several non-profit Boards, including the San Francisco School Volunteers, La Raza Centro Legal, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility and the UCLA Alumni Association’s Scholarship Program, among others.

He is happily married to Ronda Román and they have a 10-year old daughter, Mía Paz.

In June 2019, Senator Lena Gonzalez was elected to the State Senate to represent the 33rd District, where she sits on the Senate Health Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Prior to being elected to the Senate, Gonzalez served on the Long Beach City Council from 2014-2019 and worked in the private sector for Microsoft, leading civic engagement investments for the Los Angeles region. Gonzalez graduated with her B.A. in Political Science from California State University, Long Beach, and M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University.

Senator Gonzalez lives in downtown Long Beach with her husband Adam and their three sons Zorion, Ethan, and Luca.

Arabian Prince – A songwriter, rapper, producer, DJ, technologist Pro Gamer and futurist, Arabian is best
known for being a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted rap group N.W.A.,
pioneering west coast electro music and producing the Grammy nominated #1 hit song Supersonic. He
is the founder of iNov8 Next Open Labs and president of LAFTC – The Los Angeles First Tech Challenge
robotics competition.

His passion for technology led to him create a 3D animation and special effects studio in the 90’s
working with companies like Saban Entertainment and Fox, including 100+ video game, film and TV titles
for Fox interactive and Vivendi Universal. As a consultant, Arabian has advised many companies on
bridging the gap between technology and the youth, while bringing new product innovations to market.
He is currently working with his tech partners to bring Open Labs to communities across the country in
support of youth, women, diversity, veterans and anyone else who wants to explore the future of
technology. He is currently launching a new gaming product that will hit the market soon called
mClassic. https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/

Chiedo is a husband to an amazing woman and a father to an unstoppable boy. He’s passionate about empowering others wherever life takes him. Today, he lives in Virginia as the founding partner and Director of Technology and Innovation for Generate Impact, a digital solutions company that partners with humanitarian organizations to build custom apps, integrations, and technology to meet the ever-changing humanitarian and development needs on the field and in the office.

From the board room, to film/TV sets and even the Obama White House, Angelica Ross is a leading figure of success and strength in the movement for transgender, racial and human rights equality. She’s a season regular star in Ryan Murphy’s hit FX series “Pose” and most recently became the first trans actress to appear as a starring season regular on back ot back projects; POSE and American Horror Story on FX. Furthermore, making TV history, POSE features the largest transgender cast ever for a scripted series – five transgender women of color cast to play five series regular roles, including Angelica’s role as the witty and fiesty ‘Candy Abundance,’ the brashest member of the ‘House of Abundance.’ Angelica’s performance is receiving rave reviews, with Vanity Fair saying, “Angelica Ross steals many of her scenes as ‘Candy’…”

Since studying theater at Florida Atlantic University, Angelica has been featured in film, television, and live theatre. Her starring role in the Emmy Award-nominated short form series “Her Story,” received Special Recognition at the GLAAD Media Awards and her segment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah was also honored with a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Talk Show Episode. Ross is also working behind the camera, executive producing and starring in the short film “Missed Connections,” which went on to be an official selection at Outfest 2017, the La Femme International Film festival 2017 and at the Baltimore International Black Film Festival 2017. Angelica combines her passion for acting with her skills as a producer in her newest endeavor and she has returned to the Executive Producer chair for the “King Ester” short-form web series with a team lead by Dui Jarrod and Caralene Robinson.

Ross is also the President of Miss Ross, Inc. and CEO and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, an organization that helps people lift themselves out of poverty through technical training and digital work creating a social impact and bringing economic empowerment to marginalized trans and LGBTQI+ communities and members.

Sorbonne graduate Annabelle Azadé is a fashion and tech journalist since 2008. She has worked for companies such as The Associated Press, BuzzFeed, The Guardian…

Spotted by Elle, Annabelle’s broad network has inspired her to launch ‘Wear The Future’ in 2018, combining her passions for communication, fashion and tech. Annabelle is a Mentor at Fashion Incubator San Francisco.