Agenda - Fall, 2020

Rita Balian Allen is the president of Rita B. Allen Associates, a national career management firm specializing in executive coaching, leadership development, management training and career development. She is a lecturer at Boston-area universities, a sought-after speaker and presenter, the author of numerous articles, blogs and the book "Personal Branding and Marketing Yourself: The Three Ps Marketing Technique as a Guide to Career Empowerment." She has been a regular contributor for the Chief Learning Officer Media, Huffington Post and Leadership & Management Books, as well as a variety of other publications. Allen was voted one of the top 10 executive coaches by the Boston Women's Business Journal. Previously, Allen held roles at Gatti & Associates, C.R. Bard Inc., BTU International and Unitrode Corporation. She holds an M.S. in leadership and a B.S. in business administration, both from Northeastern University. She is an advanced certified personal and executive coach through the College of Executive Coaching and a professional certified coach through the International Coaching Federation. Allen serves as president of the board of The Boston Club and is a former board member of More Than Words and the Association of Career Professionals International - New England.

Ann M. Barry is director of global risk management at Juniper Networks, which designs, develops and sells products and services for high-performance networks to enable customers to build highly scalable, reliable, secure and cost-effective networks for their business. She has over 20 years of experience in the risk management field and across various industries, including health care, financial services and technology. Barry is an experienced leader, wit expertise in structuring and managing complex insurance programs, regulatory compliance, OSHA regulations, claims management, loss control, contracts, establishing processes and procedures, and due diligence and integration in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Juniper Networks, Barry was director of global risk management at EMC and a director at Fidelity Investments. She holds a B.S. in management science from Bridgewater State College and an M.A. in management and organizational communication from Emerson College. She also holds professional certifications in risk management and women's leadership. ogy from James Madison University.

Josefina Bonilla is the founder, publisher and president of Color Magazine, an online and print, all-inclusive publication. Launched in 2010, the magazine highlights topics of interest for professionals of color. In 2017, Bonilla negotiated the successful public sale of Color Magazine to Gatehouse Media, one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the U.S. As president, she is responsible for leading business and marketing campaigns, establishing strategic partnerships and cultivating community relations within multicultural markets. Bonilla is currently Chief Diversity Officer of BridgeTower Media, an affiliate of GateHouse Media. As CDO, she identifies new opportunities to highlight diversity across publishing and event platforms. Bonilla is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in global inclusion and social development at UMass Boston.

Lorna Boucher is managing director and chief marketing officer of Instinet Holdings Inc., the innovative equity trading arm of the Nomura Group. She serves on Instinet's executive committee, the global firm's most senior management organization.

Boucher has always embraced the challenges of leading a company at a major pivot point in its marketing or branding strategy. She launched her marketing career as part of an academic project while still a student at the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell by proposing a marketing plan to help the small businesses in downtown Lowell compete with the shopping malls nearby. Her program was so well received that she was offered an internship and then her first full-time professional job with The Lowell Plan, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to transformative projects for the city. Over the next 20 years, Boucher went on to more senior roles in marketing and brand management, ultimately relocating to New York City in the early 1990s to work for major global financial services firms including Bankers Trust Company, UBS and KCG Holdings.

In November 2017, Markets Media, a financial services industry media company, honored Boucher with the Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Marketing, also known as the "Marketing Maven" award.

Boucher currently serves on the Manning School's Advisory Board.

Deb Busser is a coach and advisor at Energy Spring Leadership, where she partners with successful c-suite-level executives committed to evolving their leadership impact. She helps leaders become intentional about the alignment they create in their organizations and in their lives, bringing the deep inquiry and rigor needed for sustainable long–term results. Busser is passionate about the service, learning and networking opportunities available via board membership. She served on the Corporate Board Committee of The Boston Club, whose mission is to promote and support more women to move into board roles. In that role, she provided outreach to corporations and analyzed the statistics of women on boards and in officer roles for area companies. Currently, Busser is a founding board member of the Friends of Prescott, at 501(c)3 nonprofit, educational community organization in her hometown. She helped craft the business plan and overall strategy, and now leads the development committee.

Jane Circle is a senior manager at Red Hat Inc. and is responsible for Red Hat's global cloud programs. For the last eight years, Circle has helped build Red Hat's certified cloud ecosystem, which now includes some of the world's largest hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, Alibaba and IBM Cloud. Circle has 23 years of IT experience, with prior gigs at EMC, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems and Iron Mountain Digital. She is a classically trained singer and in her spare time sings with the New World Chorale and gigs around the Boston area.

Lisa M. Coleman, Ph.D. is New York University's inaugural senior vice president for global inclusion and strategic innovation and chief diversity officer. In this role, she is responsible for advancing strategic global inclusion, belonging and innovation initiatives across NYU's global campus and schools. Prior to NYU, Coleman served as the first chief diversity officer and special assistant to the president at Harvard University from 2010-2017. She earned her doctorate in social and cultural analysis, American studies from NYU and three master's degrees from the Social and Cultural Analysis, American Studies from NYU and three master's degrees from The Ohio State University. Her undergraduate foci were sociology/anthropology and computer science.

Denise Dunlap is an assistant professor of global strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship at the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell. Her research focuses on how global knowledge sourcing strategies matter for innovation. She is most well known for her research on breakthrough innovations in the global bio-pharmaceutical industry. Her work has been presented at well-respected academic conferences and international audiences such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. She is a faculty fellow for the Deshpande Foundation and a visiting scholar at Keck Graduate Institute of the Claremont College Consortium. Dunlap is on the executive boards of Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center and the Academy of International Business Northeast. Her research has been widely published, including in the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Business Ethics and the Journal of International Management. She received a Ph.D. from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

Heidi Friedman is a human resources professional with over 20 years of experience leading the HR functions in health care and mission-driven organizations. Her expertise is in aligning HR programs and practices with strategic and operational goals to drive organizational and revenue growth while also developing HR programs to positively impact employee productivity, morale and retention. She has worked in organizations as large as 30,000 employees and as small as a start-up with 40 employees. She is currently the associate vice president of human resources at Mount Holyoke College—a great fit because she is passionate about educating women leaders.

Lalitha Gunturi is associate general counsel for NETSCOUT, where she works with the senior leadership team to support innovation and technology efforts, branding and marketing, and other strategic projects. Gunturi's background in both engineering and law has allowed her to view the tech industry through a unique lens. Prior to NETSCOUT, she held various in-house counsel positions at tech companies. She has experience in leading commercial contracts teams, third-party licensing, mergers and acquisitions diligence, compliance and managing intellectual property portfolios. Gunturi began her legal career at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston, where she was an associate in the Intellectual Property Transactions and Strategies practice group. She holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the Boston University School of Law.

Jason C. W. Hancock leads Spencer Stuart's global technology sector as well as the firm's Boston office. He is adept at working through challenging board dynamics and succession projects with troubled companies, and has a depth of experience working with established public companies and private equity-backed businesses. Over the last 20 years, Hancock has developed a successful track record helping clients expand into international markets by conducting searches for senior leaders throughout Europe and Asia. Before joining Spencer Stuart, he was a senior partner and director of another leading executive search firm. Initially joining in the San Francisco office, he was responsible for founding and managing the Seattle office, as well as managing the Los Angeles office for the firm. A native of England, Hancock has widely published in the areas of leadership, career success and corporate governance in Asia, Europe and the U.S. He received a bachelor's degree in business studies from the University of Sunderland and an MBA from the University of Washington's Foster School of Business

Dana Henry is director of the organizational development and learning solutions business unit at the UMass Donahue Institute. She has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant focused on the design, development and implementation of competency-based leadership development systems and custom learning solutions. She has led senior leaders through strategic planning and prioritization, developed change management skills in middle managers and built organizational bench strength through the development of emerging leaders. Henry's most recent role was leading MassMutual's enterprise-wide learning and development program, which supported the company's goal of ensuring a workforce that is more engaged and talented than its competitors. Henry has presented on diverse organizational development topics at conferences in the United States, Canada and Europe, and consulted across a wide variety of industries and organizations including BOSE, Eli Lilly, Lucent, ABB, Cisco Systems, CIGNA, Pitney Bowes, the CIA, the State of Florida, the State of Alaska and the United Nations. She received an MBA in management information systems and a B.S. in mechanical engineering, both from UMass Amherst. She also holds numerous professional certifications in management and team assessment techniques.

Amy Hoey, R.N., B.S.N., M.S. serves as executive vice president/chief operating officer at Lowell General Hospital, where she is responsible for overseeing daily operations. She leads the preparation of the organization's annual goals and objectives, and continually evaluates the plans to ensure the successful performance of Lowell General Hospital and its ability to meet its mission to put patients first. Hoey previously served as vice president of patient care services/chief nursing officer. Hoey is also active in many community organizations, including: Board of Trustees of Lowell Five Cents Savings Bank, Board of Trustees of New England Life Care, Board of Trustees of D'Youville Life and Wellness Center and Member Organization of Nurse Leaders for Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Hoey holds a bachelor of science degree in health education from UMass Lowell, a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Salem State College and a master of science degree in administration from Central Michigan University.

Beth Humberd, Ph.D., is an expert on issues of worker identity, gender and diversity; relational dynamics in organizations; and the changing nature of work. She is currently a professor in the management department of the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell, where she teaches organizational behavior to undergraduate and graduate students. She began her professional career in the financial advisory services consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and then spent six years working in a variety of corporate finance roles at Boston Scientific Corp. She left industry to pursue academic interests, receiving her Ph.D. in organization studies from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College in 2014. Her research examines how individuals experience their work and non-work identities amidst broader societal and organizational shifts, as well as how social dynamics in organizations shape important individual and organizational outcomes. Humberd's work has been published in top academic journals, such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Perspectives and MIT Sloan Management Review, and has been featured in many popular press outlets, such as The New York Times, Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

Sherri Laffey Sarrouf, C.S.C.S. is the owner of SLS Fitness Strength and Conditioning Center in Lowell, Mass. Opened in 2010, the center offers a "whole-body wellness" approach to life, offering over 180 classes per week. SLS Fitness also manages corporate fitness centers within Network Drive in Burlington, Mass., and at MACOM International in Lowell. Sarrouf's passion for developing unique corporate fitness programming offers companies a new approach to wellness. She designed and created MACOM's new fitness center and incorporated their new healthy cafe partnering with Two Chefs Catering to bring the company new and innovative food options. Sarrouf is also a pubic educator at Lowell General Hospital, where she offers seminars on the importance of fitness and nutrition. Sarrouf is founder of the Fitness For a Cure fundraiser to benefit ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. What began as a $5,000 event in 1999 has grown into a $607,000 annual event supported by over 100 volunteers. She has traveled throughout New England speaking to numerous groups, businesses and schools on behalf of St. Jude.

Elissa Flanagan Magnant, J.D. is a visiting professor of management in the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell, where she is also co-director of the Donahue Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Magnant's scholarship focuses on business ethics, entrepreneurship, negotiations and collaboration. She began practicing law in 1995, focusing on the areas of bankruptcy and divorce and clerking for three federal judges during that time. Beyond her own law practice, Magnant also held an ownership interest in two businesses, a $25 million per year distributorship of scientific equipment and a franchise of an international chain. She resides in Chelmsford, Mass., with her husband, Keith, and three children.

Joan A. Marchessault, Ed.D. is principal and co-founder of Strategic Leadership Consulting Group in New Castle, N.H. She is an executive coach, consulting with businesses across the country to help them build strong, effective management teams. She also facilitates board development and conducts senior executive retreats for non-profit organizations. She received a doctorate from UMass Lowell and has maintained a private practice in counseling psychology for the past 30 years. Marchessault is the former director of graduate counseling programs and a tenured faculty member at Rivier University in Nashua, N.H.

Anne Marie Messier has worked with corporations, project teams and entrepreneurs to successfully launch critical projects with the right mindset, people and resources to get the job done. She believes that when you really understand who you are, you are going to be better at what you do—and everybody wins. Messier has helped individuals, teams and entrepreneurs identify roadblocks to their success and direct their focus to new ways of thinking to create a "career best" experience for all involved. Her unique insights have been gathered and synthesized from her work spanning the corporate boardrooms to the local coffee shops After many years in corporate organizational effectiveness roles, Messier founded Straightline Management Solutions, a consulting practice dedicated to helping people work in new, better ways on things that matter to them. She has an MBA from Rivier University, a B.S. in business and HR management from UMass Dartmouth and an advanced certificate in applied positive psychology. She is a certified Gallup Strengths coach and is certified in MBTI and Hogan assessment tools. She has designed and taught graduate courses in change management, organizational development and strategic thinking and is an active mentor and advisor to many in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Merrimack Valley.

Suzanne Nobrega is outreach director at UMass Lowell's Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace. She has 13 years of experience leading applied research activities in the field of workplace health and well-being, also known as "Total Worker Health." In this role, she studies effective ways to reduce job stress and make the work environment more health promoting. Before working in academia, Nobrega worked for 13 years in the nonprofit sector as a director of health promotion programs. In 2018, she won a Research and Innovation Award from the European Academy for Occupational Health Psychology for her work developing employer toolkits for Total Worker Health. Nobrega holds a master's degree in nutrition and health communications from Cornell University.

Kate Payne has been coaching senior leaders building businesses for nearly 20 years. Her gift for crafting high-impact solutions to leadership challenges makes her a trusted resource to clients and colleagues alike. Payne guides business leaders through critical growth stages to fulfill their absolute potential. Her approach emphasizes getting results through honest assessments of what is and isn't working, crafting a clear vision for the future and setting a realistic and actionable plan to get there. Payne has shaped leaders at some of the world's most recognized companies, including NBC Universal, McKinsey & Co., Vertex Pharmaceuticals, GE, AT&T WarnerMedia, The Children's Place Retail Stores and Fast Company Magazine. Payne holds a B.S. in psychology from Middlebury College and an M.S. in industrial/organizational psychology from Clemson University.

Anne Ristau is head of global sponsorships at Dell Technologies. In this role, she manages a portfolio of highly visible marketing partnerships including the PGA TOUR, the Boston Red Sox, McLaren and many more. She leads the development and structuring of new partnerships, with a focus on opportunities to showcase innovative uses of technology within the context of culture. Ristau and her team work with global stakeholders across Dell Technologies to activate each partnership and deliver measurable business results. Ristau is also a mom of three and loves skiing, reading and watching youth soccer games. She holds a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Mari Ryan, MBA, M.H.P, C.W.P, CEO and founder of AdvancingWellness, is an award-winning author, speaker and workplace well-being strategist. She leverages over 30 years of business experience in various marketing, consulting and executive roles across a variety of different industries. For the past decade, Ryan has been creating healthier businesses and impacting the lives of employees, through her consulting work and speaking on worksite well-being. She is a member of the external advisory board of the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace at UMass Lowell, and the author of "The Thriving Hive: How People-Centric Organizations Ignite Engagement and Fuel Results," winner of the 2019 Axiom Business Book Award. Ryan earned a bachelor's degree from Lesley University, an MBA from Boston University, a master's degree in health promotion from Nebraska Methodist College and is a certified worksite wellness consultant.

Maria L. Santos is the managing partner of Alphen & Santos, PC where she represents corporate and individual clients in immigration and nationality law. She graduated from Boston College Law School in 1988 and has been a private practice attorney ever since. Santos is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association. She has served on several boards, including Naveo Credit Union. She is president of the Chelmsford Council of Schools and has been president of the PTO boards of elementary and middle schools in Chelmsford, Mass. Previously, Santos served on the board of Jeanne D'Arc Independent Catholic School and was a board member of MAPS in Cambridge, Mass. She was on the Rivier College Paralegal Advisory Board and Rivier College's Alumni Board. She serves as an elected town representative in Chelmsford for Precinct 8 and is now running for the Chelmsford School Committee. Santos is bi-cultural and bi-lingual (Portuguese and English). She is married and has two daughters in high school.

Erica L. Steckler, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of management in the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell, where she is also co-director of the Donahue Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Her recent research focuses on stakeholder perceptions of organizational authenticity within the global domains of sustainability and corporate responsibility. The recipient of the 2015 Best Dissertation Award by the Academy of Management Social Issues in Management Division, her work has been published in the Journal of Business of Ethics, Business and Society Review, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Humanistic Management Journal and in edited volumes. Currently a research fellow at the W. Michael Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University, Steckler is also the founding president of the U.S. Humanistic Management Association and sits on the advisory board of the International Humanistic Management Association. She received her doctorate from the Department of Management and Organization at Boston College.

Diane Swint is chief revenue officer at Lovepop, a Boston-based start-up reinventing the social expressions industry with an imagination-meets-engineering approach to designing unforgettable pop-up cards. Swint is responsible for the management of Lovepop's business lines. She has always loved technology that enables innovative customer experiences, which has remained a common theme throughout her career. Prior to Lovepop, Swint spent eight years as an executive at Cimpress (the holding company of Vistaprint). While at Cimpress, she was also the executive sponsor of the Women in Technology group. Swint is married and the proud mother of three children. In her free time, she serves as a mentor with WIN Lab at Babson college, helping women entrepreneurs start their businesses. Swint has a double degree in economics and mathematical methods from Northwestern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

As chief of staff and strategy at Oxfam America, Ashley Tsongas leads a current 2030 strategy project and supports senior team development. She joined Oxfam in 2005 as media officer in Ethiopia. After Hurricane Katrina, she helped advocates in Mississippi and Louisiana ensure a fair recovery for their communities. Since then, Tsongas has become a senior strategic change manager with leadership roles in programs, learning and evaluation, public policy and communications. Before joining Oxfam, Tsongas spent two years in Madagascar as a Peace Corps volunteer. She holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. in development economics and political analysis from Tufts University and an MBA from MIT.

Michele M. Tugade, Ph.D. is a professor of psychological science and is the director of the Affective Science Laboratory at Vassar College. Her research focuses on the function of positive emotions in the coping process; the mechanisms that promote resilience in the face of stress and adversity; and emotion-related processes associated with health and well-being. Tugade serves on the board of directors for the International Positive Psychology Association. She received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, and is an elected member of the International Society for Research on Emotions. She has worked with organizations such as Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NASA, Apple Inc. and The United Way. Tugade has written many research articles and her most recent book is the " Handbook of Positive Emotions" (Guildford Press). Her research has been featured in a number of media outlets, including NPR, Thrive Global (Huffington Post), Psychology Today and CNBC.

Sophie V. Vandebroek, Ph.D. is the vice president of emerging technology partnerships at IBM Corporation, leading key strategic initiatives to scale IBM's partnerships and ecosystems. She was previously the chief operating officer for IBM Research, one of the world's largest and most influential corporate research labs. IBM Research is pioneering the most promising and disruptive technologies that will transform industries and society, including AI, Blockchain and Quantum Computing.

Prior to joining IBM, Vandebroek served for over a decade as corporate officer and chief technology officer at Xerox Corporation.

Vandebroek is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers and holds 14 U.S. patents. She also serves on the board of directors of IDEXX Corporation and on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering dean's advisory council. Previously, Vandebroek served on the boards of Analogic Corporation and Nypro Corp and was a trustee at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She has a master's degree in electrical engineering from KU Leuven, Belgium, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.