Here is a list of speakers Women Accelerators is working with.
Dr. Alexis J. Stokes
Dr. Alexis J. Stokes is the Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). She has over 11 years of experience working with non-profit and higher education institutions. Throughout her career, she has worked to not only increase college and career access but also create systematic changes to support the success of underrepresented minorities, nontraditional students, and education programs in rural and urban areas. In her current role, she is responsible for working with various SEAS offices, including Faculty Affairs, Academic Programs, Human Resources, and the Senior Administrative Leadership Team, to develop and implement a diversity and inclusion plan, programming, engagement initiatives, and special projects. Alexis chairs the SEAS Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and serves as a member of the Harvard Women in Technology Taskforce on Diversity and Inclusion. Alexis has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana, a Master of Education in Community Counseling from the University of Georgia, and a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University.
lhiana Rojas
lhiana Rojas is a Transformation Strategy Coach & Consultant, owner of BeLIVE Coaching & Consulting, and an ICF and DISC PLUS Certified Coach. She has over 20 years of Executive experience in top Fortune 500 companies leading, coaching, and mentoring professionals and teams into success. Her mission is to enable professionals to move from ordinary to extraordinary through meaningful transformation and achieve their full potential. Her coaching programs specialize in leadership development, high performing teamwork, purpose-driven culture mindset, resilient & agile behaviors, and personal branding. In addition to being a coach, Ilhiana is also Vice President of the Rhode Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Board Member of Alpfa Boston Chapter and advisor to Social Enterprise Greenhouse, the Center for Women & Enterprise, and the Diversity and Inclusion Professionals. Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Ilhiana moved to Rhode Island with her husband and two daughters, leading the way to showcase that nothing is impossible if you have the right mindset, motivation, and support.
Sean Driscoll
As the Principal and Founder of BBsquared (a/k/a Breaking Barriers X Building Bridges), a consulting platform empowering inclusion through creation collaboration www.BB2consulting.com, Sean Driscoll looks for chemistry matches to projects that share connectivity around Disability, LGBTQ, and/or Re-Entry (people with criminal background diversity) identities. BBsquared cultivates the amazing cross-connectivity often discoverable across diverse communities, that when harnessed in the right fashion, can become exponentially empowering and impacting. BBsquared is a LGBT Business Enterprise – certified by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). Sean’s professional portfolio includes: Customer Service, Customer & Community Relations, Marketing & Communications and Human Resources. Sean is a member of the Northeast Human Resources Association’s Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council, the YW Boston’s Fund Development Committee, and Boston Spirit Council’s (Boston area Boy Scouts) Inclusion & Diversity Task Force. Sean is a proud LeadBoston alum (’06) – an executive leadership program that evolves more socially responsible leaders.
Su Joun
Su Joun (she/her/hers) is the Principal of Diversity@Workplace Consulting Group LLC that specializes in innovative, implementation-focused, no-frills Diversity & Inclusion training and consultation. Su is also an adjunct professor at Suffolk University where she teaches Global Human Resources Management, Organizational Behavior and Career LAUNCH classes. She was the Vice President of Talent, Diversity and Inclusion at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) where she led the enterprise diversity and inclusion, talent acquisition, performance management and leadership development, and associate engagement teams. In addition to expertise in Diversity & Inclusion and talent management, she held leadership roles in IT & operations, marketing, sales and call centers at BCBSMA, Key Corp, and Virgin Money. Su also founded and operated a publishing company. This breadth of experiences enables her to fully understand and “speak the language” of the various business areas and leaders allowing for true partnership to champion Diversity & Inclusion goals and programs. Su received her MBA from Suffolk University and her MS in Nonprofit Management from Northeastern University. She currently serves as the Board Vice-Chair for the Center for Collaborative Leadership at UMASS. Her thought-leadership on Diversity & Inclusion and talent overall has been showcased in the Skillsoft video library, the Urban Update, in various articles in BBJ and Workable.com, and she has presented to various audiences such as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, NAAAP, HubSpot, CFO Roundtable, and Commonwealth Compact.
Dr. Dennis A. Dean
Dr. Dennis A. Dean, II is a Principal Investigator at Seven Bridges where he leads several national-scale genomic analysis projects and mentors a scientific team in the Boston office.
Dr. Dean’s oversight responsibilities include genomic scientists, bioinformatics scientists, scientific program managers, scientific project managers, and genomic data scientists. In this capacity, he is responsible for the success of his team members across commercial, government, and internal projects. He leads Seven Bridges collaboration outreach with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US Department of Veteran Affairs Million Veteran Program (MVP), the Patient Derived Xenograph Network funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and oversee several projects with large pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Dean is passionate about training the next generation of scientists. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Biomedical Science Career Program where he focuses on developing post-doctoral training programs and supporting STEM trainees. Dr. Dean is proud of his mentees which are in graduate programs, medical school and actively pursuing careers in the biomedical sciences as physicians and scientists.
Dr. Dean is trained as a research fellow in medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Program for Sleep Epidemiology and the Program for Sleep and Cardiovascular Medicine. He earned his PhD in biomedical engineering and biotechnology and M.S. in computer science from the University of Massachusetts. He earned his B.S. in computer science from SUNY, Empire State College.
Suggestions?
We will continue to grow our list to include more diverse speakers. If you have a suggestion for a diverse speaker, please refer a speaker or speakers to us by filling out the Contact Us form or email us.
