LeadingShe

Donna Carlson leads in a unique way, as she works toward bringing awareness of the importance of recognizing mental health, burnout, and depression in the workplace. Her childhood was characterized by an alcoholic and abusive mother, and she realized that she was often on her own when it came to emotional support. In her book,  Crazy, As Usual  she profiles a wonderful story of two women, a young...

Dean Lillian Mills is the first woman female dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin, and is an internationally renowned expert in tax and accounting. Her responsibilities with the college include teaching, publishing, and serving the college locally and nationally. She urges career women to determine what they excel at, and pursue this, and says then the passion...

Judy Mackey is a partner in five companies and an owner of Garden of the Gods Resort and Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her journey began in her 20s after a serious medical diagnosis as she healed through holistic Eastern medicine and her passion and purpose began. In this episode, she provides much advice about starting and growing businesses.  Judy credits her success to determination and a...

As founder and CEO of Empowered Engagement, Kelley O’Keeffe is one of the youngest leaders we have hosted on LeadingShe. Having had a very successful 15-year career in sales with several large tech companies such as IBM, she is prepared to coach women toward success.  An ambitious, high-energy and hard-working leader, Kelley gives wonderful advice based upon her experience along with research data...

Joanie Bily, President of RemX, an accomplished executive with two of the world’s largest employment companies, wrote a Book: Dive in D.E.E.P.: Strategies to Advance Your Career, Find Balance, and Live Your Best Life (https://www.amazon.com/Dive-D-P-Strategies-Advance/dp/1956914846/ref=sr_1_1?crid=W40PUM7SLXFR&keywords=dive+in+deep+joanie&qid=1695829107&s=books&sprefix=dive+in+deep+joanie%2Cstripb...

In 2022 Mary Miller’s company Jancoa celebrated its 50th anniversary and today she and her husband Tony have achieved the succession plan of their dreams by turning the company leadership over to their children. Mary continues to chair the board and her daughter has stepped into Mary’s shoes as CEO. The company began with just two office workers and 63 part-time cleaning employees and today Jancoa...

As president and CEO of Eric Mower & Associates, Stephanie Crockett leads a mid-size, independent marketing agency with 150 employees. She recommends that as we seek career success, we must first get clear about what drives us, what is our purpose, and understand our values. Once they understand what drives them, women then make career choices around what they want, and not perhaps what they are b...

Kathy Boe, founder of Boecore, Inc., is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and leader who has worked in support of the Department of Defense for over 25 years. Having begun her career at Hughes Aircraft, she has enjoyed a long career in a very male-dominated industry having founded Boecore over 22 years ago. We discuss topics like confidence, facing fear, and crying in the workplace. Kathy d...

Sonita Lontoh has been an entrepreneur as well as an executive with several large companies including HP and Siemens, and serves on corporate boards. Her advice to women is to be patient and realize their career journeys are long and moves may not be linear. Sonita’s leadership style has changed over her career and she says that while she has always had a technology-focused approach, she has becom...

Kathy Courtney, is COO of GreenState Credit Union, one of the largest credit unions in the country, and is a strong leader.  During her long career, she worked with large financial institutions in big cities in the U.S. and internationally yet returned to her home state of Iowa to work with GreenState Credit Union.  https://www.greenstate.org/. Kathy talks about calling out gender bias treatment i...

Sue Bevan Baggott was educated as an engineer and was an executive with Proctor & Gamble for 19 years. Though she has an analytical approach to business, she learned how to read people through her experience as a child and employs an empathic leadership style today. In her coaching business, Power Within Consulting, LLC, she tells her clients that it is possible to enjoy financial success and find...

D. Sangeeta is a PhD, and founder and CEO of gotara.com who started the company during the pandemic to help improve the gender gap in STEM positions for women. Sangeeta cites the statistics of women leaving STEM positions at twice the rate as men and in her work, she identifies reasons for this such as non-supportive managers, lack of opportunities, lack of recognition and lack of communication.  ...

Gay Gaddis founded her company T3, an advertising agency, which she grew into the largest, woman-owned independent agency in the U.S.   Her experiences are extraordinary as she relates the messages from her great book, Cowgirl Power, Kick Ass in Business and Life. She talks about the importance of tapping into our gut instincts when making decisions.  Gay talks about how she survived and thrived a...

Joyce Russell served as President of Adecco, leading the largest business unit of Adecco Group North America, which is one of the largest employee staffing businesses in the world. She is energetic, positive and ambitious!  Joyce tells many stories which she profiles in her book, Put a Cherry on Top: Generosity in Life & Leadership about going above and beyond in efforts to serve clients and the c...

As the state of Rhode Island’s first woman Secretary of Commerce, Liz Tanner is passionate about making it easy for businesses to deal with the government processes by using technology for better efficiency. She says that when she brought more work balance into her life it made her a better leader. Liz insists that we need to have our voices and call out a lack of fairness or bias when we see it o...

Jenifer Rogers is an executive with Asurion in Japan where she has lived for many years.  She learned early in her career to advocate for herself and let people know how qualified she was to take on new opportunities. Jenifer believes companies can help career women by helping them explain their ambitions. As a woman and foreigner, she serves on four Japanese company boards being where she feels e...

Cindy Doe, a C-suite executive with the large firm, EY talks about how important it is for companies to create a culture of support and sponsorship for women. She says that her sponsors helped her during meetings when she was not in the rooms by supporting her and advocating for her.   Cindy  states that it is a mistake through our unconscious biases to make assumptions and decisions about people...

Deb McDermott as CEO of Standard Media Group, LLC, is one of the top women in U.S. media today.  Her love of people and truly caring about her employees led her to write a letter reassuring them of no layoffs with a merger.  Deb says diversity training is critical in making sure the news is delivered without bias.  She urges women to be fearless in their careers. Insisting upon being herself and t...

Julie Fasone-Holder was a C-Suite executive with Dow Chemical and spends much of her time now providing executive coaching through her company JFHinsights. (jfhinsights.com) She says that women negotiate many things throughout their lives yet often they do not negotiate on behalf of themselves.  Julie says men often view networking as a safety net for their career success while women view networki...

As founder and CEO of 9th Gear Technologies and capital markets specialist, Maryanne Morrow is a risk-taker and “unapologetically ambitious”. Her enthusiasm, energy and boldness are evident as she works in the male-dominated field of Fintech.  She hires only people who are positive, motivated and team players.  Maryanne would tell her 25-year old self to “take more risks” which is a message she of...

Ann Hambly, the Founder and CEO of 1st Service Solutions took the risk 17 years ago to start her company with a pioneering idea and though there have been many ups and downs, she has weathered them.  We talk about taking risk, not burning bridges and raising children while developing our careers.  Ann recommends that career women who are mothers be fully present to their kids when with them and fu...

Colleen Birdnow Brown has held many leadership positions with the companies Fisher Communications, Lee Enterprises, Gannett Company and American Apparel over her career and now serves on a number of corporate boards.  She says often women are called upon during corporate crisis situations to bring bold leadership to challenges. Early in her career she learned when everyone on the team was successf...

Jill McIntosh is a Senior Partner at Simpactful Consulting and was a corporate executive with Kroger for 16 years.  Through her leadership with an executive women’s organization and attending a Catholic girl’s school, she has long believed that women should fully support each other.  She has encouraged her three daughters to play sports and to be confident, find their voices as they advocate for t...

Coco Brown, Founder and CEO Athena Alliance, talks about “loneliness at the top” which she experienced during her time leading the company Taos, an IT-services company. This spurred the genesis of a women’s dinner group which grew to 150 members and led to the formation of Athena Alliance.  Though progress has been made, the numbers of women in C-suites, on corporate boards and those receiving ven...

Heather Ettinger is Founder and CEO of her firm, Luma Wealth and thrives in the male-dominated financial management industry by helping guide women toward financial wellness with knowledge and insights. She provides a no-nonsense approach to financial advice and direction and understands women want transparency as well as the appreciation that money helps them realize their hopes and dreams. Heath...