2021 CONFERENCE THEME: EMBRACING CHANGE
Thank you for joining us on May 7, 2021 for a journey of exploration as we exchanged ideas, tools, and techniques designed to modulate our understanding, interpretation and adoption of change.
Our conference created experiences that transformed how we embrace and manage personal, professional, social and technological change. As we explored the nature of change, we investigated how we respond to and lead through this dynamic landscape to sustain positive transformation while maintaining personal resiliency.
What a dynamic day of learning how to embrace inevitable change and positively navigate our lives, organizations, communities, and society.
Schedule & Sessions
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SLIDESHOW 8:15am – 8:30am
OPENING REMARKS 8:30am – 8:45am
MORNING KEYNOTE 8:45am – 9:45am
SPEAKER: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Kelly Sue DeConnick — Superheroes, Art, and Visible Women — Our culture is constructed to set women against each other—to pretend as though we are all competing for a single seat at the table,” says Kelly Sue. “And that’s just not the case.” In this provocative keynote, Kelly Sue shares exactly why it’s so powerful to see someone on screen who’s a little more like you. She reveals why she created the hashtag #VisibleWomen, opens up about being a vocal feminist in the age of social media, and describes how Captain Marvel has inspired a whole new generation of girls.
LOGISTICS CHECK 9:45am – 9:50am
BREAK 9:50am – 9:55am
SESSION #1 9:55am – 10:50am
Dr. Sheree Bryant Sekou — What a Difference a Change Makes: Beginning Again — This session is designed for women of all phases of their careers who are interested in creating and sustaining positive change. Facilitator will lead a transformational conversation designed to elevate awareness and explore change for what it really is: an opportunity to begin again. Participants will be guided to examine their personal capacity, ability and nature and how these factors impact leadership effectiveness and their ability to successfully navigate change.
Michelle Hynes — Navigating Work-Life Fit in Midlife and Beyond — Books, blogs, and more advise women on how we can plan for retirement. But few of us can afford, or even want, two decades of leisure. So as we move through midlife, many of us are asking ourselves how to plan for a longer and different stage of work. How might your mid- and late- life career look different than earlier stages? How can you create a work-life fit that enables you to take care of yourself and others as you age? This workshop will offer tools and resources to explore a vision for your “legacy” or your “encore” years of your career.
BREAK 10:50am – 10:55am
SESSION #2 10:55am – 11:50pm
Joy Taylor — Intuition at Work: The Ultimate Leverage for Navigating the Great Unknown — Intuition is nothing new. Everyone is born with it. Not everyone uses it. Do you? Ancient wisdom, neuroscience, and modern research have discovered the profound results of developing gut instincts and a sixth sense in order to be a better leader. An essential tool for innovation and decision making, intuition results in creativity, productivity, and grace. Understand what blocks intuition and how to access it. Learn how to combine experience, data points, and intuition for professional clarity. Develop your leadership skills in the invisible art of intuition.
Kate Ingram — Change and the Soul: The Transformative Power of Flow — Change can be thrilling—getting married, buying your first house, a new baby— but it can also be challenging; aging, illness, disability, and loss are all changes that profoundly affect body, mind and spirit. How do you embrace change when it’s painful? In this talk we will explore exactly why change is so hard, even when it’s good. You’ll learn the four ways of meeting change (and why only one of them works), and you’ll discover specific techniques for embracing change that will not only help you through difficult transitions, but will take you to a new level of peace, happiness and abundance.
LOGISTICS CHECK 11:50am – 11:55pm
LUNCH 11:55am – 12:30pm
JOLIE JOHNSON AWARD 12:15pm
BREAK 12:35pm – 12:40pm
SESSION #3 12:40pm – 1:35pm
Erin O’Kelley Muck — Taking the Leap Into Entrepreneurship — Have you ever had a great business idea, but wondered what steps to take next? Do you dream of starting your own business? This session will explore topics such as – what are the ingredients that make a great entrepreneur? What are some of the steps that should be taken at the onset? (Business plan; mission, vision, and values; competitor and target market research.) In addition to your role as the entrepreneur, will you also be the manager, and technician? How will you balance it all? And ultimately – how do you take the leap – finding courage and trusting in yourself?
Elizabeth Miner — Empowered Women In A Changing World — When women feel safe and empowered, they are stronger leaders, better workers and more creative innovators. This workshop is an opportunity to build empowerment by focusing on skills to create subtle and bold boundaries, promote awareness and practice situational responses in a safe space. The workplace is different for women and we cannot ignore this, we must skillfully navigate it. Attendees leave this workshop with tools to use in their everyday lives empowering them to create safe spaces and contribute to their fullest in all environments.
BREAK 1:35pm – 1:40pm
MEDITATION 1:40pm – 1:55pm
LED BY: Tiffany Grimes
BREAK 1:55pm – 2:00pm
SESSION #4 2:00pm – 2:55pm
Diahana Barnes — Leading Change: Strategic Communications as a Feminine Leader — Diahana is an award-winning Trainer, Speaker, Success Strategist, and Executive Coach with over 23 years of experience. Mom, former corporate woman, and entrepreneur she built her successful coaching and consulting business after leaving a demanding corporate job leading $40 Million dollar sales teams, client services and running marketing campaigns. She’s worked with Fortune 500 executives on their strategic communications, keynotes. She has been personally trained by their executive coaches and spoken on stages with audience sizes ranging from 25 to 500.
Cynthia Scherr — Catching Courage — You may have heard the phrase “courage is contagious” from the research and writing of Brené Brown. But if courage is contagious, how do we catch it? As a thought partner and executive coach to leaders over the last 25 years, I often wished I could give a fast-acting dose of courage to my clients (or myself). The good news is that courage building skills can be learned. This workshop will draw upon the research of Brené Brown as well as my own experience working with leaders to look at the elements of courage and how we cultivate more grounded confidence and brave action in our lives.
BREAK 2:55pm – 3:00pm
RECOGNIZING SPONSORS 3:00pm – 3:15pm
BREAK 3:15pm – 3:20pm
CLOSING KEYNOTE 3:20pm – 4:00pm
SPEAKER: Nataki Garrett
Cultural leaders are discussing who we have to become after the COVID-19 pandemic. Nataki Garrett will be speaking to her role in the creation of the new modes of living in Ashland, OR, at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and for the American Theatre.
CLOSING REMARKS 4:00pm – 4:15pm
Speakers
Joy Taylor
Breakout Session
Intuition at Work: The Ultimate Leverage for Navigating the Great Unknown
2021 SPEAKERS
Kelly Sue DeConnick
MORNING KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Kelly Sue DeConnick is the iconic comic book and television writer whose long run on Marvel’s Captain Marvel inspired the record-breaking 2019 film starring Brie Larson. She’s also an outspoken feminist activist who is on a mission to make art that truly reflects the world around us. Her fiery keynotes challenge us to engage critically with the media we consume, get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and do anything we can to make our voices heard. “What I bring to the table matters,”she says. “I know that heroes—even the really gothy ones—don’t limit themselves to battles they know that they can win.”
Kelly Sue DeConnick is a comic book and television writer. Her long run writing Marvel’s Captain Marvel put Carol Danvers in the Captain’s role and inspired the 2019 film that made over a billion dollars at the box office. She served as a consultant and also appeared in the film.
In addition to her two award-winning independent series, Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet , she currently writes Aquaman for DC and develops television for Legendary TV. Her writing has been nominated for Eisner and Hugo awards.
Nataki Garrett
AFTERNOON KEYNOTE
Nataki Garrett is Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s sixth artistic director. As the former associate artistic director of CalArts Center for New Performance, Garrett has been hailed as a champion of new work as well as an experienced, savvy arts administrator. 2019 was Garrett’s first season at OSF, where she directed How to Catch Creation. At CalArts, Garrett oversaw all operations of conservatory training and produced mainstage, black box, developmental projects, plays, co-productions and touring productions. She is currently on the nominating committee for The Kilroys, and she recently served on the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Distinguished Playwright Award nominating committee and the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship panel.
Garrett is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group Career Development Fellowship for Theatre Directors and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Garrett is also a member of the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group, a company member at Woolly Mammoth and an advisory board member for Mixed Blood Theatre.
Garrett is a graduate of California Institute of the Arts with an MFA in directing.
www.natakigarrett.com
Erin O’Kelley Muck
BREAKOUT SESSION
Erin O’Kelley Muck started Ruby Slipper Designs in 2002 – a web design company born from a dash of daring, a stubborn streak, and a leap of faith. Eighteen years and hundreds of websites later, her thriving company is known for beautiful design, great customer service, and websites that get results. What started as a one-woman show now includes a team of web and graphic designers, internet marketing pros, and a bevy of programmers. Erin has had the honor of guiding each and every client – many of whom are entrepreneurs – into a place of clarity about their business and how to communicate with their audience to achieve their goals.
Support Article for Attendees: Women Entrepreneurs
www.rubyslipper.com
Kate Ingram
BREAKOUT SESSION
Kate Ingram is a life transitions coach, counselor, speaker, and writer who is passionate about helping people discover joy and meaning through the tough stuff of life. Her father’s death when she was eight and the loss of her husband in a plane crash were the catalysts that inspired her exploration of depth psychology and spiritual wisdom traditions, Taoism in particular.
Kate received degrees from Northwestern University, the University of San Francisco, and did doctoral work at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is the award-winning author of Washing the Bones: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Transformation, and recently published The Grab & Go Grief Kit: A Practical Workbook to Help You Understand, Navigate, and Heal Your Grief. Her newest book, The Grief Girl Guide: How to Grieve, Why You Should, and What’s In It for You will be published this spring. In addition to her writing and private practice, Kate is the creator of Soul Matters Live!, a popular, monthly salon exploring ways to live a more joyful, meaningful life.
Kate has performed on stage in the Ashland New Plays Festival and the Rogue Opera. She loves dogs, blue jeans, authenticity, good wine, Giants baseball, and anything Italian. She lives with her family and a quirky little dog named Baci in the beautiful Southern Oregon wine country.
www.kintsugicoaching.com
Cynthia Scherr
BREAKOUT SESSION
Cynthia Scherr leads strategic planning processes, facilitates executive team development, and coaches leaders at innovative organizations such as Lithia Motors, Alaska Airlines, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her planning approach includes defining an aspirational vision of the future, exploring alternative scenarios, making space to ask critical questions, creating realistic plans, and ensuring team alignment and commitment. As an executive coach, Cynthia supports senior leaders to build on their strengths, explore development areas and become mature, courageous leaders. She admires the research and writing of Brené Brown, who defines courage as “being brave and afraid at the same time.” Cynthia incorporates many of Dr. Brown’s leadership principles into her consulting work.
An advocate for entrepreneurship, Cynthia chairs a CEO peer group and a peer group for women executives. She co-founded Southern Oregon E2E (Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur) and curates The Ground Floor podcast on JPR, featuring interviews with regional entrepreneurs. Cynthia holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MTS from Harvard Divinity School. She also feels weird writing about herself in the third person.
www.ScherrConsults.com
Michelle Hynes
BREAKOUT SESSION
Michelle Hynes has more than 25 years of experience as a nonprofit executive, consultant, board member, and volunteer. She is a founding member of ninety-nine girlfriends, a regional women’s giving collective that’s given more than $1.2 million in high-impact grants in its first four years. Michelle’s formal education includes a Master’s in Education from University of Pennsylvania, a certificate from the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and a certificate in Strategic Organizational Management from Portland State University. A skilled meeting facilitator and certified coach, Michelle loves to help leaders navigate from what is to what’s possible.
www.michellehynes.com
Diahana Barnes
BREAKOUT SESSION
Diahana is an award winning Trainer, Speaker, Success Strategist, and Executive Consultant with over 23 years of experience. Mom, former corporate woman, and entrepreneur she built her own successful consulting business after leaving a demanding corporate job leading $40 Million dollar sales and service teams and email marketing campaigns.
She’s worked with Fortune 500 executives to strategically execute their events and keynotes, has been personally trained by their executive coaches and spoken on stages with audience sizes ranging from 25 to 500.
She’s the founder of the Speak to Inspire Method™ a trend setting modality that teaches business owners and entrepreneurs how to speak in a way that creates momentum and drives results. Her mission is to help 10,000 heart centered business leaders be the Harmonious CEOs of their business.
www.diahanabarnes.com
Elizabeth Miner
BREAKOUT SESSION
As an international life and business coach Elizabeth has been encouraging women to live into their dreams for years through her company Thrive This Day. Recently she has added an empowerment element to her business in response to the “me too” movement enabling women to feel confident, safe and to stand in their power.
Certified by ESD Global and using her 20+ years as a corporate paralegal, Elizabeth has customized workshops to specifically respond to the needs of women in the changing world. This workshop is an opportunity to build empowerment by focusing on skills to create subtle and bold boundaries, teaches de-escalation techniques and promotes situational awareness.
Attendees leave the workshop with tools they can use in their everyday lives empowering them to engage and contribute with confidence.
www.elizabethminer.net
Dr. Sheree Bryant Sekou
BREAKOUT SESSION
Dr. Sheree Bryant Sekou is an author, motivational speaker, international facilitator and positive change catalyst whose work is grounded in a strengths-based philosophy of searching for the best in individuals and organizations. She is the author of What A Difference A Change Makes! and owner of Sheree Sekou Consulting, a global learning and development firm. As a coach and leadership expert, Dr. Sheree works with people who want to thrive through change and lead themselves so they can love their lives. Dr. Sheree holds degrees in Human Development, Educational Leadership and a doctorate in Organizational Leadership from the University of San Francisco. An active member of the International Leadership Association’s Women in Leadership Affinity Group, her research includes educational leadership success, women leader purpose/calling and leadership development for women of all ages. Born and raised in Texas, Dr. Sheree has journeyed to six of the seven continents, and she currently resides in the Houston area and the U.S. Virgin Islands with her hubby. She considers herself a lifelong student of spirituality, personal empowerment, self-mastery, and cultural enlightenment and she believes that the power to change your life is in your hands.
www.shereesekouconsulting.com
Joy Taylor
BREAKOUT SESSION
Joy Taylor is the founder of A Soul-Inspired Life, a personal development company dedicated to the evolution of consciousness. Author of the #1 Amazon best-selling book Inspired, she is passionate about empowering and educating people to contribute to a better world through transformation and sacred action. As a companion guide, Joy leads with her compassionate heart and offers a variety of group and private online programs for those ready to live and work in alignment with their values. As a companion guide, Joy leads with her compassionate heart and offers a variety of group and private online programs for those ready to live and work in alignment with their values. Her background includes serving as a somatic practitioner and intuitive healer, corporate marketing and sales trainer, college-level business faculty, and Director of The Women’s Business Center in Northern California. Joy is an ordained priestess, devoted partner to her Beloved Kirk, and lover of nature.
www.asoulinspiredlife.com
YouTube
Tiffany Grimes
MEDITATION SESSION
Tiffany Grimes is Founder of Evolutionary Consulting as well as Empower Coaching and Training. She is a Certified Professional Life Coach, Certified Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Specialty Master Trainer through Portland State University’s Oregon Registry Training Program, national presenter, and published author. Grimes also holds a Master’s Degree in Management (MIM) with a focus on organizational development.
Her transformational trainings, mindfulness broadcasts, and coaching aim to influence human behavior through creating an understanding of modern neuroscience and ancient practices.
Tiffany’s background lends to her strength of working to create cohesive teams, building positive workplace culture, and enhancing emotional intelligence within organizations. As an advocate, direct service provider, staff trainer and program leader, she has spent over 20 years creating change and opportunities within workforce development collaborating with businesses, community agencies, and job seekers. Her passion to serve and to create cultures of respect has touched many lives and dramatically changed service models. She has helped to create communities of change where a strong sense of belonging, shared vision, and high emotional intelligence make positive and lasting impacts on organizational culture and business relationships.
Grimes provides powerful trainings to both the private and public sector as well as group and individual coaching for leaders, emerging leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals. Since the pandemic in the Spring of 2020, she has also been working with organizations weekly, providing 15-minute mindfulness sessions helping to ground individuals and teams through massive change.
www.evolutionary-consulting.com
www.OregonEmpower.com
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