Bergen McMurray studied Clinical Psychology at Argosy University. With a background in project management, she has created many successful programs. As the Education Director for Four Horseman Productions she created a robust Education Department. She went on to work with the Allen Institute for Brain Science on the Human Brain Atlas project, which was published in Nature in April of 2014.  She has been involved in the Seattle Maker Movement since 2005, working with maker spaces such as Jigsaw Renaissance. She also worked with I Heart Rummage and other arts-focused maker organizations. In 2012 she helped create the first Maker Faire Seattle as the Maker Outreach Coordinator. She founded HiveBio Community Lab in mid 2012 and currently serves as co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

Aminatou Sow is co-founder of Tech LadyMafia which supports women in technology.[1] She cohosts the podcast Call Your Girlfriend[2] with her friend, the journalist and editor Ann Friedman.[3] Call Your Girlfriend "A Podcast for Long Distance Besties Everywhere" began in June 2014. The content ranges from politics and pop-culture to menstruation and friendship. It also features interviews with prominent women.[4] The show has reached #28 on the iTunes Podcast chart[5] it is produced by Gina Delvac.

American magazine editor, journalist, podcaster, and pie chart artist. She writes about gender, politics, and social issues.[1] She sends out a weekly email newsletter.[2] Previously, she was deputy editor for The American Prospect, executive editor at the Los Angeles-based GOOD magazine, and a co-founder of the employee-driven, crowd-sourced spin-off Tomorrow magazine.

For those of us who had the honor of knowing her, she was, in some ways, all of our mother – a guide, a counselor in our corner, an inspiration. For those who never knew her, her contribution was no less impactful or legendary.

Ruth never insisted on the limelight, though truth be told, she was often the source of light in any room. Always impeccably dressed, her smile was, in a word, validating. I recall several occasions where she would offer me an ever-slight and approving nod in a room where she and I were the only ones wearing skirts. Ruth may have often been behind the scenes, but she was most certainly never behind the curve. I remember fondly a Sunday call I received at home when she wanted to give me advice on a client. Like her husband, Dan, she was right.

Passionate about building beautiful, high-performance objects. Loves living in Brooklyn.  Kari considers herself an unabashed huge nerd. Along with her spouse, she is one half of "Team Mammal." One of her guiding life principles is to live in such a manner that telling her true story sounds like fiction.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is the Standing Rock Tribal Tourism Coordinator for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Marketing Manager for the Alliance of Tribal Tourism Advocates. She tells stories of the history of Standing Rock and her people. The stories of Sitting Bull’s life and death as well as of Lewis and Clark and Sakakawea who died on Standing Rock. She is from Cannon Ball District of Standing Rock raised in Fort Yates, North Dakota; her father was Frank Brave Bull who was descended from Tatanka Ohitika a medicine man. LaDonna graduated from the University of North Dakota with a History degree. She has been researching winter counts, and historical document to compile her tribe history.

LaDonna is a national certified interpretive guide, has her own guide company and has trained in historical preservation. She has compiled all historical information for the Standing Rock Scenic Byway. She discusses how, the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota traveled throughout North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba as a major entity on the plain. Her past lecture has been on 500 years of oppression, Native American Women, History of Standing Rock Sioux tribe and the notorious history of Standing Rock.

Whitney Johnson was recognized as one of the world’s most influential management thinkers in 2015, and was a finalist for the Top thinkers on Talent at the biennial Thinkers50 ceremony in London. She is best known for her work on driving corporate innovation through personal disruption.

She is formerly the co-founder of Rose Park Advisors alongside Clayton Christensen, where they invested in and led the $8 million seed round for Korea’s Coupang, currently valued at $5+ billion. Having served as president from 2007-2012, Johnson was involved in fund formation, capital raising, and the development of the fund’s strategy. During her tenure, the CAGR of the Fund was 11.98% v. 1.22% for the S&P 500.

Previously, Johnson was an Institutional Investor-ranked equity research analyst for eight consecutive years, and was rated by Starmine as a superior stock-picker. As an equity analyst, Ms. Johnson’s stocks under coverage included America Movil (NYSE: AMX), Televisa (NYSE: TV) and Telmex (NYSE: TMX), which accounted for roughly 40% of Mexico’s stock exchange.

Johnson is also a frequent contributor to and writer for the Harvard Business Review, and is a Linkedinfluencer. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Disrupt Yourself(TM): Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work (2015) and Dare, Dream Do (2012). She is a prolific speaker on innovation initiatives, and has delivered keynote speeches to audiences of 30,000+ people on her ideas and vision. Johnson is represented by the New Leaf Speakers bureau, along with other thought leaders on business and innovation.

She has received widespread recognition for her thinking and was named one of Fortune’s 55 Most Influential Women on Twitter in 2014. She co-founded the popular Forty Women Over Forty to Watch and is a fellow at the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards.

Since 2001, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Diana Reyna has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to communities across Brooklyn through government service and advocacy. As a New York City Council Member representing the 34th District that includes the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn as well as Ridgewood, Queens she garnered citywide attention for her efforts in championing affordable housing, economic development, improving equity in education, park space and waste as well as expanding youth and senior services. 

As the first woman of Dominican descent elected to office in New York State she focuses on ways she can advocate for the over 2.6 million residents of New York City’s most diverse borough. Reyna supports innovation and high-tech job creation, investing in women or minority owned small businesses, as well as business incubators that facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. She focuses on knocking down barriers in the path of men and women who are hoping to take a chance and follow a dream. 

Daily, Reyna envisions new and bold ways to tackle Brooklyn’s inequities. She is a tireless advocate for the BQ Green Project, which will deck the part of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway that bi-sects the ‘Southside,’ of Williamsburg with a park that bridges the community and improves the open-space ration, bolster local business and improve quality of life in Northern Brooklyn for thousands of residents. 

Reyna believes that Brooklyn has many great success stories and is at the forefront of culture, education, the arts and diversity. She’s said that “Brooklyn has become a terrific global brand, but it is so much more than that. Brooklyn holds our future, our children, our neighbors, our artists, our entrepreneurs, our schools, and our businesses. I am inspired and excited to champion Brooklyn.” 

Reyna was born and raised in Williamsburg’s ‘Southside,’ and now lives in Bushwick with her husband, a sergeant in the New York City Police Department, and two boys. She attended the Transfiguration School in Williamsburg, St. Joseph High School in Downtown Brooklyn and Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. 
 

Carol Fishman Cohen, iRelaunch Co-Founder and CEO

iRelaunch CEO and Co-founder Carol Fishman Cohen consults to some of the world's largest corporations on developing career reentry programs to attract and hire experienced professionals returning to work after a career break. Her seminal Harvard Business Review article "The 40-Year-Old Intern" focuses on the use of the internship as a vehicle for employers to engage with this pool. It was selected as an "HBR article that changed the way I think" as part of HBR's 90th anniversary recognition of HBR articles that made the biggest difference in readers’ and contributors’ lives. Her TED talk "How to get back to work after a career break" has been viewed more than 1.4 million times and translated into 27 languages. 

Through Carol's leadership, iRelaunch originated and co-leads the STEM Reentry Task Force with the Society of Women Engineers, in which 13 global, engineering-based companies, including IBM, GM, Ford, GE Power, and Johnson & Johnson, are piloting reentry internship programs. Carol is the co-author of career reentry strategy book Back on the Career Track, referred to as “the Bible of career reentry,” and a returning professional herself. Carol’s return to work at Bain Capital after 11 years out of the full-time workforce is documented in a Harvard Business School case study. She is the mother of four Millennials and lives in Boston, MA.  Carol holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Pomona College.

LISA GIANNAKOPULOS is Senior Vice President, Publicity and Promotions and co-directs the division. She also oversees the Allied Hispanic and Allied Moxy divisions. Lisa began her career at Miramax Films/Dimension Films, and rose to Vice President of Publicity and Promotions, where she oversaw regional publicity and promotions. She then transitioned to The Weinstein Company, driving strategic campaigns for films ranging from “Scary Movie” to “Sicko.” Her consultancy work includes stints at both Summit Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, where she worked on major motion pictures including “Twilight” and “2012”. Lisa serves on the Advisory Board of Lollipop Theater Network, a non-profit dedicated to bringing the magic of movies to children confined to hospitals due to chronic or life-threatening illnesses.

Emily Pilloton is an industrial designer, writer, critic, unyielding optimist, part- time baker and California girl. Trained in architecture at UC Berkeley and product design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she started Project H in 2007 to provide a conduit and catalyst for humanitarian design. Current Project H initiatives include water transport and filtration systems in South Africa and India, educational math toys for a school for AIDS orphans in Uganda, a homeless-run design co-op in LA, and design concepts for foster care education and therapy in Austin. She has written for publications including ID, GOOD, and ReadyMade, and is the author of a forthcoming book on "the industrial design revolution" which will be published by Metropolis Books in 2009.

Katarina Wong is an artist and curator based in NYC.

Katarina's work has been shown nationally and internationally, including at El Museo Del Barrio, The Bronx Museum, The Fowler Museum, the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden and Fundacion Canal in Madrid, Spain.

She has received numerous awards including the Cintas Fellowship for Cuban and Cuban-American artists and a Pollock-Krasner grant, as well as residencies at Skowhegan; Ucross Foundation; Ragdale Foundation, the Kunstlerhaus in Salzberg, Austria; and the Open Art Residency in Eretria, Greece.

Her work is in numerous private and public collections including the Scottsdale Museum of Art and the Frost Art Museum in Miami, FL. 

In addition to her art work, Katarina is the founder and curator of MADE, an art consulting firm dedicated to making art collecting social. Until 2014, she was also the Director of Community and Curatorial Engagement at Edelman, the largest global PR firm, where she started their corporate art collection and in-house art gallery, as well as developed and managed their community outreach programs. 

Selena Cuffe is the President and CEO of Heritage Link Brands. She presides over the company's strategic and operational direction. With two decades of general management experience, she has served in key roles for United Airlines, Procter & Gamble, and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), overseeing initiatives for over 20 countries. 

Cuffe is a graduate of Stanford University and holds an MBA with honors, from Harvard University. She is certified, with merit, by UK-based Wine and Spirits Educational Trust, (WSET). Selena serves on the advisory council for Stanford University's Bing Overseas Studies Program, the Harvard Business School FIELD course, the board of T-Mart (Nigeria), and is Vice President Emeritus of the Harvard Business School Alumni Board.

Christina Vuleta manages Women@Forbes, the next step on her mission to share perspective and create pathways for women to take their next steps forward. It’s anything but linear! Christina grew up in advertising then moved to trends, global research and brand strategy. She started CV Consulting to bring all these together—helping companies connect what their brands stand for with what their customers care about and where the world is going. She also built a few side-hustles: 40:20 Vision, a resource to start conversations and facilitate wisdom exchange between generations, 7x7 Mentoring Salons, a chance to give women an advisory panel for a night, and 40 Women to Watch Over 40, a community for women disrupting and innovating after age 40. Now her side-hustle is her main gig—all things about and for millennial women on the rise.

Allison is the founder of Tech Ladies, a weekly newsletter that connects women in tech with the best jobs ever.  Allison creates stunning copy and branding for startups.

She has lent her voice to companies like Google, Foursquare, Skillshare, and more.  Allison loves working with small companies to help them define  and establish their brand. She also writes and edits UX copy, web copy, pitch decks, taglines + more.

Tulsi Gabbard, spent her life growing up in beautiful Hawai‘i. As a teenager, she co-founded an environmental non-profit called Healthy Hawai’i Coalition, focused on educating children about protecting Hawaii’s environment. An advocate for environmental policy, Tulsi was elected to the Hawai‘i State Legislature in 2002 when she was just 21 years old, becoming the youngest person ever elected in the state. A year later, she joined the Hawai‘i Army National Guard to serve Hawai‘i and our country. In 2004, Tulsi volunteered to deploy with her fellow soldiers, becoming the first state official to voluntarily step down from public office to serve in a war zone.

Tulsi served two tours of duty in the Middle East, and she continues her service as a Major in the Army National Guard. Tulsi’s 2005 deployment was a 12-month tour at Logistical Support Area Anaconda in Iraq, where she served in a field medical unit as a specialist with a 29th Support Battalion medical company. She was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal at the end of this tour.

In between her two tours, Tulsi served in the U.S. Senate as a legislative aide to Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), where she advised him on energy independence, homeland security, the environment, and veteran issues. While working for Senator Akaka in 2007, Tulsi graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy, where she was the first woman to finish as the distinguished honor graduate in the Academy's 50-year history. Tulsi was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and again assigned to the 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion of the Hawaiʻi Army National Guard—this time to serve as the Military Police Platoon Leader.

Tulsi continued to work for Senator Akaka until 2009, when she again voluntarily deployed with her unit to the Middle East. During this second deployment, in addition to leading her platoon on a wide variety of security missions, she also conducted non-military host-nation visits and served as a primary trainer for the Kuwait National Guard. Tulsi was one of the first women to set foot inside a Kuwait military facility and became the first woman to ever be awarded and honored by the Kuwait National Guard for her work in their training and readiness program.

In 2010, Tulsi was elected to the Honolulu City Council, serving as Chair of the Safety, Economic Development, and Government Affairs Committee and Vice Chair of the Budget Committee. In 2011, she visited Indonesia as part of a peacekeeping training with the Indonesian Army. Tulsi was elected in 2012 to the United States House of Representatives, serving Hawaii’s 2nd District. She is one of the first two female combat veterans to ever serve in the U.S. Congress, and also its first and only Hindu member.

Now in her second term in Congress, Tulsi brings with her a broad range of real world experience, a storehouse of personal strength, and tested leadership as she represents the people of Hawai’i and our nation in Congress. As she works on the challenges that face our country, she remains focused on bringing her pragmatic approach to working in a collaborative, bipartisan fashion to find real solutions that best serve the people. Tulsi serves on the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee where she is a strong advocate for veterans, our service members, and making smart strategic decisions that best secure our nation. Tulsi is working every day to make sure we have a sustainable economy that works for all families, with access to affordable health care, good jobs, and a quality education.

Sherry Huss is vice president of Maker Media and co-creator of the beloved Maker Faire. Her vision and passion for the maker movement is instrumental in growing the Make: brand within the maker ecosystem. Sherry brings over 20 years of product marketing and event experience to the team, joining Make: after holding senior management positions at MediaLive International, Key3Media, Ziff-Davis, and Softbank. Before Maker Faire, Sherry was instrumental in launching and managing successful technology and consumer events such as Sun’s JavaOne, Oracle’s iDevelop, O’Reilly Media’s Web 2.0 Summit and Dwell on Design. When not in the office, Sherry and her husband enjoy exploring the maker scene around the world and seeking out exceptional cuisine.

Maker Trivia: Sherry co-owns Renga Arts, a company dedicated to functional art made from reclaimed, repurposed and recycled items.

Elissa Sorkowitz-Lejeune is an owner and Hearing Aid Specialist BC-HIS
at Royal Palm Hearing Aid Centers, where she oversees the
Audiology/Hearing aid practice in Boca Raton, serving three locations.
In her 22 years in practice, she has led the practice’s transformation
from a vehicle for helping the hearing impaired to a catalyst for
convening the power of public-private partnerships, creating an
ecosystem that serves South Florida's hearing impaired, and the
economically disadvantaged with hearing impairments. She frequently
educates and consults on different aspects of the industry, including
the distribution and installation of hearing loops throughout the
country.

Prior to joining Royal Palm Hearing Aid Center, Elissa was a founding
team member at Euro Disney Associés SCA, opening the resorts division
of Euro Disney in 1992.

“NEARLY EVERY GLAMOROUS, WEALTHY, SUCCESSFUL CAREER WOMAN YOU MIGHT ENVYNOW STARTED AS SOME KIND OF SHLEP.”

HELEN GURLEY BROWN

Hello! Here is me in 4 bullet points:

- I'm obsessed with developing products that fall in the intersection of education, technology, and society. Anything else is not worth designing. 
- I am currently the Director of Product Design at littleBits. 
- I also manage a design collective called Grouphug (www.grouphug.cc). 
- There is never enough chocolate.

Renée Edelman serves as a senior vice president, senior media strategist, Technology, at Edelman. She specializes in big data, security and ecommerce. She brings 27 years of experience in executive communications and product marketing on behalf of digital media and technology clients. Renée is handling thought leadership programs for EMC and RSA, The Security Division of RSA. She also works on building visibility for eBay’s X.commerce division and its eCommerce platform, Magento. In February 1998, she helped found PR21 (operating as Zeno Group), DJ Edelman’s second public relations brand. She helped launch Oracle’s suite of business applications. Renée also represented online media, such as Time Inc. New Media and CNNfn.com. In 1996, she created Edelman New Media and worked with Internet pioneers GeoCities and N2K. At Edelman, she formerly handled technology clients, including UPS, Gartner and Fujitsu America. Before joining Edelman, she spent six years as a journalist, working at the New York Daily News, The Home News, New Brunswick, N.J. and Women’s Wear Daily.  She graduated with a B.A. in English from Yale University, and an M.S.J. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She serves on the board of directors of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM).

Gina moved from Boca Raton, Florida to NYC in 1990,
where she got her start in Coloring at the Peter Coppola Salon.

She has been working closely with Serge Normant for 10 years.
Through her work at the Salon, and her exceptional relationships
with Salon clientele Gina has created Color for many
A-List Celebrities, including Glenn Close, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Julia Roberts, Julianne Moore, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly,
Ellen Barkin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Kyra Sedwick,
Michelle Williams, Tea Leoni and Faith Hill, to name a few...

She specializes in Coloring Wigs, and her work with Models
has been featured in such Magazines as W, Allure, Vogue,
Harper’s Bazaar, Arena and a host of others.
Gina has also done work and makeovers for various
Television programs, including the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Today she works with the Top People
in the Fashion Industry.

Susan Kare graphic design, located in San Francisco, California, welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on icon sets, corporate identity, or other design projects.

According to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Susan Kare is “a pioneering and influential computer iconographer. Since 1983, Kare has designed thousands of icons for the world’s leading companies. Utilizing a minimalist grid of pixels and constructed with mosaic-like precision, her icons communicate their function immediately and memorably, with wit and style.”

She began her career at Apple, Inc. as the screen graphics and digital font designer for the original Macintosh computer, initially advertised as “the computer for the rest of us.” Her studio’s work continues to optimize for clarity and simplicity–whether for icons, corporate identities, web design, or murals–and to present concepts in clear, concise, and memorable ways.

Kare believes that good icons should be more like traffic signs than illustrations; easily comprehensible and not laden with extraneous detail. She has observed that just because millions of colors are available, maximizing their use in an icon does not necessarily improve it. When symbols (icons or logos) are meaningful and well-crafted, they need not be frequently redesigned.

Susan received MA and Ph.D. degrees in fine art from New York University. In addition to her interest in art and design, she is an avid surfer, runner, and Australian shepherd fan.

She creates limited edition fine art prints, available at kareprints.com, and is available as a speaker.

Please contact Heidi Nilsen (hnilsen@kare.com; 831-475-2989) with any design project, custom icon print or mural inquiries.

Stephanie Rubin, is an outstanding role model for her deaf and hard of hearing students. She has been wearing hearing aids since she was five years old, and is severely hearing impaired. She is the co-founder of Ears to the Future, a non profit corporation that provides students with free hearing aids. Her passion for teaching and passing her knowledge from her own personal experiences make her terrifically connected to children and adults alike. 

Lee Williams is the founder and president of Addison Appraisal, Inc. Ms. Williams’ family moved to Florida over four decades ago, settling in Boca Raton where she has lived ever since. In 1992, Ms. Williams began her career appraising and consulting in the commercial real estate sector at Danner Real Estate Consultants of Fort Lauderdale. Her understanding of the market place and her ability to address the dynamic needs of clients propelled her career into senior positions at Consolidated Appraisal Services and Altair Appraisal Group. This background led to her current position as President of Addison Appraisal, Inc.

Lee has appraised, consulted, and reviewed work for local, regional, national, and international clients with assignments throughout the State of Florida. As a Board Member of Leadership Palm Beach County, Ms. Williams is also in a position which keeps her finger on the pulse of Palm Beach County’s commerce and civil infrastructure. She is a committed community volunteer and serves several other non-profits in South Florida.

Deb Schepp is a professional communicator and an avowed people person. She has built a career based on her devotion to human expression. As an Art History student, Debra explored the many ways that art reflects the political, economic, and cultural history of humans. Throughout her career as a writer, she has worked to make sure that all people have an easy and clear understanding of emergent technologies that can make their lives happier and more productive.  Her job in the public library has also included making sure people have access to computers, the Internet, and the world's collective knowledge, regardless of their economic, cultural, or social position.