Freeman Means Business' Wonder Women in Business Podcast

I’m Dr. Alauna Curry and I want you to know, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. In fact, you are far from alone; we are all connected in trauma. Through this site, I hope to offer you an effective path to emotional, psychological and spiritual healing. As a Board-Certified Psychiatrist, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of complex psychological trauma and related mental health conditions, I have diagnosed and provided intensive trauma treatment for US Military veterans for the last 12 years.

After years of studying and teaching the most evidence-based trauma treatment interventions currently available, I began to recognize that psychological trauma was present at the core of any mental illness. Whether you realize it or not, you and someone you know is experiencing the debilitating and life altering impact of individual and collective trauma. Once I understood the predictable patterns of thoughts and behavior, and the impact of traumatic experiences on a few specific brain systems, it become clear that these numbers significantly underestimate the prevalence of trauma. Trauma has a 100% prevalence rate.

Well that’s pretty depressing, right? Well, yes and no! Because this is an opportunity to get rid of the stigma of trauma once and for all! What is the point of feeling shame for experiencing something that every person is experiencing, and feeling alone in, simply because we are too ashamed to share our stories and reshape them in a healthy way! This is where empathy, specifically having the mental skills to look at any situation from the differing yet equal perspective of another Creator, combined with a deeper knowledge of our brain’s design, can free us from the oppressive, judgmental and traumatic beliefs about ourselves that keep us stuck in a mindset that continues to recreate our most painful experiences.

My hope today is that this transformative information will trigger an 'Empathy evolution’ in healthcare and beyond and a catalyst for a healthier, peaceful human species on Earth. Welcome, let’s get to work. The path to trauma healing is Empathy Skills Practice™ and the work begins here.

Candace D. Washington, MBA

Founder and Chief Learning Officer (CLO), Pivotal Impact, LLC

Talent, leadership, and culture development leader, Candace D. Washington, helping organizations build tools and inclusive cultures that equip emerging leaders to authentically navigate real-world challenges, accelerate performance, and thrive at their highest potential. As a diverse leader, having learned the hard way from years struggling post undergrad to succeed in the marketplace, Candace teaches skills beyond book smarts pivotal to leadership success like how to build winning relationships, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, effectively communicate, influence up, and cope with culture shock in non-diverse environments, among others. Organizations partner with Pivotal Impact to accelerate success of emerging leader’s by building capacity for individual and organizational effectiveness. She has lived the lessons she teaches and is committed to demystify the workplace and build cultures that help future leaders navigate smarter, farther, and faster.

Before launching Pivotal Impact, Candace served as Senior Lead of Training and Development at the University of Chicago. She holds over 15 years of experience in Fortune 500 companies, not-for- profit organizations, and higher education institutions.

Candace is an alum of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Advertising communications and received her MBA, with emphasis in Learning and Development from Roosevelt University. She is known for her passion and exceptional record of bridging skill gaps with performance driven solutions that accelerate leadership and elevate outcomes. She is on the Board of Directors of a not-for-profit that develops urban leaders for global impact and is an advisor to several national youth development organizations.

When not immersed in her work, Candace loves spending time traveling with friends/ family, connecting with different cultures, mentoring, dancing (although not good at it ) and most importantly, playing with her adorable niece and nephew! She lives in and LOVES Chicago! Go BEARS!

Domenic Cervoni is Vice President | Senior Legal Counsel at HSBC North America Holdings, Inc. He primarily focuses on litigation for HSBC’s global banking and markets business and high risk US regulatory and investigatory matters. Prior to joining HSBC in the summer of 2013, Domenic was an associate in Mayer Brown’s NY office working on complex commercial and securities litigation as well as regulatory enforcement matters. Domenic is a public speaker on the topics of mental health, well-being, and leadership, and serves as an Advisor to a mental health tech company called AwareHealth.

He has presented a CLE webinar called Strive to Thrive: Why Healthy Lawyers are Good for Business, which is available through the Practicing Law Institute (PLI). Domenic also self-published a book called From Tragedy to Triumph: How My Wife's Courageous Battle With Rare Cancer Has Motivated Me to Live a Better Life Filled With Passion, Empathy, and Gratitude. It’s available on Amazon and all of the profits are donated to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Mita Mallick is a corporate change-maker with a track record of transforming businesses and cultures.  Mita is a passionate storyteller who believes in the power of diversity to spur creative strategic thinking which can ultimately transform brands.

She currently serves as the Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta. Her writing on diversity, equity and inclusion issues have been published in Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Fast Company, Cosmopolitan, Create and Cultivate and The Goor Men Project. She’s also a columnist for SWAAY and a contributor for Working Mother Media.

Mita has a BA from Columbia University and a MBA from Duke University.  She lives in Jersey City, NJ with her husband and two children.

Ready to get control of your demands and distractions so you wake up with a plan and feel less overwhelmed? Then you need Mridu Parikh on speed dial.

As the creator of Life Is Organized, Mridu has helped working women increase billable time from one to five hours a day, create a routine to shed 15 pounds, and save 10 hours a week on emails and texts. She’s also been known to decrease overwhelm from a level 10 to a level 5 in just three sessions. Mridu’s strategies on streamlining tasks and mastering habits have been featured in The Huffington Post, US News & World Report, and Real Simple. With half her career in corporate and half in entrepreneurship, she’s an expert in ditching stress – in the boardroom or in the home office.

When she’s not wrangling a list or schedule, you can usually find this former professional organizer with her two teens and one husband in Nashville (albeit inseparable from her 917 NY number) enjoying milk chocolate in one hand and red wine in the other.

Rika Nakazawa is a senior executive, entrepreneur, investor in, and frequent public speaker on, technology-powered business transformation.  She is also Vice President and Client Partner at Conduent, a $4B revenue global BPO provider to Fortune 100 companies, and is also the Founder and CEO of BoardSeatMeet, Inc. a Silicon Valley, social impact venture, focusing on diversifying the board room by empowering women to build and leverage social capital with modern technology.  BoardSeatMeet's mission is to deliver the “High-Performance Board Room of Tomorrow”.

Trilingual in Japanese, German, and English, Rika grew up in Japan and moved to the US initially to attend Princeton University.  Rika has since worked internationally over two decades in senior executive roles in strategy, business development, and marketing with Fortune 500 companies - NVIDIA, Sony, Accenture, American Express - and Silicon Valley startups.    She is a technology industry veteran and has served on multiple venture boards in next-generation computing and artificial intelligence ecosystems.

Throughout her career, Rika has been an avid advocate for advancing diversity leadership in governance, technology, and business across industry verticals and global dimensions.  And she is particularly passionate about deepening the intersection of human and digital paradigms through transformational innovation and the pursuit of purpose-driven collaboration.

Emily Alexander is an experienced litigator and trial attorney. She has represented business clients as both plaintiffs and defendants in partnership and contract disputes, negligence and malpractice actions, intellectual property and securities fraud claims, and antitrust and regulatory matters.

Ms. Alexander graduated from Fordham Law School, Order of the Coif, and clerked for the Honorable Lawrence M. McKenna of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is a member of both the New York and California bar.

In her own words:

For 27  years, I have practiced as an attorney and mediator in my own boutique law practice specializing exclusively in Divorce, Family Law, and Mediation.  I focus on clients’ objectives and critical issues, unravel complicated finances and entanglements, and problem-solve to reach beneficial resolutions.  My clients choose me to be their ally to navigate complicated divorce matters—because of my deep experience and commitment to understand their goals and to avoid protracted and unnecessary litigation.

I leverage my extensive knowledge of the law, litigation experience, and mediator training to help identify the bottlenecks that prevent agreement and craft innovative approaches and solutions to bring resolution without the cost, time, and emotional toll of lengthy litigation.  I understand that each client has individualized needs and objectives, and while reaching a fair financial agreement is essential, divorce is an emotional process, and other things such as maintaining strong relationships with children and moving on with your life are often just as important.  I work with my clients to achieve a resolution that will allow them to enter into their next chapter.  When necessary, I am a tenacious advocate for my clients both at the mediation table and in the courtroom.

As a trained mediator, I am able to simplify complicated issues and focus in on the ones blocking resolution. By understanding the motivations of each party and helping them to separate emotions from their decisions, I  bring parties together to reach an agreement—even under the most challenging and contentious circumstances.

I am a member of the Matrimonial and Family Law Committees of the New York State Bar Association and the Nassau County Bar Association and I am also a member of the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation. I participate regularly in peer-group discussions with financial professionals, mediators, and attorneys where I  promote and discuss utilizing a team approach to mediation as an alternative to litigation for high net worth divorcing couples. I leverage this network and expertise to benefit my clients.

Katy Goshtasbi is a change and branding expert and founder of Puris Consulting. She works with entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations on growing, in size and profits, by mastering change and developing brands that get their message out effectively. The results include happier, more productive employees, reduced stress, attracting better clients, and more revenues. Katy practiced securities law for over 14 years.

Carmella Glover joined Page as the Director of DE&I in August of 2020 and has been Executive Director of the Diversity Action Alliance since July of 2019. In her role, she provides strategic direction for Page’s DE&I initiatives and oversees the operations, programs, finances, and strategic plan of the Diversity Action Alliance (DAA). The DAA is a cross-industry coalition led by communications trade organizations with a mission of accelerating progress in the achievement of meaningful and tangible results in diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field.

Glover brings 10 years of corporate experience from L’Oréal USA, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson where she worked on and led manufacturing, supply chain, and communications teams. Before transitioning into diversity work, Glover was in operations, designing an organizational strategy for and leading a team of supply chain managers at L’Oréal U.S.A., where she was responsible for overseeing the successful launch of luxury skincare products resulting in $100+ million in new sales annually. While at L’Oréal, Glover led a capital avoidance project in the fine fragrance manufacturing department, saving the organization $1.5 million in spending, improved the speed-to-market of skincare products, and restructured the launch management department to improve efficiency and productivity of launch managers. Other operations in her purview included internal communications for intranet newsletters and blog posts.

In May of 2019, Glover was the recipient of the Logos Institute Rising Leader Award and a keynote speaker at the New York University School of Professional Studies May 2019 commencement. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree in Public Relations from New York University. Glover is an active member of Newark’s Beta Alpha Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, wherein she exercises her passion for diversity initiatives and philanthropy. She resides in North Jersey with her husband and daughter.