Freeman Means Business' Wonder Women in Business Podcast

Madeline Jhawar is the founder and owner of Italy Beyond the Obvious and has been creating custom Italy vacations for curious travelers for over a decade. After living in Italy for 5 years and working as a tour guide leading week-long hiking and biking trips, Madeline received constant requests from friends and family to help with their Italy vacations. After a decade of this, in 2008, Madeline founded Italy Beyond the Obvious. However, clients would return from their incredible Italy vacations and ask Madeline: "who else does what you do for other countries?". At the same time, destination experts reached out asking her to teach them how to set up an online travel business. She researched online travel education programs and saw a gap in the market. So in 2019, Madeline and her partner Devin launched the Travel Beyond the Obvious course, which trains destination experts how to create an online travel business. Madeline lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and two teenage children.

Megan Howard Kelly, a Baton Rouge native, is a proud wife and Mom to two beautiful little girls. She is most passionate about all things creative, with a special love for branding and web design.

Megan holds a bachelors degree in mass communication from Southern University A&M. She is the owner of MHK, a branding company helping small businesses tell their story, build a solid brand and display it through their website. MHK also specializes in the field of Public Relations.

Megan is the founder and CEO of The Mompreneur Nation, a national online group with local tribes for Mom-owned businesses. The group began locally in October of 2018 and has since expanded nationally.

She began her career in the news broadcast field as a TV producer/reporter for the CBS affiliate, WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, for several years learning the market and developing lasting relationships. Megan is most recently a graduate of Leadership Baton Rouge 2017-18.

Additionally, she served as the Creative Director of Encounter Church for 16 years overseeing website development, graphic design, branding, video production, social media and marketing.

Prior to MHK, she, along with her husband Trey, owned a wedding videography company.

Megan is also a passionate advocate for domestic violence. As a survivor, she believes it’s important to speak up and end the silence and stigma behind Domestic Violence.

Joel Stern is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, Inc. (NAMWOLF). NAMWOLF, founded in 2001, is a nonprofit trade association comprised of over 195 minority and women owned law firms in 42 states. NAMWOLF’S mission is to provide corporations the premier place to go to locate and hire minority and women owned law firms of the very highest caliber.

Prior to this role, Joel was the Global Deputy General Counsel and COO Legal at Accenture. Joel managed the Americas Legal team and also had primary responsibilities as the Chief Operations Officer of the 420+ member global legal group managing all operations of the Legal team including finance, IT, human resources, communications, facilities and support services. Additionally, he managed all outside counsel relationships across the globe.

Throughout Joel’s accomplished career, he personally championed key diversity and inclusion initiatives including leading Accenture Legal Group’s award-winning diversity and inclusion programs. He has been a Board Member of NAMWOLF since 2010 and formerly chaired the NAMWOLF In-House Advisory Council. Joel’s published articles and regular speaking engagements reflect his zeal for expanding opportunities in the law.is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, Inc. (NAMWOLF). NAMWOLF, founded in 2001, is a nonprofit trade association comprised of over 195 minority and women owned law firms in 42 states. NAMWOLF’S mission is to provide corporations the premier place to go to locate and hire minority and women owned law firms of the very highest caliber.

Prior to this role, Joel was the Global Deputy General Counsel and COO Legal at Accenture. Joel managed the Americas Legal team and also had primary responsibilities as the Chief Operations Officer of the 420+ member global legal group managing all operations of the Legal team including finance, IT, human resources, communications, facilities and support services. Additionally, he managed all outside counsel relationships across the globe.

Throughout Joel’s accomplished career, he personally championed key diversity and inclusion initiatives including leading Accenture Legal Group’s award-winning diversity and inclusion programs. He has been a Board Member of NAMWOLF since 2010 and formerly chaired the NAMWOLF In-House Advisory Council. Joel’s published articles and regular speaking engagements reflect his zeal for expanding opportunities in the law.

Valerie Freeman is the Founder and CEO of a group of specialized companies whose services include staffing, search, outsourcing, project management and consulting.  The companies operate under the brand names Imprimis Group, BravoTech, Freeman+Leonard and ANSERteam and operate all over the U.S.  Over the years, the companies have been named to the Inc.500/5000, Dallas 100, WPO Fast 50, and Cougar 100 (Univ. of Houston).  Recently Valerie was named to D CEO’s Dallas 500 Business Leaders,  Power 50 women in Dallas by the Texas Diversity Council, Prism Award from the Council for Inclusion in Financial Services and in past years has also received the Tech Titans Community Hero Award, Women of Distinction Award from the Girl Scouts, Maura Award from the Dallas Women’s Foundation, Athena Award from the Dallas Regional Chamber, and WBE of the Year Award from the Women’s Business Council of the Southwest.  She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alliance of Technology and Women, and the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dallas Business Journal for her work with Women in Technology. She was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. She was also inducted into the Women’s Business Enterprise Hall of Fame.   She is also a founder and serves on the Investment Committee of Texas Women Ventures and is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Prime Women Media.

Karen Kupetz is the Senior Director of Legal Recruiting for Goulston & Storrs, resident in the New York office. She leads the firm’s legal talent acquisition efforts with a specific focus on lateral partners and the successful integration of their practices into the firm. Karen brings an innovative and strategic approach to talent acquisition and integration that is grounded in best practices across recruiting, business operations, marketing, business development and client service.

Judy Lloyd is a connector who has a 35-year career in government, business and politics. She has owned her own business Altamont Strategies for 11 years, where she manages external affairs, stakeholder advocacy, fundraising and development campaigns. She also works part-time as a senior district representative for State Senator Steve Glazer, handling state and local government relations as well as serving as an informal advisor on innovation and business issues.

Dr. Karen Kahn is a psychologist, certified coach and consultant, and the author of Daunting to Doable - You CAN Make it Rain and 100 Steps to Doable: Pocket-Sized Inspiration for Making it Rain. As the founder and Managing Partner of Threshold Advisors, Karen has worked exclusively with lawyers and law firms for many years as a strategic business development coach and an innovative “thought partner.”

Shinjini Das, Das Media Group CEO and Founder Shinjini Das shares how she advocates and creates space for motivating her #GoGetters through interactive marketing on social media reaching 7 Million + views a month across her social media platforms.

Kimberley Heart, B.Sc., PA, MA has been a trusted advisor to world changers and maverick leaders for more than twenty years. She consults and lectures internationally on relationships and the challenge of personal change. She has been featured on CBS and NBC national news and cited in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and multiple regional newspapers and magazines. She has hosted her own talk radio show on both coasts and has been a guest on over 150 radio stations, including KABC, KFI, KCBS, WOR, WINS, and WCBS. Her first book, When Fairy Tale Romances Break Real Hearts, was met with enthusiastic acclaim from readers and reviewers alike.

Josh Becker’s early career was defined by service both in El Salvador, where he spent six months working with refugees fleeing violence and in Washington DC where he served as press secretary for Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky. After his stint in Washington Josh moved to California and enrolled in Stanford where he earned a joint MBA/JD.

Josh has released a comprehensive plan to combat climate change, by far the most comprehensive proposal of any candidate for this office. These proposals include; achieving carbon neutrality in state government agencies by 2030, paying farmers to sequester carbon, and a prize for breakthrough inventions in clean technology. He has earned the endorsements of the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters.

Josh believes healthcare is a human right and that single-payer must be our north star. This is a generational challenge that we can and must meet.

Josh is a leader in education advocacy, having served on the San Mateo County Childcare partnership council and on the UC Merced board of trustees. He is also a public-school parent in Menlo Park.

This district has more than its share of pioneering non-profits, successful and influential businesses, and world-class educational institutions. Josh’s 30 years of leadership in these sectors, make him ideally suited to bring the best ideas from each of them to Government.

Josh will fight for smart, transit-oriented growth. Local control must include local responsibility for the region we all share. If we can't do a better job of addressing this issue, we face a lost generation of middle-class residents, communities without nurses, teachers, and first responders.

In 2016 Josh’s work on education, the environment, and income equality was recognized with a Jefferson Award for Public Service, earning him praise from Michelle Obama and CBS News.

Josh is a founder of the Full Circle Fund, an organization which has raised more than $10 million and has supported more than 50 organizations pursuing innovation in energy, education, affordable housing and tech training.