Freeman Means Business' Wonder Women in Business Podcast

Julie Savarino serves as Chief Client Service & Development Officer at Business Development Inc. She holds an MBA, a JD, and is a licensed attorney. Over her 30+ year career, she has built a reputation as a leading international, award-winning business and client development coach and strategist for lawyers, law firms, and other professional services providers and firms.  She has successfully served in-house in client and business development positions for the law firms of Dickinson Wright and Butzel Long and for the accounting firm Grant Thornton. Follow Julie on Twitter and LinkedIn or contact her at +1 (734) 276-1900, [email protected].

ELLEN COHEN, J.D., CPCC, PCC is an executive, business, career and wellbeing coach with over 10 years; experience, certified by both CTI (CPCC) and International Coach Federation (PCC) who works with corporate executives and lawyers across many industries to enhance their productivity and effectiveness, build leadership skills, and cultivate wellbeing and resiliency. Her coaching style incorporates scientific/neuroscience-based coaching, emotional intelligence skills and well-being modalities all designed to help her clients stand out.

Maria Ross, the founder of brand consultancy Red Slice, believes cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. She advises entrepreneurs and fast-growth businesses on building irresistible brand stories to better connect with customers. Maria is the author of several books, including Branding Basics for Small Business and Rebooting My Brain and her new book is The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success. She understands the power of empathy on the brand and personal levels: In 2008, shortly after launching her business, she suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm that almost killed her and inspired her memoir, Rebooting My Brain. Maria has spoken to audiences ranging from The New York Times to BlogHer and has appeared in numerous media outlets, including MSNBC, ABC News, Forbes.com and Entrepreneur. She also writes for many outlets, including columns on Entrepreneur.com and Huffington Post.  Maria lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, young son, and precocious mutt.

Lauren LaViola started her professional journey in the Journalism world receiving her Bachelor of Science in Communication and Information at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a minor in Business Administration. She had a short stint in the Hospitality Industry before spreading her adventurous and inquisitive wings across the Atlantic. Lauren spent a year abroad in Spain teaching English to students aged 4 to 85 and returned to the US more self-aware and with a whole new outlook on life.

Lauren landed in Chicago where she received her Master of Science in Hospitality and Tourism Management, a Certificate in Executive Leadership, and a Certificate in Meeting and Event Management. In Chicago, she volunteered with numerous nonprofit organizations and it was her volunteer work that brought all of her skills, interests, and experiences full circle.

Lauren was the Executive Director of a national nonprofit called Children of Restaurant Employees (CORE) for 8 years and was honored to be the recipient of the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award. After growing CORE to the charity it is today, Lauren left the organization in the Fall of 2019 to follow her passion of empowering the next generation of women in her role as the COO of Rock The Street, Wall Street, a financial literacy program designed to inspire high school girls to pursue careers in finance.

As Lauren says, “The nonprofit world is where my passion presented itself loud and clear and now my career happens to be one of my favorite pastimes— helping others.”

Nancy Tilton Hand, JD is an author, trainer, coach, and speaker specializing in helping high achievers create strong and supportive social and professional networks. It is who you know, and Nancy’s passion is your success.

Nancy's expertise is built on over 30 years of experience and cutting-edge training in professional development, change management, and personal transformation. She uses proven strategies and systems that enable her clients to experience profound transformations, build solid business and social support systems, and lead more

financially and personally rewarding lives.

Nancy’s latest project, an upcoming podcast “Friends on Hand”, explores the fine art of friendship and what it takes to craft strong connections in this world of digital disconnect.

Olga V. Mack is the CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. She shares her views in her columns on the Above the Law, Bloomberg Law, Newsweek, and High Performance Counsel. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. Olga co-founded SunLaw, an organization dedicated to preparing women in-house attorneys to become general counsels and legal leaders, and WISE to help female law firm partners become rainmakers. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat and Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security.

Sarah Graves passionately and practically pursues the development of leaders through intentional, organic growth. She emboldens leaders to create an environment where management is expansive, willing to move with agility beyond comfort zones, and to champion the individual and collective genius within the organization. With teams in transition she inspires connection, realignment and forward progress within the awkward movements of the changing landscape. Her belief is that coaching is as essential an element for an organization as the product or service the company produces. “An employee who grows personally, grows professionally” and coaching seeds growth.

Chelsea Bonini is a passionate advocate for education, housing, mental health awareness, disability rights and inclusive communities. Chelsea was a kindergarten and first grade teacher in the mid-90’s in the South San Francisco Unified School District and began practicing law in 2001. She now works both in-house and as outside general counsel with her firm, Kiski Law P.C., which she founded in 2010. Chelsea earned her dual B.S. in Elementary Education & Psychology from Russell Sage College in 1994, her J.D. from U.C. Hastings College of the Law in 2001, where she was elected to serve as Editor in Chief of her law journal, and she was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2001.

Chelsea served as a School Board Trustee for the San Mateo-Foster City School District from 2013-2017. She ran a close race for City Council in San Mateo in 2017, but was not successful.

She was then appointed by the San Mateo County Board of Education to serve on the Personnel Commission in 2018, where she currently serves as Chair and also serves on the Board of the California School Personnel Commissioner’s Association for Northern California.

In 2018, Chelsea co-founded snkids.org, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation dedicated to achieving equality for all children and adults with disabilities by and through trainings and tools to increase participation at all levels of democracy, including elected roles, to promote advocacy for shared knowledge of rights & responsibilities, equal systems of opportunity and justice, high expectations & accountability for success, and inclusionary communities. Snkids.org is changing its name to “Not Without Us” in 2020 to emphasize its goal of ensuring that persons with disabilities and their allies have seats at the tables where decisions are made.

Chelsea was appointed to serve on the San Mateo County Commission on Disabilities in 2019, where she currently serves as Chair of the Youth & Family Committee, and she is also an active member of the Disabilities Caucus of the California Democratic Party. Chelsea has been an elected Delegate to the California Democratic Party for Assembly District 22 since 2015, as the elected AD22 Executive Board Representative since 2017, most recently reelected to another term for both positions in 2019 to serve through 2020.

Chelsea has also served on the Executive Board and as Secretary of the Peninsula Democratic Coalition, the largest and oldest Democratic Club in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, since 2018, and she was appointed as a District 2 Alternate for the San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee in 2019, where she also serves as the Committee’s Clubs Liaison and as a member of the Bylaws Committee.

Chelsea grew up in Tahoe and San Francisco, and now lives in San Mateo with her husband and two sons (in middle & high school). She spends a lot of time watching her boys play basketball and baseball, and she has and continues to serve in a number of community leadership and volunteer capacities. Chelsea is also currently a candidate for the San Mateo County Board of Education, as the Board’s Area 4 Trustee. Her campaign is centered upon the notion that community allies and collaborative practices are essential components of school success – that we are Much Better Together. Chelsea hopes to win this seat on the Board of Education in the upcoming November 2020 Countywide election, challenging a longtime incumbent.

Samantha McKenna had her first exposure to competitive "sales" in sixth grade when my school was asked to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Knocking door to door and delivering a pitch was the start of my education; I still have the portable TV that I won for second place that reminds me to never take my foot off the gas so our teams can place first.

Dr. Rachel MK Headley is the CEO of Rose Group International (RGI). RGI will change your business forever. We support high-tech and high-science corporations by solving problems through cultural assessment and changing behavior or facilitating change with your culture in mind. Mastering cultural development is revelatory - it keeps your best people, creates high-performing teams, and engages staff.