Lady Empire

Marcy Bursac is an adoptive mom of a sibling pair, the author of The Forgotten Adoption Option, and the host of The Forgotten Adoption Option Podcast. Her heart for adoption comes from participating in service projects with orphans and hearing her husband’s story of his grandfather being orphaned in St. Louis at age seven but never being adopted.

Marcy Bio:

"Adoption was my Plan A. My husband and I adopted a biological sibling pair. While remote schooling my children during the pandemic, I began to see a gap between adults with a desire to adopt and the 115,000 adoptable children within the United States. 

With a heart for those children and a deep desire to take action, I wrote a book for adults (The Forgotten Adoption Option: A How-To and Self-Reflection Guide for Pursuing Foster Care Adoption) and launched a podcast (The Forgotten Adoption Option Podcast).

As USOA Mrs. Ohio 2022, I am an ambassador for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption on a quest to find forever families for the 115,000 United States children who are waiting to be adopted through foster care.

After placing in the Top 16 at the United States of America’s Mrs. Pageant and winning the People’s Choice Award, I am publishing the children’s book: Are You a Forever Family? Also, I am developing an app (The Forgotten Adoption Option App) to teach 25,000 adoptive families how to get licensed to adopt through foster care."

To listen to Marcy's The Forgotten Adoption Option Podcast, meet waiting children, and learn more about the foster care adoption process visit forgottenadoptionoption.com.

Hilary is an award-winning entrepreneur, CEO of The ReLaunch Co., a featured speaker in Silicon Valley and at women's conferences nationwide, as well as a Philanthropist in The Bay Area. She has been featured in The White House Conference on Bullying Prevention and appeared on an episode of ABC's The Secret Millionaire. DeCesare decided to shift her focus to helping C suite executives and women looking to relaunch in either life, business, or relationships in order to reach their goals and align with their future possibilities.

Hilary Bio:

Hilary has a unique understanding and up-close perspective of the center of any successful business, organization, or life - its people and what they desire to the C.O.R.E. After a 10-year career at Oracle Corporation garnering more than 100 worldwide managerial sales awards including Top Account Manager Worldwide, DeCesare decided to shift her focus to helping C suite executives and women looking to relaunch in either life, business, or in relationships order to reach their goals and align with their future possibilities. As a mother to 3, stepmother to 2 children, and wife to her amazing husband, living in the Bay Area is filled with an abundance of joy for DeCesare. A self-confessed adrenaline junky she has jumped from planes dived in some of the rarest locations and is up for anything that resembles a challenge or growth opportunity. When she is not coaching or spending time with family, she also devotes time to fitness and nutrition and enjoys traveling to exotic or unique locations that bring a new perspective to both her and her client's lives.

Her career began at Xerox. Following Xerox, she spent 10 years at Oracle Corporation garnering more than 100 worldwide managerial and sales awards including the prestigious Global Top Account Manager award. She currently sits on the boards of the Cal Poly Foundation, San Luis Obispo, MaxCure Foundation, and 3 Strands Global Foundation and she continues to be an advocate for children’s health, education, and safety. 
 
You might have caught her on ABC's The Secret Millionaire or you have seen her speak on major news outlets such as CBS, ABC, Fox, Huffington Post.  She was invited to and has participated in The White House Online Bullying Prevention committee. She's also been recognized with multiple consumer and technology awards: selected as AlwaysOn's “Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch“ in 2010, 2011, 2012, was honored with the prestigious 2010 DEMOgod Award, won the 2012 Golden Bridge Women Founder of the Year Award.

The Fired Up Entrepreneur Business Course, is redefining hybrid learning along with other courses and 1-1 coaching creating a unique version of an executive MBA (Master Business Actions) that focuses on clarity, planning, and accountability. 
 
You can find out more about her at www.therelaunchco.com

Anahita (Anna) is a social entrepreneur, and the founder of Hear Her Stories and DiWo. Having lived in four different countries, Anna has experienced firsthand the systemic and structural barriers faced by women of color. These experiences led Anna to create Hear Her Stories, a platform that amplifies women's voices and celebrates their achievements as a way to support and inspire the next generation of diverse women.

Anahita Bio:

Hear Her Stories amplifies the voices of women and celebrates their achievements. Our aim is to empower and inspire the next generation of young girls and women from diverse backgrounds.

The World Economic Forum estimates that the economic and political gender gap will take 108 years to close. Facing the harsh realities of a post-Covid world – from rising inequalities to declining levels of competitiveness – there’s no time to waste, and no better time to ask, and keep asking: WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?

This media platform showcases stories of diverse, “everyday” women to show the incredible journeys and accomplishments of women that are often not represented in the mainstream media. This unique community believes in the power of stories and is actively working to decrease barriers for women globally. Hear Her Stories sheds light on trailblazing women that are too often overlooked.

Through Hear Her Stories, Anna realized that these barriers have translated to tangible experiences in the workforce, resulting in underrepresentation and inequality of outcomes. To help address these gaps, Anna has recently launched DiWo (stands for Diverse Women) with the goal of providing equal access and opportunities to all women.

DiWo is an online job platform that connects employers to women job candidates from underrepresented minority backgrounds. These candidates often face complex barriers throughout the recruitment process, so we help enable a personal and human connection between them and employers.

Fran Hauser is passionate about leveling the playing field for women. She does this through her investing, writing, and speaking. Fran has invested in over 30 female-founded companies across consumer tech, CPG, media & publishing, and wellness. She is the best-selling author of The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate which has been translated into six languages and was named “Best Business Book of the Year, 2018” by Audible. Fran’s second title, Embrace the Work, Love Your Career will be released in March 2022.

https://www.amazon.com/Embrace-Work-Love-Your-Career/dp/1951412494

Embrace the Work, Love Your Career combines accessible advice, time-tested strategies, creative prompts, and thoughtful exercises into one holistic resource.

Stemming from years of experience in senior leadership at Time Inc.'s People, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly as well as AOL and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Hauser centers her career guidance around six main actions:

• Fall in love with your career
• Design your career action plan
• Create time and space
• Know your value
• Build your dream team
• Reflect and reset

Each chapter starts with practical advice and includes prompts and exercises to help readers create their own personal career action plans. Palate-cleansing meditations and coloring breaks conclude each chapter, offering chances for calming reflection. Through simple, inspiring, and actionable tools, Embrace the Work, Love Your Career teaches women to be empowered to focus on the things that truly matter, set boundaries and, ultimately, realize their full potential.

Fran Bio:

Fran Hauser is an author, keynote speaker and startup investor at the intersection of women’s empowerment, career fulfillment, and collective wellbeing. As a long-time media executive, Fran has always championed the power of content in shaping culture, educating the public, and driving awareness of important issues. 

She is the best-selling author of The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate which has been translated into six languages and was named “Best Business Book of the Year, 2018” by Audible. Fran’s second title, Embrace the Work, Love Your Career will be released in March 2022. Fran regularly speaks at conferences and organizations to pioneer the notion that one does not have to choose between kindness and strength, and that the most effective leaders lead with both.

Fran has invested in over 30 female-founded companies across CPG, media & publishing, and wellness. She also serves as an LP in the Female Founders Fund. Her writing, speaking and investing is informed by 15 years spent in media, from startups where she played an integral role in the $525mm sale of Moviefone to AOL, to ultimately rising the ranks at Time Inc. to President of Digital where she led innovation, acquisitions and digital expansion for powerhouse media brands People, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Essence, and People en Espanol.

Fran has been the recipient of the Fairy Godmother Award from Girl Be Heard, the W Award from the YWCA of the City of New York and has been included in lists from Business Insider's "30 Women In VC to Watch" to Refinery29’s “Six Most Powerful Women in New York City's Tech Scene”. She has been featured on TODAY, CNBC, Fortune, TIME, Fast Company, Forbes, Vogue.com, Ad Age, Oprah.com and more. 

In 2020 Fran channeled her lifelong love of books into an Instagram platform @FransBookshelf focused on the joy of reading -- both the escapism and the celebration of diverse ideas that can change the world.  

Alaina is the CEO of Women Who Code, the global nonprofit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. The organization has orchestrated thousands of free events, attracted a quarter-million members, and expanded to more than 134 countries. Prior to Women Who Code, Alaina worked at PUMA’s headquarters in Germany, as well as Riviera Partners and Snip.it, acquired by Yahoo. Alaina is also a Venture Partner at Valor Ventures and CodePath Advisor.

Alaina Bio:

As a CEO, Board Member, and angel investor focused on advancing women’s careers, I am passionate about helping diverse professionals increase their wealth and influence across the globe. There is no bigger opportunity for professional women than in the technology space, where we are underrepresented at all levels. Recognizing this, I co-founded Women Who Code (WWCode), an international 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. Since that time, the organization has orchestrated thousands of free events, attracted a quarter-million members, and expanded to 134 countries.

Over the course of my career, I was a business leader for a variety of companies (e.g. Puma) – and with that, I have learned to value results over well-intentioned activity. Fortunately, WWCode has produced both measurable and anecdotal successes. A member in Mexico City, for example, increased her salary by 200%, while another member from Toronto accelerated her technology career two levels within a year. There is also now evidence that being affiliated with WWCode advantages women seeking interviews, such as a member who was told by SpaceX that one of the reasons they wanted to speak with her was because of her relationship with WWCode.

While the lack of women in technology is a top-of-mind discussion in the U.S., it is a global issue. As someone who has EU citizenship and worked/lived in over 75 countries, I have seen this first-hand. I am proud to say that WWCode has a global reach and is expanding every day to give diverse women the skills and community we need to grow our impact in tech.

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Tiffany Waddell Tate, CEO of Career Maven Consulting, is a leader in the worlds of professional development, talent retention, and improving the cultural competence of organizations and teams. Skilled at developing, facilitating, and reforming programming to close wage, achievement, and equity gaps, Tiffany is on a mission to change the professional trajectory of 1 million women’s lives. Regarded as a subject matter expert in career development and talent retention, Tiffany has been featured in Forbes, Today.com, Well + Good, The Everygirl, and Martha Stewart Magazine.

Tiffany Bio:

Tiffany Waddell Tate, CEO of Career Maven Consulting, is a leader in the worlds of professional development, talent retention, and improving the cultural competence of organizations and teams. Skilled at developing, facilitating, and reforming programming to close wage, achievement, and equity gaps, Tiffany is on a mission to change the professional trajectory of 1 million women’s lives.

Tiffany's experience navigating Higher Education to identify allies, champions, and a career path has fueled her passion to develop and prepare high potential candidates for organizations ready to nurture them. She does this by operating two distinct lanes with her company, Career Maven Consulting– one for individuals seeking professional development support and the other for companies seeking to attract and retain top talent. To date, Tiffany has led the transformation and development of several workforces, performance, and training plans for Fortune 500 companies. She has also designed career branding documents and facilitated coaching that doubled and tripled the salaries of women struggling to move out of entry-level or middle management roles.

Clients describe Tiffany as reliable, enthusiastic, and the push necessary to take their career, talent, and employees to the next level. Friends describe her as compassionate, enthusiastic, and committed to excellence. Tiffany describes herself as the “CEO of her personal and professional life” – and she encourages others to recognize the same agency as owners and makers of their career stories. Tiffany credits Oprah Winfrey’s journey as inspiration, helping her to recognize there are tables, seats, and rooms that she must build instead of waiting for an invitation to join.

Regarded as a subject matter expert in career development and talent retention, Tiffany has been featured in Forbes, Today.com, Well + Good, The Everygirl, and Martha Stewart Magazine.

As a leader and community change agent, Tiffany has served as the President of the Wake Forest University Association of Black Alumni, the President of the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Employers, and as a founding board member of REACH Women's Network.

When Tiffany isn’t creating change for clients and corporations at the intersection of talent acquisition, organizational behavior, and inclusive excellence, she’s spending time with her daughter, gardening, trying new recipes, or riding her spin bike.

If you’re looking to connect, learn more, or work with Tiffany, contact her team at: [email protected]

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Riana is the CEO & Founder of Journey Foods, a next-generation food platform for the most innovative food companies. As a biologist turned serial entrepreneur, she has developed high-growth, internationally recognized technology, and food businesses. After spending two years in Obama’s White House and Google, Riana decided to change the food industry in a significant way. Her accomplishments have been featured on MIT 35 under 35, CNBC, Forbes, USA Today, Wired, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more.

Riana Bio:

"I am probably somewhere being the founder of Journey Foods, a food tech company that supports cutting-edge product management and data services that are helping companies feed 8 billion people better. As a biologist turned serial entrepreneur, I’ve developed high-growth, internationally recognized technology, and food businesses with a great community of supporters and bright individuals.

After spending two years in Obama’s White House and Google, I bring a unique lens to problem-solving.

My accomplishments have been featured on MIT 35 under 35, CNBC, Forbes, USA Today, Wired, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more. 

I’m a Chicago native and new city dweller that enjoys growing fruit trees, writing film scripts and exploring black culinary and architectural heritage sites around the world. To sum: I am grateful."

Food Technology Innovator, Speaker, and Growth Designer.

I love working on the growth challenges in Fortune 500 companies and new, fast-growing startup ecosystems.

Consumers spend $3 Trillion a year on packaged foods. At the same time, there’s undeniable evidence that eating packaged foods is related to the increase in chronic diseases - cancer, diabetes, and poor mental health. Our manufacturing and farming practices emit tons of carbon emissions that affect the nutrient values of our food every year. We can change these problems with better science and data tools.

I work on solving the greatest problems in food that affect my family, our communities, and the world.

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Kathy Zhou is the CTO & Co-Founder of Queenly,  the leading marketplace and search engine for the formalwear industry. Kathy graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a double major in computer and environmental science. Afterward, she was a full-stack software engineer at Pinterest, building end-to-end products from the ML/data backend to web and mobile front-end applications. Kathy will discuss how Queenly came to be and how being a female software engineer in Silicon Valley has shaped her into being an elite businesswoman.

Kathy Zhou Bio:

Kathy is a University of Pennsylvania graduate with a degree in Computer Science and Environmental Science. She has worked at Venmo and most recently Pinterest, where she has drawn a lot of inspiration from, in order to Queenly's robust search engine. She is a super full-stack product engineer that has built web, iOS, and backend and she has also competed in a handful of pageants prior to building the largest marketplace for formalwear.

"Queenly, a marketplace for formalwear, launched into a world where its core product of dresses and gowns had a massive competitor, bigger and more elusive than Poshmark: quarantine.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the fancy in-person events that one might attend, such as award shows, pageants, proms, and weddings to be canceled to limit spread. But despite the fact that you might be rocking sweats over slacks, Queenly co-founders Trisha Bantigue and Kathy Zhou say that they had half a million in sales last year, and over 100,000 people visit their website every day.

“So many women bought dresses to just dress up and feel normal at home when everything else around the world was not,” Bantigue said. “It helped them feel grounded and stabilize themselves in this crazy chaotic pandemic environment.” The canceled events have also found new homes, such as Zoom weddings, Twitch pageants, socially distant proms, and graduation car parades. The co-founder added that content creators on TikTok and YouTube have also bought Queenly dresses." https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/18/yc-backed-queenly-launches-a-marketplace-for-formalwear/

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Nike Anani is an executive to her family’s enterprise, speaker, author, and mother of 2 children. She worked at Deloitte London for 3 years then relocated to Nigeria to work on her family’s businesses.  Nike is the Co-Founder of African Family Firms, a pan-African association of family businesses. Nike will discuss her time in London and how relocating to Nigeria has set the tone for the rest of her career.

https://nikeanani.com/

Nike Anani Bio:

Nike Anani is a Speaker, Author, and Consultant to NextGens that seek to lead their Family Businesses. She helps NextGens rise above operations into a non-executive board role with
credibility, so that they are able to lead and formulate a plan to future-proof the business, becoming more effective change agents. Nike fuses her inside experience as a NextGen executive in her Family’s Enterprise, as a Chartered Accountant, and as a Family Business Advisor to bring practical proven solutions to the table.

Nike has almost a decade of experience working in African family businesses, as a NextGen in her parents’ businesses, and also as a co-founder of several others. This inside experience as a NextGen birthed a passion to help others in similar shoes as herself in being effective change champions that collaborate with other family members and stakeholders in co-building legacy businesses that would outlive them. After graduating from University College London, United Kingdom, with a degree in Economics in 2008, Nike worked at Deloitte London for 3 years in Corporate Tax International where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Thereafter in 2011, she relocated to Lagos, Nigeria to work in her family’s businesses.

She is the co-founder of African Family Firms, a pan-African association of family businesses, and the author of “Building Resilient Family Enterprises”. She is a member of Family Firm Institute. Nike is rated as one of the top 100 Consultants globally in the Family Enterprise World by Family Capital, a leading online publication for Family Businesses.

She is happily married and a mother to two young boys, who are her biggest sources of inspiration to leave a lasting legacy on our world.

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Lauren is the Founder of Risely Health, a virtual Diabetic Health Coach, Yoga Instructor, and the Author of the Diabetic Health Journal. Lauren coaches T1D’S all over the world to achieve optimal diabetes management using her 360-degree approach, emphasizing wellness throughout the mind, body, and soul. She will discuss how her diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes changed her whole life and took her down a path she never imagined for herself.

https://laurenbongiorno.com/

Lauren Bongiorno Bio:

"When I was 19 and home from school on Christmas break, I walked into my endocrinologist’s office and they told me something jaw dropping.

The news? My A1C was a 5.7- the best it had ever been since being diagnosed at 7. When the doctor told me, my mom hugged me with the biggest smile on her face and my endocrinologist started bragging to the nurse how much of a “star” diabetic example I was.

While this celebratory moment was going down between the nurse, my endocrinologist and my mom, I couldn’t help but feel so defeated. I know, not what you’d expect to hear.  On paper I was healthy, but deep down inside I didn’t feel that way...

When everyone around you keeps telling you how strong and amazing you are, but the way you feel doesn’t match up, you feel like a fraud and like you’re letting them down. This shouldn’t have been the case. But it’s how I felt.

In college I wanted to lose weight, stabilize my blood sugars, and feel more in control of my diabetes. But I went down the path of restriction and obsession which ultimately got me a near perfect A1C but left me with a horrible relationship with food, an unsustainably restrictive lifestyle, and feeling less in control of my life then ever before.

In short, here’s what I learned at that time of my life about diabetes management: if you're interested in eating every meal at home, saying no to the movies with friends because you know the popcorn will be too tempting, restricting carbs, spending every 30 seconds checking your blood sugar, and scheduling your life around cardio machines in FEAR of not being enough, striving for perfection, and proving your worth to others, then you too can have a perfect A1C.

I realized at my rock bottom ( after losing my menstrual cycle for almost 5 years from putting so much stress on my body) that seeing the endocrinologist every 3-6 months and depending on her for a “one stop diabetes shop” wasn’t going to help me holistically move into the life I wanted: having more peace of mind, confidence in myself, stronger mentally and physically, more energized empowered, a good friend/daughter/ girlfriend, and simply the best, kick ass version of myself...

I eventually found that the answer was in unraveling my old habits in what I was thinking and doing, looking inwards at what did/ did not serve me, and building a new, stronger relationship with myself, my diabetes, exercise, food, stress...everything. 

I understand how it feels to be frustrated by lack of results and trying to figure out what the “right answer” is to feeling your best balanced self is. Trust me, I’ve tried it all, I get it. But the truth is, when you prioritize your self care mentally, emotionally, and physically, you don’t have to choose between freedom and good blood sugars. You can have both. 

I was supposed to go to law school just like my dad ( my younger sister Dana is now his retirement plan!) I wanted to fight to improve our food and health care system. But I decided to become a health coach instead. I made a last minute switch because I realized I didn’t want to fight for years and years to create change. I wanted to empower and guide others to see a better way of doing things for themselves."

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