Penn Momentum

Suzann (“Suzie”) Pileggi Pawelski C’91 LBS’08 is a well-being writer, consultant, and international speaker specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health.

Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, "The Happy Couple," was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts, the best-selling book that she wrote with her husband James. Together, Suzie and James give Romance and Research™ workshops around the world. Happy Together was named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, and The Greater Good Science Center.

Suzie pens a popular blog for Psychology Today and is a contributing editor for Live Happy. As a columnist for the Newsletter of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), she profiled many of the field’s leading scientists and featured their groundbreaking research.

Suzie’s writing and work has been featured in numerous top-tier media including Time magazine, Inc. magazine, Oprah magazine, NPR, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The LA Times, and The London Times.

Lulu Ge WG19, is the Founder and CEO of Elix, the first menstrual wellness brand to deliver personalized herbal treatments for hormonal health by combining Chinese medicine with clinical research on an algorithmic platform. She is passionate about democratizing access to science-backed holistic remedies for chronic conditions so that we can all live more fulfilling and productive lives.

Prior to founding Elix, Lulu led the Change and Transformation function at Hudson’s Bay Company and Saks Fifth Avenue. The team was responsible for a portfolio of strategic initiatives valued at $350M+ across an employee population of 45,000+. There she identified opportunity to leverage data and analytics in creating personalized customer experiences that fostered loyalty and community, a foundational pillar of Elix.

Earlier in her career, Lulu spent several years in Management Consulting at both a “Big-Four”and a boutique firm where she led diverse projects consulting to Fortune 100organizations in strategy, business transformation, customer experience, technology enablement, organization design, change management and leadership effectiveness. She has also worked abroad in China, creating leadership development programs for Chinese government and business leaders.

Lulu holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Political Science and Art History from the University of California, San Diego. She is certified in varied assessments and methodologies including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI)and Prosci ADKAR®Model for individual change to drive organizational transformation.

Lulu currently lives in New York City with her husband and numerous houseplants. She enjoys cooking plant-based recipes, practicing ashtanga-style yoga, traveling to different wine regions of the world and discovering new healing herbs. You can connect with her on Instagram: @luluge

Sapna Shah C93, W93, is an angel investor, retail expert and three-time entrepreneur. Through Red Giraffe Advisors, Sapna makes angel and early-stage seed investments in retail tech, fashion tech and e-commerce startups. Select investments include: The Wing, Stantt, Findmine, Swoonery, Dough, Modalyst, Monica + Andy and Iterate Studio.

Sapna is also the founder of Retail X Series, a retail startup boot camp program for pre-seed stage founders who are revolutionizing the future of retail. Retail X holds monthly events with experts covering topics from customer acquisition, to financial modeling, to seed stage fundraising, targeted specifically to early stage B2B and DTC retail founders.

Sapna advises start-ups and judges in the startup competitions at the Wharton School, NYU Stern and Columbia Business School. She has also mentored at a number of New York-based accelerators including Friends of eBay, Grand Central Tech, Monarq, XRC Labs, New York Fashion Tech Lab and Trendseeder. Sapna has also served on the Board of Directors of New York Angels, one of the most active angel groups in the world.

Previously, Sapna co-founded and led Retail Eye Partners, a successful independent Wall Street equity research firm. At Retail Eye, Sapna assessed the monthly and quarterly performance of major retailers in the specialty, big box and department store sectors through intensive channel checks and analysis. Sapna also co-founded and launched a menswear e-commerce retailer, Mind the Chap, and led the Marketing and Web Development areas of the company. Prior to Retail Eye Partners, Sapna was Executive Director of Strategy and Customer Insight at Linens & Things, Inc., responsible for customer targeting and segmentation, market and consumer research, corporate strategic planning, new business rollouts and competitive benchmarking. Prior to Linens & Things, Sapna was Director of Strategic Planning &; New Business Development at Ann Taylor, where she worked on launching Ann Taylor’s e-commerce site, developing a color cosmetics line, visioning the store of the future and improving store operations. Sapna also has experience at Gap, Inc. Previous to her career in retail, Sapna worked in investment banking at Punk, Ziegel &; Knoell and at Morgan Stanley as a credit analyst. Sapna received her B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School as well as a B.A. in East Asian Studies from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.  She received her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. She is a member of the Women’s Forum of New York.

Jane Gutman CW’73, PAR’14, PAR’16 has been instrumental in so many Penn efforts on the West Coast, tackling everything from opening Penn's first Western office,  to launching the Southern California Regional Advisory Board (SCRAB)  to expanding Penn's admissions, fund raising and alumni relations efforts.  Jane worked as the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Director of the Western Regional Office for UPenn for over thirteen years, and then became an active volunteer for Penn in Los Angeles. For the past 20 years, with an added Clinical Psych degree, she has been helping  students  of all backgrounds with the college admissions process as a speaker and counselor.

Jane is truly all things Penn and all things volunteering, so when the opportunity arose to start Penn Serves LA, Jane was right there making it happen. On any given day, you might find her planning Penn events by scoping out Penn Serves' next projects or advocating in D.C. for global human rights or adventuring and trekking in faraway places where she is supporting women’s crafts collectives and doing good. Jane was recognized with the 1999 Alumni Award of Merit by Penn for her outstanding lifetime achievements and contributions to the University. 

Jordana Horn is a host and the head writer of the Call Your Mother podcast from Kveller, where Jews and Jewish-adjacent people are interviewed and nothing in life goes unexamined. She was the New York bureau chief for The Jerusalem Post, and has written for various newspapers and magazines; she is a lawyer and has practiced law in both New York and London. She's also a mother to six kids and has been deemed a "parenting expert" by both NBC's Today Show, on which she's appeared with Matt Lauer, and Fox and Friends -- so it must be true (!). One day, she hopes to write a book, but in the meantime, she's busy - she's President of Penn's Class of 1995, and is tremendously excited about her upcoming 25th reunion!

Wendy Prager (C89, PAR18)

Wendy is the Executive Director of the one2one USA Foundation. She is also the Managing Partner and Counsel at Bridge Mountain Partners where she does legal and non-profit consulting. Previously, Wendy worked at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in NYC as counsel in the Private Equity Group until 2014. Before that, she was Senior Counsel at ING Investment Management Co. for 14 years until 2010. Wendy also worked at Seward & Kissel as an attorney in their Private Investment Funds group. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received her JD from Fordham University School of Law.  Wendy is passionate about many causes and devotes her time to several non-profit organizations, providing pro bono legal assistance, acting as a mentor, or in a board capacity, and is also active with several alumni organizations of the University of Pennsylvania.

After transitioning out of her long career as a hedge fund and PE lawyer, Wendy joined one2one USA after bumping into an old Penn friend at Engaging Minds. His idea about personalizing philanthropy and making it more transparent and connective for donor and donee really resonated with Wendy. Through extensive tax planning and meetings with the IRS, one2one was able to do something unprecedented in the realm of charitable giving.

Wendy lives in New Jersey with her husband, Brett (W88, EAS88) three daughters, and two rescue labs, Maui & Kona.  

More on One2One in the Wall Street Journal and the Penn Gazette

Lisa Tretler, C94, WG99, MA99, is the CEO of Business Boosters Consulting, a company focused on the professional development of women business owners and advising on entrepreneurship, business growth and intrapreneurship. Lisa has nearly 25 years of experience training, coaching and consulting to individuals and companies in the areas of goal setting, business plan development, and marketing and growth strategies. Lisa co-founded The Acceleration Project (TAP), a nonprofit which harnesses the talent of professionals to accelerate small business growth. Prior to her current work, Lisa worked as a business strategy consultant at American Express, Accenture and Towers Perrin.

Lisa has been a member of the Professional Faculty at the Wharton School of Business, where she has taught multinational marketing strategy and consulting skills development. She has lectured for the International Relations Program and the Fox Leadership Institute at Penn and developed courses and facilitated workshops in entrepreneurship and career development.

Lisa received a BA in International Relations from Penn, an MBA from Wharton, and an MA in International Affairs/Spanish from the Lauder Institute.

Jalak Jobanputra is Founding Partner of Future\Perfect Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in NYC focused on next generation technology such as blockchain and machine learning. FPV’s portfolio includes Abra, Open Garden, Blockstream, Bitpesa, FuseMachines, Everledger and Blockchain. Jalak was awarded Institutional Investor’s Top Fintech Dealmakers in 2017 and 2016. In 2017, she was cited as a “Top 5 Investor Powering the Blockchain Boom” and CB Insights noted FPV as one of the top VC funds in blockchain “before it was cool”. Since founding the firm, she has spoken on blockchain technology at many global conferences, including the Milken Global Institute, Dutch Development Bank/FMO annual meeting, and The Economist Buttonwood Gathering.

Prior to FPV, Jobanputra was the Director of Emerging Market Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network, a philanthrocapitalist fund started by Pierre Omidyar, co-founder of eBay. Previously, she worked at Intel Capital investing in enterprise software in Silicon Valley from 1999-2003. as well as New Venture Partners and the NYC Investment Fund where she formed one of NYC's first seed funds and helped establish the Fintech Innovation Lab in 2010. She started her career as a media/tech/telecom investment banker in NYC and London.

Jobanputra is also active in supporting education reform and social entrepreneurship. She served as a Trustee of Achievement First Bushwick Charter Schools (Brooklyn). She is on the Board of Directors for the Center for an Urban Future, Advisory Board of L’Oreal’s Women in Digital Initiative, member of Mayor DeBlasio’s Broadband Taskforce, and former Access to Capital Committee member of the US Secretary of State Clinton Women’s Leadership Council.

She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Economics (concentration in Finance) from The Wharton School and a B.A. in Communications from the Annenberg School. She received her MBA from Kellogg in 1999.

Katlyn Grasso W15, is the founder and CEO of GenHERation. In her role as CEO, she has created the GenHERation Summer Leadership Series, developed original GenHERation webisodes, and grown the GenHERation community to more than 250,000 members. She is a recent graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she received a B.S. in Economics with concentrations in finance and strategic globalization. She is one of the inaugural recipients of the President’s Engagement Prize created by Dr. Amy Gutmann at the University of Pennsylvania. This award provides graduating seniors with $150,000 to develop innovative projects that have the potential to change the world. Katlyn is a Seventeen Power Girl and was also named to the magazine’s list of “Real Girls Doing Amazing Things.” Katlyn was selected to participate in the 2015 Millennial Trains Project, a cross country trip for 25 social innovators from around the world sponsored by NBCUniversal. During the journey, she was named one of the “5 Innovators to Look Out for on the 2015 Millennial Trains Project” by Innovator’s Peak. After the trip, she was awarded a 2015 Impact Grant from NBCUniversal to produce webisodes of the GenHERation Summer Leadership Series 2015 as one of the most innovative, socially-impactful projects that came out of this year’s journey. She was featured on the cover of Philly Biz Magazine as the youngest woman on the “Women to Watch” list. Katlyn is a serial entrepreneur who has started two nonprofit organizations, the dance exercise program Tap for Tots, and a technology commercialization venture. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the Center of the Advancement of Girls at the Agnes Irwin School. Katlyn is a frequent television and radio contributor and has appeared on CNBC, NBC New York, NBC Washington, D.C.,  SiriusXM Radio, CBS Radio Los Angeles, and Kiss 104.1.Originally from Hamburg, New York, Katlyn is now a bicoastal entrepreneur spending her time between New York City, Philadelphia, and California.

During her time at Penn, she was the Managing Practice Leader of the Wharton Small Business Development Center (SBDC). She was responsible for managing the daily operations of the High Impact Growth Consulting Program, which included overseeing the work of more than 60 undergraduate and MBA students and 80 cases per year. Within an 18 month period, she helped the SBDC team generate $30 million in revenue and new investments for their clients. She was a founding team member of the SBDC’s Accelerator Program and served as the CEO of the Women’s Vertical. In recognition of her contributions to the Wharton SBDC, Katlyn received the 2014 Wells Fargo Distinguished Leadership Award.

In addition to her work at the Wharton SDBC, Katlyn served as the Co-President of Wharton Ambassadors, a member of the Wharton Venture Initiation Program, a Neff Entrepreneurial Intern Fellow, a Wharton Peer Advising Fellow, a Turner Social Impact Society Intern Fellow, a National Student Ambassador for Women in Toys, and a member of Soundworks Tap Factory.  She was honored with several awards at Penn, including the 2015 Wharton Vice Dean’s Award of Service, 2015 Wharton Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award, 2015 Penn Student Award of Merit, 2014 Wharton Venture Award, 2014 Snider Seed Award, 2014 Social Impact Research Experience (SIRE) Grant Award, 2014 Trustees’ Council of Penn Women Grant Award, 2014 Women in Toys Scholarship recipient for being a promising female student entrepreneur, 2013-2015 Wharton Innovation Fund Grant, 2013 Wharton Social Impact Initiative Research Grant, and the 2013 Herbert S. Steuer Memorial Prize as one of the most outstanding Wharton students in scholarship, personality, and leadership.

Katlyn is an avid researcher and has conducted international research on girl’s leadership development. She has interviewed more than 1,500 girls, 200 executives, and 100 educators across all 50 states, 9 countries, and 4 continents. She created the Leadership Camp for Girls 2013 to test her research hypotheses. As a recipient of the 2014 Wharton SIRE Grant, she studied how girls’ consumption of media influences leadership development in the 21st century.  She completed an independent study with Wharton’s Vice Dean of Social Impact to analyze female leadership development through a literature review. In spring 2015, she worked with Wharton’s Management Department to organize an analysis of the global venture capital industry.

Katlyn speaks nationally about entrepreneurship, technology, and the advancement of women. She has been a featured speaker at the Kronos Women’s Forum, Leading for Change Conference, Forbes CMO Excursion, Heads Network Annual Meeting, Young Entrepreneur’s Academy CEO Round Table, the Sea Crest School’s Innovators’ Symposium, Nichols College Institute for Women’s Leadership, and has introduced a presidential candidate for the 2016 election. Her work has been featured in national media outlets, including Seventeen, Forbes, NBCUniversal, The Huffington Post, HuffPost Live, Yahoo Travel, Penn Current, Penn Gazette, Philadelphia Daily News, Philly.com, Technically Philly, The Daily Pennsylvanian, Innovator’s Peak, Idea Forge, Washington Times, Miami Herald, Catalyst, The WALK Magazine, CollegeFashionista, Neon Tommy, Macaroni Kid, Poets & Quants, Knowledge@Wharton High School, Wharton International Business Review, and Wharton Magazine.

Communication has been the keystone to Ashlee Stokes C94 two-decades-plus experience in public relations.   Ashlee transformed her Asian Studies and Japanese language major into a successful career as consultant, leading strategic communication and change management efforts for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies.  Corporate roles include Director of Communications at ING Direct USA, Manager of Employee Communications at JPMorgan Chase, and Adjunct Professor of Public Speaking and Writing at Temple University. She serves as Class of 1994 Executive Vice President and a reunion co-chair, and is a volunteer with Girls on the Run and Paws & Affection.