Woman to Woman

Dr. Tonya Jackman Hampton, EdD, is an award-winning executive, speaker, and author with over 30 years of leadership experience spanning Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, she served as Chief Human Resources OJicer and at UC San Diego Health and Chief People and Culture OJicer at Hennepin Healthcare.

Dr. Jackman Hampton is the Founder and CEO of Sequel Consulting Group, LLC, and a best-selling author of The Myth of the Fearless Leader. She is also a nationally recognized speaker, consultant and certified executive coach.

Dr. Jackman Hampton holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Pre-Law from Clark Atlanta University, an MBA with a concentration in Human Resource Management, and a Doctor of Education in Organization Development from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

A breast cancer survivor, avid runner, and proud mother, Dr. Jackman Hampton is a native of Minnesota and now resides in San Diego.

Alia Aljunied, Founder of AYN Studios is an award-winning strategic thinker who enjoys developing multimedia content, pushing experiential boundaries, sharing ideas, and creating positive experiences with brands that are making a difference. Sha is an “accidental entrepreneur” who transformed her years at The Wall Street Journal and Fortune into a niche that’s reshaping the event industry.

She understands the deep value of building out the “so what,” in any events or marketing plan and the importance of building experiences around intentionality.

Alia has a B.A from UC Irvine and a M.A, from Christie's Education.

Heather Cox, President of Certify My Company, specializes in connecting certified diverse businesses with corporations, helping them achieve diversity goals, and securing spots at prestigious organizations like the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

Certify My Company has worked with brands like Johnson and Johnson and Zappos and has been featured in outlets like Diversity Professional Magazine. Heather is also a board member of the Women’s Business Enterprise Council and has served with various diversity-focused organizations.

Heather’s passion for supporting diversity in business extends beyond her roles at CMC. She currently serves on the national and regional forums for Women’s Business Enterprise Council – West (WBEC-W), and has held past posts with the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization (WPEO-NY), WBE-National Council, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and the Advisory Board for Super Bowl XLVIII.

Heather enjoys not relaxing with her husband and five small children. This former acro-gymnast, tightrope walker and juggler knows just how to balance her hectic life – with yoga, DIY projects and baking. A seasoned traveler and student of the world, Heather earned her BA in Spanish Language from the University of Texas at Austin.

Morgen Alden leads an innovative executive learning community and thought leadership accelerator, Pioneering Collective, which empowers business leaders to amplify their influence and impact in their respective industries. With over 15 years of experience spanning community building, healthcare, market research, board placements, and investor relations, Morgen has cultivated the unique ability to guide executives in strategic networking and peer learning – ultimately transforming them into industry leaders who are positioned to make a positive impact in their lives and careers.

Morgen co-founded the nonprofit Alliance for Advancement and Diversity in the Sciences (AADS) in 2016, under which she launched and led the Board Placement Initiative, a program designed to help connect life sciences companies with diverse and well-qualified board candidates.

Before joining Pioneering Collective, Morgen served as a Founding Partner and Head of Client Services for FirstThought, a life sciences market research firm, where she grew the business from launch to achieve 6x year-over-year revenue growth in 3 years, leading to the successful sale of the company in 2023.

Morgen holds a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. When she’s not at work, she enjoys road trips, Ethiopian cuisine, and pursuing her dream of climbing the highest points in every U.S. state.

Stefanie Adams is a keynote speaker, author, leadership consultant, adjunct university instructor, former elected official, wife, and mother; for those who know her best, she is "Cheerleader Stef", which personifies her personality and leadership style. She has over 20 years experience leading and training in corporate, non-profit, and government settings. Her first book, “CheerLEADERship: Strategies to Build and Support Human-Centric Workplaces for the Future” was released in November of 2024. She earned an M.Ed. in Multicultural Education in 2008 from Eastern University.

Stefanie has worked as an organizational consultant for Johns Hopkins University School of Education (Baltimore, MD), served as Director of Customized Training for Cape Fear Community College (Wilmington, NC), and more recently, she led the corporate training function for CastleBranch (Wilmington, NC).

Laryssa Wozniak is an entrepreneurial and growth-oriented leader with a distinguished career in driving strategic commercialization, RD integration, and market success within the global healthcare sector.

Currently serving as Senior Director, Head of Global Neurology Marketing at Immunovant, Laryssa overseas commercialization efforts for -two assets. Her previous roles include Senior Director of Commercial Development and Marketing at Ocugen Inc., where she managed all commercial aspects of the ophthalmic and vaccine portfolios, and Director of Global Commercial Development at Pfizer.

Laryssa has a BSBA in Business from Questrom School of Business, Boston University and a MBA from Rutgers University.

Natalya Thakur is the Co-Founder and CEO of Knox Networks, a payments infrastructure software that supports the movement of all regulated digital money and securities for large financial institutions. She has served across a variety of financial and technology roles, including experiences at BlackRock, Google[X], Celo, IDEO CoLab, Morgan Stanley, the Hoover Institution, and as co-founder/advisor of Stanford’s Future of Digital Currency Initiative (a partnership with the United Nations). She was appointed to the advisory board for Bretton Woods, and serves on the Future of Finance Working Group.

She is an avid public speaker and angel investor/LP, her work has been featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, American Banker, Coindesk, BIS publications amongst others. Her career has led her to work with top industry experts such as Condoleezza Rice, Marty Chavez, Eric Schmidt, Darrell Duffie, David Mazieries, Nick Burns, Gary Gensler, Adrienne Harris, and many other executives from government, technology and finance.

Natalya holds a BA (honors) in International Relations from Stanford University, an MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School, and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Fran Maier is a highly successful serial entrepreneur, investor, and fundraiser with an impressive track record of launching and scaling five business ventures, such as Match.com and TRUSTe (now @TrustArc). Currently, as the founder and CEO of BabyQuip, the leading global baby gear rental marketplace, Fran has taken the company's reach to over 2000 markets worldwide.

She has also demonstrated her dedication to giving back to the community as a commercial and non-profit board member for organizations such as GE Capital Bank, Children's Council of San Francisco, Stanford Women on Boards, and Girls in Tech. Moreover, Fran is an advisor to several startups, including Portfolia, Women's Start-up Lab, Sign-up.com, and Kango.

As a thought leader in entrepreneurship, women in business, and family travel, Fran is a sought-after keynote speaker and media personality. She has been featured in major media outlets such as Forbes, CNBC, and ABC's Shark Tank, and has hosted a popular radio show. Fran also regularly appears as a guest on podcasts and contributes articles to publications such as The Washington Post.

Fran holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University and has been recognized with numerous honors and awards. She is passionate about supporting female founders and promoting Latinx leadership and Latina entrepreneurs, in honor of her Hispanic heritage. Fran is a proud mother of two grown sons and now lives in Santa Fe, NM, after spending most of her career in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Amanda Schwartz Ramirez is a transformational strategy and operations executive and board advisor with expertise in building and scaling high-performing organizations. With over 15 years of experience spanning early-stage startups, hyper-growth companies, and Fortune 500 enterprises like PayPal, Amanda specializes in strategic operations, business development, and emerging technology.

Amanda is founder and CEO of Garden Labs, a boutique advisory firm for venture-backed startups. Amanda also teaches a successful course on Maven that supports other Execs to take the leap into advisory and consulting.

Marie Quintana, author of Last Flight From Havana, is a distinguished business leader with a 30-year career in Corporate America, holding key positions at companies like Tenet Healthcare, PepsiCo, Perot Systems, and IBM. She's recognized as one of the Top 50 Hispanic Women in Business by Hispanic Business Magazine, Top 50 Women in Grocery by Progressive Grocer, and Top 5 Latina Executives by Latina Style Magazine. In 2022, she received the Latino Leaders Maestro Award for Professional Achievement. Committed to fostering future women leaders, Marie co-founded the PepsiCo Women of Color Alliance and served on the founding board of the Network of Executive Women. She holds a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a Master’s from Tulane University.

Based in Dallas, she lives with her family and cherished dogs, actively contributing to her community through mentorship and leadership.