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Athena Speaker Directory
FIND TOP STEM SPEAKERS

Explore Athena's diverse talent roster to find the right STEM Speaker for your next event, conference, or board retreat. Securing a diverse conference speaker lineup requires lots of intentional work and this one-stop directory offers decades of experience among these female thought leaders in STEM. Directly contact any of these dynamic speakers to capture the unique perspectives from these leaders.

To become a Featured Speaker, email tracy@athenaSTEMwomen.org.

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Lola Adeyemo

Founder & CEO

EQI Mindset

SPEAKING APPEARANCES/AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS: Gritty Leadership Conference (GrittyMovement) | AWIS Conference Speaker - AWIS San Diego | RACE Stories - Boulder Storyslam | Speaker - Power to Fly Network | Project Management Institute | Healthcare Business Women Association (HBA) | Podcast Guest Speaker - Inclusion 1st | Women Venture Summit Speaker

EXPERTISE: Building Winning Teams | Employee Resource Groups | Career Transitions | Mentoring | Working Parent

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Shirin Alipanah

Principal

Avasant

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: SIM San Diego - Women in Technology Leadership | Society of Communications Technology Consultants International - Technology Trends and Cloud Migration Strategies for 2022 | Avasant / HCL - Driving Business Agility Through End-to-End Digital Transformation | Avasant - Enabling Business Transformation Through Digital Customer Journeys | ISSA - Blockchain Implementation Journey

EXPERTISE: Technology Evangelist | Manufacturing | Retail | CPG | QSR

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Sarah Bacerra

Founder

Trailblazing in Color

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Startup San Diego - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Panel | The Center for Respectful Leadership - Changemaker Spotlight

EXPERTISE: People Innovator | Human Lover | Inclusion Pusher | Learning & Performance Leader | Certified High Performance Coach | Certified DISC Facilitator

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Carolina Bravo-Karimi

Partner

Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP

SPEAKING APPERANCES: Athena | Association of Corporate Counsel | University of San Diego School of Law | ChIPs Orange County Chapter | SunLaw | Federal Bar Association | California State Bar | San Diego Employer Association

EXPERTISE: Employment Law | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Workplace Investigations | Workplace Culture | Trainings on Inclusive Communication, Unconscious Bias, and Microaggressions

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Kimbra Brookstein

Staff Program Manager - Tech Women @ Intuit

Intuit

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Blueprint for Success - Athena Pinnacle Award Winners | Male Allyship: Supporting Women in Tech - Women of Rady | Women Tech Leaders - GA & Yelp Panel | Moderator - San Diego Tech Women's Summit - IWD Panel | Surviving COVID: How to pivot during crisis - SD Women’s Venture Summit | Moderator, SD Resources To Level up Your Career - SDTWS | Moderator, Girls In Tech - SD: The different type of dev roles you can have in tech | Women In Tech Panel - Startup San Diego Convergence/Girls In Tech SD | Creating Tech Opportunities For Community Change - Western Regional Diversity Conference | How I Started Working In Tech - GeekGirl TechCon | Women In Tech: The Resources You Need To Level Up In SD - SDSW

EXPERTISE: Women In Tech | Diversity In Tech | Building Inclusive Environments | ERGs | Allyship | Building Communities | Brand Building | Networking | Corporate Culture

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Noushin Dunkelman

Founder & CEO

MaxSynergy

SPEAKING APPEARANCES/AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS: SDEE | AWIS Conference Speaker | Lunchbio | SDBSA | EvoNexus | NCHR

EXPERTISE: Organizational Development in Biotech Spaces | Communication Strategy | Operation Structure | Culture Development | Team and Talent Development

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Neha Giri

Software Architect

Intuit

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Grace Hopper Conference 2021 & 2020 "How to Make Your First Open Source Contribution" | Intuit Panel "Diversity and Inclusion"

EXPERTISE: Software Architecture | Open Source Software & How Women Can Get Involved | Building a Career in Software Architecture | Mentoring Framework and Best Practices to Support Women in Tech

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Kristin "KG" Gustafson

CEO and Founder

Skapa Bio

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Equilar Annual Conference | Women in Bio | Biocom | Radford Reward Annual Meeting | LeapHR | SHRM

EXPERTISE: CHRO Leadership in Biotech | Talent Management | HR System Optimization | Culture, Learning and Organizational Development in Biotech Space | Communication Strategy | Team Development

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Christina Hepburn

Staff Talent Acquisition Specialist

Illumina

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Athena - Negotiating Your Success

EXPERTISE: Negotiation | Talent Acquisition

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Kerstin Kirchsteiger, Ph. D.

Founder, CEO, Executive Coach

Kerstin K Leadership Consulting

Stable Mama Podcast - Motherhood has prepared you to be a great leader | Love Your Life Show Podcast - Emotional Intelligence with Kerstin Kirchsteiger

Making your organization irresistible - Talent attraction & retention made easy | Brain Science for High Performance | Driving innovation through DEI&B for parents and neurodiverse employees | Motherhood as a leadership position. How to translate new skills to propel your career forward | Other topics upon request

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Sheryl Kline

Founder & CEO

The Zone Lab, LLC

United Nations Global Leadership Summit I Women of Silicon Valley Conference (opened both days) I Women in Technology Network | CREW National Convention | Women of the Channel Conference NYC/Palm Springs | Oracle | VM Ware | Microsoft | Insight Enterprises I Bank of America I Autodesk I State Street Global Advisors I UC Berkeley Haas School of Business I CaptialOne I Hewlett Packard Enterprises I Pixar I SHRM

Defuse Emotionally Charged Conversations and Remain Highly Influential
Expertise: Mental Toughness and High Performance for Women in the Workplace via the 1:1 Fearless Female Leadership Coaching Proven Process | Speaking I Enterprise Digital Journey I Gain Olympic-Level Clarity on What's Next I Build Confidence to See it Through I Learn FBI-like Strategic Influence to Gain Buy-In From Leadership
Fearless Female Leadership Podcast Host

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Cynthia Long, LSSMBB, PMP

Senior Manager and Change Leader BPR Continuous Improvement

Intuit

SPEAKING APPEARANCES/AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS: Strategic Conversations - Mentoring and Beyond (Women in Technology Festival) | Data - Driving from the Customer Seat (Intuit) | Cost of Complexity (Intuit) | Surviving Domestic Violence (Compass Center For Women and Families)

EXPERTISE: Revolutionary Leader for Continuous Improvement | Business Transformation Strategist | Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Public Speaker | Philanthropist | Mentor

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Cynthia Lopez

Team Lead

San Diego Gas & Electric

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Alumni Speaker | San Diego State University Electrical Engineering Panel | SDG&E City Council Meeting | D&I Speaker | SDG&E Virtual Career Fair for Women In Construction

EXPERTISE: Operations | Speaking Up | Mentoring Females In STEM | Leadership | Team Development and Independence

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Molly McElwee Malloy, RN, CDCES

Senior Medical Science Liaison

Tandem Diabetes Care

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: ADCES (American Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists) Past Spokesperson | ADA (American Diabetes Association) | Various Grand Rounds in the United States and Canada

EXPERTISE: Insulin Algorithms and Data Interpretation | Diabetes Technology | Patient Advocacy and Engagement | Medical Device Clinical Trials | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access in Healthcare

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Shawnnah Monterrey

CEO

BeanStock Ventures

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Software as a Medical Device with the FDA | SLAS Women in Computer Science | MDSD - The Benefits and Challenges with Developing a Software Platform | SDSU Business Panel Discussion | PMWC FDA Regulation | A Peek into AI Proposed Regulatory Framework

EXPERTISE: Leadership | Product Development | Medical Device | Software | Regulatory

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Susan Poser

Vice President, Culture and Engagement

Oracle

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Ascend Inspiring Across Generations | San Diego State University Aztec Mentor Program Talks | Oracle Women Leaders | Oracle Professional Asian Leadership | Out & Equal Summit | San Diego Women's Week

EXPERTISE: Managing Your Career as a JOB (Joy, Opportunity, Brand) | Attracting & Engaging Employees for Success | Being an Ally to Drive D&I

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Alaina Brinley Rajagopal

Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer

Esperto Medical

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Kalamazoo College - Coronavirus, Altitude and Aerospace: Commonalities and Differences in Physiology | California Institute of Technology: COVID-19 Pandemic from the Perspective of an Emergency Medicine Physician | University of California, Irvine: Viral Reactivation during Spaceflight | NASA Speaker's Bureau: Careers at NASA, Careers in STEM, Spacesuits, Spaceflight Physiology

EXPERTISE: Women in STEM | Emergency Medicine | Aerospace Medicine | Global Health | Infectious Disease | Startups | Bringing Together Diverse Interests to Create New Ideas | Working Parents | Female Founders

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Tiffany Rosik

Founder & CEO

TGR Management Consulting

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Financial Executives International (FEI) San Diego Chapter | American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) San Diego Chapter | Athena Women on Boards Panel Discussion | SharpHeels Conferences | PMI San Diego | BioPharma Project Management Conference | Podcast guest speaking on Cybersecurity, Technology, and Leadership.

EXPERTISE: Technology Strategy | Strategic Planning Processes | Program Management | Operational Efficiency

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Lauren Ross

Senior Associate

Fragomen

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: 2022 AILA Border Issues Virtual Conference | Tech San Diego Presents | AILA California Chapters Conference | AILA Annual Conference on Immigration Law | AILA Agora | MBL Benefits | ILW Audio Seminar | New York Law Journal

EXPERTISE: Options for Non-Citizen STEM Professionals to Work in the United States | Pathways to Permanent Residence for Non-Citizen STEM Professionals | Immigration as a Recruiting Tool for STEM Employers | Naturalization & Citizenship Law

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Leslie Schulze

President & CEO (Fractional CFO)

Cornerstone Business Solutions, Inc.

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: CFO Fireside Chat, - Finance and Accounting for Bioscience Companies East Conference

EXPERTISE: Finance | Accounting | Operations & Administration | Financing Activities, Including Venture Capital Financing | Non-Dilutive Funding (Including Government Contracts and Grants) | Corporate Collaborations | Mergers and Acquisitions | Asset Acquisitions/Sales

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Holly Smithson

CEO

Athena

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: United Nations 74th General Assembly | The Atlantic Magazine - Innovators Lab | DeviceTalks West Conference | BD’s International Women Day Conference | Illumina's Destination for Diversity - Advancing Women in a Global STEM Hub | 2023 VMUG UserCon

EXPERTISE: Women’s Leadership Advocate & Keynote Speaker | Diversity & Inclusion for Corporate Culture | Data-driven Strategies on DE&I & Profits | Why Male Allyship is Key to DE&I

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Hitomi Taguchi

Certified Life and Career Coach

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: American Chemical Society | Electrochemical Society | Pittcon | TEDx | US Department of Energy - Energy Frontier Research Centers | Universities

EXPERTISE: Leadership and Coaching Skills for Scientists and Engineers | Confidence | Renaissance Soul | Creativity

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Irina Telyukova

Senior VP of Analytics

Mulligan Funding

SPEAKING EXPERIENCE | Visiting Research Scholar/Economist - International Monetary Fund | Assistant Professor, Economics - University of California San Diego

EXPERTISE: Analytics/Data | Economics | Mindfulness and Meditation

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Dr. Alessandra Wall

Founder

Noteworthy

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Athena Leadership Academy | Opting In: Becoming a Male Ally in the Workplace | Women's Week San Diego | European Women's Network | Marine Corps | Cisco | Northrup| HP | Bank of America

EXPERTISE: Psychologist | Leadership | Women in Tech | Executive Coaching | Career Planning | Building Social Capital | Speaking Up | Finding Allies

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Shirley Yager

Director, Product Management

Qualcomm

SPEAKING APPEARANCES: Athena Racing Podcast | Sales & Marketing Leadership Alliance | San Diego State University Aztec Mentorship Program | Various Qualcomm women's groups

EXPERTISE: Business Strategy | New Business Opportunity Analysis | Market Research | Business and Product Development | Startup Consulting | Mentorship | Career Coaching

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