Strategy

Wonder Woman in Business, Cynthia McCollough

Cynthia McCollough

Cyndy McCollough is the founder of McCollough Consulting, a digital marketing agency specifically focused on professional services organizations. On a project basis, Cyndy manages rebrands, leads website redesigns, produces corporate video, and offers soup-to-nuts martech strategy and implementation.

Cyndy's understanding of the importance of customer journeys and user experience was forged early in her career in enterprise software sales, and she spent the next 20 years applying these best practices in-house for law firms. Now she is a leading voice in the legal marketing industry, a prolific marketing technology blogger, and a member of University of Richmond’s Customer Experience (CX) Advisory Board.

Cyndy lives with her husband, pup, and cats in Great Falls, VA.


Cynthia McCollough


A Couple of Cyndy’s Favorite Books

Bird by Bird

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author: An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come.

For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”


How We Fight for Our Lives

From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives—winner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Award—is a “moving, bracingly honest memoir” (The New York Times Book Review) written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.

One of the best books of the year as selected by The New York Times; The Washington Post; NPR; Time; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Harper’s Bazaar; Elle; BuzzFeed; Goodreads; and many more.

“People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’”

Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.


Connect with Cyndy

Blog: mccollough.consulting/digitalmarketingblog/

 Mobile: 202.569.1675

Email: cyndy@mccollough.consulting



Wonder Woman in Business, Vivian Hood

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Vivian Hood

Jaffe

As one of the owners of Jaffe, Vivian Hood balances her responsibilities between managing the agency’s relationships with our clients and staff and providing our clients with high-level and strategic PR account leadership, directing teams that execute and implement successful media relations programs. An experienced PR professional and one of Lawdragon's "100 Leading Legal Consultants and Strategists," Vivian delivers critical counsel surrounding high-profile litigation, sensitive matters, and crisis management. Clients rely on Vivian and trust her guidance when it matters most.

Serving as an integral senior member of a firm’s marketing department, Vivian takes pride in developing long-term relationships with clients, many of whom she has worked with for a minimum of five, 10, and more years. These partnerships have enabled Vivian to become a trusted advisor to many of the country’s top corporate firms. While some media relations programs focus on immediate results, others depend on long-range planning and benefit from working with someone who fully knows and understands a firm’s culture, philosophies, history and management style. That’s why Vivian’s enduring relationships with her clients allow her to manage effective media relations strategies that she adapts to fit each firm’s evolving needs.

Vivian is active with LMA International and LMA Southeast Region and an editorial board member for Marketing The Law Firm. She is a frequent speaker and published author on a range of marketing and PR, crisis communications, and media relations topics.

Vivian Hood

Connect with Vivian

Vivian Hood

Owner/CEO, Public Relations

Office: 904.220.1915

Mobile: 904.233.6565

Twitter: @vivianhood

LinkedIn: in/VivianHood

An award-winning, full-service marketing, branding and PR agency



Wonder Woman in Business, Kelli Stonework

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Kelli Stonework

Kelli Y. Stonework is Founder of KYS Solutions, a training company specializing in helping business professionals develop effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills.  Since speaking and listening are an everyday occurrence, Kelli believes we owe it to ourselves to invest in strategies that will help enhance these communication skills that greatly impact our business and personal relationships. 

Having has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Kelli has been known to assist new hires as well as executives prepare and deliver impactful and engaging presentations.  A Communication Strategist, TTI Success Insights Certified Assessments Partner and Women Speakers Association Premier Member, Kelli has been featured in various publications and conferences; Forbes, Entrepreneur.com,  American Bar Association GP Solo Magazine, Blacks In Government National Training Institute, and Working Mother Multicultural Women’s National Conference.

Kelli is the author of The Ultimate Presentation Roadmap: How to Write for the Right Audience and Present with Confidence.  She is also an author of two devotions for Mothers and Women in Business. Being a mother and business owner herself, Kelli has a special passion for helping women find their ultimate voice and thrive.  Kelli created the Permission Granted to S.T.A.Y. #StartThinkingAboutYOU® movement to give women the tools to channel their inner drive to achieve.   

Kelli holds a degree in Economics with concentrations in Accounting and Finance from Rutgers University. 

Kelli Stonework

Connect with Kelli

Twitter and IG: @LadySpeechCoach

LinkedIn: Kelli Stonework

Facebook: Kelli Y. Stonework, KYS Solutions

Website: kyssolutions.com



Wonder Woman in Business, Raychel McBride

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Raychel McBride

CEO of Corporate KIN

Raychel McBride is a 10-year Human Resources professional advocating for diversity using data. She is the CEO of Corporate KIN Diversity Strategies, where she uses essential skills such as empathy, accountability, and long-term strategy to create culture transformation. She prides herself on being a strategist and visionary that lives in the land of what could be, not what is. In 2007, Raychel graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Education and later attended Argosy University Chicago to complete her Master of Science in Human Resource Management. In 2020, Raychel obtained her Senior Certified Professional certification with the Society for Human Resource Management.

In her free time, Raychel is the Podcast Host of Freedom & Champagne - a podcast to celebrate diversity through storytelling. Raychel serves as the co-chair for the Forefront Building Board Diversity task force and is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. She volunteers on the NPR Illinois Advisory Board, Forefront Advancing Racial Equity Committee, Illinois Women in Leadership Equity Special Interest Group and a number of Land of Lincoln Community Foundation committees. She was named a Springfield Business Journal Forty under 40 in 2019 and is a graduate of the 2020 Leadership Illinois class. She is the wife of Rich McBride Jr., mother to Raya Johnson, and bonus mom to Dominic Mortenson. 

Raychel McBride

Connect with Raychel

Raychel McBride - SHRM SCP | CEO | Raychel@CorporateKIN.com

Corporate KIN LLC | (217) 691-3925 | www.CorporateKIN.com

Certified State of Illinois Business Enterprise Program (BEP) for Minority, Females, and Persons with Disabilities | Community Foundation Grants & Programs Committee | Building Board Diversity Co-Chair | NPR Illinois Advisory Board | Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. | SHRM Central Illinois Member |  2019 Springfield Business Journal Forty Under 40 | Wooden It Be Lovely Board Member | Forefront Advancing Racial Equity Committee 

Follow me on LinkedIn

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Wonder Woman in Business, Stacia Garr

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Stacia Garr

Stacia Sherman Garr is a researcher and thought leader on employee engagement/experience, leadership, D&I, people analytics, and HR technology. A frequent speaker and writer, her work has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal as well as in numerous HR trade publications. She has been listed as a Top 100 influencer in HR Technology and in D&I. Stacia co-founded RedThread Research in 2018, after leading talent and workforce research for eight years at Bersin by Deloitte. Before Bersin, Stacia spent nearly five years conducting research and creating learning content for the Corporate Leadership Council, part of CEB/Gartner. She has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

About RedThread

Sure, we’re experts in performance, people analytics, learning, and D&I – and we’re well-versed in the technologies that support them. But we’re also truth-seekers and storytellers in an industry often short on substance, and too full of @#$%. Our mission (indeed, our very reason for existing) is to cut through the noise and amplify what’s good. We look for the connections (or red threads) between people, data, and ideas – even among seemingly unrelated concepts. The result is high-quality, unbiased,  transformative foresight that helps you build a stronger business.

Stacia Garr

Connect with Stacia

Stacia Sherman Garr

(pronounced Stay-sha ;))

Co-founder & Principal Analyst

RedThread Research

202-957-4130

stacia@redthreadresearch.com

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www.freemanmeansbusiness.com

www.freemanmeansbusiness.com


Wonder Woman in Business, Meenakshi Iyer

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Meenakshi Iyer

Meenakshi Iyer is a global citizen, an inclusive and collaborative servant leader, and a professional thinker and doer.  "Stop. Breathe. Think. Act." is her motto.

Born and raised in India, she has been in the US for over a decade now. She is fluent in four languages; and has lived and worked in 10+ cities in India and the US. She is passionate about democratizing access to, and opportunity for, people development across the world.

Meenakshi founded NorthStar Solutions and Services in August 2019 – as a 100% virtual business - to partner with mid-career IT/Agile professionals and leaders, and small to medium-sized businesses, globally, in designing successful outcomes for their transformation journeys, especially in this digital, VUCA economy. She partners with them to help them learn and adopt ‘Future of Work’ skills and behaviors such as: agile, collaborative, and inclusive ways of working; remote leadership; and impactful change communication.

A T-shaped servant leader with a 22-year international and interdisciplinary career in IT, Agile/Business Process Transformation, international healthcare, HR, and Training, she is a champion of cross-cultural and cross-functional leadership. Having started off in the non-profit healthcare sector in India where, among other things, she learned the inner workings of a regional eye bank, the breadth and depth of her professional experience span cultures, geographies, industries, and hierarchies.

Meenakshi is an IC Agile certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC), and her Agile experience is in B2B product development and client implementation in the healthcare space in the US. She excels in the application of Lean and Human-centered Design in organizational and agile transformations. ​

As a professionally trained and an experienced ESL Trainer, she has helped hundreds of aspiring and working professionals become proficient in their use of business English. She is particularly empathetic towards the challenges faced by non-native speakers of English in the workplace; and has consistently worked towards making culturally competent communication central to creating inclusive work environments.

Meenakshi holds an Executive MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; a BS in Physics from Bharathiar University, India, and an Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering also from India. She has an Executive Master's Certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management in Business Process Design for Strategic Management; and is a Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster®. She is currently on her path to earning an ICF-PCC credential as a Professional Coach.

An active member of the Lean In Agile community – a professional networking group for women professionals in the Lean/Agile space - Meenakshi is on the Catalyst team for the Washington DC area Spiral group. She lives in Ashburn, Virginia in the US, with her husband. In their free time, they enjoy going on road trips to the countryside, and visiting local wineries and breweries.

Meenakshi Iyer

Contact Meenakshi

Website: https://www.northstaratwork.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/

Twitter: @NorthStar_Nova

YouTube: NorthStar Solutions and Services - YouTube

Facebook: @northstaratwork