Women Express!

Tips from the Top: Smashing the Ceiling, Taking a Fall, and Finding Resilience

Karen Parkin is a proud citizen of both the UK and the USA, and since 2005, she has been living with her family in Portland, Oregon. Karen has experienced a wonderful and challenging career that has spanned over 32 years, working for great brands such as Lego and Hasbro, and culminating in 23 years with Adidas, which led her to become their CHRO and the first female Executive Board member of the company’s global leadership team. She will be the first to tell you that her journey has been challenging, invigorating, rewarding, exhausting, and memorable. In this podcast, she will share her tips and learnings to help you understand what it REALLY means to have balance and resilience as you find yourself a leader at the top. To watch the full video interview, click here.

5 Steps to Mastering the Art of Pivoting

Angela Jiggetts-Bazzi is an experienced Executive & Life Coach, Career Transition Consultant and Workshop Facilitator with more than 20 years of expertise. This episode is filled with stories and tips on how to get from where you are to where you want to go. Angela takes us through 5 steps in accessing your plan to mastering the art of pivoting, something we all have had to learn during the pandemic. Pivoting and changing to take advantage of the moment is used by anyone who is successful. Pivoting is the sister of innovation: She will share with you Tips #1-4 The M.A.A.B. formula: - Mindset Shift, Acceptance, Attitude, Behavior – these 4 steps help you to get unstuck and motivated to realizing your dreams. Tip #5 -Pivoting the action item to MAAB, is the essential key in activating your dreams and goals. “Master Pivoters” have a foundation for taking bold moves and managing decisions and expectations. Throughout her career and life experiences, Angela has cultivated the perfect guide towards taking control of every aspect of her personal and career journey showing how pivoting sets in motion your steps forward. You will learn to use Angela’s Father’s mantra which will keep your mindset positive in any circumstance when you tell yourself, “Ain’t it Great?" If you follow these 5 steps it truly will be.

Transitioning back to “A” normal – Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water

Welcome Back! Now that we are headed back to “A” life of normal, what have we learned from this moment of pause? The Pandemic offered us great opportunities in self-discovery. We increased our awareness of how delicate our personal health is and the health of those around us. We came to understand how connected we are globally (I had the best birthday ever which included all of my global friends) and how valuable that connection is.  We became aware of cultural differences which brought about a more whole and inclusive workplace, community, and personal life. Throughout this we saw how virtual platforms allowed people to create a global presence.  We embraced an understanding of the lives we’ve lost and how they became the foundation in creating inspiration for life. Yes, there is an excitement to return to old times, but let’s think reset when carrying all we have gathered in silence. Let’s move forward with the newness of expression and freshness of vision…Here’s to A “new normal”.

Pamela Neferkara Gives Advice on Why Black Lives Matter to the Corporate World

Join us for this very relevant conversation with corporate executive, Pamela Neferkara. Although recorded earlier, it is still a necessary and important conversation to have today. Pamela shares her experience on raising a black son in America, an executive raising people of color, as well as what it means to be a powerful black woman. These ingredients, from her perspective, give you corporate insight on how others can advance people of color and set a table where their thoughts, ideas and comments are still embraced accepted. 

Power Up Series: Black Women are Forging Change in Powerful Ways

It’s 2021! WE Women Express is introducing the POWER UP Series, signature conversations with women who are taking a bigger stance, using a bigger platform, and using their voices to guide our country, world, and planet in becoming a richer, more diverse landscape. Our first conversation is with Liz Archibald, Director of Corporate Communications for NVidia, one of the world’s largest Technology companies. She is responsible for leading PR for three key areas - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Developers (we have 2M in our program), and Inception (6500+ AI startup companies). This is notable for an African American woman in the Tech industry. Right out of college Liz was given the opportunity to affect the “corporate voice” through brand messaging at HP and then Cisco.  These opportunities positioned her to develop her expertise in helping C-Suite executives with communicating their brand messages. Liz shares her path to one of the biggest companies in the Tech industry. She’ll shares how each step gave her more confidence and experience to be able to “Power Up” in the Tech Industry as a woman AND a woman of color. In this interview you will find insights into thinking bigger, leading from your seat at the table, finding your voice, helping you “Power UP” too.

Power Up Series: Taking your seat at the Boardroom Table

Jocelyn Mangan, CEO & Founder of Him For Her an organization focused on accelerating diversity on for-profit boards.  Placing women in a seat at the director level is essential for fueling the narrative and perspective of business operations with a direct lead  into profit margins.  Diverse boards that include women have proven to be better for business. Yet only one in five public-company directors are female. In my interview with Jocelyn, we discuss the gaps between board opportunities and talented women who are ready for board service. Megan believes “The problem isn't the pipeline, it’s the network.” There is no shortage of qualified female executives interested in board service. This  is only the road to the top which has not been well "heeled" by women. Now is the time to reach higher and take the seat that will  help you enhance your ability to influence, challenge, instruct, innovate and usher in change from the top down. There is room at the table, Jocelyn will help you take a seat! www.himforher.org

VC’s investing in “Women who Solve the World’s Biggest Problems

Jenny Abramson is the Founder & Managing Partner of Rethink Impact the largest, US-based impact venture capital firm with a gender lens that invests in female leaders using technology to solve the world’s biggest problems. A former tech CEO, she’s held leadership roles across major media, education, and data companies. Jenny has received a number of accolades and was recently named a Forbes’ Impact 50 alongside Serena Williams, Reid Hoffman, Melinda and Bill Gates along with other notable founders and cofounders in high tech . Jenny has a BA and MA from Stanford, MBA from Harvard Business School, and was a Fulbright Scholar at The London School of Economics.”  In this interview we will discuss how important it is to support women owned businesses and innovations. VC’s are beginning to see that choosing women to invest in is not only a smart business choice but a lucrative one. Some VC's see investing in women owned businesses as a game changing opportunity.  No matter what the November 3rd outcome is, it's time to take bigger steps to bring our innovations forward and seek the funding we need. The number of women ventures funded by VC’s is small, especially in technology. What this means is there is room for us to get funded. Jenny will tell us how!

Denise, Where have you been? Conversations on Power

I've been on a mini sabbatical by taking time off to listen and to gather my thinking. There's a lot going on!  What I've come to, is a conversation that I think is so important to share with you as we head into the election season. No matter what happens, it's our time to stand up and make a difference. I will share knowledge sentiments and thoughts on what next steps look like for women in power. I will pull on today's trends to enhance our personal expression by using examples of powerful women and men who are taking and have taken a stand to transform our country.