Through a series of workshops and presentations, under the direction of Dr. Carol J. Maples, Giving Voice assists leaders in the academic, business, and community fields to address issues of oppression, microaggression, and discrimination. This training, led by a facilitator and the actors, offers opportunities for workshop participants to discuss how to approach these situations, as well as creating a safe environment to “try out” solutions. Experience the newest scenario utilizing the latest research and stories of oppression, especially microaggressions. The power of theatre can help us to understand and empower us to improve this wonderfully diverse world of ours.
Starshine Roshell is an award-winning journalist, writing coach and messaging expert in Santa Barbara, Calif. Readers on “The American Riviera” have voted her Best Columnist for 10 straight years for her frank and funny lifestyle column in the Santa Barbara Independent, which reveals the honest and absurd truths about sex, family, politics and culture. Her columns are collected in the books Keep Your Skirt On, Wife on the Edge and Broad Assumptions.
Named for a song in the 1960s musical “Hair,” in which her father starred, Starshine grew up in Tinseltown, graduated from UCLA, and went to work for The Hollywood Reporter. She has interviewed countless celebrities from George Clooney, Steve Martin and Tom Hanks to Ellen DeGeneres, Gloria Steinem and Samantha Bee.
She spent a decade as a news reporter, theater and music critic, Sunday columnist and deputy features editor at the daily Santa Barbara News-Press, and became an outspoken advocate for journalistic ethics during the 2006 clash between the paper’s reporters and publisher — a well-publicized battle covered by Vanity Fair, the New York Times and the documentary Citizen McCaw.
Starshine has received California Newspaper Publishers Association awards for both column-writing and business and financial reporting. Her work has been published in the New York Post, TheWeek, Roanoke Times, Ventura Star, and more than a dozen magazines.
She has taught journalism at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College, and works as both a writing instructor on LinkedInLearning and as media and communications director at Fielding Graduate University.
Champion Mindset
Session Description: How you can develop a Championship Mindset, get out of your way, and get in the game!
Delivered by Debbie Powers., director of business services at Comcast
Debbie Powers brings to the role a wide range of leadership experience and sales success accumulated over 16 years in the cable industry, specifically in Business Services. After a 13 year career at Bright House Networks, where she was promoted four times and earned five President’s Club nominations, Debbie joined Comcast Business in 2016 as the Director of SMB sales for the Keystone Region, which included Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia markets. Based on creating a positive culture along with impactful results her role expanded to take over markets in the Greater Chicago Area. Her teams have been a standout for their new product sales performance, sitting consistently at the top of the company’s stack rankings for this strategic effort to expand our position in the SMB market space. She speaks in several forums about the Championship Mindset, and how you can influence positive change in your life.
Beyond her current Director role, Debbie serves on the board of Directors for Women in Cable for the Greater Pittsburgh Area and is on the Executive Committee for our Black Employee Network ERG. Her efforts in expanding Comcast’s influence in the business community was recently recognized by Pittsburgh Magazine which awarded Debbie with the Rising Star award as one of the most influential women in business. In addition, she was honored with Comcast’s Patriot Award in 2017 for her team’s veteran hiring practices.
A Chicago-land native, Debbie attended the University of New Orleans where she studied Mass Communications and played Division 1 basketball. After leaving college, she pursued a career as a professional basketball player in Europe.
Panel: Curating Digital Content: Telling Your Brand's Story in a Digital World
Session Description: Captivating an audience is all about telling a great story, and nowhere is powerful storytelling more important than on digital platforms. Images, video, music, words, and more are all tools that can be curated to create unique and powerful content. Our panelists will share tips and tactics on how to convey a brand's story in a relevant format that engages, energizes, and empowers a target audience.
Panel Moderator: Yvonne Limon of Lee Lewis Construction, Inc.
Panelists: Lauren Holder of Social Media by Lauren, Tammy Robbins of Shriners Hospitals for Children, Nicole Scheffler of Cisco and the Diva Tech Talk Podcast.
Yvonne Limon is the Marketing Director for Lee Lewis Construction, Inc., one of the top k-12 builders in Texas and one of the largest construction firms in the nation. Prior to this role, Yvonne was a graphic designer and marketing specialist for a financial institution. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Lubbock Christian University and holds a degree in Visual Communications. Her passion is bringing stories to life and building relationships with organizations and individuals. Her specialties include digital media, brand awareness and graphic design.
Yvonne is a graduate of the 2017 Leadership Lubbock program and was named the 2018 Woman of the Year by the American Business Women’s Association-Lubbock Area Lights Chapter. She was also a 2018 G.I.R.L Honoree from the Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains.
Yvonne serves on the National AWC Board of Directors as well as on the Volunteer Center of Lubbock Board. She is actively involved in the Lubbock community, serving on the Young Professionals of Lubbock committee, and volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Southwest and Susan G. Komen North & West Texas. In her spare time, you can find her with her friends, family, or local Orangetheory Fitness center.
Lauren Holder is the Owner of Social Media By Lauren, a social media management company that specializes in the overall management and content curation of social media accounts for small businesses in Southwest Missouri.
Before founding Social Media by Lauren in 2017, Lauren graduated from Missouri State University with her degree in Public Relations and a Minor in Entrepreneurial Studies. She then went on to manage a local boutique where her love for social media management began to grow. Lauren then went on to work for The Arc of the Ozarks for 3.5 years as a Program Manager and ultimately, the Marketing and Development Coordinator. Lauren has also served as the Publicity Chair, Newsletter and Website Design Chair and is currently the Marketing Chair for the AWC Springfield, Missouri
Chapter Board of Directors.
It was in her marketing role at The Arc of the Ozarks that she began managing multiple social media accounts and self-teaching graphic design, best practices, and overall content curation. Since starting her business, Lauren has managed over 25 social media accounts. While her mission is to ease the stress of social media management for small business owners, she also prides herself in steady organic growth through carefully crafted content, engagement, and overall branding of social media. On average, her clients will see a 25-50% increase in likes, follows, and engagement annually.
Lauren’s passion for social media and content curation can be seen through her ever continuing education and desire to help her clients grow and succeed. Her knowledge of digital content not only comes from being self-taught but from many pieces of training and courses over the years like the Social Marketing Training through the Hootsuite Academy.
Tammy joined the staff of Shriners Hospitals for Children in 2002, after spending nearly 10 years earning experience in PR for non-profits and academia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in art from MacMurray College and a master of arts in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield.
During her time with Shriners Hospitals, she served as PR Director for the St. Louis facility for 13 years, leading growth in the department in the number of staff, size of budget, and scope of work. She and her team helped lead the hospital through tremendous change as it moved to a new location after more than 50 years, garnering local and regional publicity through media relations campaigns, advertising, and a series of special events.
For the past four years, Tammy has served as one of the system’s three regional marketing and communications directors, providing support to eight Shriners Hospitals locations in the middle of the country and serving on the leadership team for the national marketing and communications department.
Nicole Scheffler has worked in technology as an engineer for over 15 years and within Cisco for over 13 years. Her roots began in the start up space as a programmer, included some time as a business analyst for Fidelity, and she has grown her career as a Cisco Systems Engineer. She now is a Strategy and Planner manager for Engineering within Cisco Americas Partner Organization and is constantly working to empower women in technology with her Diva Tech Talk Podcast.
She holds a Masters in Information Technology at University of North Texas where she also gained her bachelors in Business Computer Information Systems. Her technical skills are mostly centered around the network, data center, security, and IoT. She also has programmability skills in databases, coding, and prototyping. She often speaks for local conferences, panels, and organization on these topics or various empowerment topics. She has held many Cisco certifications, from the CCNA to the CCIE Written. She loves sharing her passion for these areas in the classroom and has served as an Adjunct Professor at Lansing Community College and Davenport University for courses from Biometrics to Wireless Security. She also taught in the Cisco Networking Academy for several years and stays involved regularly.
In addition, she thrives for her community and giving back. She has founded one non-profit, the Michigan Technology Network, designed to offer education, networking, and a community for all technology people. She founded the West Michigan Cisco User Group (wmcug.org) which has been a strong organization for the area for 10 years strong. She also continues to work with her Co-Founder, Kathleen Norton-Schock, on the Diva Tech Talk Podcast. She loves live music and is grateful for her supportive family, husband, daughter, and dog. They enjoy nature and live music for fun.
Nicole shares her work and ideas on her blog and personal website: https://digissancewoman.com/
She also posts frequently on twitter: @Tech_Nicole
International Matrix Award Presentation
Honoring Barbara S. Cochran.
Presentation Description: Instituted in 1998, the International Matrix Award is the highest honor bestowed by AWC. This award praises a communications professional for achieving the highest level of professional excellence. This year's honoree, Barbara Cochran, will be recognized Monday evening during the Clarion Awards dinner and will address attendees at the conference.
Barbara Cochran, a news executive whose career includes top jobs in the broadcast, print and non-profit worlds, is the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Cochran is based in the School’s bureau in Washington, D.C., where she has spent her entire career. She works with the School’s faculty to teach and provide course content for students. Cochran also engages in programs of research, consulting and training aimed at improving the practice of journalism, working with the Committee of Concerned Journalists, also located in Washington, and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Cochran served for 12 years as president of the Radio Television Digital News Association, the world’s largest organization serving the electronic news profession. At RTDNA, Cochran championed the First Amendment rights of journalists, launched initiatives in ethics and diversity and led the association’s inclusion of digital journalists in its membership. RTDNA received the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism during her tenure.
Previously, Cochran served as managing editor of the Washington Star, vice president for news for National Public Radio, executive producer of NBC’s Meet the Press and vice president and Washington bureau chief for CBS News. She has supervised coverage of stories from Watergate to the Persian Gulf War and played a leading role in the coverage of every election and political convention for 24 years. At NPR, she directed the creation of Morning Edition, the program that cemented NPR’s position as an essential national news provider. During her tenure, NPR won two DuPont-Columbia Awards.
Cochran has been recognized with a number of awards, including The Media Institute’s Freedom of Speech Award, The AWC Matrix Foundation’s Edith Wortman First Amendment Award, the Library of American Broadcasting’s Giants of Broadcasting Award and RTDNF’s First Amendment Award.
Cochran has served as a judge for the DuPont-Columbia, George Foster Peabody and Hearst Collegiate Journalism Awards. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Cochran is co-chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Cochran has a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York and a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
Tuesday, Oct. 1
8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Roundtable Discussions
Transformational Leadership
Session Description: Inspire and motivate others to take action with confidence, sincerity, and trust.
Delivered by Lyn Watson, executive director of human resources at Crossings Community Church.
Lyn Watson is the Executive Director of Human Resources at Crossings Community Church in Oklahoma City, OK. Lyn brings over 30 years of experience in HR, corporate training, employee development, keynote speaking, recruiting, and organizational development.
Lyn earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/Public Relations from the University of Oklahoma and is a certified trainer with Integrity Systems, FranklinCovey, and Strata Leadership. Lyn recently received her SHRM-SCP certification.
As a former business owner, Lyn brings her enthusiasm, creative spirit, and an understanding of the demands individuals face in professional and volunteer environments. Through her work as a recruiter, trainer, and coach, Lyn uses her experiences to inspire creative problem solving and empower others to grow personally and professionally.
Lyn is an active community volunteer serving on various non-profit boards, leading small groups at her church, and volunteering 15 years with the Junior League of Oklahoma City. In addition, Lyn served on the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board for a four-year term.
Lyn has been married to her husband Brad for 29 years and they have two adult children: Emily Richison (son-in-love Erik) and son Ben Watson.
Mentoring + Experience = Growth
Session Description: From her time as an intern during college to the present-day owner of a $7.5M business, Kelsey Raymond has learned many lessons in the areas of marketing, leadership, finance, strategic planning and scaling a team with a positive company culture. Throughout her presentation, Kelsey graciously offers solid tips that you can put into practice immediately for future growth personally and professionally. Her transparency and enthusiasm are refreshing!
Delivered by Kelsey Raymond, CEO/Founder of Influence & Co.
Kelsey Raymond is the Cofounder and CEO of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency with offices in STL, KC, and Columbia, Missouri. Kelsey earned her spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list through dedication, enthusiasm, and a willingness to step outside the box. Her diligence and thirst for learning took her company, Influence & Co., from 2 to 80 employees and landed them on the Inc 500/5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. three years in a row. Kelsey is a passionate supporter of women who helps scores of women entrepreneurs and serves as a mentor to student entrepreneurs.
Chapter and National Awards
Emceed by Molly Hall.
Molly Hall is Executive Director of the Energy Education Council (EEC), a national nonprofit whose members include hundreds of utilities and others dedicated to creating a safer, smarter world. Prior to EEC, Molly spent 14 years as a broadcast news journalist, then was spokesperson for a large electric and natural gas utility.
A long-time member of AWC, Molly has held several leadership positions in the Springfield, Illinois Professional Chapter, and is currently the chapter President.