Women Who Lead
Ashley Rudd co-founded MODA PR in 2020 over what she calls "the ultimate girl dinner" - Caesar salad, fries, and a Diet Coke. The catalyst? Reading Kelly Cutrone's "If You Have to Cry, Go Outside," which gave her the push to leave her corporate
Women Who Lead
Lacy Talton is Partner and Co-Founder of Evergreen & Oak, a global PR and marketing agency headquartered in North Carolina's Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill). The agency specializes in B2B tech, including adtech, healthtech, and martech, and has secured coverage for clients in major publications like
Women Who Lead
Margaret Watts Romney's first students of the day walked into her studio at 6:15am for cello lessons - teenagers in pajama pants, barely able to function. Despite their shared battle with circadian rhythms, they had a job to do. The parents were paying her to somehow get
Women Who Lead
Jane Hales has spent over 30 years building and exiting businesses, serving as a board director, business accelerator coach and mentoring founders. She co-founded Sapio Research, an award winning market research agency inspired by social enterprise principles, and stepped back from day-to-day operations to become an active shareholder and board
Women Who Lead
Mary Axelsen knows what it means to choose courage over comfort, and she's done it more than once. In her twenties, as a single mother and sole provider, she left corporate America to attend college full-time. She worked three part-time jobs, raised her daughter, volunteered, and graduated debt-free.
Women Who Lead
Before her health collapsed, Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell wore productivity like a badge of honor. She was chronically exhausted but called it "being driven." She ignored pain, inflammation, brain fog, and a nervous system that never powered down. She normalized operating at 120% and spiritualized overworking by calling it purpose.
Women Who Lead
In November 2019, Margo Wickersham noticed blood in her urine. She thought she had a urinary tract infection. Three months later, she was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Her first doctor diagnosed her with Stage 1 High Grade Urethral Carcinoma and prescribed BCG therapy. But something didn't feel right,
Women Who Lead
Ishil K. Ozturk knows what most consultancies get wrong: they deliver brilliant strategy, present polished slides, and disappear just as assets hit their most vulnerable phase (commercialization, governance battles, and investor scrutiny). After building her career at the intersection of management consultancy and operating roles at Procter & Gamble and
Women Who Lead
Aneka Johnson didn't plan to become a dog therapy entrepreneur. The idea came to her in the shower. Literally. She had been informally bringing Chubbs, her French Bulldog, into friends' corporate workplaces and suddenly realized she'd "created this cuddle club." That moment of
Women Who Lead
Mandeep Kaur knows what it's like to juggle corporate demands, business ownership, motherhood, and personal wellbeing because she's lived it for over 15 years. As founder of The Positive Mindset Company, she supports overwhelmed professionals and busy business owners to build happier, more balanced lives through
Women Who Lead
For years, Drenusha Salihu adapted to being the only woman in technical IT environments—accepting it as simply "part of the territory" in a male-dominated field. But when she began actively pursuing a career in cybersecurity, the pattern became impossible to ignore. At nearly every training, she was
Women Who Lead
When Smita Tharoor arrived in London in the 1980s with a degree in English Literature and fluent English, she expected her confidence to translate. It didn't. The assumptions she encountered about her intelligence, her accent, and her right to belong planted seeds that would eventually grow into Tharoor