Shannon Turner is the founder of Hear Me Code, an organization offering free, beginner-friendly coding classes for 3000 women in DC. Hear Me Code focuses on leadership development, peer mentoring, and turning students into teachers. In 2015, Shannon was named one of Washington’s Tech Titans by the Washingtonian. She currently serves on DC’s Open Government Advisory Board and on the DCFemTech leadership team.

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant is a large carnivore ecologist with an expertise in using statistical modeling to investigate how anthropogenic factors can influence the spatial patterns of carnivore behavior and ecology. In particular, she is currently studying the ecological and social drivers of human-carnivore conflict, and the influence of fine-scale human activity on connectivity of suitable carnivore habitat. Her current field system encompasses part of The Great Plains in northeastern Montana where she is studying potential corridors to facilitate grizzly bear conservation. Her previous research questions surrounded the ecological drivers of human-carnivore conflict with black bears in the Western Great Basin, African lions in rural Kenya and Tanzania, as well as grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. A native Californian, Dr. Wynn-Grant attributes her interest in wildlife and conservation from the television shows she watched as a child. She was introduced to the field of conservation biology as an undergraduate and is unapologetic about her passion for studying charismatic megafauna. Dr. Wynn-Grant received her B.S. in Environmental Studies from Emory University, her M.S. in Environmental Studies from Yale University, and her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Columbia University. She completed a Conservation Science Research and Teaching Postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on the ecological and social drivers of carnivore behavioral patterns in human-modified landscapes. She is currently a Fellow with National Geographic Society working on carnivore conservation in partnership with the American Prairie Reserve.

Dr. Q, otherwise known as Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Henojosa, is a noted neurosurgeon formerly with Johns Hopkins University and now with the Mayo Clinic. His specialty is Neurology and Oncology. Dr. Q as he is known because of his book, Dr. Q, One Man's Journey, shares the story of his journey from a life of poverty to one of great professional achievement. His story is both different and the same as the story of success and failure of many Americans. One notable difference is the fact that he started his career as an "illegal immigrant". He tried entering this country and was returned three times before he got in as part of President Regan's amnesty program. His undergraduate degree is from Berkeley and medical degree from Harvard.

Charlie is Data Scientist at Storyblocks, an online library for stock media. He helps build data pipelines and visualization tools to help the business understand how users interact with their website. Also a big music fan, he writes tutorials about analyzing music with R on his blog at RCharlie.com. In his free time he likes playing guitar, snowboarding, and video games.

Brian Roberts is the CEO of Croix Connect. He provides "CEO Whisperer" services to small business owners ranging from $5-100M. This service includes advising and coaching CEOs and other executives, and a "connector" to any services they may need. Brian also serves as CEO Peer Group Leader for Vistage Worldwide, where he has four groups of 10-15 executives who work on real-world problems together in a confidential and agenda-free setting. Prior to founding Croix Connect in 2001, Brian had various senior executive roles at various technology companies of all sizes in the 90s. A 15-year veteran of the US Air Force, Brian's favorite assignment was with the White House Communication Agency where he was part of the Presidential Communications Advance team for the first two Reagan-Gorbechev summits in Geneva and Reykjavik. A couple of other highlights for Brian: • He hosted a business-oriented radio show on WMAL in Washington DC 2004-2007 with his most well-known guests being Carly Fiorina and Sandy Weill (former CEO of Citigroup). • He is currently Vice Chairman of the Board, Catholic Charites, Diocese of Arlington and has served on the board for 14 years.

Shana is Chief Marketing Officer at Crowdskout, a CRM and data analytics platform built for advocacy and campaigns. She is also heavily involved in the DC Tech community as co-organizer of DC Tech Meetup, cofounder of DCFemTech, and board member of The Vinetta Project. With over 15-years in marketing and sales at various tech companies–including Blackboard and SocialRadar–Shana has also become a go-to technology commentator for national television networks.

Dr. Campbell Dr. Newton Campbell is a Solutions Architect for artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is a Computer Scientist, STEM educator, and Space Advocate.

Dr. Campbell led R&D groups at Raytheon BBN Technologies in the areas of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence for cyber-physical systems. He served as both a technical lead and a principal investigator for multiple DARPA programs and was recognized as a DARPA Riser in 2015. He has worked directly with US Government program managers to aid in transition of newly developed technologies across government organizations. His research interests include Internet privacy, network science, and applications of artificial intelligence to dynamical systems in the fundamental sciences. Recently, he served as the technical lead for a NASA Space Network software engineering project.

While working full-time at BBN, Dr. Campbell completed his PhD in Computer Science part-time at Nova Southeastern University. He regularly coordinates STEM activities with schools in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area. He is also an active member of the Planetary Society, the Philosophical Society of Washington, and IEEE.

Twitter:Newtoh20

Tammy Ashraf has an educational background in Information Technology, Computer Information Systems, and Mathematics from the State University of New York. She has worked in a technical, research and project management capacity for a variety of STEM fields. She specializes in educational technologies, STEM program development, information technology operations, DevOps, agile project management, computer and aerospace engineering, geographic information systems, earth science, mathematics and big data analytics. She is an avid space enthusiast and is passionate about using collaborative leadership to engage people and organizations in projects that bring positive impact to high-need communities.

IG: Tamsterphoto

Marketers use TrackMaven to measure and improve performance across every channel — so they can tie the details to the big picture.

Used by the NBA, Microsoft, Saks Fifth Avenue, and many more

Graduated from George Washington University with a degree in Political Science. Graduated summa cum laude - Board of Trustees Scholar - Luther Rice Fellow - Co-authored research on public corruption that was published in the journal Public Integrity

Prior employment included Co-founder and Partner of Acceleprise; Splash Networks; and CMO, EmployInsight

Kathleen McShane is responsible for overseeing Women’s Business Centers throughout the country. These centers offer counseling, training and mentorship to women who want to launch or expand their business. She provides advice, assistance and support to promote, coordinate, and monitor the efforts of the Federal government to establish, preserve, and strengthen women-owned business. She recognizes the economic value that female-owned businesses contribute to the economy.

Prior to joining the SBA, she was CEO and Founder of Ladies Launch Club a company that provided guidance to women who wanted to launch a business.

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates presented McShane with Award of Honor from the National Business and Disability Council. McShane was awarded the Outstanding Woman of the Year Award from the Connecticut Chapter of National Association of Women Business Owners and the CBS News Radio Small Business Award.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston University.

Franziska oversees the strategy development for genomic test integrations at Inova’s Center for Personalized Health. She is the co-creator of MediMap an innovative pharmacogenomic testing experience. With more than ten year of healthcare experience and a deep understanding of precision medicine she has become a thought leader and requested speaker in the field. She is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Washington Health and Life Sciences Innovator of the Year award and the George Mason University Exemplar award.

Fran has her Masters from the University of Maryland in Business Administration and additional studies in genetics and genomics from Harvard. In addition to serving on national panels and board, she has published in peer review journals and trade magazines.

Seema Wadhwa is the Assistant Vice President of Sustainability and Wellness of Inova Health System.

Ms. Wadhwa influenced the national conversation on sustainability in healthcare while leading the Healthier Hospital initiative from launch to over 1300 hospitals nationwide.

She began her career as a civil engineer after graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering from Alberta, Canada. Among her accomplishments are the leadership book for the field of healthcare sustainability and a variety of publications on ethics and sustainability. She is a mother of a two year old daughter.

Roger Elvin previously served as Sr. Vice President of Global Markets for LMI. Ervin served as Wisconsin Secretary of Revenue and managed $62 Billion in state finances.

In prior years, he worked as a senior executive 
at the law firm of Foley and Lardner and earlier founded an international consulting firm that advised Fortune 500 businesses on risk management practices in overseas operations. In the early 1990’s, he was appointed US Commercial Envoy to Africa and as 
a senior diplomat in the U.S. Department of State, Africa Bureau.

Roger has also served on a variety of non-profit boards and as an elected member of the local school board. He teaches management courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Business and at the UW Department of Political Science.

Dr. Kirk Borne is a data scientist and astrophysicist who has used his talents at global technology and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton as an Executive Advisor and the firm's Principal Data Scientist since 2015 in the Maryland-Virginia-DC region. In those roles, he focuses on applications of data science, data management, data mining, machine learning, and machine intelligence across a wide variety of disciplines. He also provides leadership and mentoring to multi-disciplinary teams of data scientists. Before coming to Booz Allen, Kirk was professor of astrophysics and computational science at George Mason University (GMU) for 12 years, where he did research and taught students in the GMU undergraduate data science and graduate computational informatics programs. Prior to that, Kirk spent nearly 20 years supporting NASA projects, specifically in the area of space science mission data systems, including a role as NASA's Archive Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr. Borne has a B.S. degree in Physics from LSU, and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Caltech. He is an elected Fellow of the International Astrostatistics Association for his lifelong contributions to big data research in astronomy. In 2014 he was named an IBM Big Data and Analytics Hero. Since 2013 he has been listed consistently each year as a top worldwide influencer in Big Data and Data Science on social media.

Jacqueline D. Griffiths M.D. is a native Washingtonian who earned her undergraduate degree at Yale and her medical degree from the University of Michigan. Her Ophthalmology residency was completed at Georgetown University Medical Center.

She is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist who began performing laser vision correction practically from its inception in this country and participated with the LASIK trials to get the procedure approved by the FDA. She is recognized as an expert in her field and has lectured around the world. Recognized by The Academy of Ophthalmology for her vast experience in the field, she was appointed Chairperson for the Refractive knowledge-based panel of the Academy which develops content for the maintenance of Board Certification.

Carson is the founder Imprint Care, a startup that provides automated behavioral health products created by licensed mental health professionals.

He is also the co-founder of Broadshot.io, which provides data enrichment, lead generation, and lead qualification for sales and business development representatives. Carson studied finance at Penn Start and is a self-taught developer.

Kay Curling SVP of Human Resources Salient CRGT Human Resources as a Calling

• Chief Executive of Human Resource Functions in several organizations
• A history of excellence in health care and benefits appointed to several state boards
• Committed volunteer in the community—including Veteran’s organizations

Tiffany Norwood, President of Tribetian Serial Entrepreneur, Speaker Tiffany Norwood is a serial entrepreneur, including seven start-ups, two IPOs and a patent.

As a social entrepreneur, she was a co-founder and corporate vice president of Ethiopia Healthcare Network (EHN), a non-profit that provides full-service healthcare to low-income women and children. Currently, Tiffany is the Founder and CEO of Tribetan.In this role, Tiffany speaks around the world on the currency of faith and the science of turning imagination into reality- her dream is that the entrepreneurial skill of manifesting ideas is as well known as reading and math. Tiffany has an MBA from Harvard and a Bachelor’s in Economics with a concentration in statistics and electrical engineering from Cornell. She has lived, worked and visited nearly 50 countries.

This program originally aired March 30, 2017.

Taylor Poindexter is a proud UVA Alum, the cofounder of Black Code Collective and currently works at Crowdskout as a back end engineer. She was named one of DC's Top Power Women as well as DC's Top Technologist in 2017. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, snowboarding, working out, and spending time with her two amazing nephews.

She is recognized as DC’s Top Technologist and Co-Founder of Black Code Collective.

Adam Zuckerman—Founder of Fosterly

An entrepreneur, attorney, and MBA, Adam is the founder of Fosterly, an organization which connects innovators and entrepreneurs as they start and scale their endeavors. Over the past seven years, Fosterly has held dozens of events ranging in size and format from ultra collaborative co-working sessions (25 people) to large conferences (1,500+ attendees). Fosterly also conducts the region's largest startup/innovation economy census, and a regional intern match to help local startups connect with students at local universities.

In addition to being an active member of the region's community (e.g, being a member on Washington, DC Mayor Bowser's transition committee) he serves on the advisory boards of other organizations, mentors entrepreneurs and startups, and has been a guest analyst on the topic of business and technology on CNBC.com nearly two dozen times.

Joe Falit, Co-founder & CEO, Yombu Inc.

Joe Falit's Yombu Inc. (www.yombu.com), a biometric payments and rewards company based in McLean, VA. Joe previously worked in the strategy group at JPMorgan Chase and was an SVP at Citibank in New York. He also spent time in management consulting. Joe graduated from Princeton with an A.B. in Public and International Affairs, and he has a Masters in Public Policy (M.P.P.) from Harvard, where he focused on international trade and finance. He enjoys playing poker, chatting about business and politics in Sub-Saharan Africa, and playing with his rescue dog, Macie.

Dave Bowen is the VP of Solutions Development at Measure, the leading commercial Drone as a Service® company. Dave’s team oversees the full spectrum of Measure’s solution catalog and the development of new drone-enabled products and services. In this capacity, Dave works cross-functionally to ensure that the breadth of Measure’s expertise across flight operations, data engineering, and drone engineering is infused into customer-focused offerings that unlock the potential of commercial drone technology for industries including energy, media, telecommunications, construction, and public safety. Prior to joining Measure, Dave spent a number of years working in Japan with the JET Program. He holds an MS in international affairs and business from Georgetown University and a BA from Colorado College.

Byron Bagby, Major General, U.S. Army (Ret)

Helps to Transfer Excellence in the Military to the Private Sector. An honorable career serving the US and now he’s serving as coach to leaders in corporate America.

After serving over 30 years in the Army and being assigned to ten combat units, Chief of Staff, Europe and many other demanding assignments he has a story to share.

By the way, he also has won many awards including the Bronze Star Medal and he’s qualified as an Army Ranger and a Master Parachutist.

David Nguyen

Do you ever dream that traffic lights are synchronized? Hear David Nguyen discuss what he’s doing to make that possible.

Do you ever dream that traffic lights are synchronized? Hear David Nguyen discuss what he’s doing to make that possible. An innovator who in a few years has gone from working at a liquor bottling company, to being an early adopter of E-Commerce, to automotive engineering and starting a tech company to eliminate traffic congestion.

His Story: Manik Rath, CEO

From lawyer, co-founder of a notable IT company, Alion, and to the CEO position. What makes a successful CEO, and along the way, successful in making career choices. How he contributes to the community: Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Association of Corporate Growth, and many others.

Hear about his background and recommendations for the future.

Who Gets the Job: How Boomers and Millennials differ in interview styles and what that says about the person and the job.

Jim Thomas-Host of Secret Sauce, and President of J.E. Thomas Associates, Elizabeth Humphrey-Search, TMG-DC, Louis Montgomery-Leads Korn Ferry’s Mid-Atlantic and South search practice. He also is co-chair of the Chief Diversity Officer practice, Karen Seymour-VP, Challenger, Gray & Christmas

-Liberal arts major to star reporter
-How a Social Science major became a reporter for some prestigious technical publications such as DC Innovates, FCW, Atlantic and more
-Now she writes at least three articles a day on tech Innovation , VC's, and tech industry service providers.

Beth Offenbacker, PhD is a participant in the leadership of Leaders in Energy where she brings her experience in designing learning programs for organizations that allow for employees to develop the skills and talents for positive impact.

Janine Finnell PhD is the Executive Director of Leaders in Energy (LE), which is a global action network advancing clean energy and sustainable solutions.

CEO, Vectrus. Will discuss "His road to CEO" Chuck Prow has over thirty years of management experience is major corporations including General Manager, and IBM. His understanding of technology and the skills that corporations seek set him apart from others. He creates market differentiation through integration of technology and service competencies.

Linda Mathes is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Red Cross in the National Capital Region which includes the District of Columbia; Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William; Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s; and cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park, VA. Ms. Mathes is charged with the responsibility to carry out the mission of the American Red Cross throughout this regional community and to support other communities across the country and around the world.

Steve Clemons is Washington editor at large for The Atlantic and editor in chief of AtlanticLIVE. He is a national security and foreign policy contributor to MSNBC and a senior fellow at New America, where he founded the American Strategy Program and was executive vice president until 2011. Previously, Clemons was executive vice president of the Economic Strategy Institute, senior policy advisor on economic and international affairs to former senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and executive director of the Nixon Center. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on Geopolitical Risk and serves on the board of Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

On this episode of the Secret Sauce, Jim Thomas talks with Hector Velez about hiring and recruiting within the workforce. Hector Velez shares his knowledge and experience within the HR recruiting field and discusses what makes a good candidate.

Perianne Boring founded the Chamber of Digital Commerce building it into the world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry. Perianne was named among CoinDesk’s “10 Most Influential People in Blockchain 2016” and “Top Woman in Bitcoin 2015” for her public policy accomplishments. Perianne is a communications expert and avid public speaker. She has presented at leading industry events including the Consumer Electronic Show (“CES”), Money 20/20, South by Southwest and many others. She also contributes to Forbes through her column, “The Beauty of the Blockchain.” Prior to forming the Chamber, Perianne was a television host and anchor of an international finance program that aired in more than 100 countries to over 650 million viewers. Ms. Boring began her career as a legislative analyst in the U.S. House of Representatives, advising on finance, economics, tax and healthcare policy. Perianne graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics. Raised in Florida, she currently resides in Washington, DC.