Carol Joy Smith (Cjay to many of you) is a college graduate of Norrth Texas State University in Denton, Texas (now the University of North Texas). Armed with her degree and ready to face the world, Cjay has had employment opportunities in the non-profit, medical, entrepreneurial, and retail arenas. In March of 2008, she left a 12-year Human Resource/Community Involvement Coordinator position with the Highlands Ranch Wal-Mart to pursue a life-long dream to own her own business. She currently is the creative force for Different by Design Empowerment Coaching, Inc. her business has a simple yet profound basis: All people are different, yet the same, and possess different God-given gifts and talents that once recognized can uplift and enrich their lives and the lives of others in ways they may have never thought possible.
Proudly sponsored by the following MED Week Partners
Held on Monday, 9/13/10
Qwest, 1801 California Street
13th Floor Conference Room, Denver, CO 80202
Carol Joy Smith
Jasmin Espy
Patricia Lepiani
Lisa Berquist
Patricia Lepiani is the President of Idea Marketing Group. She is an experienced marketing strategist, market researcher, and media planner and works tirelessly to develop client communication strategies and programs that increase clients' brand awareness in the Hispanic markets. She had the opportunity to live, study, and work in Latin America, Europe and the United States. These experiences left her extremely sensitive to cultural variations.
Patricia began her career as a radio and TV producer of prime time talk shows, which provided her with a unique perspective of the media industry and a valuable knowledge of the ins-and-outs of media planning.
Erin Yoshimura is the Executive Director for the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF). Having volunteered for CDBF for seven years, she takes on a larger role of a community event that’s become the largest Pan-Asian celebration in Colorado. Prior to joining the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, Erin established Empowerful Changes ™, a company that focuses on empowering clients to find their voice and stand with vigor through emotional intelligence training, personal branding and career coaching. Because she brings diversity to every room she enters, Erin uses her personal experiences to catalyze cultural awareness.
She’s created training programs, workshops and keynotes for clients including KUSA (Gannett), Raytheon, Making Connections-Denver, National Association of Asian American Professionals, MillerCoors, Colorado State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, National Unification Advisory Council, La Plata County, and the Federal Correctional Institution in Englewood, Colorado. She’s a certified Personal Brand strategist, certified Emotional Intelligence trainer, and a certified coach. Erin has also trained with and assisted for Lee Mun Wah (Color of Fear) of StirFry Seminars, a nationally-recognized master in diversity and communications training. Erin has been appointed by Denver City Council to the Mayor’s Denver Asian Pacific American Commission and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Human Rights and Community Relations Agency.
Erin Yoshimura
Lisa Berquist, founder and president of Embrace The Leader Within, LLC has been coaching and mentoring individuals for over 25 years. Lisa's passion is working with individuals to develop their strengths and reach their personal, team and organizational goals. Lisa has extensive experience building and mobilizing teams that successfully achieved clearly defined goals. Her work in the telecommunications industry focused in many areas of the business including IT, operations, process improvement, project and program management, product management, customer service, and change management. Lisa's training includes Six Sigma as well as Stephen Covey's Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results. Lisa’s leadership philosophy can be expressed in three words: awareness, alignment, achievement.
Lisa is a certified coach through Coach Training Alliance. She is also a graduate of the Women's Vision Leadership Institute, past president of the Qwest Women Diversity Resource Group, and a current member of the Denver Coach Federation and the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce.
Saba Swamy is the CEO of IGS Advanced Solutions Inc. With more than 14 years of leadership, operation and strategic expertise. Saba Swamy has developed a sharp eye for how businesses get bloated with inefficiencies that stifle critical thinking and the execution required for revenue growth. An entrepreneur who has built and sold two companies with revenues measured in the tens of millions. Her passion is to empower other entrepreneurs in start-ups, turnaround and new business initiatives. Currently, Saba’s growing consulting practice is focused on helping organizations become more strategically aligned, to achieve unity of effort for quantifiable performance improvement. Also as a mother to a very precocious 3 year old princess, she empathetically helps other business owners set priorities to create the balance they want between personal life and work.
Saba Swamy
Trailblazers: Women Entrepreneurs of the Next Generation is produced by Angela Norris-Hawkins, Supplier Diversity Manager, Qwest Communications,
and President of
the Alliance of
Black Telecom Professionals CO
Jasmin Espy, President & CEO, Summit Staffing, is an accomplished Colorado business woman with over 20 years of executive management experience. Her key areas of competencies have been in the area of Account Management,Sales and Marketing, Product Management, and Customer Service Center operations. While at Qwest Communications, she was recognized for cultivating and aligning strategically focused organization that consistently delivered value while attaining $1.4 billion dollars of revenue. Now an entrepreneur, Jasmin balances her time between part ownership in an Arby's Franchise as well as in her full-time duties as president and owner of a Colorado-based staffing business. Summit Staffing, located in Denver, Colorado, offers a wide range of sustainable staffing solutions across multiple markets. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Community College of Aurora Foundation and actively serves on their Finance Committee. She also maintains membership with the American Staffing Association, Aurora Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, and the Rocky Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council, where she is currently the Chair of the Minority Business Enterprise Input Committee.
Wanda L. James is the principal and owner of James Foxx Communications, a marketing communications firm that is dedicated to consistently providing innovative marketing solutions through research, message development and media planning and placement. JFC specializes in advocacy and political outreach for both candidates and organizations. Most recently, JFC was retained to manage the Jared Polis for Congress 2008 campaign in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District and the Jay Fawcett for Congress 2006 campaign in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District. Other Political clients have included the new Speaker of the California Assembly, Assemblywoman Karen Bass; Los Angeles City Councilman and former Chief of Police, Bernard Parks; and the City of Los Angeles Small Business Commission. Wanda and her husband Scott Durrah have owned three restaurants in California and in Colorado. Their restaurant, 8 Rivers Modern Caribbean Café, was named 2007 Top of the Town by 5280 Magazine, 2008 Best of Denver by Westword and 2009 Diner’s Choice by Open Table.
Wanda L. James
Tameka Montgomery is the Executive Director of the Denver Metro Small Business Development Center. The Denver Metro SBDC works with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them compete and grow in today's highly competitive environment. As the director, Tameka is responsible for new program development and ensuring that the Denver Metro SBDC is providing quality consulting service and timely and effective trainings. Tameka oversees the operations of three offices and a team of 15 staff and business consultants. Tameka and her team provide consulting services to more than 930 businesses each year and have more than 2000 individuals attending SBDC training events.
Tameka earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Spelman College and the MPA from Columbia University. Upon completion of her MPA, she was a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
