Our speaker line-up.

  • Tamsen Fadal is an Emmy award-winning journalist who took her storytelling skills beyond the news desk. With a passion for authentic conversations, she became a digital content creator, author, and podcaster. Now, her focus is on redefining menopause discussions on a global scale.

    Through her books and podcast, Tamsen shares personal growth insights and engages in thought-provoking discussions. It was her own experience with menopause that ignited her advocacy work and determination to combat stigma and educate others.

    Tamsen is a strong voice for Breast Cancer Awareness after losing her mother to the disease in 1990 and her stepmother in 2021. She is a Board member of Let’s Talk Menopause and is a National Board Member of Best Buddies International.

  • Anna Barbieri, MD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Barbieri is a dual board-certified gynecologist and integrative medicine physician as well as a specialist in menopause medicine. Her passion is personalized, patient-centered, modern and holistic care of women, informed by the most up-to-date women’s health research. From preventive care to complex gynecologic issues, Dr. Barbieri partners with her patients to help them maintain or restore optimal hormonal and gynecologic health. She has special expertise in helping women navigate perimenopause and menopause by focusing on each patient with customized nutrition and lifestyle advice, as well as use of hormonal therapies and non-hormonal interventions.

    Dr. Barbieri is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and is a Menopause Society certified menopause practitioner. She is also a graduate of the Andrew Weil Fellowship in Integrative Medicine and is certified by the American Board of Integrative Medicine. Dr. Barbieri is the founding physician of Elektra Health, a digital menopause education and support company.

  • For more than two decades, Kristy Kade has dauntlessly advocated for the health and rights of women and girls around the world. In roles stretching from local organizer to global CEO, Kristy has sparked both policy and social changes in communities and companies across six continents. Furthermore, her work has helped revolutionize how business is conducted within the social impact sector. As co-chair of the global What Women Want campaign, she turned the once radical notion of “asking women” into standard operating procedure for multiple, leading corporations, governments, non-profits, philanthropic foundations, and UN agencies. For every dollar spent asking and advocating what women want, the campaign saw a $212 return on public and private investment in women’s self-identified priorities. Kristy subsequently founded the World We Want project to further expand and embed the practice across issues, populations, and sectors. Kristy has served as a senior advisor to a host of public health and social justice organizations and alliances, such as the Gates Foundation; Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health; Special Olympics; UNICEF; UNFPA; UN Women; Women’s Business Collaborative; World Economic Forum Women’s and Girl’s Health Initiative; and W7.

     

    Of the changes Kristy has pursued throughout her life and career, she believes those made within the workplace are among the most powerful. As a collaborative leader of teams, departments, and organizations—both large and small—Krisy has transformed behaviors, processes, and structures to make them better places to work for women, and ultimately better at what they do. A highly skilled strategist and facilitator, Kristy is now committed to helping other organizations and leaders enhance their culture and impact. People spend most of their time at work. We remake work, we remake the world. 

     


  • As vice president and chief people officer, Diane Headley leads the organization’s efforts to cultivate a fair and fulfilling workplace. With a commitment to advancing people and culture, Diane brings her knowledge and expertise to every step of the employee experience – strategy development, recruitment of new talent, people and organizational development and employee benefits and compensation. Diane has been at the forefront of driving staff diversity, building equity, and advocating for inclusive organizational practices at the foundation. She plays an integral role in holding the organization accountable to our social justice mission by ensuring that our own policies, practices, and values reflect the just world we strive to create.

    Diane immigrated to the US from Jamaica in 2000. She brings over 20 years of experience in the philanthropic, for-profit, and government sectors. Prior to joining Ford, Diane served as managing director of operations at the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. In that capacity, she oversaw human resources, strategic planning, and operational management for facilities and Information Technology. Diane also held positions in human resource management at the Rockefeller Foundation for 13 years. While at Rockefeller, she established the strategic framework for the organization’s first global diversity and inclusion program. Diane began her career in human resources working for Jamaica Broilers, one of the country’s largest employers.

    Diane holds a master’s degree in human resources management from the New School and a bachelor of arts in psychology from Brooklyn College.

  • Jennifer McCollum is President & CEO of Catalyst, a global nonprofit that drives intersectional gender equity through workplace inclusion from the front line to the C-suite. She is Catalyst’s sixth CEO since the organization was founded in 1962.

    A nationally recognized speaker, consultant, coach, and author, Jennifer is a thought leader with expertise on closing the gender equity gap and inclusive leadership. She is the author of In Her Own Voice: A Woman’s Rise to CEO (Dallas: Matt Holt Books, 2023).

    Jennifer most recently served for nearly six years as the CEO of Linkage, Inc. She led the transformation of the organization, culminating in the sale and integration into SHRM through 2023. Prior to Linkage, Jennifer spent a decade growing businesses within Corporate Executive Board (CEB), now Gartner, and Korn Ferry.

    Jennifer holds an MS in Management and Communications from the University of Stirling in Scotland and a BA in Communications and Psychology from Wake Forest University

  • Samantha Skey is Chief Executive Officer of SHE Media, a top 10 lifestyle media company reaching 74M monthly unique visitors. SHE Media, including the flagship brands SheKnows, Flow, StyleCaster, Soaps and BlogHer, was acquired by Penske Media Corporation in March 2018.

    In addition to the company’s owned and operated brands, the SHE Media Collective represents the largest network of independent publishers and creators in the US. Skey launched the SHE Media Collective in 2016 with a focus on supporting under-represented publishers and creators.

    Throughout her career, Samantha has exhibited a long-standing commitment to the advancement of equity and inclusion through media. In 2023, Skey led the launch of the Future of Health at SXSW bringing women’s health innovation to an international stage. This led to the launch of the Flow Health brand in May 2023. Flow Health is a new digital and live media platform providing content, community, and commerce in service of women’s health.   

    In 2021, SHE Media launched the Meaningful Marketplaces, a community of women and minority-owned publishers and content creators.  The Meaningful Marketplaces (MMP) enables advertisers to buy media at scale, ensuring that independent media receives the economic support to thrive.

    Samantha began her career in digital media and technology over 25 years ago at Interactive Imaginations, a gaming start-up that went public in 1998. She held management roles with CNET, Disney, Alloy Inc. and prior to joining SHE Media, Skey was Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer for clean tech innovator, RecycleBank and joined SheKnows in 2013. In 2023, Skey was selected as a finalist for Digiday’s “Leader of the Year Award”. Over the past five years, Skey has received the “Raven Award” from the Bronx Academy of Letters; the “Leadership Award” from The Sister Accord; a “Corporate Visionary Award” from Folio Magazine; and a “Hall of Femme Award” from DM News. She was named a “Woman to Watch” by Ad Age and a “Top 30 Women in Mobile Marketing” by Business Insider for two consecutive years. SHE Media won the “DEI Driver Award” for Google publishers in both 2021 and 2022 and has been recognized with multiple industry awards social impact advertising.

    Skey serves on the board of directors for The Ad Council, the World Surf League and Acast. She serves on the advisory boards of Digital Ascendant and The Bronx Academy of Letters. Skey holds a BA in comparative literature from Hamilton College where she serves as chair for the Hamilton Career Network. She lives in Princeton with her husband and two children and coaches girls’ lacrosse on weekends.

  • Bradley Schurman stands at the forefront of navigating the complexities of demographic change as the visionary Founder and CEO of Human Change, an entity born from his earlier initiative, The Super Age. With a keen eye on the horizon, Bradley specializes in equipping leaders with the insights and tools necessary to tackle the multifaceted challenges that demographic shifts entail. His expertise is not confined to the realm of demographic consultancy; Bradley also shines as the co-founder of #NewRules, an innovative platform that blends a thought-provoking newsletter with an upcoming podcast. This venture is dedicated to exploring resilience and innovation amidst our era's stark divisions, providing listeners and readers with strategies to thrive in tumultuous times.

  • Cara Stein is Chief Talent Officer and Senior Vice President for NBCUniversal, a newly created position that she was appointed to in June 2011. She is responsible for talent management, including hiring staff and executive development.

    Since joining the company, she has been a trailblazer in how the company hires, trains and retains talent throughout NBCUniversal. Stein and team have developed a series of unique leadership experiences for executives at all levels of the company. Under Stein’s leadership, the NBCUniversal Talent Lab was created with the purpose of creating a more strategic, well-informed and engaged workforce. She has also modernized the traditional employee survey and performance feedback process at the company.

    Stein’s currently re-imagining the early career development programs, including the premier Page Program, NBCUniversal’s longest running franchise. Stein is currently working on a company-wide initiative to maintain and nurture an inclusive environment for women across the entire NBCUniversal Portfolio.

    Stein spearheads the NBCUniversal women's initiative, HERE SHECAN, focused on respect, equity and opportunity for women at all stages of their career at NBCUniversal. In addition, Stein oversees a company-wide DEI initiative, MEET THE MOMENT, which focuses on education and awareness.

    Prior to her work at NBCUniversal, Stein served as partner and television packaging agent at WME, a worldwide leader in the talent representation industry. Stein represented numerous well-known writers and producers for both late night and prime time television series. She also represented actors who built their own production companies, most notably Whoopi Goldberg. Stein also oversaw operations and human resources for the WME New York office during her 25 years at WME and its predecessor, the William Morris Agency, which represented some of the most well-known entertainers of the 20th century. Stein served on the Board of Directors at WMA and subsequently was a senior partner at WME.

    Widely known and highly regarded for identifying talent and developing careers, Stein has been named by The Hollywood Reporter in its Women in Entertainment Power 100.

    Born and raised in Huntington, N.Y., Stein is a graduate of Grinnell College, and she is married to Dr. Barry Rosenfeld, a forensic psychologist and professor at Fordham University. They reside in Manhattan with their three daughters; Jane, Kate, and Anna.

  • Caroline Fairchild is an award-winning journalist and now Editor in Chief at Lean In. As Lean In's inaugural Editor in Chief, she leads strategy for original research, educational programs and editorial efforts always with a focus on advancing women and creating a more equitable world. Prior to Lean In, Caroline was Editor at Large at LinkedIn, where she reported on the prominent voices, trends and issues facing the future of work and gender equity in the workplace. She is also the Founder of Fortune's The Broadsheet, a popular daily newsletter about women leaders. A member of the board of visitors for Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, she was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30's brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers working in media. She is also a sought-after workplace equity expert in media such as CBS This Morning, CNBC, CNN and Yahoo! Finance and frequently presents on building equitable workplaces to teams within Fortune 500 companies. 

  • Denise Pines is at the intersection of health, technology, and film. She’s an advocate for age empowerment and community health who stands at the forefront of midlife wellness for women. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Tea Botanics and the inspiration behind Hot Flash Tea. She founded WisePause Wellness, a platform dedicated to pro-aging health and education. At the helm of the FemAging Project, she provides women’s healthtech research and leads pitch competitions connecting investors with groundbreaking innovations tailored to women aged 40+. In her role as the president of the Osteopathic Medical Board of California and past president of the Medical Board of California, and Board Executive of the Federation of State Medical Boards it puts her at the center of shaping healthcare policies and practices. (www.teabotanics.com; www.wisepause.com; femaging.com; themfactorfilm.com, birthingjustice.com)

  • Deirdre Cooper Owens is an Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut. Before her most recent appointment, she simultaneously directed the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia and headed a medical humanities program at the University of Nebraska. During that time, she was the only Black woman in the country who directed an academic medical humanities program. Dr. Cooper Owens is a popular public speaker, writer, and reproductive justice advocate who is an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer, a past American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Fellow, and a newly elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Advisory Council of SHEAR (Society for Historians of the Early American Republic). Dr. Cooper Owens has won several prestigious honors and awards for her scholarly and advocacy work in history and reproductive and birthing justice. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology won a Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the Organization of American Historians as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history. It has been translated into Korean. She is currently working on a popular biography about Harriet Tubman that examines her life through the lens of disability and a historical monograph about race, medical discovery, and the C-section with origins in Louisiana. 

  • Celeste Warren is Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence.  As the leader for Merck’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence, she is responsible for working with Merck’s global leaders to advance and embed diversity and inclusion throughout the organization to enhance the employee experience and maximize business performance.  Celeste is one of the more tenured Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers in the Fortune 100 companies having held the role for 10 years.  


    She has been recognized for her work in diversity, equity and inclusion including:

    • Black Enterprise’s “Top Executives in Global Diversity and Inclusion”

    • Savoy Magazine’s “Most Influential Women in Corporate America”

    • Diversity Global Magazine’s “Influential Women in Global Diversity”  

    • Diversity Woman Magazine’s: “Elite100” List


    She was also recognized as the Chief Diversity Officer of the Year by the National Minority Supplier Development Council.  


    She serves on the boards of RWJBarnabas Health Systems and Paradigm for Parity.  She is also a member of CNBC’s Workforce Executive Council and World 50’s Inclusion and Diversity Impact Community.  


    Celeste is a published author and her articles on diversity, equity and inclusion have been featured in numerous national and global publications and she has had the opportunity to speak at various events across the world.


    Celeste attended the University of Kentucky where she earned her B.S. degree. She received her master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University.  


    She is the wife of John Warren and the mother of two children, Christina-Celeste and John Steven, Jr. 


  • Ned Godwin is the head of benefit operations at TIAA. In this role, Ned’s key responsibilities include strategic direction and operational oversight of all benefits related functions including health, insurance, wellness, work/life programs and leave benefits.  He also oversees the day to day operations of TIAA’s retirement program.

    Since joining TIAA in 2006, Ned has held a variety of management roles in HR including the startup of the HR Shared Services team, TIAA’s first HR call center and case management system.  Ned was also key in transforming TIAA’s onsite medical clinic strategy into what it is today with 4 onsite locations, a pharmacy, multiple fitness centers and onsite health coaches and behavioral counselors.

    Prior to joining TIAA, Ned held various positions in client implementation and product management for organizations like PwC and Mellon Financial.  His background includes project management, sales, RFP response, knowledge exchange and operations.  He started his career in health plan administration as an intern for the North Carolina Division of Medical Assistance.  

    Ned holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from North Carolina State University and a certificate in Global Benefits Management from the  International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans


  • Asha Hope is the Head and VP, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and will drive sustainable change by infusing DE&I in Bayer’s business processes. In her role, she works to ensure Bayer develops, retains and attracts talent, supports an inclusive workplace and tracks and shares progress in DE&I focus areas. 

    Asha joined Bayer in May 2023 and serves as a member of the U.S. Country Leadership Team, the North America HR Leadership Team and the Global Talent and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Team. She is a dynamic, solutions-driven, results-oriented leader who has helped global companies build diverse and inclusive workplaces. 

    Following her passion and purpose, Asha transformed her engineering background into a career in Human Resources, where she leveraged her strategic solution mindset to benefit a broader constituency. She joined Bayer from DoorDash, where she served as the Global Head of DE&I, developing global strategies to support a more diverse and inclusive organization. She created the company’s first DE&I commitments geared toward improving representation across all levels of the organization by 2025. She successfully integrated DE&I into core people and business processes along the employee lifecycle and added a data-driven model for DE&I to the company’s career site. 

    Prior to DoorDash, she served as the Global Head of DE&I for the International Consumer Business at Amazon, and held leadership positions at Macy’s and Coca-Cola, working closely with leaders, business resource groups, diversity councils and outside organizations to make an impact at the companies and the communities in which they operate.

    Asha earned a Masters of Professional Studies in Human Resources and Employee Relations at Pennsylvania State University, a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology at Alabama A&M University.

     Asha is a native of East St. Louis, IL. In her personal time, she enjoys traveling, listening to live music, attending live sporting events and spending time with her husband Silas and daughter Sydni.

  • Rachel Braun Scherl is a business builder, marketing strategist, women’s health expert, speaker and author.  She focuses on building businesses in sexual and reproductive health, from menopause through menstruation.  Over the course of her career, Rachel has completed hundreds of growth projects for J&J, Pfizer, Merck, among others and dozens of venture-backed start-ups.  In addition, Rachel serves as Chief Development Officer for Pulse, a company with a device and consumable model that is transforming personal care. Capitalizing on her strategic and business growth expertise, she serves as on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards for companies in sexual and reproductive health.  


    As a writer and author, Rachel has authored many articles and a best-selling book, Orgasmic Leadership:  Profiting from the. Coming Surge in Women’s Sexual Health and Wellness.  In 2021, she launched a podcast, Business of the V, with her co-host, Dr. Alyssa Dweck, focusing on the intersection of unmet needs in women’s health AND the businesses being created to respond to them.  Rachel speaks frequently at universities, colleges and industry conferences, including Duke, Stanford, CES, SXSW, J&J and Abbvie. 

  • Mariella Frostrup is one of the UK’s most respected broadcasters and columnists. Her contribution to arts and literature along with her advocacy on gender and social issues have placed her at the forefront of the cultural landscape. She made the ground-breaking BBC1 documentary The Truth about Menopause and she currently presents her own daily show on Times Radio covering issues of the day

  • Omisade Burney-Scott (she/her) is a seventh-generation Black Southern feminist, storyteller, and reproductive justice advocate. She is also the Creator and Chief Curatorial Officer of The Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause (BGG2SM), a Reproductive Justice multidisciplinary narrative and culture shift project focused on normalizing menopause by centering the stories of Black women, transgender, gender-expansive people, and other marginalized groups of the Global Majority.

    BGG2SM creates peer learning exchanges to normalize the menopause experience for Black people globally. They are expanding their work with marginalized communities to amplify the voices of formerly incarcerated, differently-abled, and neurodivergent individuals. They partner with social justice organizations, cultural organizers, and creatives engaged in advocacy and policy change work.

    Over the past 25 years, Omisade’s work has been grounded in social justice movement spaces focused on the liberation of marginalized people, beginning with her own community in the areas of racial, economic, reproductive and healing justice.

    She is a member of the 1999-2001 class of the William C. Friday Fellows for Human Relations, a 2003 Southeastern Council on Foundation’s Hull Fellow and a founding member NGAAP, the Next Generation of African American Philanthropy giving circle.

    In 2023, she was selected for the Open Society Foundation's Soros Justice Fellowship to elevate the stories of formerly incarcerated and system-impacted people. Omisade has served on various nonprofit boards, including Fund for Southern Communities, Spirithouse South, Village of Wisdom, Working Films, and The Beautiful Project. She currently serves on the board of the National Menopause Foundation and the Honey Pot Company Pulse Panel. She is a 1989 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.

  • Joanne Stone, MD, MS, is the System Chair of the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Stone is a well-known expert in the field of maternal-fetal medicine and previously served as the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division Director and Fellowship Director for the Mount Sinai Health System. Currently, she serves as the Director of the Mount Sinai-Rainbow Clinic that provides enhanced prenatal care following stillbirth.


    Dr. Stone’s clinical interests are in multiple gestations, perinatal loss, prenatal diagnosis, and invasive fetal procedures. Her research interests span the gamut of multifetal pregnancies, labor induction, and ultrasound. She has also conducted several randomized trials, expanding knowledge on the important topics of cervical ripening, safe labor induction, and reducing surgical site infections in patients undergoing scheduled cesarean deliveries. She currently serves as the co-Principal Investigator for the Generation C Study, evaluating pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Stone continues to have a busy consultative and clinical practice, specializing in the care of high-risk pregnancies, as well as being active in teaching. 


    Dr. Stone is a Past-President of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) and serves on the Board for the Foundation for SMFM. She also serves on the Board of the Gottesfeld-Hohler Memorial Foundation, the PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy Advisory Board, and is Chair of the Sonography Community for the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM). She previously served on the Executive Board of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Dr. Stone currently serves as the immediate past President for Mount Sinai Faculty Council. She also was the recipient of the prestigious Jacobi Medallion at Mount Sinai in 2022. Dr. Stone is an associate editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the co-author of the books Pregnancy for Dummies and The Pregnancy Bible. She has been named both a Castle Connolly/New York Magazine Top Doctor and a New York Times Magazine Super Doctor each year for more than a decade.


    Dr. Stone received her medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency and fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and continued as full-time faculty. She also holds a master’s degree in healthcare delivery and leadership from Icahn Mount Sinai.


  • Marcy Lynn Karin is a law professor, scholar, advocate and Director of the Legislation and Civil Rights Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia.  Through the Clinic, she supervises students’ systemic reform work at the intersection of gender, disability and racial justice for community-based organizations.  Her scholarship advances social justice for current and former menstruators, breastfeeding workers, domestic violence survivors, people with disabilities, and the military community. As the 2023 Fulbright-Scotland Distinguished Scholar at the University of Edinburgh, she explored “Menstrual Justice at Work and School: Public Policy Lessons from Scotland’s Period Products Law and the UK’s Equality Act.” And she has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, The Ferret, Arizona Republic, Law360, and Ms., among others..

  • Leslee J. Shaw, PhD, is a leading outcomes researcher whose major focus is clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, including a special focus on sex differences. Dr. Shaw is an endowed chair and tenured professor with appointments in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science; Population Health; and Cardiology. She is the Director of the Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute and Vice Chair for Research in the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In her roles, she leads women’s health researchers across the Mount Sinai Health System, including multidisciplinary teams to tackle compelling research issues in women’s health. 


    Dr. Shaw has published more than 1,000 publications and presented more than 500 abstracts in major scientific meetings in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. She has been ranked as one of the top one-percent of clinical researchers with the most highly cited publications (awarded by Thomson Reuters), with an H-index >154. 


    Based on her scientific contributions, in 2009, Dr. Shaw was recognized with the Simon Dack Award for academic excellence from the American College of Cardiology and, in 2013, the Coalition to Reduce Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Award for her research contributions in racial and ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease. In 2013, she received the Woman’s Day Red Dress Award for her scientific contributions to women’s health. In 2020, she was awarded the Bernadine Healy Leadership in Women’s Cardiovascular Disease Award from the American College of Cardiology. Also, in 2020, she received the Nanette Wenger, MD Award from the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, and the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research. Dr. Shaw is a Past President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. She is the only individual having served as president of two medical societies within cardiovascular medicine. 


  • Paige Ross is the Global Head of Human Resources at Blackstone. In this role she oversees human resource management globally for the firm. Ms. Ross brings more than 30 years of experience in talent development and strategic planning across a multitude of industries and geographies.

    Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Ross served as the Managing Director of Talent Management at Centerbridge Partners, with a focus on leading Talent Management across the portfolio companies. She has also held senior human resources leadership positions at Pfizer, Avon and PepsiCo.

    Ms. Ross earned her BA at Stony Brook University and PhD in Applied Organizational Psychology at Hofstra University.


  • Roma Torre’s broadcasting career spans 35 years. A recipient of multiple Emmys and more than 40 other broadcasting awards, she’s best known for her 28 years at NY1  where she was the channel’s midday anchor and chief theatre critic.

    Roma began her television career at Channel 2 News as a writer and producer before moving on to News-12 Long Island, the nation’s first 24-hour local news channel where she anchored, reported, and reviewed film and theatre.

    After five years at News-12, Roma returned to New York City, the first reporter hired at NY1, to become weekend anchor and reporter. She moved up to anchoring the highly rated weekday mornings as well as the station’s award-winning political program Inside City Hall. She co-created and contributed to NY1 On Stage, the channel’s weekly theatre program.

    Besides anchoring NY1’s Your News Now, Live At Noon, Roma’s great passion has always been the theatre. She has seen and reviewed more than 3000 productions, most of them on Broadway.

    Currently, Roma is co-host and moderator of “The 5 of Us”, a weekly podcast alongside four former colleagues.  The five women discuss the perils and pitfalls of the workplace that effect women from early career to retirement. Episodes focus on such issues as age and gender discrimination, work/life balance, menopause, pay inequity and many more.

    Roma is also continuing to critique theater on the website NY Stage Review where she is routinely quoted on Broadway marquees.  

    In 2015 she co-produced a Netflix documentary about the inequities of health care for women in Africa narrated by Meryl Streep entitled Shout Gladi Gladi. 

    Roma is a graduate of Tufts University. 

    A colon cancer survivor, Roma is a staunch advocate of early screening while serving on the National Council of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and as a celebrity ambassador for the American Cancer Society.                                                                  

    In 2019 Roma was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle honoring her for lifetime achievement in newscasting. 

  • Zinhle Essamuah is an anchor for NBC News Daily, the #1 afternoon news program on all of TV, airing across NBC and streaming on NBC News NOW. She is also an NBC News correspondent covering justice, culture and poverty. Essamuah was a 2023 Emmy nominee in the Outstanding Emerging Journalist category. 

    Essamuah’s reports earned NBC News an ONA Award, as well as placed third for the Collier Prize. Her impact reporting into the Acadiana Center for Youth in Louisiana led to the governor signing a bill limiting solitary confinement in juvenile facilities. 

    In 2022, Essamuah led NBC News’ broadcast coverage of the Jackson water crisis in Mississippi, securing exclusive interviews at key inflection points with senators, the mayor, the EPA, NAACP and more. Her reporting developed into the NBC News documentary, Boiling Point: A City’s Fight for Clean Water.  

    Prior to joining NBC News, Essamuah opened the D.C. bureau for NowThis News, as their lead politics producer during the Trump administration. She went on to anchor NowThis’ flagship broadcast KnowThis, a daily evening news show, as well as KnowThis Live, a weekly political interview magazine program. 

    Essamuah’s extensive list of interviews include Vice President Kamala Harris, Serena Williams, Anthony Fauci, Stacey Abrams, Adam Kinzinger, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Vicente Fox Padilla, Al Gore, and more. 

    She holds a dual masters in Media, Strategic Communication, and Documentary Filmmaking from The George Washington University.   

  • Stacy London is best known as the co-host of the iconic TLC show, What Not To Wear. She was a regular correspondent on the Today Show, The Oprah Show, Access Hollywood, The View, and Rachael Ray for many years. Amazon has announced her new TV show with Clinton Kelly called Wear Whatever The F You Want, slated to air in 2025. She served as the spokesperson for Pantene, Dr. Scholls, Lee Jeans, and Woolite. Her book, The Truth About Style, was a NYT bestseller. Stacy also co-founded the brand State Of Menopause to address issues surrounding the menopause experience. She is an advisor to Evernow, a telehealth and menopause treatment platform, and Flow Heath, a media platform for women’s health. She is on The Board of Directors for two non-profit organizations, Chronicon Foundation and Glam4Good. Her experience in the women’s health space propelled her back to fashion to help people in mid-life find a new sense of self-esteem and power in aging. She currently has a fashion brand exclusive to QVC.