Women & Worth Summit 2021: Reset. Refresh. Rebuild.

Emily Cegielski is an award-winning multimedia journalist and editor based in New York City, who is the Editorial Director at Worth Media.

Prior to joining the Worth team, she worked as a Senior Editor at the New York Observer, where she built out its Business, Tech and Innovation vertical—refining beats, recruiting expert contributors and leading a team of staff reporters and freelancers. Previously, she worked as Director of Digital Media at High Times, where she drove creation of cannabis-related stories; programmed content; managed social media; planned and executed marketing campaigns for High Times events; covered breaking news; edited content; and led a site redesign.

In the past, she has worked as a staff writer, photographer, designer, copy editor, fact-checker, section editor, managing editor and senior editor for a wide array of newspapers, magazines and websites. 

Gloria Feldt is an acclaimed expert on women, power, and leadership, a bestselling author,
and in-demand inspiring keynote speaker. She is cofounder and president of Take The Lead,
whose mission reflects her life’s passion for gender and racial equality: to prepare, develop,
inspire, and propel women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all
sectors by 2025 by providing breakthrough training, mentoring and coaching role modeling,
and thought leadership for women in business, public service, and professions. Its signature
50 Women Can Change the World program is an immersive version of her 9 Leadership
Power Tools to Advance Your Career customized by industries for women in early career,
midcareer, and executive levels.

She is the bestselling author of four books; the latest is No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can
Change How We Think About Power, the research for which plus her own real world
knowledge forms the core of Take The Lead’s programs. She is currently at work on a book
on the power of intention, writes a weekly column published on Medium, and her podcast is
“Power TO You.”

Prior to founding Take The Lead, she was president and CEO of the world’s largest
reproductive health and advocacy organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of
America, capping a 30-year career with the organization that included serving as CEO of
affiliates in West Texas and Arizona before becoming the national CEO. She is known
for her ability to expand services while turning the organization’s political arm into a
powerhouse.

She has often been called a “practical visionary” for her ability to articulate a big vision
and bring together the people and resources to make it happen, even if others thought it
impossible. People magazine called her “the voice of experience.” She was named by
Vanity Fair one of “America’s Top 200 Women Leaders, Legends, and Trailblazers,”
Glamour’s “Woman of the Year,” She Knows Media Inspiring Woman, Women’s eNews
21 Leaders for the 21st Century, Women Economic Forum Circle of Light award, Texas
Monthly’s Texas 20, Martin Luther King Living the Dream Award, Diversity Leadership
Alliance Diversity First Leadership Award, World Woman Foundation Leader of the
Year, and Forbes 40 Over 40.

She teaches “Women, Power, and Leadership” at Arizona State University, where she
and her husband belong to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council and
for a decade sponsored the “Women of the World” lecture series. Feldt has been widely
quoted as a thought leader and published, including by the New York Times, Washington
Post, USA Today, The Daily Beast, Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Fast
Company, Time, Huffington Post, Glamour, Elle and Ms. She has appeared on CNN,

MSNBC, Bloomberg, NPR, PBS, the Today Show, Good Morning America and The
Daily Show as well as being an in-demand podcast guest on top rated shows such as “So
Money” and “ Secrets of Wealthy Women.” She recently served on the board of the
Women’s Media Center, the Jewish Women’s Archive, and Emerge America and
remains on their honorary boards. She currently serves on the board of Women Connect 4
Good Foundation. She is a member of the New York Women’s Forum, the International
Women’s Forum, and the World Academy of Art and Science and is an advisor to the
ERA Coalition.

Gloria is an awesome chili maker and Pilates practitioner. She and her husband Alex
Barbanell live in New York City and Scottsdale, Arizona; they share a combined family
of six children and 15 grandchildren.

Andrea is a strategist, dealmaker, author and the founder and CEO of Culture Shift Labs (CSL) a diversity and innovation consultancy. She’s been at the forefront of diversity and innovation since 1999.

CSL advises Fortune 500’s, Tech Companies, Investors (Private Equity|Venture|Impact|Family Offices), Non Profits and Private Clients on growth and innovation through diversity and inclusion. Andrea consults with C-suite executives and their teams across a wide range of industries to identify opportunities that deliver social and financial returns.

Andrea conceived the Knowledge + Network Formula to help companies drive tangible outcomes. She also conceived and produces invite-only convenings like the Culture Shifting Weekend. This summit unites over 350 technologists, innovators, investors, tech leaders, CEOs and social impact leaders of color and allies to enable deals and collaborations.

Andrea serves on the advisory council of JPMorgan Chase Advancing Black Pathways and as a Senior Fellow of Social Innovation at Babson College, a top-ranked entrepreneurship business school.

Andrea is a frequent speaker, having moderated or participated in panels and keynotes at Milken Global Conference, National Association of Corporate Directors, Congressional Black Caucus, Association of National Advertisers, Honda Motor Company, Billie Jean King’s Leadership Institute and XCON among others. She has also been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Fortune and on Bloomberg TV.

Andrea is the author of The Innovation Diversity Connection, co-author of Black Is the New Green and 50 BILLION Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership (nominated for a 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work).

Dr. Angela Jackson leads New Profit’s Future of Work Initiative, which seeks to close the career-readiness gap for Americans from low-income backgrounds. Angela’s career started in the private sector leading business development for organizations like Viacom and Nokia. While working internationally, she began to wonder: if multinational companies can deliver their products consistently and with quality at scale, what would it take to deliver social interventions like education and health in a similar manner?

She began to tackle this question by founding Global Language Project, a social venture that aimed to transform how we prepare students with skills to succeed in a global economy and workforce. Angela completed a Doctoral degree at Harvard University, where her focus was on this question, along with the role of scale and strategic capital deployment and philanthropy in systems change initiatives.

Angela’s work with New Profit allows her to marry her research interests with practice. She currently leads New Profit’s $15M Future of Work global fund to invest in entrepreneurs and companies developing innovative technical solutions to upskill low-income and entry-level workers at scale. Angela recently launched a $6 million Future of Work Grand Challenge, powered by XPRIZE and MIT Solve, to rapidly reskill 25,000 displaced workers into living-wage jobs in the next 24 months.

Her work and writing has been featured in CNN, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune and Harvard Business Review. You can read her thoughts on the intersection of race and the Future of Work on Medium and follow her on Twitter at @angjack.

Alicia Levine is Head of Equities, Capital Markets Advisory and Vice Chair of Wealth Management’s Investment Strategy Committee. Alicia oversees the Large Cap U.S. Equity, Equity Trading and Capital Markets Advisory groups and is one of the firm’s leading voices for market analysis and investment outlook. She is the go-to person for client-facing economic analysis, market strategy and asset allocation across the bank.

Alicia is a regular on-the-record source, live broadcast commentator and breaking news analyst for a variety of media outlets including, Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Financial Times, Fox Business News and the Wall Street Journal. She has also been the cover feature on Kiplinger’s annual “Where to Invest” issue. 

Alicia was previously the Chief Strategist at BNY Mellon Investment Management where she identified macro themes, policy choices and economic factors that affect global asset classes.

She joined BNY Mellon in 2016 from Angelo, Gordon and Co., a multi-strategy alternative asset manager, where she served as the Director of Communications. Prior to that, she was a research analyst and portfolio manager at Bentley Capital Management, where she invested in public equities and built long/short portfolios for clients. 

Alicia earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago. She was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship from Stanford University, a post-doctoral fellowship from Harvard University and a research fellowship from the Hoover Institution. Alicia is a member of the Investment Committee for the National Academy of Design.

Flori Marquez is a Founder and SVP of Operations at BlockFi. In this role she currently oversees institutional and retail operations, client service, project management, in addition to our APAC teams. At BlockFi, Flori has built and managed many critical functions including the Trading, Risk, Compliance, Marketing and People Operations teams. Flori has spent her career managing alternative lending products. In the marketplace lending industry, she helped build, scale, and optimize a $125MM portfolio for Bond Street (acquired by Goldman Sachs). As Head of Portfolio Management, Flori managed all operations from point of origination through default and litigation. Prior to Bond Street, Flori helped develop and maintain institutional partnerships at Oak Hill Advisors, a $30B fixed income asset manager. Flori graduated from Cornell University, majoring in pre-law with a minor in economics.

Raeshem Nijhon is the founder of Culture House—a Black-, brown- and women-owned production company where she and her partners, Carri Twigg and Nicole Galovski, produce entertainment forward work at the intersection of pop and politics. Select current projects include premium doc series The Hair Tales with Tracee Ellis Ross and Oprah Winfrey for Hulu and OWN, a Netflix series about women in hip hop, a doc/narrative hybrid series for Disney+, and development projects with Amazon, Freeform and AMC Studios. Raeshem sits on the board for the New York Center for Communications, an organization dedicated to bringing more diversity to the media and entertainment industry, serving over 4500 students from 185+ colleges and universities annually. She serves on the Creative Council for EMILY’S List. Select pro-social work includes partnerships with Planned Parenthood, the National Council for Behavioral Health and the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2021, Raeshem launched the Culture House Consultancy, a resource for networks and studios to engage with a range of experts across issues like race, gender, mental health and socio-economic diversity that require nuance and knowledge when being addressed through entertainment and media.

Recently named one the first 250 entrepreneurs on the Forbes Next 1000 List, Illana Raia is the founder and CEO of Être—a mentorship platform for girls. Believing that mentors matter as early as middle school, Illana brings girls directly into companies they select to meet female leaders face to face.

Illana is a member of the International Space Station U.S. National Lab Education Subcommittee and serves on the National Girls’ Collaborative Champions Board. She has appeared on TV, radio and podcasts and speaks on topics including mentorship, leadership and what girls eyeing – and entering – the workforce are thinking. Illana has also authored 60+ articles for HuffPost, Ms. Magazine and Thrive Global, and her award-winning book Être: Girls, Who Do You Want To Be? was released on Day of the Girl 2019. Her next book, The Epic Mentor Guide, arrives on International Women’s Day 2022.

Prior to launching Être, Illana was a corporate attorney at Skadden Arps and a guest lecturer at Columbia University. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Chicago Law School and lives happily in NYC.

Dia Simms serves as the CEO of Lobos 1707 Tequila & Mezcal, a new independent spirits brand that launched nationally in November 2020. Dia brings an impressive track record of building successful brands, combined with her entrepreneurial spirit and deep expertise in the spirits industry to Lobos 1707.

Simms began her career working for the Department of Defense. Seeking a more entrepreneurial path, she moved to marketing, where she cofounded Madison Marketing, a company that focused around both on-premise and off-premise spirits promotions in the Maryland/DC corridor. After moving back to New York where she was raised, Dia excelled in sales and advertising.

Simms spent almost fifteen years working alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs at Combs Enterprises, starting in 2005 as his executive assistant. She grew within the company while building multiple brands and businesses under the Combs Enterprises umbrella. In 2017, Dia was named President of Combs Enterprises, making her the first president in the company’s thirty-year history. The company had been founder-led by Sean “Diddy” Combs until that point. In her role as President, she oversaw multi-billion-dollar brands under the Combs empire, including CÎROC Ultra-Premium Vodka, Blue Flame Agency, AQUAhydrate, Bad Boy Entertainment, Sean John and Revolt TV. Of note, Dia led the transformation of CÎROC Ultra-Premium Vodka taking the previously unprofitable brand to a $2 billion retail value.

Dia was listed as “One of the Most Powerful Executives in the Industry” by Billboard in both 2017 and 2018, as well as named to the Ebony ‘Power 100’ list. In April of 2018 she was an honoree of the Matrix Awards from NYWIC, as well as named to the 2018 Ad Age ‘Women to Watch’ list and Variety’s ‘Power of Women New York Impact List’. Dia serves on the board for Capital Preparatory Harlem Schools as well as the Maryland organization THREAD, which provides underprivileged Baltimore-area high-school students resources to help foster their academic advancement and personal growth. She often speaks on the importance of diverse leadership and accelerated brand building.

Dia graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Morgan State University. She obtained a master’s degree in Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. Dia now resides in Maryland where she lives with her husband, daughter and dog

Simmone Taitt is the CEO and founder of Poppy Seed Health, a telehealth app transforming the way we care for pregnant and postpartum people with 24/7 text access to doulas, midwives and nurses. On a mission to democratize accessibility, emotional support and well-being for all birthing people, Taitt comes to this work through the highly personal experience of navigating her own pregnancy loss in an inequitable medical system. Prior to Poppy Seed Health, Taitt spent 13 years working on go-to market strategies with early-stage startups Gilt Groupe, SpaFinder and KidPass. She is a deep believer that technology can and should leverage its power to connect us all with radical empathy. Her work has been covered by Fast Company, Insider, The Skimm and many more.