Featured Speaker for February 3rd, 2010

Elizabeth Marcotte is co-owner of five Let’s Dish! locations in Maryland and Virginia. She opened the first meal assembly stores in both Loudoun and Fairfax counties starting with the Ashburn location in 2005.

Under Ms. Marcotte’s leadership, Let’s Dish! has revolutionized the way busy families put dinner on the table. At any of the five store locations across Maryland and Virginia, customers make a month’s worth delicious and nutritious, freezer-ready meals in just two hours or less. Customers can also simply order meals online, and have them made (even shipped across the region!) by the Let’s Dish! dinner experts.

Over the past 5 years, Let’s Dish! has made mealtime a snap for over 90,000 area families. With a new menu each month, many customers return regularly to stock up on such favorites as Shrimp Scampi, Marinated Flank Steak, and Lemon and Dill Salmon or more exotic fare such as Moroccan Chicken with Cous Cous or Fusion Pork Tenderloins. The stores regularly offer special events including monthly date night, parent/kid sessions and more. Each year the company teams up with the local public school systems to provide area teachers with generous discounts and added food items for free. Through the annual October Pink Dish Campaigns, the company has donated hundreds of free dinners to local families who are impacted by breast cancer.   

The company currently employs over 200 people in Maryland and Virginia. Most of who work part-time, flexible schedules so they can manage home and family responsibilities.  Let’s Dish! won Product of the Year from the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce in 2007 and was voted Best Family Friendly Company by Families Magazine in 2009

Ms. Marcotte began her career as a banker on Wall Street, where she worked for Merrill Lynch Investment Banking. She has a degree in Managerial Economics from Union College and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

A decade ago, Ms Marcotte learned that she carries a genetic mutation that causes breast and ovarian cancer. She opted to undergo a prophylactic mastectomy, oopharectomy and reconstruction at that time, and is now known as a cancer “pre-vivor”. Having faced her own diagnosis head-on, Ms Marcotte regularly speaks out to encourage women to pro-actively manage their health care.

For her many efforts in the community, Ms. Marcotte was awarded 2008 Neighbor of the Year by Neighbors International.

Ms. Marcotte has been married for 16 years and lives in Great Falls with her husband and two children.

Featured Speaker for January 14, 2010

Tabetha A. Baume-Chandler is the founder of Facility Technology Services, Inc. ™. Facility Technology Services, Inc (FTSi) provides expertise in Industrial and Government Consulting and Management for Security Program Compliance.  The five divisions making up FTSi are Classified Contract Security Support, SCIF Construction Design and Management, Automated Information Systems Accreditation and Compliance, Technical Surveillance Counter Measures, and Professional Training Courses.

As a Security Professional for over 15 years, Ms. Baume-Chandler supports the federal government and contractors and has advised over 500 companies on physical, facility and personnel security matters, continuity and industrial security investigations. She has also been involved in hundreds of government audits and surveys related to industrial security compliance.

Ms. Baume-Chandler has unique knowledge across the spectrum of Facility Security such as full business security compliance and FOCI (Foreign Ownership Control and Influence) requirements and how they relate to security issues. With her degree in Criminology/ Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland at College Park, she has an in depth security, science and technical writing background lending to her intense need to place policy, procedure, and documentation at the forefront of all work done for her customers.

Her motto is, “repeatability in actions lends to the economy of each process”. A popular speaker on security and women’s related business issues, Ms. Baume-Chandler has extensive experience in personnel and industrial security management, secure building design, federal law enforcement methods and forensic science studies. She studies National Security trends to train Corporate Facility Security Officers to ensure their staffs understand security requirements so they do not miss subtle signs causing someone to compromise classified materials.

Ms. Baume-Chandler is a life long entrepreneur who now devotes much of her time to business development, teaming efforts, her non-profit company (Secure Future Foundation) and speaking to business owners about current security posture.

Featured Speaker for December 10, 2009

Wanda Alexander purchased a majority stake in Horizon Consulting Incorporated in September of 1995, immediately assuming the positions of President and CEO of the company. Her leadership has seen Horizon grow into a 130-plus-person organization and a position (#312) on the Inc500 list of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America.  Horizon provides high volume work flow management, data entry, loan quality control, appraisal management, and due diligence services to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other governmental agencies, multifamily housing owners, and commercial banks.  

 

Ms. Alexander is a native of Washington, DC and is a product of the DC and Prince George’s County public schools.  She is a 1981 graduate of the University of Maryland College Park.  She has over 28 years’ experience in asset management, portfolio supervision and debt restructuring strategies for financially distressed multifamily real estate.  Throughout her career, she has been responsible for oversight management of HUD-insured and/or subsidized multifamily housing properties and is intimately familiar with the factors needed to successfully develop, manage and maintain such housing.  

 

Ms. Alexander’s vision for Horizon has been to create a company that helps clients mitigate the risk of conducting mission-critical operations while reducing expenses.  Since the firm’s inception, she and the Horizon staff have been committed to honesty, integrity, professionalism and hard work in all of the company’s business relationships.  In addition, community outreach is a key component of Horizon’s commitment to giving back to the communities in all the cities where the company operates – Santa Ana, California; Denver, Colorado; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lansdowne, VA and Atlanta, Georgia. 

 

Ms. Alexander has been personally active for close to 30 years with organizations that have created scholarships for minority women, taught investment training to elementary youth, provided direction and leadership to teens and mentored young ladies through and after college.  She currently serves as a mentor to several women who have started their own businesses and attained much success on their own.  She was recognized by the Loudoun County Commission on Women and the Board of Supervisors as one of the Outstanding Women of Loudoun County for 2005.  In 2007, she was recognized by the Small Business Administration as its Women Business Champion of the Year.  In April 2009, Ms. Alexander was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as an Outstanding Minority Business Leader and most recently was selected by Smart CEO Magazine for a BRAVA Award!  In 2009, Ms. Alexander was elected to the Board of Governors for the University of Maryland Alumni Association.  She serves on the Loudoun County Advisory Board for BB&T Bank and volunteers to lecture on Ethics in Business for the Colvin School of Real Estate at the University of Maryland, College Park.  She also established an endowment at the University of Maryland in honor of her parents, Samuel and Grace Alexander.

 

Under Ms. Alexander’s leadership, Horizon’s commitment to understanding customer needs and delivering on its promises for its customers has allowed the company to achieve consistent, sustainable growth.  “I strongly believe that to whom much is given, much is required, and the principles of Horizon are built on this foundation.  At Horizon, the best is yet to come because we must, and we do, act as if it is impossible to fail!”

Featured Speaker for October 8, 2009

 

Carolyn Howell is the Vice President of Dulles Golf Center & Sports Park and has been working for and with its owner Robert Reiver for 31 years. Initially she was the office manager and full charge bookkeeper of his Rockville, Maryland Law Firm until 1997 when he developed the Dulles Golf Center & Sports Park.

As Vice President/General Manager she is responsible for the day to day operation of the year round facility and has elevated the sports park to be named among the Top 100 Golf Ranges in America by Golf Range Magazine every year since 2001. In 1998 Carolyn took on a new role as an event planner when Dulles Golf Center hosted its first company picnic for Grand Hyatt of Washington, DC with 885 guests in attendance. Capitalizing on the tremendous potential for group outings she began forging relationships with vendors, catering professionals, amusement and entertainment companies to provide the best in “one stop shopping”.

In 2006 Carolyn was promoted to Managing Partner of newly launched events division, Fun Company Picnics overseeing more than 200 outdoor events from April to October. In part due to her efforts the company won top honors from the Chamber of Commerce and was named the 2007 Small Business of the Year. Carolyn has been the creative energy behind hundreds of company picnics, corporate outings and teambuilding events themed and customized to the client’s budget and taste.

In June 2009, Carolyn took her event planning to new heights when she won the company’s first government contract and created a carnival and multicultural event for more than 1200 guests on the waterfront in Washington, D.C. bringing together more than twenty vendors and coordinating the efforts of 60+ staffers.

She has been a board member of the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association (LCVA) since 2004 and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Carolyn resides in Maryland with her husband of more than 34 years and is the mother of three children.  

Featured Speaker for September 16, 2009

Dr. Lawson is the founder and medical director of Proactive Wellness Centers, PLC (PWC) of McLean, Virginia. Founded in 2006, PWC is one of the leading Anti-Aging and Functional Medicine specialty practices in the Metropolitan DC area serving patients from Northern Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC and many who travel 100s of miles. The practice reflects her passion to bring an integrative approach to patient care that merges the latest in scientifically-validated treatment protocols with the best of conventional medical therapies. Dr. Lawson specializes in treating men and women with bioidentical hormone replacement, weight management, a functional approach to chronic disease and therapies to reverse the symptoms of aging and enhance overall wellness and longevity.
Dr. Lawson is a diplomate in Anti-Aging/Regenerative Medicine with the American Board of Anti-Aging Regenerative Medicine (ABAARM) a board-certified anesthesiologist, and an avid researcher. She is also a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and has completed a fellowship in Anti-Aging and Functional Medicine. The fellowship program emphasizes a thorough competency in the areas of nutrition, fitness, stress reduction, bio-identical hormone replacement and even spirituality as a necessary basis for optimal health. Fellows obtain a rigorous understanding of the biochemistry and physiology of chronic disease.
The founding of Proactive Wellness Centers, PLC reflects Dr. Lawson’s passion to create and implement a practice that focuses on patient individuality, a high level of doctor-patient interaction and comprehensive patient education. When combined with her passion for continuous research, this approach helps patients achieve the optimal health they deserve.

 

 

8300 Greensboro Drive
Suite 800
McLean, VA 22102

Phone: (703) 822-5003
info@proactivwellnesscenters.com

http://proactivwellnesscenters.com

Featured Speaker for August 6, 2009

Tonya Harmon, Founder of Harmony Information Systems,is a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of information technology experience.  Tonya has an established record of building companies that deliver sustained growth.  Harmony was recently named one of the fastest growing technology companies in the Washington DC-area, with a 356 percent growth rate over five years.  Today, Harmony products are used by more than 15,000 users to service millions of human services consumers.

Tonya is a 2007 winner of the Smart CEO Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs, and was a 2008 nominee for Entrepreneur of the Year from Women in Technology. Tonya is one of only six female CEOs in the Greater Washington DC area whose companies are backed by venture capitalists.

Prior to founding Harmony, Tonya ran her own consulting company, providing strategic counsel to human services organizations across the commonwealth of Virginia with a focus on performance management improvements through the use of technology.  The consulting practice lead to the idea of Harmony;Tonya realized there were few options available for integrated case management and financial management systems for human services agencies. 

Tonya’s entrepreneurial pursuits began at an early age when she founded Computon Computer Consulting Services.  The company specialized in developing personal computer-based software applications for mortgage companies,private schools, and manufacturers.

Tonya is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, in Ontario, Canada.  She lives with her husband and three children in northern Virginia.

Featured Speaker for July 9, 2009

Executive & Team Coach, Organizational Consultant, Facilitator, Speaker, Author

Carole has worked with a wide variety of types of public and private sector organizations.  State Farm Insurance Companies, the Xerox Corporation, the Federal Judicial Center, Baltimore Gas & Electric, NASA, Farmington Country Club, Marriott, and the Prince George’s, Montgomery, and Loudoun County governments represent a sampling of her clients.  She is the co-author of The Leadership Odyssey: a Self-Development Guide to New Skills for New Times (published by Jossey-Bass) and was recently featured in Washington Woman magazine.  She is qualified to administer several assessment tools (DiSC, ALPS, AMSP, customized 360° feedback) as well as Friday Night at the ER, a simulation designed to teach team learning, innovation, and systems thinking concepts, and Best Year Yet!, a process for helping individuals and teams achieve breakthrough results.  Of particular note is her skill in facilitating Appreciative Inquiry, a collaborative change process that is considered one of the most innovative advances in the field of organizational development in the last several decades. 

Carole is a member of the International Coach Federation and is certified as a coach through the Newfield Network.  Currently she is completing the Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching program, a state-of-the-art approach developed by the Center for Right Relationship.

 

Carole is known for her high-energy style and for the warmth and passion with which she motivates individuals and teams to consider new possibilities for their organizations and themselves.

Featured Speaker for June 11, 2009

Lillian Chao-Quinlan is the President of Sportrock Climbing Centers, an indoor rock climbing gym with locations in Sterling and Alexandria, VA.  Sportrock, established in 1994, is the only climbing gym in Northern Virginia with over 22,000 square feet of rock climbing and is nationally recognized for its premier programs, climbing routes and community. 

Prior to becoming President for Sportrock, Lillian was a teacher for ten years in Montgomery and Fairfax County public schools teaching grades 4-6 and as a Consulting Teacher, working with new and underperforming teachers.  During her tenure as a teacher, Lillian was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Japan and selected as a finalist for Disney’s Teacher of the Year.

Lillian graduated Cum Laude from Smith college, MA and earned her Masters in Education from Marymount University, VA. Lillian has been an avid rock climber since 1999 and was featured in Smart CEO (September 2008 -http://www.smartceo.com/files/DCEO.09.08.pdf).  As an Asian-American female in a predominantly male-oriented industry, Lillian shares her philosophy and approach on running a successful business.  
  
Lillian Chao-Quinlan - President
Sportrock Climbing Centers
703.212.ROCK (7625)
www.sportrock.com
lillian@sportrock.com

 

Featured Speaker for May 14, 2009

Barbara Mitchell is a human resources and organization development consultant who is widely known as an expert in the areas of recruitment and retention. She has experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors and has consulted to a variety of organizations around the world.

 

She served in senior human resources leadership positions with Marriott International and several technology firms in the Washington DC area before co-founding the Millennium Group International, LLC (TMG) in 1998. She recently served on the Society of Human Resource Management’s Special Expert Panel on Consulting and Outsourcing in recognition of her expertise and long service to the HR profession. 

Barbara is a graduate of North Park University, Chicago, IL, with a degree in history and political science and has taken graduate level courses at UCLA.

Featured Speaker for April 16, 2009 

Hulya Aksu has been a resident of Loudoun County since 2004. In March of 2007, she was a stay home mom with a 4 months old baby girl and a 6 year old son in the first grade. Her extended family lived 20 miles away in Centreville, most of her female neighbors either worked full time or had children in college. She felt isolated, lonely and desperately bored. With her husband’s encouragement, she started to apply for jobs related to her college degree and 10 years of professional experience in Journalism and Television. She was turned down by more than ten companies for jobs varying from entry positions to mid level management.

She tried to make friends with others moms by attending “mommy and me” work out classes, or day camps with her new baby. She noticed that most women who participated in these activities just sat separately in isolation, participated in small cliques of familiar friends or talked on their cell phones with loved ones and in the end hurried out to their cars. She felt like the new kid in high school.

Hulya realized that what was missing was a sense of community, permanency, and most importantly connection among the residents of Loudoun County. She could either sit back and complain about the situation or take the bull by its horns and submit it to her will. She chose the latter.

She is now an Award Winning publisher of I Am Modern Magazine for Moms with over 90K mom readers in Northern Virginia and carries the title as the Only Reader Generated Magazine in the world that is in print, online and in person. She has 2 children and lives in Ashburn with her husband and children.

What is I Am Modern Magazine for Moms ?
It is a mom’s guide to an upscale life in Northern VA and Metro DC area. It is the answer to every mom in the community who feels disconnected or unaware of what is hot and what is new. It is a mom’s best friend. It provides information, reviews, references, trends and allows women to connect in print, online and once a month…in person.