Featured Speaker for June 3rd, 2010

Heidi Kallett is the CEO & President of The Dandelion Patch, a 15 year old fine stationery store with locations in Vienna and Reston Virginia. With oversight of both the day to day activities associated with running a small (but rapidly expanding) business and all purchasing, marketing, personnel and strategic growth initiatives, Heidi is responsible for growing her business by over 425% in the past four years. Most recently, Heidi also launched Wish Special Events as a sister company to The Dandelion Patch. Heidi is well respected in the stationery industry for her visionary thinking and positive attitude. Not coincidentally, she was recently appointed to the prestigious national Advisory Board of the National Stationery Show in NYC.

Prior to her current entrepreneurial life, she was charged with many of the same issues as President of the Junior League of Northern Virginia (JLNV). In this role, Heidi was the principal executive officer, official spokesperson and representative of the JLNV. She was responsible for the operation, achievements and morale of the 600+ women volunteers she represented.

While Heidi envisions making The Dandelion Patch the area’s leading stationery retailer, she also strongly believes that the true definition of success includes playing a meaningful role in the community in which she lives. To that end, Heidi is a community role model and has served/serves on many non-profit Boards, including: the Junior League of Northern Virginia, ChildHelp USA, Volunteer Fairfax, Children’s Science Center of Northern Virginia, Medical Care for Children’s Partnership, Advisory Social Services Board of Fairfax County, Greater Washington Boys and Girls Clubs of Fairfax County, Charity Works and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Most recently, in large part due to her vast volunteer leadership experience in the area, Heidi was asked to serve as a Board Trustee for the Campbell Hoffman Foundation. She is a graduate of the Greater Washington D.C. Cares Board Training Program and a graduate of the Leadership Fairfax Class of 2006.

Her volunteer commitments expand into her professional life too. Heidi serves as a Board member for the Association of Wedding Professionals, NAWBO, and is a member of the Reston Chamber of Commerce, the Vienna-Tyson Regional Chamber of Commerce, e-women network, Sterling Women, Entrepreneur’s Organization of DC, Success in the City, Women in Technology, Executive Women’s Roundtable and the National Retail Federation.

Heidi is often recognized for her energy, dedication and leadership, including “Most likely to make a difference” by the Leadership St. Pete Class of 1999 and as “Volunteer of the Year” by the JLNV in 2000 and again as “Woman of Vision” in 2008. Most recently, she was highlighted in DC Modern Luxury Magazine as one of “Washington’s Most Dynamic Women”, followed by the Washington Business Journal honoring her with their prestigious “Women Who Mean Business” award as a Rising Star. And in 2008, Heidi received international recognition from the Stevie Awards for Women as a finalist as Best Entrepreneur of the Year.

A transplanted Texan, Heidi has a degree in marketing from Texas Tech University. She and her husband, Joel, have two children. Ethan (10) and Jordan (8) both attend The Langley School.

Featured Speaker for July 8th, 2010
Because it’s never easy for a novice to navigate the home remodeling and renovation process, Northern Virginia entrepreneur Mina Fies has developed a company to choreograph all aspects of the project — from concept to completion.

Her Reston, VA-based firm, Synergy Design & Consulting, acts as a liaison between the designer and construction team.  “In previous jobs in the real estate industry I saw firsthand how tough it was for homeowners to remodel their homes,” Mina says. “They simply didn’t have the experience or expertise to know the right questions to ask, which designers and contractors to hire, and what a reasonable budget and timeline should be.”

So in 2008, Mina and her husband Mark — who has decades of experience in retail sales and operations management — created a company to remedy that problem. ”We try to take the drama out of the remodeling process by thoroughly vetting the contractors we work with,” she says. “We manage the project so our clients don’t have to.”

Having worked in the real estate, sales, and design industry since 1994, Mina has the experience to back up her goals. Her enthusiasm is contagious and is frequently interviewed by area reporters.  Mina is also invited regularly to speak publicly to share her insights not only on business, but also about the engaging details and lessons learned from her unconventional upbringing.

To learn more about Mina and her growing business, visit  www.SynergyDandC.com

Featured Speaker for April 8th, 2010

Cate Magennis Wyatt is the founder and president of The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, a four state non-profit corporation dedicated to sharing the heritage in the 180-mile corridor from Gettysburg, PA to Monticello, VA. Previously Cate served in the public sector as the Secretary of Commerce and Trade for the Commonwealth of Virginia within Governor Wilder’s Cabinet and in the private sector as President of Remington International, Vice President of Xerox Development and Vice President of Weston Capital Corporation. She has specialized in developing strategic plans for troubled investments followed by directing the successful implementation of those strategies. In this capacity she led the creation of businesses in London, Moscow and Kazakhstan.

She serves or has served on many Boards, including: George Mason University, Board of Visitors; the University of Richmond Board of Trustees, the George C. Marshall International Center, The Center for Innovative Technology, the Waterford Foundation, Oatlands Plantation, The Women’s Center, Wolf Trap National Performing Arts Center, The British American Project, the Colonial Board George Washington University and Waterford Elementary School PTO.

Cate, her husband and two children reside in Waterford, Virginia.

Featured Speaker for March 11, 2010
Andrea McGimsey was elected to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors representing the Potomac District in November 2007. She serves on the Transportation and Land Use Committee. She previously served as chair of the Board’s Energy and Environment Committee. She also represents the Board of Supervisors on the Transit Plan Advisory Committee and the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board.

At the regional and national levels, Supervisor McGimsey currently represents Loudoun County on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) Board of Directors, the COG Climate, Energy & Environment Policy Committee, the Dulles Area Transportation Association (DATA), and the Route 28 Transportation Improvement District Commission. She also serves on the Climate Communities Executive Committee, the Virginia Association of Counties Environment and Agriculture Steering Committee, and the National Association of Counties Environment, Energy, and Land Use Steering Committee.

She was born in Alexandria, VA, and raised in Springfield, VA. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Masters degree from New York University.

She owns a Loudoun-based business for Internet consulting. From 1998 to 2003, she worked in senior management for America Online.

In 2004, while working for the Piedmont Environmental Council, she founded and directed the Campaign for Loudoun’s Future, a coalition of 17 local groups. She is a former member of the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company and received the 2003 Administrative Member of the Year Award. She also received their Outstanding Community Service award in 2008.

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.