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
The Essential HR Handbook
1654 Oak Spring Way, Reston, VA 20190
http://www.theessentialhrhandbook.com

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.

Featured speaker for March 26th, 2009

Mary created the Curiosity Zone concept and brand, and has run the company since its founding in 2004. She is also executive producer of Swamp Stomp Boogie, an album of educational kids music, released fall 2008.

Mary’s previous work experience includes practicing commercial law; creation, design and build of an $18 million website project; extensive writing projects, including ghost-writing a book for a national television commentator; and consulting work in the area of product development.

Mary graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Government, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She also received her law degree from the University of Virginia, where she was an editor of the Virginia Law Review. Mary was named Loudoun County’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005, and is currently featured on the cover of “How to Do Business in Loudoun County.” She is a member of Loudoun County’s Economic Development Commission, and is a frequently sought speaker on the topics of curiosity and creativity.

Featured speaker for February 12th, 2009

Dr. Grace Keenan was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada and received her medical degree from Memorial University School of Medicine in 1985. Upon successful completion of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. Thomas Hospital Center in Akron, Ohio, Dr. Keenan relocated to Sterling, Virginia and began private practice in 1988. The previous sole proprietorship became Nova Medical Group, and moved from Countryside to its current Sterling location in 1991.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine since 1988, Dr. Keenan serves the community in a variety of capacities, she is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Department of Medicine and an Affiliate Faculty at George Mason University, a Certified Medical Examiner for the FAA, past President of the Loudoun County Medical Society, past medical examiner for Loudoun County and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Medical School. Dr. Keenan is board certified in Anti-Aging Medicine by A4M.

Dr. Keenan is a member of the Loudoun County Medical Society, American Association of Medical Review Officers, American Professional Practice Association, Medical Society of Virginia, American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, and MGMA.

PRACTICE PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Keenan enlists her patients in the process of diagnosis and treatment by careful listening and taking the time to educate and explain how to achieve maximum wellness while integrating the best of conventional and complementary medicine.

Featured speaker for January 8, 2009

About Benita Fitzgerald Mosley

Since March of 2001, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley has served as President & CEO of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). For over twenty-five years, WICT has partnered with cable telecommunications leaders to provide leadership programs and services, and create professional advancement opportunities for women. WICT has 20 local chapters and satellites serving almost 8,000 members across the country. WICT develops women leaders who transform our industry through highly regarded professional events, educational programming and leadership opportunities.

Benita Fitzgerald Mosley manages all activities of WICT to include staff, budget, fundraising, research, programs and events, marketing, member services and the oversight of 20 Chapters. In November 2004, Benita was named “Cable TV Executive of the Year” by Television Week Magazine, an honor she shares with the entire WICT family.

Benita joined WICT after serving the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in a variety of roles beginning in 1995, including, Director of Olympic Training Centers from 1997 – 2000, where she managed the USOC’s largest division with a staff of 175 employees, a $15.5 million budget and all of the athletes, facilities, programs, and operations for all four Olympic training centers around the country. She also served as the Director of the Olympic Training Center in San Diego (1995-97) and Director of all public relations programs (2000-2001).

Benita is a current trustee and past president of the Board of Trustees of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a member of the advisory boards of iVillage and WE: Women’s Entertainment, and serves on the High Perfomance Committee for USA Track & Field.

A world-class athlete, Benita won a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, CA, making her just the second American woman to do so, behind “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, and the first African-American woman to accomplish this feat. Benita was a member of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic Teams, an Alternate on the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, a gold medalist in the 1983 Pan American Games, an eight-time national champion, and a 14-time All-American.

As a result of her many accomplishments, Benita was named “Sportswoman of the Century” by The Potomac News, and was also named by Sports Illustrated as the “Top Female Sports Figure of the Century from Virginia”. She is an inductee into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the Virginia High School Hall of Fame, the Penn Relays Hall of Fame and a charter member of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols Hall of Fame in 2001. Mosley was recently honored as one of 75 former student-athletes chosen to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Southeastern Conference.

In 1996, Benita was honored as one of eight U.S. Olympians to carry the Olympic Flag into the stadium during the Opening Ceremonies of the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. Named “Hurdler of the Decade” for the 1980s by Track and Field News, she was honored with a street named Benita Fitzgerald Drive in her hometown of Dale City, VA in 1987. Benita is a 1984 graduate of the University of Tennessee (UT) with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

Benita’s professional experience also includes an engineering career that began in 1985 and spanned six years in the design and development of software and hardware systems for Navy, Army, and Air Force defense contractors. In 1991, she began her career in sports marketing and administration as a Regional Director for Special Olympics International in Washington, DC. Benita was Program Director for the marketing division of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games from 1993-1995.

Benita is married to Ron Mosley and they have two young children, Isaiah and Maya. Benita and her family reside in Haymarket, VA.