Tonya Adams Gastroenterologist, Gastro Health (Virginia)
Dr. Tonya Adams is a Board-certificated Gastroenterologist practicing in Fairfax, Virginia. Her clinical areas of interest include Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Video Capsule Endoscopy and general gastrointestinal disorders. She graduated from The Medical College of Ohio, where she was awarded the Pathology Student Fellow Award and spent a year doing clinical research and teaching medical students. Dr. Adams went on to complete her Internal Medicine Residency at The Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and later completed her Gastroenterology Fellowship at Georgetown Medical Center. During her training, among other accolades, she co-authored a chapter in the highly referenced 'Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease' textbook and was accepted as a Poster Presenter at a National Digestive Disease Week Convention. She also served as the only Trainee Member on the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) Committee on Membership Training.
Dr. Adams was the first woman to join the Adult Gastroenterology branch of Gastro Health (Virginia) in 2002 and was named one of Washingtonians "Top Doctors" in Gastroenterology by her peers, after only four years in clinical practice. Since that time, her clinical excellence and community involvement have garnered consecutive year peer acknowledgement by The Washingtonian and other publications in the Washington, DC area. In 2021 alone, she was named a “Top Doctor” by Arlington Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, and The Washingtonian Magazine. Dr. Adams was a previous member of the Washington, D.C. Advisory Board of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), and served in other national leadership roles within the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), to include Chair of the Diversity Committee and Member of the Health & Public Policy Committee. In this capacity, she has presented to members of Congress on the importance of funding support for colorectal cancer screening, moderated sessions at national Gastroenterology meetings, and continues to be quite active in community education programs. Broadening her leadership roles, Dr. Adams is currently the first woman voted to serve on the Gastro Health Board of Directors and is actively involved on both the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Counsel and the Gastro Health GI Women's Network Board. In her spare time she enjoys tennis, cooking and spending time with family. She is notably a lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
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Mary Ann Klimas Director of Marketing Technology and Revenue Operations in the Communications Division, American Chemical Society
Mary Ann Klimas is currently at the American Chemical Society (ACS) where she serves as Director of Marketing Technology and Revenue Operations in the Communications Division. Before ACS, she served in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility at Fannie Mae.
Mary Ann is originally from Michigan and found her way to DC by way of Chicago. She lives in Arlington, VA, with her husband Paul and their rescue dog Louie. She has two sons, Noah and Jack. She enjoys reading books, is an avid Crossfitter and enjoys yoga, too.
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Reshma Puthran Associate Director, FINRA
Reshma has been part of the FINRA family for the past 11 years in the product space. Prior to that, she worked with Vanguard for 3 years. She holds an MBA in Finance and recently completed a certification in design thinking. Reshma enjoys building products that thrill customers.
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Christine Wood Co-Director, Declaration for American Democracy
Christine Wood serves as a Co-Director for the Declaration for American Democracy, a coalition of over 250 national, state, and local organizations working together to pass sweeping federal democracy reform. The coalition's members come from a variety of issue areas - including voting rights organizations, good government groups, labor unions, environmental organizations, faith groups and more. Prior to this role, Christine served as the Field Director for the coalition where she spearheaded organizing work to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, including dozens of nationwide mobilizations and virtual events to demonstrate support for the legislation.
Christine’s background is in issue-based advocacy and electoral campaigns. Prior to her work with the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition, Christine worked on Public Citizen’s Democracy Is For People Campaign where she worked with coalitions in New York State to pass legislation to expand voting rights and secure fair elections.
Prior to that, Christine worked on several elector campaigns, and engaged in campus organizing to secure commitments from Universities to divest from fossil fuels.
Through those experiences, Christine developed a passion for inspiring everyday people to take action, which continues to drive her work today.
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Bhakti Hansoti Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine and International Health, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Hansoti is an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine and International Health at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). She completed her MBChB at Edinburgh University (2006), an Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Chicago (2012), an M.P.H. from JHU (2013), and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town (2016). She has over 75 publications and several research awards and is also a member of the JHU Institutional Review Board. Her work focuses on the intersection of global health, HIV and implementation science. She is the Associate Director for Academic Programs at the JHU Center for Global Health and the Director for the Center for Global Emergency Care. Since March 2020, she has served as the COVID-19 response and critical care senior technical director for the Reaching Impact, Saturation and Epidemic Control (RISE) project at Jhpiego, funded by USAID (RISE COAG # 7200AA19CA00003). In this role, she oversees the critical care COVID response across eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
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Tabitha Moore Owner & Lead Consultant, Intentional Evolution Consulting, LLC
Tabitha Moore is a mother of three and the owner of Intentional Evolution, LLC. She has consulted on identity-based equity for 20+ years, working extensively within mental health, law enforcement, education, and child welfare.
Tabitha earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, the Psychology of Latin America in the Context of Its Language and Culture, from Wells College where she graduated with distinction for her research on women’s identity development in the Dominican Republic. She earned her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Syracuse University and is a licensed Family Therapist. She is completing her doctoral degree in Transformative Social Change at Saybrook University.
Tabitha is the founding president of the Rutland Area Branch of the NAACP and serves as a Cultural Equity Editor for the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Tabitha was awarded the Rights and Democracy Human Rights Award (2020), NAACP Rutland Lifetime Achievement Award (2021), and the Wells College Outstanding Young Alumnae Award (2021).
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Lisa Singleton Director of Student Activities, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School
Lisa Singleton is the Director of Student Activities at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. Her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater from Catholic University brought her to Visitation as a dance and public speaking teacher. Lisa began to work with students outside of the classroom, helping them to develop their passions and leadership skills through the club program and student government. She pursued her master’s degree with a scholarship through the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute to attend the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a MSEd in School Leadership from UPENN’s Graduate School of Education. In her spare time, Lisa continues her love of performing and choreographing with community theater groups in the DC area.
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Emily Vaughn Henry Deputy Chief Information Officer, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
Emily is an experienced transformational leader known for building high-performance teams and achieving results. As the Deputy Chief Information Officer for LAHSA, Emily provides leadership and strategic guidance in critical areas of technology administration, governance technology evaluation, and service delivery. In addition, she manages and ensures LAHSA’s IT and Data Management priorities align with agency operations to improve cost-effectiveness, service quality, operational effectiveness, technology trends, and the long-term direction of the agency.
Emily has been in the technology field for twenty-five-plus years. Before coming to LAHSA, she was the CIO at La Sierra, VP of Technology at Green Dot Public Schools, CTO at Pasadena Unified School District, and CIO at West Contra Costa Unified school district. In addition, Emily has worked in private, local, and state government, K-12, and created a few startups. Also, she worked at 3M developing Biometric technology software and hardware. She was honored as the first woman of color CTO/CIO in education and the first woman of color in California to receive a Laureate for using technology to benefit society. In addition, Emily has received many outstanding leadership awards, including Diane Watson, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Echo Park Community Council, Unocal, and the City of Richmond. She is also recognized as a woman to watch by Women in Technology International.
She was the founder and CEO of the K-12 CIO Institute and Women in Technology. As an advocate of best practices in technology, Emily has worked with several organizations worldwide to align technology with business goals.
Emily has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Redlands, an IT Business Manager Certification (ITBMC) from Belmont University, and a master’s from USC.
When Emily is not working, she volunteers her time, reading, traveling, hiking, and spending time with her family.
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Laura Peña Director of the Beyond Borders Program, Texas Civil Rights Project
Laura Peña is an attorney and activist with a wide-range of legal, policy and advocacy experience in the field of immigrant justice and civil rights. She is a former Obama appointee and federal government attorney. In 2018, Laura publicly disavowed ICE when the family separation crisis hit by writing an op-ed published by USA Today. After eighteen years away, Laura returned to her border hometown to join efforts to reunify families separated by the U.S. government. She currently serves as the Director of the Beyond Borders Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project. Laura’s work has been featured in several media outlets, she has testified at Congress, and she speaks nationally on topics of immigration, human rights and border justice. In 2019, the Hispanic National Bar Association named her Latina Attorney of the Year. Laura lives in Brownsville, Texas with her two rescue dogs, Maya and Dulce.
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Ali Sutton Chief Program Officer, Tipping Point Community
Ali Sutton is the Chief Program Officer at Tipping Point Community, a philanthropic organization working to end poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining Tipping Point, Ali served as the State of California’s Deputy Secretary for Homelessness where she oversaw the state’s interagency council on homelessness and the state’s largest homelessness grant programs totaling over $3 billion in funding. Earlier in her career Ali served as a Senior Advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, focusing on a range of anti-poverty programs within the Administration for Children and Families. Ali graduated with a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California – Berkeley, and received her B.A from the University of Iowa. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her dog, Pasta, and reading. She’ll always welcome a good book recommendation!
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