Dr. Carolyn J. Stefanco is the 11th president of The College of Saint Rose, in Albany, New York. She joined the College after serving as vice president for academic affairs at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia; as the founding dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Stanislaus; as a tenured professor, history department chair, and women’s studies program director at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly); and as assistant professor at Wheaton College (MA). Dr. Stefanco earned a Ph.D. in history from Duke University, an M.A. in women’s history from Binghamton University, and a B.A. in history and a women’s studies certificate from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Her experiences growing up in an immigrant neighborhood in northern New Jersey continue to fuel her passion for global connectedness. Dr. Stefanco was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to the University of Zagreb in Croatia; served as resident director of a London Study Program; created programs for student exchange and faculty research in Honduras, Brazil, Portugal, and Croatia; and worked as a higher education consultant for Saudi Arabia. She is chair of the board of trustees of the American University in Bulgaria, and a member of the board of directors of the International Leadership Association.
She participates at the national level in many higher education associations, including the American Council on Education and the Council of Independent Colleges, and she was recently elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
In the Capital Region of New York, she is a director of Albany Medical Center, an executive board member of Hearst’s Women@Work, and a member of the board of directors for the Center for Economic Growth, where she chairs the work group on Interactive Technology.
As a first-generation college student, Dr. Stefanco is a lifelong advocate for student success. Saint Rose has invested in numerous mentoring and leadership programs for students, and has launched ten new degrees in the past three years, including music performance and cybersecurity at the undergraduate level, and business analytics, computer science, and social work at the graduate level. For her visionary leadership, Dr. Stefanco was recently awarded a Helen Gurley Brown Genius Grant, and the College was invited to join the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network and given a grant of $1.1 million to benefit women student leaders.
Sally Helgesen is a best-selling author, speaker and leadership coach, cited in Forbes as the world’s premier expert on women’s leadership. For the last thirty years, her mission has been to help women leaders around the world recognize, articulate and act on their greatest strengths. She also works with senior teams seeking to build more inclusive cultures.
Sally’s most recent book, How Women Rise, co-authored with coaching legend Marshall Goldsmith, became the top-selling title in its field within a week of publication. It explores the specific habits most likely to get in women’s way as they seek advancement. And it offers powerful practices to help women realize their full potential.
Sally’s previous books include The Female Advantage: Women’s Ways of Leadership, hailed as a classic and continuously in print since 1990, and The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work, which explores how women’s strategic insights can strengthen their careers and their organizations. The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations, published in 1995, was cited in The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books on leadership of all time and credited with bringing the language of inclusion into business.
In addition to delivering workshops and keynotes in corporations, partnership firms, universities and associations around the world, Sally has consulted with the UN on building more inclusive country offices in Africa and Asia and led seminars at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Smith College. She is a contributing editor for Strategy + Business magazine, a member of the MG 100 Best Coaches Network and the New York and International Women’s Forums. She lives in Chatham, NY.
Maren Showkeir is an author and consultant who has worked with organizations of all types and sizes to increase business results through authentic conversations and creating cultures of accountability. She spent the first part of her career as a newspaper journalist, working as a reporter, editor and senior manager in newsrooms at major dailies in Arizona and Florida. She also taught journalism at private universities in Argentina and Peru as a fellow for the Knight Foundation. Her 25 years of experience in writing, managing, and teaching provided rich material for the book Authentic Conversations: Moving from Manipulation to Truth and Commitment (Berrett-Koehler, 2008), which she co-authored with her late husband, Jamie. They also co-authored Yoga Wisdom at Work: Finding Sanity Off the Mat and On the Job (Berrett-Koehler, 2013.) Maren earned a Masters in Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University and a Bachelors in journalism from Arizona State University. She has been a media source for dozens of leading print and online publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Investor’s Business Daily, Huffington Post, Women for Hire, Forbes and CNNMoney. Maren is also a certified yoga instructor, and enjoys traveling, reading, and music. She lives in Phoenix, AZ, near her two grown children and three perfect grandchildren.