Conference Speakers

Leadership Conference / Conference Speakers

2025 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Connie Mariano

Connie Mariano

Dr. Connie Mariano is used to breaking barriers, used to shattering the glass ceiling. Born to a Navy steward and his dentist wife in the Philippines, Dr. Mariano lived the life of a family in the American armed forces.

Her life has been filled with many achievements: high school valedictorian, graduate with honors at the University of California at San Diego, medical degree from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, and a distinguished 24-year career in the U. S. Navy.

Dr. Mariano has also been the first in the following achievements:

  • The first military woman to become the White House Physician to the President

  • The first woman Director of the White House Medical Unit

  • The first Filipino American in US history to become a Navy Rear Admiral

After leaving the White House in 2001 following nine years and service to three sitting American presidents, Dr. Mariano became a consultant in the Executive Health Program at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale from July 2001 to October 2005.

In November 2005, Dr. Mariano founded the Center for Executive Medicine, a medical concierge practice which provides presidential-quality medical care to CEOs and their families.

An expert in presidential health care including the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, Dr. Mariano is a frequent guest speaker on television and print media on the topics of care to VIPs, presidential disability, travel medicine, and optimizing quality of care. Dr. Mariano is also a former external advisory board member to the committee advising the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on the overhaul of the VA system. She was named in 2024 as a co-sponsor to the Navy’s planned guided Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Telesforo Trinidad (DDG-139), named after Fireman 2nd class Telesforo Trinidad, the only Filipino in the US Navy to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Dr. Mariano is the author of the book, The White House Doctor: My Patients were Presidents, A Memoir, published in 2010 by St. Martin’s Press. Dr. Mariano also hosts two podcasts on the VoiceAmerica network, “House Calls with Dr Connie,” now in its ninth season and “The Widow’s Walk,” launched in February 2023. Learn more at www.whitehousedoctor.com

2023 LeadHERship Conference Speakers

Dr. Safiya NobleDr. Safiya Noble

Dr. Safiya Noble is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of the inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award, and author of the highly acclaimed Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press). She is an internet studies scholar and David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and Professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she serves as the Faculty Director for the Center on Race & Digital Justice and the Co-Director for the Minderoo Initiative on Tech & Power, and where she Co-Founded the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She and her work have been featured in Time, The Guardian, the BBC, CNN International, Wired, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, among many others. Her talks and research focus on the ways that digital media impacts our lives and intersects with issues of race, gender, culture, and technology. Learn more at safiyaunoble.com


ChristinaJ headshotChristinaJ M.Eng. ’06

ChristinaJ is a first generation Indian American. She has a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Drexel University and a Masters in Systems Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. She began her career as a Systems Engineer and then Project Manager at BAE Systems, a large U.S. government defense contractor, where she earned the Meritorious Performer Award and led her team to win the Chairman’s Gold Award in Innovation, the highest award in the global company. In collaboration with Harvard University, she has been published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

ChristinaJ currently lives in Colorado with her family and is the Chair of "Taste of CA" a large multicultural event celebrating each other and our differences. ChristinaJ helps others launch their tech ideas through angel investing. As a general partner with XIA Capital, she explores forward-thinking approaches to AI and sustainability.

A passion for the arts from a young age and classical training in Indian dance led ChristinaJ to found and operate two dance schools, in addition to choreographing, teaching, and performing across the world. She has also won several pageants including Miss India NJ, Miss Millennium Beauty Queen and Miss Asia America and starred in the first Telugu movie filmed in the U.S. An award-winning author, ChristinaJ's debut children’s novel Royal Planet is an intersectional and action-packed adventure. Learn more at christinaj.com


Dr. Johné Parker Dr. Johné Parker

Johné M. Parker is the inaugural Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kentucky. She is a proud Yellow Jacket who received her degrees from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her industry career includes working as a roustabout in an oil field and a process engineer on the manufacturing floor.

Dr. Parker’s research interests are in the areas of systems and control, wireless sensing, intelligent manufacturing and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in STEM. She has mentored many amazingly diverse and talented high school, undergraduate and graduate students in her lab. She is also interested in science and technology policy and was honored to serve as an ASME Congressional Fellow in the Office of Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND, retired) on a wide range of issues from appropriations to emerging technologies. Learn more at www.engr.uky.edu


Headshot of Stephanie LeBlanc-Godfrey

Stephanie LeBlanc-Godfrey '06

Stephanie LeBlanc-Godfrey is the Global Head of Community Inclusion Programs for Women of Color at Google.

She was born in Brooklyn, NY, attended Stevens Institute of Technology and completed her bachelors of engineering degree in Electrical Engineering before starting her career in the finance industry. She then pivoted her career to digital media, where she spent over 10 years in Advertising Operations at major media conglomerates such as Forbes Media, FOX News Digital, and NBC News Digital.


Currently her work at Google is in service of women of color and parents/caregivers to create community where it doesn't naturally exist and to influence the policies, programs and processes that impact their sense of belonging and inclusion at Google. Learn more at www.iamslg.com

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