Cassandra Cummings is the founder of The Stocks & Stilettos Society, an online community of more than 100,000 women investors. In the past few years, she has inspired women worldwide to invest more than $25MM in assets through her guidance.
Cummings introduces women to the stock market and teaches investing using innovative ways through her programs including The Queens of Capital and The Stock Success Circle.
Ms. Cummings is a financial advisor and has provided investment, retirement and wealth-building strategies to women across the country for more than 15 years and has been featured in Black Enterprise, Business Insider, Essence, Buzzfeed, Robinhood, AfroTech and The Wall Street Journal.
Her forthcoming book, Fearless Finances: A Timeless Guide to Wealth published by Harper Collins helps to break down mental barriers and provide wealth-building solutions for women who are serious about wanting more financial success. Ms. Cummings holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting from the University of Southern California and a Certificate in Women’s Entrepreneurship from Cornell University.
Corporate Profile: Valerie’s corporate career spans over 40 years in Sales with leading technology firms such as IBM, Oracle, and CDW Corporation. Her last position before retirement was Director, Supplier Diversity, at CDW Corporation with goals to drive more spending toward minority and female-owned businesses.
Full Time Profession: Personal Trainer and Founder of VTFit, Inc.
Certifications/Awards/Medals:
Yoga Philosophy: The intention of this yoga practice is to cultivate strength, stillness and endurance in the physical body, intelligence in the mind, and kindness and generosity in the spirit. The practice will focus on the power of the breath as you incorporate yoga flow movements, yoga relaxation poses, and yoga resistance training. Yoga provides the benefits of flexibility, toned muscles and endurance to improve overall health conditioning. Valerie’s approach to Yoga is to challenge more experience Yoga students while educating, encouraging and motivating new Yoga students. Your Yoga experience will prepare you to absorb all the wonderful and enlightening experiences during your time at I Am That Woman Retreat. Valerie looks forward to helping you Escape, Explore and Evolve.
Poolside Swimming Lessons:
Valerie Tyler, a swim coach and certified life guard, has completed multiple open water swim competitions over the last 20 years. She will guide you through a series of swim techniques that will build the following foundational skills:
We do not expect you to master swimming in this one short hour, however, you will leave with more tools that provide water comfort and survival skills. Hopefully this swim orientation experience will encourage you to continue your journey to EVOLVE your swimming skills and embrace the water!
Marguerite Mariama is an acclaimed artist, activist, educator – and noted speaker on issues related to the arts and personal and collective transformation. Black cultural pride and nationalism during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s gave rise to artists such as Dr. Mariama, who used their craft to affirm Black culture as a tool for Black ‘upliftment’. These “cultural workers” launched the Black Arts Movement – where social justice, history, cultural consciousness, the arts, and education intersected.
A trained professional in music, dance, and theatre arts, Marguerite is also a dance/movement therapist, who completed a clinical residency at Manhattan Children’s Psychiatric Hospital in New York City. She is a former professor in the City University of New York (CUNY) and City Colleges of Chicago. Dr. Mariama created the arts integration theory and methodology, Performance Pedagogy®. A personal and collective transformation strategy, it intersects the arts (dance, music, theater, literary and visual) – arts therapies and educational psychology, and employs performance as both an evaluation and teaching tool. Trauma-based in application, Performance Pedagogy is an essential component of her consulting work with adults, students, and communities.
An early civil rights activist, she participated in her first protest event at age 13 with a march against the Willis Wagons, Chicago’s attempt to uphold de-facto school segregation. A documentary, ’63 Boycott, about this event, was on the 2019 Academy Awards short list. Marches and rallies (1966 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Soldier Field) and other experiences during her teen years set the stage for a life of activism that has included work with the Black United Front in Cairo, Illinois, involvement with the Black Panther Party’s Breakfast Program, training with SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee), and the TransAfrica anti-apartheid movement.
Early mentoring was life shaping and included: the tutelage of Dr. Barbara A. Sizemore, the first African American female superintendent of schools; international composer and teacher, Lena McLin – gospel music founder, Thomas A. Dorsey’s niece and protégé́ whose students included singers Jennifer Hudson, Chaka Khan, and MET opera star, Eric Rucker, and others. Dance training was reinforced at Mayfair Academy – Michelle Obama’s alma mater. She played French horn in the Harlan High School concert band led by William Abernathy and appeared in solo features in the dance performing ensemble, Orchesis, under the leadership of Alonza Austin.
Scholarship, in hand, she headed to Southern Illinois University and continued her dance training with W. Grant Gray, a former Martha Graham dancer, who invited Ms. Graham to perform at the University where she regaled the students with her stories and presence. Marguerite co-founded the dance troupe MUWARA DADA, and the group traveled to East St. Louis to study with the legendary Katherine Dunham and her Senegalese drummers and dancers. Turning point: “Sitting at Ms. Dunham’s feet and hearing her stories was awesome; and she reminded us of our social responsibility as young artists. We answered the ‘call’ in performances that made social commentary on the turbulent 1960’s and 70’s. Arriving in New York after graduating from SIU as a HUD fellow, she met and trained with Charles Moore, a former Dunham dancer, and guest performed with his Drums and Dancers of Africa Dance Troupe. Later, she met and trained with yet another Dunham dancer, Lavinia Williams. Still active, she is a member of the Chicago Bulls Basketball Team’s Swingin’ Seniors Dancers.
Marguerite has traveled the world as a national and international big band and small ensemble jazz and blues stylist. She has held artist residencies in Singapore, Taiwan and Shanghai, China. Marguerite has performed with “some of the greatest musicians on the planet” – including her mentor, Jimmy Sigler – music director to jazz great, Dinah Washington. Working together for 14 years, her CD, Wild Women Never Get the Blues…was his final recording. Over the years, acting programs and classes have led to roles and appearances in films, commercials, print, and theatre – including an 8-week run in Chicago in the role of matriarch, Madame Armfeldt, in the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical A Little Night Music.
She narrated the award-winning documentary 70 Acres in Chicago: Cabrini Green and was a contributor to “The Blues” a PBS TV installment on the history of Blues in Chicago, by director Martin Scorsese. Mariama made a cameo appearance in the Chicago segment, Godfathers and Sons. Dr. Mariama is a Southern Illinois University College of Liberal Arts and Science (CoLa) Distinguished Alum, former Illinois Humanities CouncilRoad Scholar, member of the International Dance Council (CID), the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) – and the Smithsonian Institution’s Regional Council (SRC). Marguerite is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA) of which, Vice-President, Kamala Harris, is a Soror.
“Most recently, she has been working with bureaus within the United States Department of State – including International Organization Affairs (IO); Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), and U.S. Missions to the United Nations – on transformational arts education programs, performances, and presentations. For one of them, Dr. Mariama was honored with a rousing introduction from U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Marguerite Mariama produces, presents, and performs worldwide. She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Education/specializing in African American Musical Culture. A member of the Screen Actors Guild and Association for Television and Radio Artists (SAG/AFTRA), Mariama is represented by Stewart Talent Agency, and SMG Speakers.
Dr. Karen Lindsey is a scholar, mentor, speaker, and leadership consultant. She is owner of Lindsey Consulting Group where she provides keynotes, serves as a podcast guest and advises university presidents, corporate executives and non-profit leaders on and reputation management and inclusive leadership practices.
She is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication at Elon University in North Carolina. From 2017 to 2021, she was as a visiting lecturer at Texas Christian University in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication where she taught public relations, strategic writing, inclusive communications, campaigns and intro to university life courses. During this time, she also led a team of career consultants and served as Associate Director for the Center for Career and Professional Development at Texas Christian University. She is passionate about experiential learning to help students transition into meaningful careers after college.
Prior to teaching, Dr. Lindsey was Vice President of the Higher Education sector in the Dallas, Texas office of Edelman, one of the world’s leading public relations firms. Her primary clients included Arizona State University, Denison University, The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. In this role, she and her team helped university presidents establish thought leadership in digital and print media spaces to improve their personal and professional brands. She created crisis communication plans, conducted media coaching, provided overall reputation management strategy and directed the work of account executives in New York, Washington, D.C., Austin, Houston and Dallas.
A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dr. Lindsey has 20 years of corporate communications, higher education, media relations, and marketing experience. She served as Director of Field Development for Northwestern Mutual, a Fortune 500 financial services company headquartered in Wisconsin where she implemented national recruitment, retention, market development programs and led initiatives to recruit more women as financial representatives. Dr. Lindsey held corporate communications, media relations and marketing positions with the Chicago Tribune, U.S. Bank and Wisconsin Gas (now WE Energies). She was a contractor with the U.S. Army where she completed assignments in Washington, D.C. and Wiesbaden, Germany for the Department of Defense.
She is a frequent guest speaker, podcast guest for corporations and professional organizations on the topics of Authentic Leadership, Inclusive Leadership, and Understanding the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Leadership. In 2022, Dr. Lindsey was the was a featured speaker at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) corporate communications conference in Nashville. Her speech was titled,” Are we Woke Yet?” In 2020, she was selected to present at SXSW in Austin, Texas on the topic of the unseen intersections of gender, race, and leadership. She has a TEDx talk entitled: Counterintuitive Career Advice: Three C’s of Career Chaos. She is a member of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), International Leader Association (ILA), a fellow with the Women in Leadership Development Institute (WLDI), and a former member of the National Association for Professional Women (NAPW), the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), and the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers (SoACE). Since joining Elon University in August 2021, Dr. Lindsey has received the first-year faculty Hultquist Award and was named a 2022-2023 Leadership Education Faculty Scholar.
Dr. Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Master’s degree in business/corporate communication from Mississippi College. She has a Doctorate in higher education administration from Azusa Pacific University with a research emphasis on organizational leadership and the influences on the formation and emergence of leadership identity in women of color. She is currently conducting research on leadership identity among Black women within public relations firms and advertising agencies and working on a book chapter related to inclusive leadership.
In her spare time, she teaches fitness classes and practices having a fit mind, body, spirit and career. Dr. Lindsey believes that diversity, equity and inclusion is more than a plan, a workshop or speech. It is about individually embodying our values, connecting our similarities, respecting differences, and acknowledging historic realities.
Highly dedicated, compassionate, patient and positive medical professional with more than 15 years of diverse leadership experience as a physician and executive with significant accomplishments serving in underserved and underrepresented communities. Co-founder of Family Christian Health Center, which now serves over 18,000 patients and provides over 60,000 patient visits per year. Considerable experience in project planning, clinic management, coaching, staff development and training. Strengths include the ability to communicate with decision makers to effectively accomplish goals, creative problem solver and self starter. Additionally, considerable experience as a consultant and motivational speaker, promoting community empowerment through Health Education.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
• Board of Directors, Ingalls Provider Group (January 2010 – Present)
• ECHO Advisory Board Member, U of Chicago (2018 – Present)
• Nominating Committee Member, IPHCA (2018 – 2020)
• Ingalls Population Health Committee Member, UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial (Jan 2018- Present)
• Associate Faculty, University of Illinois, Nurse Practitioner Program (2005 – Present)
• Consultant, Office of the Inspector General for the Illinois Department of Public Aid (2000 – Present)
• National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc, Chicago Chapter, (2020 – Present)
• Member, American Academy of Family Practice (1992 – Present)
• Chairman, Ingalls Memorial Hospital Department of Family Practice (2004 – 2010)
• Vice Chairman, Ingalls Memorial Hospital Department of Family Practice (2000 – 2003)
• Member, American Osteopathic Association (1991 – 1996)
DISTINCTIONS
• South Suburban College, School of Allied Health Professions, Keynote Speaker: 2009
• South Suburban College, Advisory Board of Allied Health Professions: 2009 – Present
• Developed Health Education Program to address hypertension and nutrition in Accra, Ghana, Africa: July 2007
• South Suburban College, School of Allied Health Professions, Medical Director of Medical Assistant Program:
2007 – 2009
• Englewood Family Practice Clinic, Creation and Development of Englewood Adolescent Clinic: 1993 – 1996
• Cook County Hospital, Department of Family Practice, Chief Resident: 1993 – 1994
• Cook County Hospital, Department of Family Practice, Advanced Cardiac Life Support Instructor: 1993 – 1995
• Chicago Defender Top 50 Women of the Year Award 2013
• Harvey Area Chamber of Commerce, Outstanding Community Leadership, 2013
• IOTA Phi Lambda Sorority Inc., Emerald Legacy Award, 2014
• NHS, Neighborhood Leadership Award, 2017
• Crain’s Chicago Business Healthcare Hero 2020, July 2020
Dee is an entrepreneurial leader who leverages strategic and analytical thinking to find innovative solutions that scale businesses. The common thread throughout her career is the ability to drive growth by integrating a deep understanding of customers, operations and untapped opportunities. She is lauded for creating value, developing talent as a strategic asset and driving social impact. Drawing on her varied experience in food & beverage, retail, consumer products, advertising and banking, in 1995, she founded Robinson Hill, Inc. a concessions management firm specializing in retail and restaurants at airports and other non-traditional venues. Dee scaled operations while forging successful joint ventures and partnerships that now encompass over 60+ airport restaurants and retail stores. Brands and partnerships include Hudson Group, Frontera Grill, Ben & Jerry’s, Farmer’s Fridge, Potbelly and Lettuce Us Entertain You. As a former casino and video gambling industry regulator, she has deep expertise in compliance and governance.
Dee serves as a board director for Accel Entertainment (NYSE: ACEL), and as a member of the Nominating/Governance, Gaming and Compliance committees, Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp. SPAC (NYSE: ACAQ- UN) and on the Audit committee, and Wintrust Bank and its Audit and Risk committees. She is chairwoman of PGA WORKS and trustee of PGA REACH, the charitable foundation of the PGA of America; and is a Senior Advisor to Golf Nation. Dee is a board member of the Committee of 200 and serves on the advisory boards of Revieve, AllCampus and Women Business Collaborative. Dee is also a member of EXIM Bank’s Council of Advancing Women in Business. Previous board experience includes the Illinois Gaming Board, Meridian Health Care, Kendall College, La Rabida Children’s Hospital and Fetzer Institute. As a highly engaged board member, she is committed to strategic growth, solution-based guidance and value creation. She has been recognized as a HistoryMaker, Chicago United Business Leader of Color, Private Company Director Magazine’s Director to Watch, WomenInc.’s Most Influential Corporate Director and Diversity MBA Magazine’s Top 100 Women of Influence. She received the Fellowship Open’s National Civic Award and was honored by AMAC with the Catalyst Award.
As CEO of Robinson Hill, she deploys, allocates and manages assets, building necessary capacity vis-à-vis capital, talent development and training for successful market presence. Tailoring comprehensive go-to-market strategies for key audiences has driven business expansion. She spearheaded multiple capital development efforts to fund growth and penetration. Dee is also known for providing clear leadership and cultivating a mission consistent with organizational values. As such, she is recognized as an outstanding operator who drives sales, operational efficiency, innovation and management performance.
Prior to launching Robinson Hill, Dee worked as an Associate Product Director with Johnson & Johnson and
subsequently with Leo Burnett. Prior to this, she worked as a commercial loan officer with AmeriTrust Bank and financial analyst with Northern Trust.
Throughout her career she has authored multiple articles featured in Forbes, WayMaker and Enterprising Women Magazine; and books Stirring Up Good Trouble Cookbook; Snap It! Leading Forward, Living Bravely; and the upcoming Courage By Design (publication date: November 2022). Her memberships include Women Corporate Directors, The Chicago Network, the Chicago Economic Club, and Illinois and National Restaurant Associations.
Dee earned an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business Building a High Performing Business Executive Education Program and coursework in Blockchain Technologies: Business Innovation and Application at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Amy S. Hilliard is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, senior corporate executive, board member,
author, international speaker, and educator. Known as the “Reinvention Specialist”, Amy honed her
skills in retailing, consumer marketing, product development, acquisitions, advertising, general
management, and strategy from experience with Fortune 500 corporations, legacy entrepreneurial
companies, and her own businesses.
A native of Detroit, she is an honors graduate of both Howard University and the Harvard Business School.
The Hilliard Group, Amy’s pioneering strategic marketing consulting firm, has worked with Fortune 500,
nonprofit and international clients for over 25 years to penetrate multi-cultural markets. In 2001, Amy
founded The ComfortCake Company, makers of “Pound Cake so Good it feels like a HugTM”. Amy’s pound
cakes gained national distribution with United Airlines, Walmart, a McDonald’s test market and Home
Shopping Network. She now licenses the intellectual property of the business.
Previously President of Fashion Fair Cosmetics, the global cosmetics company, Amy also held executive
positions with Bloomingdale’s, Gillette, Pillsbury, Burrell Communications, and L’Oréal. Her marketing
innovations to build one of Gillette’s brands into a $100 million-dollar business were documented in a
case study for the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School.
Amy has taught or lectured at top business schools across the country and is now an Adjunct Associate
Professor of Strategy at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, the #1 business school in
the country. She teaches MBA’s how to “Pivot for Success,” a course based on her book published by
Wiley, which is endorsed by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Meta/Facebook, Dr. Wayne Frederick, President of
Howard University, Producer/Choreographer Debbie Allen, and many others, and is also supported by
First Lady Michelle Obama.
Based in Chicago and passionate about her faith, community and health/wellness, Amy is the proud
mother of two young professionals. She served two terms as a Trustee of Howard University, thirteen
years on PepsiCo’s Multi-cultural Advisory Board, and currently sits on the LeanIn.org Advisory Board.
Amy’s blog, Sizzling After 60 – Thriving at Every Stage of Your Life is popular among all ages.
Dancer | Choreographer | Educational Consultant | Registered Yoga Teacher & Yoga Therapist (E-RYT 200, RYT-500, C-IAYT, YACEP).
“Passionate. Empowering. Creative. Healing hearts, minds, and bodies.”
An Arts Integration Specialist, Kimberli travels nationally and internationally – as a Master Teaching Artist for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning in the Arts, and as a United States Fulbright Specialist for the World Learning Program.
Through her original body of work, “Reaching the Kinesthetic Learner through Movement & Creative Dance,” Kimberli conducts workshops and trainings on the use of elements and principles of dance to improve student outcomes in math, science, literacy and more.
A Yoga Therapist in private practice, Kimberli has received the highest level of certification currently recognized by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. A graduate of the Beaumont School of Yoga Therapy, (Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI.), her extensive four year training included a year long clinical externship in the Department of Integrative Medicine with over 1000 hours of mentored clinical live patient practice.
Known for her calming spirit and creative ability to make yogic practices and meditation techniques easily accessible to all persons, Kimberli is the owner of “Spirit Filled YOGA & Wellness”, offering private sessions to individuals and groups. Her most popular special programs include, “Workplace Wellness: Strategies to STOP Stress at Your Desk;” “For Stressed Out Teachers Who Have Considered QUITTING When a Little Self-Care Could Be Enough,” and “YOGA for Young Learners”, ages 3 – 5.
Michelle McKinney Hammond is the president of MMH Ministries. She is the Best-selling Author of over 40 books, selling over 2 million copies worldwide. A popular International Speaker, Vocalist, Relationship Expert, Change Agent, Lifestyle Coach NLP and EFT practitioner.
She has spoken on major platforms ranging from T D Jakes’ the Potters House to the Crystal Cathedral and Walmart Corporation. A former Emmy Award-winning Cohost of the talk show Aspiring Women in the US, she also cohosted TCT’s 3D Woman show.
She has appeared on countless radio and television talk shows and been featured in magazines and newspapers in the US and abroad. She has appeared regularly as a Relationship Expert on major news channels in the US such as WGN News and Fox’s Fox and Friends and continues to appear on major networks in Ghana, West Africa.
Michelle is a featured spokesperson with her own segment on Roma Downey and Mark Burnett’ slightworkers.com and Light TV network.
She is an accomplished Singer/Songwriter/Producer with 7 CDs to her credit. Michelle is also an Actress, appearing in several television series and movies in Ghana, West Africa. She is the visionary and Pastor of Relevance, a unique music ministry based in Ghana. She continues to travel, speak and perform internationally.
