Audra Bohannon

Founder, Bohannon Advisory

As a thought leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for over 35 years, Audra has helped individuals and organizations see the possibilities for a better tomorrow. Appreciating differences comes with challenges. Inclusion and equity provides strategic solutions to that challenge by creating cultures where everyone can do well. Audra has served in very focused roles such as trusted advisor, coach, facilitator, guide and, of course, thought leader. It is her deep dedication to those individuals and organizations who want to be better and do better, that keeps her passionate about this important work. It is her transformative power to engage hearts and minds that confirms her commitment to the “potential of all, not just a few.”

Background and Experience

Audra is a publisher and highly sought-after keynote speaker. Drawing on her life and career experiences to stimulate thoughtful conversation, she is fluent in topics related to the empowerment of people with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and race matters.  Whether engaging an industry audience or a global summit, her message that “all people have potential” touches emotional buttons to connect people and creates a lasting, often life-changing, impact.

Prior to founding Bohannon Advisory, Audra was a senior client partner at Korn Ferry. Audra also served as principal at Global Novations, senior vice president of Novations Group, and as partner and business architect of J. Howard & Associates, one of the leading consulting and training firms that established the diversity and inclusion industry.

Susan MacKenty Brady

CEO, Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Susan is the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair for Women and Leadership at Simmons University and the first Chief Executive Officer of The Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Susan has previously published two books on leadership. Her third, co-authored by Executive Chair of the Board of Deloitte US Janet Foutty and Simmons University President Dr. Lynn Perry Wooten,  Arrive & Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw-Hill), debuted in April 2022 and landed on the best-seller list in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today.

Susan also serves as emeritus board member for Strong Women, Strong Girls and as a Strategic Advisor for the relationship technology company, Our.Love.

Susan resides in the Boston area and is the proud Mom of two awesome daughters and two rambunctious Portuguese Water Dogs.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Simmons, Susan was Executive Vice President at Linkage, Inc. a global leadership development consulting and training firm. She founded Linkage’s Women in Leadership Institute™ and launched Linkage’s global practice on Advancing Women Leaders and Inclusive Leadership, and led the field research behind the 7 Leadership Hurdles Women Leaders Face in the Workforce™.

Publications

Featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, Susan is the author of Mastering Your Inner Critic and 7 Other High Hurdles to Advancement: How the Best Women Leaders Practice Self-Awareness to Change What Really Matters (McGraw-Hill, 2018), The 30-Second Guide to Coaching Your Inner Critic (Linkage, 2014), and co-author of Arrive & Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw-Hill, 2022).

See Susan’s Insights below for more details.

Public Speaking & Consulting

A celebrated speaker, Susan has keynoted or consulted at over 500 organizations around the world. She is host of the popular “Better Understanding” podcast series and a sought-after guest expert on leadership across media platforms, including The Gallup Podcast with Mohammand Younis on The Most Important Leadership Skill? Listening.

Download Susan’s speaker kit to learn more about her work and impact and book her as a keynote speaker at your next event.

Bryn Panee Burkhart

Founder & Principal, Bright Evolution Leadership Coaching & Career Management

As Founder & Principal of Bright Evolution Leadership Coaching & Career Management, Bryn Panee Burkhart empowers her clients to move forward in their lives and careers with clarity and confidence.

We are all works-in-progress, and Bryn’s philosophy is that we should seek to evolve and grow in ways that leverage our natural strengths and gives us a sense of purpose. She guides her clients to be intentional about their leadership strategy and to be authentic to who they are – helping them evolve into the next, better version of themselves.

Background and Experience

Bryn also serves as an Executive Coach at Landit, a personalized career platform created to increase the success and engagement of women and diverse groups in the workplace. She is an Executive Coach for IRelaunch, an organization focused on helping people return to work after a career break. In addition, she is a recommended coach at MIT and the MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Bryn holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an Ed.M from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She completed her Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) training through the Co-Active Training Institute and is a PCC with the International Coaching Federation.  She is certified in Gallup Clifton Strengths, MBTI, and Positive Intelligence.

Bryn recently relocated from Boston to Honolulu with her husband, two sons, and sweet mini goldendoodle. As part-Native Hawaiian, she is thrilled to return home to live near her ohana and immerse herself in the aloha spirit.

Suzanne Frazier Wilkins

Coach & Organizational Consultant

Kerry Seitz

Vice President, Women’s Leadership, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Kerry Seitz heads the development of Women’s Leadership programming at Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership. She brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to produce innovative, research-based learning journeys that foster gender parity in organizational leadership worldwide. As a member of the Institute’s leadership team, Kerry is deeply committed to establishing the Institute as a global authority on the intersection of leadership, equity, and inclusion. A Certified Career Coach, Kerry began her work in leadership development as Principal of her own coaching business where she worked predominantly with women relaunching and redefining their career journey.

Outside of work, Kerry enjoys running, yoga, and spending time with her husband, three sons, and (female!) Labrador Retriever.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Simmons, Kerry was Vice President of Learning and Development at Landit, a career development tech startup aimed at democratizing career success. Prior to that role, Kerry was the Director of Advancing Women and Inclusive Leadership solutions and Executive Director of the Women in Leadership Institute at Linkage, a global leadership consulting firm.

Kerry spent the first ten years of her career in the mental health field. She has served as a clinician at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; a researcher at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College; a coalition and program manager for the Support to End Exploitation Now coalition at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County; and an adjunct faculty member in the criminal justice department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Mary Shapiro

Professor of Practice, School of Business, Simmons University

For more than 25 years, Mary has served as an Organization Behavior faculty at Simmons University. She is also an executive trainer and a consultant to public and private companies.

She teaches in Simmons’ M.B.A., undergraduate and corporate programs, where specializes in three areas: team building and leadership, influential communication across diverse stakeholders, and strategic career management.

Throughout her career, Mary has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, private institutions, and nonprofits to create vision, mission, and strategic plans; launch teams with operational infrastructure and project plans, and intervene in teams in crises. She also works with numerous boards of directors in strategic planning and She continues to create and deliver an inventory of leadership development seminars.

Professional Experience

Mary joined the Simmons MBA. faculty in 1993. In 2014, she was appointed to the inaugural endowed position of the Kagen Trust Professorship for Leadership Development where she steered the University in developing a leadership platform to be infused throughout the undergraduate program. She developed “The Communication Styles Diagnostic,” an online tool that has been used by thousands of managers to improve their effectiveness with individuals and teams.

Research & Publications

Mary researches and publishes in the areas of women and their careers, and organizations, and their use of male allies as gender-equity initiatives. Her most recent publication is “The HBS Guide to Leading Teams” (Harvard Business School Press, 2014). She has also co-authored two books, Your Job Interview: An Easy, Smart Guide to Interview Success (Silver Lining Books, 2003); and Take Charge of Your Career (Barnes and Noble Publishing Inc., 2004), which extend an understanding of interviewing and career strategies to include the nuances of gender and many dimensions of diversity.

Darlene Slaughter

Chief Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement Officer, March of Dimes

Samantha Tan

Consultant & Executive Coach

Samantha Tan is a consultant and executive coach in leadership, culture, and group dynamics. She is passionate about women’s leadership and enjoys working across generations and cultures. She helps leaders tap into emerging voices to inform and shape their organizations into the future. She uses the integration of body, emotions, and language to support effective decision-making and sustainable change.

In addition to her coaching practice, Samantha designs and facilitates local, national, and international retreats and off-sites.

Samantha’s work has been published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and she is a chapter contributor to The World Cafe: Shaping the Future Through Conversations That Matter (Berrett-Koehler) where she wrote about creating a culture of learning and care in her birth country, Singapore. Her first career was in strategy and policy development with the Singapore government where she worked on national reform projects in the manpower, arts, and education sectors.

Samantha has a BA in Philosophy from Bristol University in the United Kingdom, a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was a Research Fellow in Leadership at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a graduate of the Newfield Network Certified Coach Training Program.

Samantha lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her family. She loves painting, gardening and yoga.

Lynn Tetrault

Founder, Anahata Leadership

Lynn is an experienced global business leader and board director who is passionate about healthcare, leadership development and the advancement of women. She is the founder of Anahata Leadership, an advisory firm focused on supporting the leadership effectiveness and development of women. A longstanding executive in the pharmaceutical industry, Lynn is currently Lead Independent Director of Neo Genomics Clinical Laboratories and Non-Executive Director of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. She is also a Director of Paradigm for Parit

Elisa van Dam

Vice President, Allyship & Inclusion, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Elisa van Dam brings a wealth of experience in gender equity and inclusion to her role as head of the Allyship and Inclusion practice area. Elisa works with organizations and individual leaders to increase their understanding and practice of inclusive leadership behaviors. In collaboration with other Institute Fellows, she creates and delivers research-based content and programming, based on our proprietary framework that demystifies the Work of the Inclusive Leader™. She is also responsible for developing and delivering engaging learning experiences for women leaders, including leading the development of the Arrive and Thrive Certificate Program for Women, launching in May 2023.

She recently published The Inclusive Leader’s Playbook: The Work of the Inclusive Leader with co-author Susan MacKenty Brady.

Elisa also maintains a private coaching practice, working with women on how to successfully navigate maternity leave.

Elisa lives in the Boston area with her choreographer husband, their young adult son, and a willful rescue cat.