Who Are Guardians
And What Is Their Impact?
Guardian /ˈɡärdēən/ n. keeper,
protector,
provider,
leader
Featured Speakers
Kishshana Palmer
Kishshana Palmer
Master of Ceremony
Kishshana Palmer is a national speaker, trainer, and coach with a 17 year background in fundraising, marketing, and talent management. She’s a supernova on any stage and platforms due to her charismatic and candid delivery. It doesn’t matter if she’s speaking about philanthropy, living your most authentic life, or diversity, the energy she brings to the stage is always entertaining and edifying.
Kishshana is founder of The Rooted Collaborative — a global online community for Women of Color in Fundraising. She’s the author of “Hey, I’m New Here”, the host of the podcast A Shot of Vitamin K, an adjunct professor at Baruch College, a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), a BoardSource Certified Governance Trainer (CGT) and an AFP Master Trainer. When an organization wants to grow, find and retain people on their team, raise money, and more she is the philanthropic fairy godmother they have on speed dial. Her work isn’t limited to organizations, she also coaches social good professionals.
Kishshana is a NYC girl and mother of one wonderful teenage daughter. Kishshana is the epitome of your classic 90's Queens homegirl and quintessential corner office executive. She is your daily dose of Claire Huxtable with a side of Blanche Devereaux.
Lisa Price
Lisa Price
Founder, Carol's Daughter
From humble beginnings in her Brooklyn kitchen, Founder of Carol’s Daughter, Inc., Lisa Price transformed her beloved hobby of mixing up fragrances and creams at home into a multi-million dollar beauty empire.
In August of 1994, Price officially established Carol's Daughter (the company lovingly named after her mother). Initially starting out with a handful of steady customers, those numbers grew in leaps and bounds as women outside her neighborhood and circle of friends began to take notice. Almost overnight, celebrities like Jada Pinkett-Smith, Erykah Badu, Rosie Perez and Halle Berry became loyal customers.
Today, Carol's Daughter sells millions of dollars’ worth of products, having launched an exclusive collection in Target stores nationwide and on Target.com in March 2014 as well as extending into select Walgreens in March 2015. As a culmination to the Carol’s Daughter business trajectory, Price sold her company to L’Oréal USA in November 2014.
Most recently, Price has been appointed as a member of the National Women’s Business Council, an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues that face female business owners.
Price and her husband, Gordon, have two sons and a daughter and live in Brooklyn. When she can find the time (between managing her business and family), Price enjoys going to the beach, reading, crocheting, and watching movies.
Danny Allen
Danny Allen
A seasoned technologist and serial entrepreneur, Danny has been able to turn a passion for change into an assignment at SAP in Tech Diversity; dedicated to finding a self- sustaining method for ethnic inclusion via the natural complement to corporate profitability. He works with all SAP teams, while focusing on partnership and collaboration with our SAP ecosystem partners, customers and schools in three areas:
- Supply (Talent pipeline development and sourcing)
- Demand (Talent outreach, needs exposure and best practice sharing)
- Legislative (Government policy input and partnering).
Youngro Lee
Youngro Lee
Youngro is the CEO/Co-Founder of NextSeed Inc., a technology-driven investment firm open to everyone. NextSeed operates an online investment platform that enables small businesses to raise capital from their community and anyone can easily invest. Prior to starting NextSeed, Youngro was a corporate attorney specializing in private fund formation and private investments around the world. Youngro is passionate about building amazing places in local communities and creating opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Ashley Zanders
Ashley Zanders
Ashley Zanders is a 9-year homeschool teacher and proud product of the New Orleans Public School system. A self-taught student of personalized learning, Mrs. Zanders has independently designed custom curricula for ages 3-9, resulting in top 2 percentile scores across all subjects, and reading levels 6 grades above age. Her whole child approach has produced Louisiana’s top 9-year old classically-trained pianist, state-qualifying swimmers, and performances with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theater for three consecutive years. Dissatisfied with Black history's representation in textbooks, she is currently developing a modern American History curriculum for working parents, scheduled to release in Fall 2020. She is an unapologetic advocate of early childhood literacy and parental involvement. Mrs. Zanders currently lives in Baton Rouge with her husband and three children.
Jacob Allen
Jacob Allen
Jacob Allen is a social entrepreneur, educational justice junkie, and the Co-Founder and CEO of pilotED Schools, an emerging social identity-centered charter school network building exceptional elementary schools while seeking to change state- and federal-level education systems for students living in poverty.
Kwaku Osei
Kwaku Osei
Kwaku Osei is the founder of Cooperative Capital, a community-based private equity fund that enables residents to pool their money together to make promising investments within their community. He was previously an Executive Associate at Rock Ventures where he worked on special projects with Dan Gilbert and served as CEO to Project X LLC, a $1MM+ tech spinout of Rock Ventures. Prior to Rock Ventures he was at Deloitte Consulting in DC, where he focused on technology, business process reengineering, strategic change and communications for various clients.
Judy Reese Morse
Krystal Hardy Allen
Courtney Bass Sherizen
Courtney Bass Sherizen
As an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, Courtney has spent her career developing and implementing strategies that both individuals and teams can leverage for meaningful collaboration and growth. She is currently a People Partner at Google, where she coaches and advises leaders on how to manage and motivate their teams. Courtney began her career as an 11th grade English teacher through Teach For America and has worked as a non-profit leader and a management consultant with Monitor Deloitte. Leading up to the 2008 Olympics, she founded a travel consultancy in Beijing and, in her spare time, had acting roles in a couple of Chinese soap operas. Courtney holds a B.A. in History from Harvard College, a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a Certificate in Organizational Leadership and Coaching from Northwestern University.
Nadiyah Morris
Nadiyah Morris
Nadiyah is a creator of opportunities for individuals where very few quality options exist. She has done just that over her 15-year career, in both the public and nonprofit sectors, utilizing her experience to build innovative systems in workforce development and youth and human services. She is a consummate change manager that effectively (and efficiently) modifies organizational cultures and processes to increase productivity, improve team morale and effectively deliver quality services to all stakeholders and customers. Nadiyah brings to the Camelback team a range of leadership experiences, including serving as the Director of Workforce Development at Ochsner Hospital, Director of Workforce Development for the City of New Orleans, Director of the CP3 Afterschool Zone, and Manager for the Louisiana Office of Social Entrepreneurship, the nation’s first, establishing and supporting the work of innovative organizations across the state. She is thrilled to join the Camelback team where she brings her expertise to lead our new economic development pilot, the Good Jobs Initiative. In her free time you will likely find her in the kitchen cooking her ancestral creole cuisine or curled up reading 3 different books on metaphysics because she has no time to waste — there is only now.
LaTosha R. Brown
LaTosha R. Brown
Co-Founder, Black Votes Matter
LaTosha Brown is an award-winning organizer, philanthropic consultant, political strategist and jazz singer with over twenty years of experience working in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors on a wide variety of issues related to political empowerment, social justice, economic development, leadership development, wealth creation and civil rights. She is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, a power building southern based civic engagement organization that played an instrumental role in the 2017 Alabama U.S. Senate race. Ms. Brown is principal owner of TruthSpeaks Consulting, Inc., a philanthropy advisory consulting firm in Atlanta, GA. For more than 25 years, she has served as a consultant and advisor for individual donors, government, public foundations and private donors. Throughout her career, Ms. Brown has distinguished herself as a trusted expert and resource in political strategy, rural development and special programming for a number of national and regional philanthropies. She is the founding project director of Grantmakers for Southern Progress.
Doll Avant
Doll Avant
CEO, Aquagenuity
Doll Avant is an award-winning data scientist, graduate of Harvard
University, & TEDx speaker, recently honored on Google’s home page with the
global designation of “Google's Woman of Water” for creating the “world’s
largest water database.” Doll is Founder & CEO of Aquagenuity, which has
been recognized by Forbes, Coca-Cola, and WIRED Magazine as the world's
first app using artificial intelligence to help consumers, corporations &
cities protect health by answering the question: “What’s In Your Water?”
In January 2020, Aquagenuity launched the Water Genome Project (alongside
the Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest aquarium), an initiative designed
to map all of the world's water city-by-city, fulfill United Nations
Sustainability Goal #6, and *provide unprecedented insights into water
quality *by using data to bridge the gap in the last mile between the local
water treatment plant and every home’s tap.
Experiences
Once the sessions are finalized, attendees will be invited to custom-tailor their conference agendas.
Daily timeframe
March 3
Guarding Our Inheritance - Kickoff Dinner & Ruthless for Good Awards
March 3rd, 6pmMarch 4
Summit Programming
8am – 4pmMarch 5
Summit Programming
8am – 1:30pmPLUS MORE!
Accommodations
Register
Register for the Guardian Summit Today
$500 - Early Bird SOLD OUT
$750 - Guardian Attendee
per ticket plus processing feesPartners
Presenting Guardians
Guardian Trust
Ruthless For Good
Join us opening night for the Ruthless For Good Awards Ceremony
Honoring Valerie Mosley and Nicole Cardoza
Valerie Mosley
Valerie Mosley
Founder, Worth Wealth
Investor, Valmo Ventures
Valerie Mosley is CEO of Valmo Ventures, which creates, collaborates and invests in companies, assets, and efforts that have significant potential to grow, profit and add value to society. Prior to Valmo Ventures, Valerie was Partner, Senior Vice President and Investment Strategist at Wellington Management Company, LLP, an $800 billion global money management firm.
Host Committee
Wendy Bronfin
Ashley Zanders
President, Wen+Y
Wendy brings a comprehensive understanding of all the elements necessary to build and expand successful consumer technology businesses. She is an executive consultant to leading HealthTech, EdTech, Media and Smart Home companies creating new product and platform strategies for wellness programs, smart homes, and the future of education. Wendy recently led product and marketing at Techstars, the worldwide network helping entrepreneurs succeed. She is former CEO of CreatorBox, a technology-toy startup. Wendy was SVP Consumer Products & Marketing at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and served as GM of NOOK Kids for Barnes & Noble where she led the innovation of the family digital book business.
Wendy is a mentor and advisor of startup organizations and is a board member of Camelback Ventures, supporting diverse leaders in social innovation. Wendy is a founding member of The Mother’s Day Movement, directing funding to impactful projects that help mothers in need.
Kerrien Suarez
Kerrien Suarez
Executive Director, Equity in the Center
Kerrien is executive director of Equity in the Center, a field-wide initiative to influence social sector leaders to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to achieve race equity. A project of ProInspire, EiC envisions a future where nonprofit and philanthropic organizations advance race equity internally while centering it in their work externally. It recently published Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture, which details management and operational levers organizations utilize to transform culture.
Her focus on diversity, inclusion and equity developed through work with Surge Institute, Camelback Ventures, EdFuel and National Black Child Development Institute, where she supported emerging and established leaders and social entrepreneurs of color.
A management consultant with over 20 years of experience, Kerrien led engagements to refine programs and scale impact for national nonprofits, including The First Tee and AARP ExperienceCorps, while at Community Wealth Partners, where she also coached grantees of the Annie E. Casey, Wells Fargo and Robert Wood Johnson foundations on issues ranging from organizational capacity and sustainability to place-based collective impact.
Kerrien is a graduate of Harvard College and London School of Economics. You can follow her on Twitter at @klrs98 and @equityinthectr.
Allen Square
Allen Square
Founder & CEO, Square Button Consulting
As the founder of Square Button Allen Square seeks to create opportunity and jobs through the acquisition and management of companies. Square Button companies are proud to employ and pay a living wage to over 130 predominately black and brown people across the Gulf Coast. Our mission every day is “to create equitable value for our customers, our team and our communities”.
Allen Square brings over 20 years of experience in the consulting, education, IT, telecommunications, manufacturing, transportation, business process outsourcing, and private equity industries. Square has led transformation and program management teams in the public and private sectors that have led to lasting and transformational institutional improvements.
Currently, Square serves as CEO of Square Button and GH Mechanical & Services, LLC(GHMS). GHMS provides design-build and services to mechanical (HVAC; Plumbing) and low-voltage (building automation) systems. Prior to forming Square Button, he served as Chief Information Officer and the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for the City of New Orleans and PosiGen Solar Solutions, respectively. In addition to leading technology in both roles, Square was instrumental in driving innovation throughout the organization. At the City of New Orleans, Square also led a successful consulting team that focused on identifying and capturing revenue and cost improvements.
After completion of an MBA from The Wharton School, Square worked as a consultant with Bain & Company, Inc. Square also holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tulane University and an MS in Telecommunications from Southern Methodist University.
Jodi Brockington
Jodi Brockington
Director of Diversity & Inclusion Sourcing, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
In a word, Jodi Brockington is a connector! Jodi is an experienced consultant who has represented, coached and advised thousands of leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals helping them launch, manage and develop their business. Her management consulting background and strong analytical skills have placed her at the forefront of defining strategies and innovative solutions for non-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies in enhancing their diversity and inclusion and corporate social responsibility practices. As an entrepreneur, she has guided non-profits, companies and business leaders to acquire financial and human capital to improve their bottom line.
In addition, Jodi is responsible for developing a pipeline of diverse talent and acquire the most qualified candidates as the Director of Diversity & Inclusion Sourcing for the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry. From operating facilities and data centers around the world, DTCC automates, centralizes, and standardizes the processing of financial transactions across the trade lifecycle and mitigates risk for thousands of institutions worldwide.
Previously, she was the director of fund development and corporate relations for the New York Urban League and the founding president of New York Urban League Young Professionals. Since 2012, Brockington has produced and hosted the National Urban League Jobs Network’s Digital Career Success Series.
Brockington is one of New York's top lifestyle coaches and fitness experts. She owns NIARA Consulting, a full-service company that provides complete consulting services for individuals, nonprofits, small businesses, and corporations.
She is a graduate of the University of California with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology. She has an MPA in public administration from Baruch College and an MSW from the University of Southern California.
