Prior to starting her leadership journey in philanthropy, Dr. Ashley launched the Office of Race and Equity Research at the Urban Institute to stand as a center of excellence toward empowering race and equity consciousness throughout the field of policy research.  This followed the collaborative launch of the Racial Equity Analytics Lab (REAL), an effort that brought data science and structural racism colleagues together to create data tools and methods in response to the lack of racially disaggregated data at the start of the COVID pandemic.

An accomplished educator, consultant, and researcher, Dr. Ashley has been quoted as an expert thought leader on issues of philanthropy and charitable giving in several national media outlets including The Washington Post, NPR’s Marketplace, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy among others.

As a nonprofit and philanthropy scholar, Dr. Ashley had the great fortune to lead the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy from 2016-2022. In that work, she led teams of researchers and strategists to build a research-in-action portfolio focused on community investing, equitable grantmaking, democratizing charitable giving, and nonprofit and philanthropic policy. Her passion for democratizing data led her to transform the National Center on Charitable Statistics to an open-data repository, which now makes decades of nonprofit data freely accessible to the public.

Dr. Ashley holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, a MPP from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s degree from Tennessee State University, a HBCU in Nashville, TN.

Driven by a profound sense of purpose, Radiance’s mission extends beyond personal growth. She is the CEO of Rooted in Radiance, a wellness enterprise HQ in Washington, DC, focusing on well-being, fitness, and mental resilience programming including stress reduction programs, training & development, holistic health talks and experiential wellness activations. She actively works to create platforms that amplify underrepresented voices, serve marginalized communities, and champion topics related to DEI & health and well-being.

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Integrating the breadth of her experiences with an authentic style combining equal parts backbone and heart, Guenet takes a highly customized approach to support companies and executives in optimizing clarity, leverage, and results. She brings optimism and curiosity to every engagement and is confident in humankind’s ability to discover greater agency, insights, and choices. Guenet relishes and celebrates the epiphanies that her clients reach due to their partnership.

After graduating from Duke University Law School in 1993, Guenet began her career helping clients realize their outcomes as an attorney in private practice. During this tenure, Guenet honed her influencing, communication, and leadership skills as a civil litigator; registered lobbyist; adjunct legal professor; and bar association leader. Guenet joined Capital One after private practice, where she enjoyed an esteemed twenty-four (24) year career. Guenet joined Capital One as its first fully dedicated employment lawyer, where she managed all HR-related legal matters for the company. In this role, Guenet is credited with coaching and developing a high-performing employment law team and delivering results in a well-managed way. Given her ability to scale her leadership, influence, and integrative thinking skills, Guenet’s role would later expand to include leading and developing the Legal Department’s largest, most substantively and geographically diverse team: Employment, Intellectual Property, Corporate Real Estate, Contracts, Litigation, Legal Operations, Securities and all the Functional General Counsels for the Lines of Business. Building on her success coaching and developing others in Legal and around the company, Guenet would hang up her legal shingle and join Human Resources as an Executive Coach and as the Vice-President of Executive Coaching and New Leader Integration. As a much sought-after executive coach, Guenet coached executives and their teams across all business lines, staff functions, executive leadership levels, and domestic and international locations. Guenet also extended her services outside of Capital One, providing extensive pro bono executive coaching to non-profit heads and their leadership teams. As an HR Executive, Guenet evolved the Executive Coaching program into a Best-in-Class Program with a strategic and results-oriented focus. Continuing a familiar theme of expanding her efforts, Guenet retired from Capital One in January of 2023 with plans to launch The Beshah Collective, LLC, later in the year. As a small business owner, Guenet’s explicit declaration is to “Empower Humankind” by extending the reach of her stress-tested leadership services to even more executives and leaders so that they can thrive, not just survive, professionally and personally, the pace and uncertainty of the times in which we all live.

Guenet has a B.A. in Political Science from Hampton University and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law. Guenet was admitted to the bars of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Federal Eastern District Court of Virginia. Guenet received her ICF-accredited Leadership Coaching Certification from Georgetown University (2006) and her Team Coaching Certification from Accompli. Guenet has held several (30+) leadership and board positions in the communities where she has worked and lived.

Guenet was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With the exception of time in Ethiopia and a stint in Tanzania, Guenet was raised primarily in the United States. She gives significant credit to her parents for her love of humankind, learning and commitment to making a difference. Lastly, and most importantly, she is the proud mother of wise and witty Olivia Grace and pet parent to Luna Buna Katuna.

Jessica has conducted results-oriented research for clients across a broad swath of sectors, including food, retail, healthcare, and financial services. She focuses on rigorous questionnaire design to collect high-quality data, as well as using data to tell a story that leads clients to action.

Jessica began her career in the non-profit sector, interviewing incarcerated people in both state prisons and city jails across New York. She then worked for several years in the research and insights departments of major public relations agencies, including Ogilvy and Edelman, where she managed the much-publicized Edelman Trust Barometer.

Jessica holds a B.A. in Sociology from Connecticut College and an M.S. in Applied Social Research from Hunter College. She earned a PhD in Survey Methodology from the University of Michigan, where she returns every summer to teach Questionnaire Design.

More information about Southpaw Insights can be found at www.southpawinsights.com, and Jessica can be reached at jessica@southpawinsights.com.

She is the co-founder, President & CEO of JWC Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to Learn, Grow and Own in the Black community. JWC Foundation is a hub that connects Black business owners of all stages to connect to one another and with partners, service providers, programs and financial resources to grow their businesses. She also provides budget and financial coaching and money values courses to women, particularly Black women, seeking to destroy the Superwoman Syndrome in their lives by leveraging financial freedom to navigate that path.

Rasheeda earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English from Spelman College and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. She is an active community leader in Richmond, Virginia. Of the many hats Rasheeda wears, her favorite is being mom to her daughters: Zoe, Akilah and Saván.

Jerome’s other passions include music and photography. As a musician, he is either singing or playing drums for churches in the community. Jerome’s love for photography has allowed him to capture special moments over the years; from shooting weddings, portrait sessions, brand libraries and an occasional photo series.

Partnering closely and proactively with business owners across the firm, the team seeks to maximize supplier relationships while ensuring all vendors are fully compliant with the company’s third-party management policies and procedures. He is also responsible for Capital One’s award winning Supplier Diversity program which seeks to develop and grow diverse-owned businesses.

Previously, Clint served as Vice President of Global Sourcing at WarnerMedia, where he was responsible for developing and implementing comprehensive sourcing strategies across the company’s three operating divisions – Turner Broadcasting, HBO, and Warner Bros. For 14 years he also led the company’s Supplier Diversity efforts, identifying and contracting with qualified diverse business enterprises.

His Board service includes membership on the Boards for the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and the Board of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC).

Clint holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Armed with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University, Dawn mastered the art of negotiating multi-billion-dollar defense contracts with the Department of Navy. She then embarked on a thrilling adventure with Black Entertainment Television (BET), overseeing sales, marketing, service, and network distribution. Dawn later shifted gears to BET.com, producing over 100 successful events and activations, solidifying her reputation as a marketing guru.

The birth of Nudawn Marketing Group marked a turning point in Dawn’s career, where her team uncovers the essence of their clients’ brands through authentic connections and the lost art of listening. Building partnerships through trust and genuine collaboration is one of their superpowers, resulting in unrivaled marketing value and unforgettable experiences.

Dawn’s boundless passion for empowering women entrepreneurs led to the creation of IAAM (“It’s All About ME!”), a platform that elevates women-owned businesses while prioritizing wellness. From multi-day events to digital programming and empowering training sessions, IAAM provides a soulful sanctuary for high- achieving women to thrive.

As a devoted community leader, Dawn has led the Women Business Owners of Prince George’s County for over a decade and now serves on the Advisory board of the Bi-County Business Roundtable, leading marketing initiatives with her flair.

When she’s not revolutionizing the marketing industry, Dawn pours her heart into writing and producing masterpieces, fueled by her devotion to social justice, women’s empowerment, and wellness. Join Dawn P. Jackson on this exhilarating journey as she transforms businesses, impacts lives, and embraces life’s precious gift. Get ready for an unforgettable experience!

Capital One is a Fortune 100 company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Capital One is one of the nation’s top ten banks and offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services in the United States, Canada, and the UK, including being one of America’s largest depository institutions, credit card issuers, and auto finance providers.

Mr. LaPrade’s responsibilities as Chief Enterprise Services Officer include the management of Technology, Digital, Design, Enterprise AI/ML Product, Capital One Software, Growth Ventures, Brand, Enterprise Supplier Management, External Affairs, Workplace Solutions, and Corporate Security. In his capacity as Chief of Staff to the CEO, Mr. LaPrade is a senior advisor to the CEO and performs a wide variety of operational, change management, and communications duties across the enterprise.

Prior to his current role, Mr. LaPrade served as the company’s Deputy General Counsel responsible for managing the company’s litigation, employment, intellectual property and transactional practice areas.

Mr. LaPrade joined Capital One in January of 1996, approximately one year after Capital One became a public company, from McGuireWoods, a national law firm headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, where he was a commercial and IP litigator.

Prior to her appointment at NMSDC, Ms. McGuire served as the Global Vice President at Technology Integration Group (TIG), an NMSDC certified minority owned technology company with 25 offices in the US, China, Canada, and a global partner network covering 4 continents. As a corporate leader at Dell Technologies, a Fortune 500 company, she built and sustained high impact global initiatives across many functions and mentored numerous entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Ms. McGuire holds a variety of leadership roles in the community. In 2016, she was appointed by the United States Secretary of Commerce to the United States Investment Advisory Council. She served as the first woman chair of an advisory board of the International Trade Center (ITC), a joint agency of the United Nations and WTO based in Switzerland. Ms. McGuire is a founding board member of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce (GAACC) and a board of advisor of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. In 2021, Ms. McGuire was appointed to the Council of Underserved Communities (CUC) which is tasked with providing advice, ideas and opinions on SBA programs and services and issues of interest to small businesses in underserved communities.

During her career, Ms. McGuire has been acknowledged for her work as an advocate for supplier diversity: named “Twenty-Five Influential Women in Business” by MEA Magazine; “America’s Top Diversity Advocate” by DiversityBusiness.com; and “Best of the Decade” by Minority Business USA. Ms. McGuire was a featured speaker at many regional, national and international conferences including the World Export Forum.

Born and raised in China, Ms. McGuire immigrated to the U.S. with one suitcase and $1,000 to pursue her American dream. She received a Masters’ degree in Business Administration of International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona.

Emmanuel Offiong serves as the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President for Small Business Bank and Treasury Management where he is responsible for the overall strategy and delivery of technology for these areas.

He joined Capital One from UnitedHealth Group where he served as Vice President, Enterprise Platforms. There, Emmanuel led the modernization strategy and delivery execution for their Medicare and Retirement unit. Prior to UnitedHealth Group, he held technical leadership roles at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Amazon and Tiffany & Co.

Emmanuel earned a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, a Master of Science in Information Systems Management from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications Management from DeVry University.

He and his wife, Tyesha, currently live in NJ with their 2 kids, Quintin and Anaya. In his downtime, Emmanuel loves to read, play chess and tennis. Most of all, he loves to travel. His personal goal is to visit every continent and over 100 countries.

Keel is also a budding author with books in the pipeline, including guides on leveraging Alibaba.com, winning government contracts, and a children’s series inspired by his daughters. Furthermore, he is an entrepreneur and passionate community advocate, having founded BizLiá (www.BizLia.com), a software company dedicated to assisting small and diverse businesses. BizLiá provides a SaaS solution that simplifies the certification and registration process, enabling businesses to connect efficiently with large corporations and government agencies.

In addition to his professional endeavors, Keel actively participates in Boys & Girls Club volunteer work, motivating young adults to cultivate their ideas. He continually seeks growth through leadership courses with institutes such as Capital One Catapult, Jim Moran Institute, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and the EY Entrepreneurs Access Network (EAN) Program.

Keel earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management information systems from Keiser University and Florida International University, respectively, and a master’s degree in marketing from the latter. He lives in Coconut Creek, Florida, with his wife Patrice and their two daughters, Kayla and Khloe.

As an entrepreneur, he believes innovation and constant evolution are the secrets to his success. Alongside his business partner Sherika Wynter, his company TWTote has shipped luxury bags worldwide and partnered with companies like Capital One, Google, and The NBA’s player association. Shallon seeks to share his vision of servant leadership with the world and inspire others to start their entrepreneurial journey. 

Sherika’s background is in mechanical engineering and industrial design from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of the Arts, respectively. She has an extensive career in hardware and software product development, with over 15 years of experience in private sector and government affiliated companies. Sherika also has vast experience in vendor management and business development.

Sherika has a love for teaching and instruction that began in 2014. She teaches product management and strategy to professionals looking to transition into a new career and enterprises looking to train their employees. Her clients include Johnson & Johnson, Disney, Walmart, McKinsey, UTC, Carrier, to name a few.

Sherika’s approach to product design is simple: “Does this solution solve the underlying problem?”