Carol Evans serves as President of Working Mother Media and CEO of Diversity Best Practices which are part of the Bonnier Corporation. Carol’s involvement with Working Mother magazine dates back to 1978, when she played a critical role in the launch.  She grew Working Mother magazine from $100,000 to $14,000,000 over the next decade, serving first as advertising director and then as VP Publisher.  In 1986 she founded the Working Mother 100 Best Companies, still the most important workplace benchmark in the country.

Between 1989 and 2001, Carol ran two publishing companies. She was President of Stagebill, serving 110 arts organizations nationwide.  In 1996, she became Chief Operating Officer of The Chief Executive Group, where she launched a highly successful conference division, hosting more than 600 leading CEOs per year.

In August 2001, Carol Evans founded Working Mother Media by acquiring Working Mother magazine and the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), becoming the first mom to own Working Mother. She has launched several key initiatives to support the advancement of women including Best Companies for Multicultural Women, Best Law Firms for Women, Best of Congress, and Best Companies for Hourly Workers.

In 2006, Working Mother Media acquired Diversity Best Practices (DBP), the leading membership organization supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.  DBP’s sessions, conferences, research, and publications allow companies to leap ahead on their diversity journey.  At DBP, Carol has launched the Network and Affinity Leadership Congress (NALC), CEO Roundtables, the DBP Benchmarking and Assessment Tool and the Global initiative.

A graduate of Empire State College/SUNY, Carol serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the March of Dimes. Carol has won numerous awards including the Admiral Grace Hopper Women’s Diversity Champion Award/ U.S. Navy; Dr. Martin Luther King Visionary Award/ Walmart; Work-Life Legacy Award/ Families and Work Institute; the Highest Leaf Award/ Women’s Venture Fund; Excellence in Women’s Health Award/ Jacobs Institute and the YWCA Hall of Fame.  

She is a highly acclaimed keynote speaker on the advancement of women, work life balance, barriers facing women of color and leadership. She has appeared on every major talk show including Today Show, Oprah, Good Morning America and PBS To the Contrary. Her opinions have been heard on hundreds of radio shows and published in newspapers nationwide.

Carol’s book, the award-winning This is How We Do It: The Working Mother’s Manifesto was published in May 2006 by Penguin Group. She is most proud of being mom to Julia Rose (20) and Robert (23), and wife of Bob Coulombe, a Major in the New York Guard.

 Thought Leader

In her current role, Gina is responsible for solution delivery and consulting in IBM’s Homeland Security (HLS), National Security and Justice (NS&J) business.  She is responsible for developing new business, strategic planning and delivering complex solutions.  Gina provides effective executive leadership and direction in program management, software/solutions development, systems engineering and solution deployment.  She also leads the planning and budgetary decisions affecting the technical solutions and management of programs in the HLS and NS&J portfolio. 

Gina has held several other technical and management positions in her career.  These positions span IBM server, software, corporate technical strategy, networking hardware and federal systems businesses.  In these roles, Gina was responsible for leading teams in the successful deployment of new technology and solutions, assessing technical strategies and advising clients on critical business and technology related decisions.  Ms. Loften began her career in IBM Federal Systems Division and has been with the company for 14 years. 

Kathleen Matthews is Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs for Marriott International. She is responsible for the company's external and internal communications, including global brand and market public relations, community relations, diversity initiatives, corporate communications and government affairs.

Prior to joining Marriott in 2006, Ms. Matthews was a distinguished news anchor, reporter and producer in Washington, D.C. for 25 years. She served as anchor of WJLA's ABC-7 News, and hosted Capital Sunday, a half-hour talk show focusing on current events. She was also host and executive editor of "Working Woman," a nationally syndicated magazine show.

An honors graduate of Stanford University, Ms. Matthews has been awarded nine Emmys for local reporting and producing. Her further credits include the prestigious Edward R. Murrow, Associated Press, George Foster Peabody and David Brinkley Awards. In 2002, she was named a Washingtonian of the Year. In 2004, she was awarded a Fellowship at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics. Ms. Matthews serves on the boards and advisory councils of the Catholic Charities Foundation, the Girl Scouts of National Capital Area, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre, George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estate and the Academy of Achievement. She is married to broadcast journalist Chris Matthews. They have three children.

Chancellor Michelle Rhee was appointed by Mayor Adrian Fenty June 12, 2007.  She leads D.C. Public Schools, a district numbering 55,000 students and 141 schools.  In the Mayor's search for a change agent for schools in the District, experts in education recommended Ms. Rhee, who had already transformed many urban public school systems through her work with The New Teacher Project (TNTP).  Chancellor Joel Klein, whose work in New York City's public schools is a model for effective change, said of her appointment that it was "the choice D.C. needs, given that, year in and year out, they have not gotten results."  Chancellor Rhee's vision rests on results.  She had these results in mind when she founded The New Teacher Project (TNTP) in 1997, and it is now a nationally recognized leader in understanding and developing innovative solutions to the challenges of new teacher hiring.  As Chief Executive Officer and President, she partnered with school districts, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, and unions, to transform the way schools and other organizations recruit, select, and train highly qualified teachers in difficult-to-staff schools.  Thanks to TNTP, 23,000 new, high-quality teachers were placed in these schools across the country.  Ms. Rhee's commitment to excellence in education began in a Baltimore classroom in 1992, as a Teach-for-America teacher. Chancellor Rhee's expertise on education is also informed by a Bachelor's degree in Government from Cornell University, and a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  

Alta G. Rodriguez was named the manager of the United States Postal Service's National Diversity Initiatives (NDI) office in June 2006. In this role, Rodriguez is responsible for, among other things, monitoring compliance with applicable EEO laws, and developing and promoting best practices in the areas of diversity and inclusion. She is also responsible for managing the implementation of national diversity programs and action plans that will help drive the Postal Service towards business success in a changing, diverse, and competitive environment.  Born in Mexico, and raised in Southern California, Ms. Rodriguez is the daughter of migrant workers and the oldest of seven children. She graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA in 1990 with a BA degree in Government, and Certificate in International Relations. She spent her senior year in college in Paris, France, studying at the Institute of Political Studies and the University of Paris. She received her law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1996 and is a member of the California State Bar.  On a personal note, Ms. Rodriguez is the proud mother of a 1