Celebrating Women Taking Action

Celebrating Women Taking Action

With IWF NorCal Members Wendy Beecham, Cathy Benko, Marcia Linn and Special Guest Colleen Cutcliffe

Wednesday, March 30
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm (Pacific)

Continuing our March celebration of women's initiatives and accomplishments, we'd like to deepen the conversation and get specific. Four amazing women leaders in science, academia and business share their experience on the two 2022 core themes being celebrated for International Women's Day and during Women's History Month of #BreakTheBias and #IWFPaysItForward. Then we will break into discussion groups on the specific actions you can share, inspire or take in support of these important themes. 

Date: Wednesday, March 30

Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm (Pacific)

Location: Webinar via Zoom

Cost: Free, but registration is required to participate (webinar link and details will be included in the registration confirmation e-mail.)

Speaker bios:

Wendy Beecham is a Senior Client Partner for Korn Ferry. She consults with CEO’s and senior teams in areas such as board and top team effectiveness, executive coaching, CEO and c suite succession planning and leadership development. Wendy’s diverse and global career included CEO and senior operational roles in corporate, non-profit and start-up/small business sectors in the US, Europe, and Asia. Wendy was the former CEO Watermark, and serves on the board of the National Association of Corporate Directors Northern California chapter and is an advisory board member for Illuminate Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture fund. Wendy holds a master’s degree in library science from North Texas State University and a bachelor of science degree from Texas Woman’s University. She received her coaching qualification from the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara.

Cathleen Benko is NIKE, Inc. Board Member and former Deloitte Vice Chairman. She is known as a strategist, innovative thinker and market cultivator holding positions as diverse as global e-Business leader, technology sector leader and chief talent officer (CHRO equivalent) for the largest professional services firm. She is a U.S. patent-holder and best-selling author of several books including The Corporate Lattice Mass Career Customization and Connecting The Dots. Cathy also serves on the boards of Solar Winds (NYSE), Prime Impact Capital (NYSE) and WorkBoard (series C). Nonprofit Boards and Councils include National Association of Corporate Directors, Harvard Business School Alumni Association, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, American Corporate Partners, Federal Institute of Inclusion, International Women’s Forum, Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and Life Skills For Soldiers.

Colleen Cutcliffe is the co-founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics, a biotech startup in San Francisco. The company’s mission is to create probiotics as effective as prescription drugs, without any side effects. The company’s first offering, Pendulum Glucose Control, is the only probiotic in existence that has lowered blood sugar spikes and A1C levels in a clinical trial – welcome news for the 122 million Americans living with diabetes and prediabetes. Prominent Clinical and Silicon Valley investors have taken notice: Meritech Capital, Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and the Mayo Clinic have led investments totaling $111M in Pendulum Therapeutics. Colleen received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biochemistry from Wellesley College. She completed her postdoctoral research at Northwestern Medicine’s Lurie Children's Hospital. Colleen lives in Menlo Park, CA, with her husband, two daughters, and two rambunctious dogs.

Marcia Linn is a professor of learning sciences specializing in education in mathematics, science, and technology in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley where she investigates science teaching and learning, gender equity, and design of learning environments. She leads the Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science Community that includes users of the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Society of the Learning Sciences, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. She has served as Chair of the AAAS Education Section and as President of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. She has twice been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences.