TEDxYorkville Women

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Beth Cocuzza

  Author, Promises Broken, and Founder, Almavina Strategic Partners

  From the time her younger brother was old enough to sit at a desk, Beth Cocuzza knew she was a teacher. She worked in the classroom until 2002, and then pivoted to work in higher education management. She helped set the standards for testing math skills in 48 states. Today, she leverages her 20+ years in education management to help mission-driven leaders diagnose and treat toxic culture, and to make "work" a place people are happy to come to.

• Bridgett Strickler

  National non-profit leader, adult learner space

  Bridgett Strickler sits in the "adult learner space" as Vice President of Adult Learner Engagement and Impact at the Center for Academic Innovation. She also has her own consultancy, Second Act Partners. When she got sober 14 years ago, she started on a mission to rebuild her life and help others do the same. She went back to get her MBA late in life. Today, she helps others make their “education comeback” and tells the powerful stories of adult learner comebacks. Through her storytelling she has discovered a common thread among adult learners: community heals, community is the force multiplier of potential, and community helps rewrite the story you were given. Bridgett firmly believes the traditional career trajectory, where a person stays at a job for 30 years is no longer the case. Today, re-skilling, up-skilling and lifelong learning are key to the future of work in the U.S.

• Janet Kim

  Technology leader, Stanford, Certified career coach

  Janet Kim is a technology leader at Stanford University. With her coaching business, SaeRise Consulting, she helps other emerging tech leaders working in legacy institutions and companies be seen, heard, and valued. It was a core value of her growing up between two older sisters and a younger brother in a Korean family. She had to fight for attention. Today, she is a leader, organizing digital transformation projects for success and a master at navigating multiple stakeholders. After years of questioning her own worth, she’s discovered her purpose. Now, she’s building the path she once searched for — and helping others — especially Asian women leaders — to be seen, heard and valued as well.

• Patrizia Angela Casubolo

  Inventor, COCHIC Collar Extender, Gloria International

  Patrizia Angela Casubolo is an inventor. Her divorce devastated her whole world, but put her on a path to reinvention herself. While pregnant with her first child, Francesca, she went seeking waistband extenders for her skirts and pants to alleviate the discomfort. She recalled an invention her father made back in Italy, created for extending men's collared shirts. She replicated the prototype for her own maternity clothing and Voila! COCHIC waistband extenders were born. She is on a mission to show other inventors how to bring their ideas to market successfully and become self actualized in the process.

• Sonal Bhatia, MD

  Former Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer | Founder, Ojas Vidas

  Sonal Bhatia, MD is introducing mindful leadership as the norm, rather than the exception. She was a physician first. Then the first woman to serve as Chief Medical Officer in Pfizer’s Rare Disease division. She spent 20 years there bringing life-saving therapies to patients. She observed women leaders, even in her own company, desperately needing ways to recharge as menopause set in. In 2024, she returning for her Master’s in Science, Integrative Health and Ayurveda. Today, Sonal is on a mission to find a non-pill prescription to better health. She helps those with a western mindset to embrace the tenets of Eastern medicine.