Remarkable Women: Transform Your Self and Your World

Gilliane Isabelle
Regional Vice President
VALIC

Gilliane Isabelle has spent over 25 years in the field of Retirement Planning.

Currently she is a Regional Vice President for VALIC, a member of American International Group (AIG). In that role she oversees distribution and operations primarily in the Northeast; specifically in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New England.

She provides leadership to 8 District Managers and 140 Financial Advisors throughout the Region, and has significant experience in New Business Development and Relationship Management.

Ms. Isabelle has a Certified Employee Benefits Designation; a BA in Economics from New York University and a MBA from the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.

She has one daughter, Ella, who just moved to LA to attend USC.

Monique Castillo
Financial Advisor
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Monique Castillo, a Financial Advisor in Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.'s Jenkintown branch, has been building her client base to include business owners and individuals seeking a custom plan designed to help them prepare for their future and achieve their financial goals. Through her work at companies in the U.S. and Far East, Monique managed client relations for more than two decades.

Her past experience working with start-up businesses can be of use to business owners and non-profits in strategic growth planning and developing a recipe for fostering a loyal, diverse customer base.

Monique takes the time to explain investment choices in order to assist clients in making educated decisions about the most appropriate strategies for them. As an enthusiastic proponent of client education, she regularly conducts seminars and workshops on a variety of topics on the subject of financial strategies at educational institutions and for organizations. Her goal is to provide her clients with an exceptional client service experience.

Monique joined Oppenheimer from Vantage Point Bank and Financial Services, having previously worked as a Financial Advisor at UBS. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in International Relations, she speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese and has taught English in China as a Princeton-in-Asia Fellow. She also holds the General Securities Representative License (Series 7) and the Uniform Combined State Law Examination (Series 66). She is licensed as an agent for life, health, accident and long-term-care insurance in the states of Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas.

Jackie Gaines
Executive Leadership Consultant
Studer Group
Best Selling Author, National Speaker

Jackie is a high performing Senior Executive with a progressive career encompassing more than 30 years of sustained leadership and accomplishments with major health systems and organizations. With passion, creative energy and vision, Jackie motivates diverse groups of people toward success. She has worked in a variety of roles, starting her career as a nurse working for Johns Hopkins Health Institutions. Upon graduation from her master's program she went to work for Health Care for the Homeless, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland as a Nurse Practitioner serving over 50,000 vulnerable patients per year in clinics, shelters and the streets. In 1987, she was appointed as its first President & CEO and developed this organization over her 13 year tenure into a national model in health care delivery for vulnerable people. As a result of her expertise in this field, Jackie has consulted all over the United States for the U.S. Public Health Services in program development, evaluation, governance, community collaboration, public policy, advocacy and fundraising.

In 1999, Jackie returned to a hospital based delivery system when she was appointed as the Vice President of Community Health Systems Integration for Bon Secours Baltimore Health System. There Jackie led an effective $15 million turn-around initiative called Transformation 2000, decreasing that organization's deficit to break even over a 2 year period. In the summer of 2000 Jackie was recruited to join the Providence Health System family in Oregon where she was the Chief Executive for Providence Milwaukee Hospital and Regional Chief Executive for Ancillary Business lines across the eight Providence hospitals in Oregon. During her seven year tenure at Providence, Jackie took Providence Milwaukee to Top 100 Hospital in the U.S. three times and implemented the organization's Family Practice Residency Program and raised millions of dollars to support expanded services for the community. In 2007 Jackie left Providence to become the Regional President and CEO of Mercy Health Partners for Northeast Pennsylvania, where she had oversight for two hospitals and 15 other freestanding clinics and diagnostic centers.

Jackie has been an executive coach and senior leader with the Studer Group for almost 5 years and is currently working with 19 partner organizations, using evidence based tactics and strategies consistently to make a difference, igniting Fire Starters nationwide. She is a national speaker and author of the bestselling book “Believing You Can Fly”, co-authored the Nurse Leader Handbook, and has recently written a new book called “The Yellow Suite-A Guide for Women in Leadership”.

Jackie is also a wife of 36 years, mother of two grown daughters, son in-laws and grandma to two adorable grandsons. She loves zumba dancing, soft jazz, gardening and reading.

Pat Browne
President and CEO
P. Browne and Associates Consulting

Patricia Browne founded P. Browne and Associates Consulting after a successful career as a sales and marketing executive for more than twenty years with a Fortune 100 Corporation.

Ms. Browne is an Organization Development professional focused on strategic change consulting. Her leadership and managerial experience have translated into meaningful consulting initiatives that include strategic planning, change management, team building, new business development, marketing, performance coaching, focus group facilitation and leadership development. Her consulting work has focused on fostering collaborative efforts among strategic business partners and building consensus across multiple functional levels of the groups with whom she’s worked. She has worked extensively with diverse organizations throughout the Washington Metropolitan and surrounding areas.

Patricia also facilitates workshops, and has delivered keynote messages on insurance and economic empowerment issues to audiences around the country. She was a keynote speaker on the topic of Being Your Best in Business Operations for the Reverend T.D. Jakes Entrepreneurial Skills Conferences. She has developed and delivered training initiatives as both an internal and external consultant.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland in College Park. Patricia earned a certificate in Leadership Development from the Johns Hopkins University in addition to her Masters of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Organization Development.

Ms. Browne serves on the Board for Junior Achievement of Central Maryland and the National Association of African American Insurance Advisors D.C. Chapter, is a member of the Chesapeake Bay Organization Development Network, and a former member of the Allstate Foundation Capital Region Board. She is chairperson of the Henry McNeal Turner Scholarship Committee at her church. She is married and the proud parent of one son.

Cheri Wilson
Co-chair, Program Director
NAHSE, Culture-Quality-Collaborative

Cheri C. Wilson received a BA in Russian from Howard University, an MA in Russian Area Studies from the University of Minnesota, was a PhD candidate (ABD) in Russian history at the University of Minnesota, and received an MHS in Health Finance and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Since 2010, Ms. Wilson has been a Faculty Research Associate in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions (HCHDS), a National Center of Excellence in Health Disparities Research designated by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She is the Program Director for the Culture-Quality-Collaborative (CQC) and the Clearview Organizational Assessments-360 (COA360). Previously, Ms. Wilson was an Acting Assistant Director of the Quality Improvement Department at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and the Past President of the Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality (MAHQ) (2009).

She was recently appointed to the Health Disparities Subcommittee, Advisory Committee to the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Ms. Wilson co-chairs the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE). She represents the HCHDS as an At-Large Member of the Steering Committee of the American Medical Association (AMA) Commission to End Health Care Disparities (CEHCD) and serves on the Research and Data Resource Committee. Ms. Wilson is also a member of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), where she serves on the Cultural Competence and Education Outreach Subcommittee. She is a member of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, Maryland Health Disparities Collaborative, where she serves on three workgroups. In addition, Ms. Wilson is a member of the Maryland Health Quality and Cost Council (MHQCC), Cultural and Linguistic Competency Workgroup, the Maryland Health Information Exchange Policy Board, and the Maryland Health Care Commission Maryland Medical Care Database Workgroup for Reporting Utilization by Race, Ethnicity, and Language.

Ms. Wilson educates clinical and support staff in healthcare organizations, public health, medical, and nursing students as well as K-12 students and community members. She has presented at national, state, and local conferences on the issues of cultural competency, overcoming language barriers, and health disparities. The focus of her work is primarily upon the intersection between cultural competency and health disparities and patient safety and healthcare quality. Ms. Wilson is particularly interested in health disparities as it relates to racial/ethnic, language, and sexual minorities and the provision of culturally competent patient-centered care in language understandable to all patients.

Craig Bambrough
Vice President, Process & Innovation Performance
Accenture

Craig Bambrough is Managing Director responsible for managing Accenture Federal Services (AFS) Management Consulting Operations Service Line across the Company's Army/Joint/Intelligence accounts, and is focused primarily on improving operational performance in areas such as logistics, personnel management, readiness, services, technology, security and research and development.

Prior to joining Accenture in 2008, Craig led the Army/Intelligence practice for SRA’s Touchstone Consulting Group.  In his role as practice lead, Craig provided strategy consulting services to a variety of Army and Intelligence clients to include the Joint Staff J4, the Army Logistics Directorate, the Army Deputy Chief of Staff G-4, and the Army Chief Information Officer (CIO).  Craig was instrumental in helping the senior leadership of these critical staffs establish clarity around roles and missions, strategic and operational alignment within their individual operations and their senior leadership.   

From 1998 to 2002 Craig was the Deputy Commanding General of the United States Army Reserve Command (USARC) and Deputy Commanding General for Reserve Affairs for United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) at Fort McPherson, Georgia.  In these key positions Craig was responsible for improving the readiness of all United States Army Reserve soldiers and units assigned to the USARC and FORSCOM.

Prior to 1998 Craig spent more than 25 years in the commercial and DOD Aerospace industries focusing primarily in Operations and Organizational Change Management.  He has proven and demonstrated skills in operational strategy and alignment, business development, business process re-engineering, legal and regulatory compliance.  His strong management and communication skills enable effective communication at the operational and senior-management level. 

In addition to Craig’s commercial and DOD experience he is a retired Army Major General whose last military assignment was the Deputy Commanding General, US Army Reserve Command (USARC) and Deputy Commanding General for Reserve Affairs for United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) at Fort McPherson, Georgia.

Craig received his B.S from University of California-Berkeley and his MBA from St. Mary's College, Moraga, California.
 

Shelva Clemmons
Communications Manager
Allstate

Shelva has committed her professional career to the fields of marketing and communications. She began her professional business career with Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. Her marketing experience began with their Portfolio Brand Strategy and Marketing Plans & Brand Development areas. She later joined Ford full time as a Dealership Consultant to consult entrepreneurs on corporate programs and initiatives to produce sales.

Shelva’s nonprofit experience began as an Assistant Campaign Manager for The Advertising Council. She worked with multiple advertising agencies and government sponsors to supervise all aspects of developing public service announcement (PSA) campaigns. She later accepted a position with Levick Strategic Communications as a Public Relations Graduate Fellow to support the Brand Team by enhancing the client’s image in the media. At Allstate Insurance Company, Shelva’s work has included media relations, internal and strategic communications, and corporate sponsorship and foundation efforts. With more than ten years experience in campaign management, project management and overseeing corporate initiatives and sponsorships, Shelva is skilled in establishing a corporate presence within social cause campaigns and accomplished in managing relationships with nonprofit organizations, government entities and advertising/public relations agencies.

Shelva has a Bachelor in Business Administration from Howard University with a concentration in Marketing. She is also a graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s Masters Program in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. In 2011, Shelva began her studies at Howard University’s School of Communication as a doctoral candidate with a focus on Mass Communications and Media Studies.

To diversify her experiences, Shelva began her teaching career as a Guest Lecturer at Morgan State University. As an instructor for the Public Relations Case Studies and Issues Management Course, Shelva enjoyed the opportunity to share her professional experiences with aspiring communications professionals. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University within their Public Relations and Corporate Communications Program in the School of Continuing Studies.

Kassi Busher
Entrepreneur
The Pearl Spa

After spending nearly six years working with other spas on the East Coast, Kassi's vision to change the perception of the spa industry prompted her to start her own business. Her unique business approach has allowed THE pearl to thrive when other small businesses could not sustain.

Over eight years later, Kassi has learned valuable lessons about leading with love, working with wellness and succeeding with sincerity. With a staff of almost 70, THE pearl continues to take great strides every day to work as a unified team to exceed the expectations of all guests.

Ellie Whalen
Entrepreneur
Sprayology

Ellie spent the last 25 years working in marketing, sales, operations and management with innovative and luxury brands such as Swatch Watch, Christian Dior and Sprayology.

As part of the founding Sprayology team in 1999, her fingerprint has been on every aspect of the brand. Ellie's endless efforts and innovative spirit have been paramount in the creation, direction and growth of the company. Her well-rounded talents are highlighted by her natural sales and marketing ability and her passion for health, wellness and the Sprayology brand.

Melissa Deane
Entrepreneur/ Yoga & Pilates instructor/ Personal Trainer
MaKa Movement, LLC