Theresa Walker Editor of OCMoms.com and The Mom Blog, OC Register & Event Co-Moderator

Theresa Walker is a Southern California native who has worked for the Orange County Register since 1992. She began as a general assignment reporter in South Orange County in 1992 and then covered famiiles, children and teens for 13 years. Last year, she became an editor, overseeing the Register's health and family coverage, and launching the OC Moms web page on ocregister.com for moms in Orange County. She now focuses on building the OC Moms online community.

She is married and has a teenage son, who has commuted with her every day to day care and then to school on her way to work, time that brought them closer together and made the traffic easier to bear.

Catherine Clifford is the Co-founder of YourOnRamp.com, an online community where professional women manage their career OffRamps and OnRamps, and connect with employers.  YourOnRamp provides women with a targeted job board, social network, and career resources, including online career coaches.    Catherine is also the co-author of Your Career OnRamp, a woman’s guide to re-entering the workforce.

Catherine is an OnRamp expert and has been a featured guest on Lifetime, NBC News ,  ABC News and The Washington Post. Catherine and YourOnRamp have spoken to thousands of women at Harvard Business School, Tuck, Stanford, Columbia, Hastings, University of Texas and numerous YourOnRamp workshops.

Catherine has 16 years experience in the financial services business.  She has 4 children and has been a working mom (full-time and part-time) and a SAHM.  She has personally struggled to OnRamp into a new career and her frustration with the lack of resources available to OnRampers led her to launch YourOnRamp.com.

Millie Froeb is the Co-founder of YourOnRamp.com, a destination site for professional women who are in a career transition. Whether OnRamping (entering) or OffRamping (exiting) their career, YourOnRamp provides the networks, resources, and job opportunities to succeed.  The website connects employers with this smart, untapped labor force.  Millie is an expert, speaker, and consultant on flexibility, re-entry and leaving the workforce.  She has helped many women and corporations successfully approach these issues.  Millie is also the co-author of Your Career OnRamp, a woman’s guide to re-entering the workforce.

Millie received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  She has been a featured guest in a variety of national media including Lifetime, ABC News and NBC News, and has spoken at a variety of conferences including Harvard Business School’s Women Leaders’ Summit and Future Women Leaders’ Round Table.  Millie leads many of the OffRamp and OnRamp workshops for YourOnRamp.

Millie lives in Tiburon, California with her husband and three children ages 3-6, who appreciate her hard work and flexibility.  She loves to cook, enjoys fine wine and is always up to play a hand of bridge with her girlfriends.

Kim Shepherd CEO of Decision Toolbox

Kim Shepherd is CEO of Decision Toolbox (www.dtoolbox.com), a recruitment process outsourcing company known as much for its high-quality recruitment services as it is for its groundbreaking business model. Originally founded in Southern California, Decision Toolbox is today a 100% virtual company where every single member of the team works from a home office in locations from New Hampshire to Seattle to New Zealand. Since adopting the virtual model, the company has enjoyed 50% growth every year for the past four years. As a vanguard of this emerging trend, Kim is a frequent speaker and panelist on the topic of building and managing virtual teams, and recently she has addressed the Orange County Employment Management Association, PIHRA’s Talent Management Conference, the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Harvard Business School’s 2008 Entrepreneurs Conference 2008.

Barbara Adachi  Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Barbara Adachi leads Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital Practice for the West region. She is responsible for operations, financial performance, sales, and delivery of human capital consulting services across the region. She started the Bay Area Human Capital practice in 1990 and specializes in total rewards and benefits strategy and plan design.

Barbara is also the National Managing Principal for Deloitte LLP’s award-winning Women’s Initiative (WIN) and serves on the board of Deloitte Consulting LLP. She has been named one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Business” by San Francisco Business Times from 2003 through 2008.

Barbara also serves on the boards of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Santa Clara University HR Leadership Advisory Board, Professional Business Women of California Advisory Board, and Blue Cross of California Consumer Relations Committee. She was chair of the 2007 American Heart Association (AHA) Go Red Luncheon for San Francisco and continues to be active with the AHA.

Kelly Watson Founder, The Career Partners

Kelly Watson is a former marketing executive and mother of three. She has held leadership roles in the computer technology industry, wholesale distribution, retail, consumer products and government services. In addition to marketing leadership, she also has particular experience in business development, sales management, and operations. Ms. Watson holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada and an Executive MBA from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she graduated with high honors and was recognized as a member of both Beta Gamma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Nu.

Sally Thornton Co-Founder Flexperience & Event Co-Moderator

Sally is a dedicated professional and mother who is passionate about connecting talented professional women (most of whom are Moms who have “opted-out” in order to raise their families) with interesting, challenging business opportunities that respect their need for flexible work arrangements.

Sally is a sought-after expert on issues related to flexible work practices. Sally has been a featured guest on the KQED radio show Forum hosted by Michael Krasny, NBC11 News, Entrepreneur.com, ABC’s View From the Bay, and BNET.com. As a dynamic speaker, Sally has spoken to thousands of women with audiences ranging from the high-powered “Women In Leadership” conference at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business to executive panels at Stanford Graduate School of Business and local conferences.

Sally is excited to leverage her experience and expertise to help other moms find the right projects, and to help her clients find the right people. As she says, she is all about “win-win” situations, where the needs of working mothers are respected and the needs of the business are met with genuine enthusiasm and passion.

Sally lives in San Mateo with her husband, son (4), and daughter (2), who are equally excited about her commitment to a flexible work schedule!

Marissa Plume Member of CultureRX & Event Speaker

MARISSA PLUME received her BSBA in Marketing and Business Management with a minor in Psychology from the University of Arizona Eller College Of Business before taking the workplace by storm. As the poster child for a generation that grew up technologically 'un-tethered', Marissa drives for results from wherever she can get a wireless connection. She is a natural leader of adaptive change, seeing life as filled with creative solutions and possibilities. 

Prior to CultureRx, Marissa worked at Best Buy, a Fortune 100 retailer, in the Sourcing Solutions & Procurement organization.  In this role, Marissa was first exposed to Results-Only Work Environment concept as she migrated with her team.  Marissa experienced, first-hand, the benefits of a ROWE and feels that her career advancement is largely due to this management style.  Marissa then joined CultureRx in 2006 where she acted as a change agent, successfully facilitating the migration of hundreds of people to a Results-Only Work Environment.  Since Marissa has been on both sides of the fence, she has a keen sense of how to enable work culture to overcome inertia. 

CultureRx was started as the embodiment of Cali Ressler's and Jody Thompson's passionate belief that there is a better way to work. Results-Only Work Environment remains the core of the CultureRx philosophy. The company has grown to offer customized consulting services tailored to the needs of our clients - companies committed to challenging the status quo for the benefit of a healthy workforce and ultimately, a healthy bottom line.  Marissa is very excited to be part of such a revolutionary concept and works to manage our clients through the Results-Only Work Environment migration process. 

Mary Alice Heape President ETCETERA

Mary Alice Heape is President of ETCETERA, the unique contemporary women’s clothing design company known for providing upscale, personalized in-house wardrobe trunk shows.

She is responsible for managing the growth and direction of ETCETERA, which today has wardrobe consultants in 45 states in over 660 cities and upscale suburbs across the country. She continues to successfully grow ETCETERA with bright women with diverse backgrounds ranging from high tech sales, real-estate, fundraising, fashion, banking and even TV news. These are women who are looking for something new, a role that gives them autonomy to run their own business, the ability to sell a product they love; a means to leverage their connections and network; a role that would be fun along with solid goals, flexible hours, support and infrastructure. A fantastic wish list held by so many women today.

Mary Alice truly relates to bright, energized women looking to onramp into new careers. She was a stay at home mom for 9 years raising three boys before joining ETCETERA’s parent company, The Connaught Group in 1989. She was able to successfully make this move while maintaining her commitment to being there for her family. Since then she has excelled in multiple sales and management roles for Carlisle and ETCETERA including serving with distinction as a Sales Consultant, a District Manager and a Regional Manager. Today she continues to walk-the-walk, by running the NYC-based ETCETERA from her office in Dallas where she lives and remains close to her family and friends, yet can easily get to any of her employees’ locations all over the US.

Mary Alice graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Bachelor of Journalism in Public Relations.

Judy Rosener, Ph. D.  Professor Emerita  UC Irvine: The Merage School of Business

Dr. Rosener teaches and does research in the areas of men and women at work, cultural diversity, business and government, and managing nonprofits. She has published articles in academic journals and the popular press, and is a sought after speaker in both the public and private sector. She is the author of the path breaking article, "Ways Women Lead," (Harvard Business Review, November/December, l990), co-author of Workforce America! Managing Employee Diversity as a Vital Resource (Business One Irwin, l991), and author of America's Competitive Secret, Women Managers (Oxford University Press, Paperback Fall 1997). This book shows how leveraging the special talents of women can provide organizations with a competitive advantage. She is currently writing a new book about brains, hormones and sex-linked differences in the workplace. Dr. Rosener was a columnist in the Sunday Business Section for five years and currently writes a column for the Orange County Business Journal. For three years she was a commentator on the PBS TV show "Life & Times" on KCET in Southern California. Board of Advisors: Center for Politics and Economics, Claremont Graduate University, and Forbes Executive Women's Forum. She was formerly a member of the California Coastal Commission, the Orange County Grand Jury and on the Board of Directors of KCET Public Television for Southern California. Dr. Rosener received her BA from UCLA, her MA from California State University, Fullerton, and her Ph.D. from the Center for Politics and Economics, at the Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Rosener is a native Californian who lives in Newport Beach with her husband of 56 years. She is the mother of three adult children.

Jessica Riester  Founder, FlexWork Connection

Jessica founded FlexWork Connection, an Orange County based recruiting and staffing firm, out of a passion for helping professional mothers like herself find challenging and rewarding work on a part-time and/or flexible basis.  FlexWork Connection places professionals with ten or more years of experience in part-time positions as well as interim assignments in the areas of: finance, accounting, marketing and sales.  Prior to FlexWork Connection, Jessica enjoyed a challenging career in corporate finance including financial planning and analysis, mergers and acquisitions, treasury and accounting. In addition to having over ten years of corporate finance experience, Jessica holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from UCI’s Paul Merage Graduate School of Management.  Jessica lives in south Orange County with her husband and two daughters.