RISING STAR AWARD

 Ms. Gayani Weerasinghe has both law firm and in-house experience. Her practice focuses on helping businesses with their ventures, including helping them create their business partnerships, entities, contracts, confidentiality agreements, strategic alliance agreements, licenses, and procure trademarks, copyrights, and patents. 

LinkedIn

Company:  Law Office of Gayani R. Weerasinghe 

 Kathryn helps B2B entrepreneurs and sales professions create social selling strategies that result in increased revenue. As a speaker, author, and online writer, Kathryn has been mentoring women in sales to achieve success for 20+ years. 

LinkedIn

Company:  The Social Selling Agency 

 Kelly is an occupational therapist and passionate accessibility advocate born and raised in San Diego. Some of her favorite accomplishments include volunteering at the first Costa Rica Adaptive Surf Open, being accepted into the inaugural cohort of Connect All @ the Jacobs Center, winning the 2020 FedEx Small Business Grant Grand Prize, and getting engaged to her fiance, Jeff. Kelly enjoys cooking, reading sci-fi, and spending time outdoors. 

LinkedIn

Company:  Access Trax 

 Tristan is an internationally recognized speaker on LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion. She believes it is time to shift the focus to belonging. She founded Metaclusive, LLC to help organizations do just that. “Metaclusive” means a sense of belonging that transcends diversity and inclusion where all are represented, valued, and accepted. Metaclusive focuses on all types of diversity, from the commonly thought of race and gender, to the often-forgotten disability, military service, age, and communication style. As a superhero fanatic, Tristan took the title “Metahuman” and everyone who trains with her earns this title as well. Capes are optional. 

LinkedIn

Company:  Metaclusive, LLC 

 Emily has spent her career focused on enabling potential in individuals and organizations. After teaching high school students and coaching graduate business students, she worked at various high-growth organizations to establish People + Culture systems that allowed employees to thrive and perform at the highest level. Emily founded CultureSmart to help leaders scale workplace culture in a way that drives both the bottom line and a “people first” mentality.

LinkedIn

Company:  CultureSmart 

 After working for over 20 years in Project and Program Management, Carmen is now bringing her goal-setting, planning, and implementation skills to teens by teaching the SMART goal methodology. She is passionate about helping teens learn goal setting because this valuable life skill will empower them to tackle any challenge with less stress and in a quicker timeframe, so they can stay competitive in the complex world we live in. 

LinkedIn

Company:  Teen SMART Goals 

 Dr. Valencia Porter, MD MPH is a leader in Integrative, Preventive, and Environmental Medicine, combining ancient wisdom traditions with modern science. As a practitioner of Functional Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine, she helps people find the root causes of illness and restore and support the body’s natural healing capacities through multiple modalities. With a truly holistic approach, Dr. Porter recognizes the intricate relationship between human health and planetary health, advocating for urban regenerative organic farms to provide fresh whole foods to populations in need, while supporting local jobs and climate health. 

LinkedIn

Company:  Resilient Health 

 Kimball Willson is a lifelong artist who launched a successful team building company, Corporate To Canvas, in 2018. Through this business, she leads group painting events as a way to enhance creativity and build camaraderie among corporate teams. A recent shift to online classes sparked the creation of a second business called Onnie's Art, which provides art subscription boxes and tutorials for older adults. 

LinkedIn

Company:  Onnie's Art / Corporate to Canvas