Featured Speaker(s)

Yvonne M. Harryman will provide our keynote address. Yvonne is a Senior Consultant with Microsoft specializing in Developing and Implementing SharePoint portals and .NET web applications. She led the development of .NET and SharePoint Portal technologies for the US Air Force, White House/Executive Office of the President(EOP), Iron Mountain, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHD).

In addition to this she is the Microsoft Project owner for the Community Kit for SharePoint and has authored the following material regarding SharePoint: Solution and Artifact Development Models for SharePoint Products and Technologies found on MSDN and SharePoint 2007 Site Administrator's Handbook Early Access Edition.

Other speakers, panelists and moderators for the event include:

Connie Harryman, Founder, Applied Concepts Creativity
Connie Harryman is a successful entrepreneur with a corporate background in sales and marketing. She owns two small companies. She has a creativity development company that trains organizations how to use a systematic approach for creative thinking. Applied Concepts Creativity provides internationally renowned subject matter experts in the field of creativity and innovation.
Emerging video and social technologies are now making it affordable for small businesses to access the superb training once available only to the Fortune 500. iLearningGlobal.tv and the (EDGE) Expert Directed Guided Education program make this training available on your desktop via the internet.


Colleen Slaughter, Founder, Authentic Leadership International
Colleen Slaughter specializes in driving desired change for organizations and individuals. As an Executive Coach, she enhances clients’ abilities to connect with and act from their core values so that they can achieve greater satisfaction, performance and productivity.
In 2009, Colleen merged her desire to help people and organizations reach the next level with her life-long dream of having her own business by founding Authentic Leadership International (ALI). ALI has the mission of helping its clients to align themselves with their true desires and talents so that lasting, satisfying change can take place.


Denise Hedges, Life and Business Coach, Co-founder: Business BreakThrough Institute, LLC
Denise Hedges is an inspirational speaker and a results-oriented Personal and Business Coach. She specializes in helping busy professional women to be successful and fulfilled in their careers while creating more time, balance, and joy in their personal lives. Denise has helped thousands of women create the lives they want through individual and group coaching as well as customized workshops.


Angela Connor, Managing Editor of User-Generated Content, WRAL.com
Angela Connor is the author of "18 Rules of Community Engagement: A Guide for Building Relationships and Connecting With Customers Online." She is a multimedia journalist and community manager with a passion for online communities and social media. She is the Managing Editor of User-Generated Content at WRAL.com where she launched and currently manages the top-rated news organization’s first online community GOLO.com, which has grown to more than 13,000 members. She writes the highly-read blog, Online Community Strategist and is often requested to share her social media insight and discuss the benefits of online communities at conferences and organizational events.
Angela develops policies and best-practices for handling user-generated content and driving user engagement, and serves on the Digital Media Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists.


Priya Marsonia, Principal Consultant, Maya Software
Priya Marsonia is a pre-eminent IT customer project executive. Priya has over 15 years experience in IT, including CRM, ERP, Billing and Operations systems, as well as the integration of large communications solutions. She has held roles with several large Enterprises as well as start-up companies and has owned 2 consulting firms in various parts of her career.
Currently, she is the Principal Consultant at Maya Software and is working on optimizing data conversions for the Centurytel-Embarq merger. Previously, as a Customer Project Executive at Nortel Networks, Director, Technology at Verisign and Director, Operations at VeriSign, Priya lead several large initiatives to create, define, integrate and deploy IT and communications solutions to Global 500 clients, reduce operational costs and drive efficiencies, and integrate acquisitions. Priya has special interest in project management, R&D efficiency, software design life cycle, operations efficiency, quality methods, including six sigma and human factors.


Mike McTaggart, President, novelProjects
Mike McTaggart has an engineering mind and a passion for online marketing. While working for companies like Bose and Delphi Automotive Systems as an engineer, he grew an Internet technology magazine to over 50 employees and 6 million online visitors per month. After the ‘dot com bubble’ burst, he joined novelProjects to provide project management support to the technical and creative teams. Now owner of NovelProjects, he drives the company to innovate, developing new web technologies to solve everyday business problems. Mike graduated cum laude from Duke University with a BS in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, and then completed his MS in Engineering Management (also at Duke).


Lee Clark-Sellers, Industrial Board of Advisors, Duke Master of Engineering Management Program
Lee Clark-Sellers is an experienced Technology Professional in Innovative Engineering Leadership and Business Development in the Telecommunications and Computer Industry.

She has led teams in all aspects of R&D from Operations, Product Development and Advance Research in the Software Industry, working with Universities and emerging technology start-ups. Lee also has International experience as India Country Director, establishing a S/W development lab, strategic relationships, and expanding market share. She received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Master of Science in Management from NCSU, and currently acts as mentor to the NCSU Master of Engineering program. Lee is also on the Industrial board of Advisors for the Duke Master of Engineering Management.


Verita Murrill, Principal, Ready to Soar Coaching and Consulting Services
Verita Murrill is the founder and principal consultant for Ready 2 Soar! Coaching and Consulting Services in Durham, NC. Verita assists clients with personal, professional and organizational development. Additionally, she is a Senior Staff Development Specialist in the Department of Training & Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she provides learning and development opportunities for the University’s faculty and staff, oversees the management, supervisory and leadership curriculum, serves as an organizational development consultant and a professional development coach. She is a qualified practitioner of psychological and personality assessments, 360° feedback instruments and offers numerous training and facilitation services.


Fadra Nally, Managing Partner, Media Orbis
Fadra Nally considers herself a “versitilist” having spent many years in very different roles and in very different industries. Although she graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a degree in Biology, she has always followed her passions and created careers around them: research & development, science teacher, corporate travel guru, and finally software and marketing. At Ceres Integrated Solutions, and later NCR, Fadra worked in multiple leadership roles including Product Marketing Manager, Test Architect, and Manager of Release Engineering. She also spent time at the corporate marketing level working in the Strategy and Planning group of Teradata with a global team across 6 vertical industries. Throughout her business career, she has worked directly with many Fortune 1000 companies. Today she has taken her business knowledge and technical marketing expertise to help found Media Orbis, where she serves as a Managing Partner.


Crystal Suazo, Partner, Vaco Raleigh, LLC
Crystal Suazo, CPA, is a partner at Vaco Raleigh, LLC, where she is part of the core management team that oversees the firm’s financial consultant relationships, as well as the organization’s day-to-day business operations. In addition to management duties, Crystal is responsible for networking to provide contract work assignments to senior level accounting and finance professionals as well as organizing the firm’s business networking events and outreach programs.
In 2008 Crystal was recognized as one of the Triangle’s top 25 businesswomen with Triangle Business Journal’s prestigious Women in Business Award for her exemplary leadership skills in the mentoring category.


Kirsten Weeks, Sr. Community Relations Manager, Cisco
irsten Weeks is Sr. Community Relations Manager for Cisco. Immediately prior to joining Cisco in February 2007, Weeks served in several communications roles during her four-year tenure with the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer.
Prior to joining the Treasurer's office, Weeks worked for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, and as assistant press secretary for North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. She also worked as press secretary for the National Partnership for Women and Families (formerly the Women's Legal Defense Fund), a non-profit advocacy organization in Washington, DC.


Whitney Wilkerson, Founder, NEXT for Women
Whitney Wilkerson is the Founder of NEXT for Women where she develops and markets talent development and retention programs for a new generation of young professional women. NEXT’s live and web based learning programs emphasize adaptation, growth, and leadership by helping women set goals, measure performance, and enhance themselves personally for business results.
Wilkerson received the Triangle Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Leadership Award, which honors up-and-coming leaders under the age of 40 who are making a difference in the community. Whitney is also a founding partner in Stop Studios an award-winning design firm that values collaborative partnerships.


Paula Berardinelli, Ed.D., Director of Career Sciences
Paula Berardinelli coordinates the research and integration of assessments and tests, critical career identification, and mapping of careers to educational programs into the Pipeline platform. Paula brings over 20 years experience in higher education and business. She has held several faculty positions at NC State University and an administrative post with the North Carolina Community College System's Virtual Learning Community. She co-founded Charles and Colvard, and has worked as a consultant with Development Dimensions International (DDI) and clients such as Johnson & Johnson, IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Motorola, and International Paper. She has published numerous professional articles and co-authored a book on Training Evaluation.