Women in Leadership Summit

ucsbecon

The Department of Economics is hosting its inaugural Women in Leadership Summit on Wednesday, May 8th, 2:30pm – 4:30pm at Loma Pelona (on UCSB’s campus). The Summit will feature a panel discussion, speed networking, and a reception. 

Sign up for the Women in Leadership Summit here: https://forms.gle/dq55GxQxjPoVgpEF7 

The panel, taking place from 2:30pm – 3:30pm, will be comprised of four panelists: Professor Kelly Bedard, Lisa Hartung, Prachi Joshi, and Debra McClure.

Here is how the Alumni Speed Networking from 3:30pm – 4:30pm will work: 

We will have approximately twelve tables with eight students at each. Ideally, each table has two alumni.

We will pair the alumni based on job, industry and level of experience in the field.

Students will have twenty minutes to meet with each table.

We will switch every twenty minutes so ideally students will be able to meet with six different alumni and learn about their experiences. 

The event will end with an outdoor networking reception.

The audience, estimating 80-100, will be female students majoring in Econ or Econ Accounting. 

Professor Kelly Bedard– Department of Economics UCSB
 
Kelly Bedard’s research focuses largely on the Economics of Education and Health, including influential studies of the effects of military service on health, determinants of gender test score gaps among children in OECD countries, and the determinants of obesity in populations of immigrants to the U.S. One of her best known papers studied the effects of a student’s age relative to his/her classmates in kindergarten on success later in life; this research was featured prominently in the popular press and in a recent bestselling book by Malcolm Gladwell. Professor Bedard’s research has been supported by two grants from NIDDK.
 
Lisa Hartung– Senior Vice President/Investments at Stifel
 
A Financial Services professional who has been in the industry for over 26 years. Lisa is currently a Senior Vice President/Investments at Stifel in Newport Beach, California. Before working at Stifel, Lisa had roles as a Wealth Management Advisor, Producing Sales Manager, and First Vice President at Merrill Lynch from 1998 until 2016. Lisa is on the Forbes’ Best-In-State Women Wealth Advisors list for 2023 & 2024 and holds a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Business and Economics.
 
Prachi Joshi– Membership Product at Uber
 
Prachi is an accomplished professional with diverse work experience spanning product strategy, management consulting, and finance and accounting roles. With an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Prachi brings a unique blend of strategic acumen and operational expertise to the table. Currently at Uber, Prachi is working towards building the perfect customer loyalty product for UberOne members. Prior to this role, Prachi started her career at PwC as a Risk Assurance associate, later transitioning to management consulting, leading teams of consultants to advise F500 companies on business strategies and operational execution. Outside of her professional life, she loves to try new restaurants (and cook!) as well as travel.
 
Debra McClure– Global Head of Sales at Dropbox
 
A career sales professional with more than 30 years in the technology sector with experience in all aspects of the selling world, Deb has been involved in selling across multiple verticals and technologies from the Fortune 10 to the Small Business entities. She is an accomplished sales leader who began her career as an individual contributor and worked her way through multiple sales leadership positions. Debbie had led teams in multiple facets of sales including outside and inside sales teams, services sales, and sales operations. Prior to Dropbox, Deb spent 20 years at Cisco, where she led the sales and engineering teams responsible for serving the mid-market customers in Cisco’s Service Provider segment in the Americas Sales Organization. Deb came to Dropbox in January 2021 and has been instrumental in reinvigorating the Global sales organization. Debbie holds a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in liberal arts, with a concentration in business economics.