SPEAKERS
KEYNOTE
SHILPA YARLAGADDA
Founder & CEO, Shiffon Co.
Shilpa Yarlagadda is a Harvard graduate and the Founder and CEO of Shiffon Co. Shilpa launched her direct to consumer fine jewelry label from her Harvard dorm room in 2017. Since then, Shiffon Co. has reimagined luxury by using fine jewelry as a way to bring more women together. Shilpa donates 50% of Shiffon Co’s profits to companies empowering women through Startup Girl Foundation, the nonprofit she founded. The program has helped fund 11 startups that are led by and support women through mentorship and mutual support. In this way, each and every purchase from Shiffon is spiraling up a movement for female founders to receive equal access to venture capital funding. Additionally, the signature Duet Pinky Ring has been spotted on Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, Nicole Kidman and Emma Watson. At just 20-years-old, Shilpa has been named Forbes 30 under 30 and Shilpa has also been profiled globally including pieces in Vanity Fair, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal.
panel: building to lead
ALLISON MOSS
Founder, Type:A Deodorant
Allison Moss is a strategic executive with 20+ years of experience in consumer goods, and a proven ability to build and lead highly engaged and effective teams and successfully scale businesses. She is an experienced leader, builder and innovator with a passion for growing brands that make a difference in people’s lives. Most recently, Allison was the Founder & CEO of cult-favorite body care brand, Type:A, which was acquired in 2022. Under her leadership, Type:A scaled quickly, enjoyed fierce product loyalty, and built omni-channel distribution including DTC, Amazon, Credo Beauty, Whole Foods, Target, and Anthropologie.
SARA HAPP
Founder & CEO, Sara Happ, Inc.
Sara Happ is Founder and CEO of Sara Happ, Inc. A media maven who left her ESPN career after creating the first-to-market Lip Scrub in her kitchen in 2005, Sara loves identifying holes in the lip category and filing them with impeccable products. For 18 years, Sara and her entirely female team of lip-obsessed beauty lovers have committed themselves to doing one thing, lips, perfectly, with laser focus. Today her line is sold in 450 indie boutiques and luxury spas in the US, 600 Thirteen Lune doors, Anthropologie, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bluemercury, Revolve, and is distributed in 15 countries.
SANDY JEONG
VP of Digital, Glossier
Sandy Jeong is the Vice President of Digital at Glossier. As a business and technology leader, Sandy is passionate about building experiences that give a voice to and celebrate people of diverse backgrounds. Sandy currently leads the eCommerce channel and the Technology team at Glossier, a beauty brand that celebrates you in real life. During her time at Glossier, she led a significant organizational and technological transformation, and as part of an all-female leadership team.
panel: the path to social impact
KRIS STROUTHOPOULOS
Founder & CEO, Giapenta
Kris Strouthopoulos is the Founder and CEO of GIAPENTA, a lingerie brand that disrupted and reinvented the lingerie business through its designs and fabric and its inclusive way of talking about the female form. After working for a luxury bedding company for a little over a decade, Kris realized the thermoregulating materials that revolutionized the mattress industry could solve everyday problems women face with their own undergarments. The idea and execution of GIAPENTA was born and would soon develop its exclusive TempPro technology fabric, which proactively regulates and balances body temperature to keep you comfortable in any climate. Kris has been recognized as one of Forbes next 1000.
OCTAVIA ABELL
Co-Founder & CEO, Govern for America
Octavia Abell is an experienced public sector innovator and Co-Founder & CEO of Govern for America, a nonprofit working to build the next generation of public servants to create a more responsive government that better reflects and serves our communities. She has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 list member and Justice Catalyst Fellow and serves on the Advisory Boards for the Berkeley Institute for Young Americans and Talent for Good.
TRACEY THOMPSON
VP, SoGal Ventures
Tracey Amara Thompson is a Vice President at SoGal Ventures. She started her Venture Capital career as an intern at SoGal Ventures and later worked in the Venture Capital arm at a family office in the entertainment industry. Prior to becoming the first full-time hire at SoGal Ventures, she was the first full-time hire for Will Packer Media, a television and digital media company with first-look deals at networks including the Oprah Winfrey Network. Prior to that, she pitched and launched the first digital marketing division at Will Packer Productions, where she managed internal strategy for projects such as Girls Trip – the first movie by a black cast and crew to cross $100 Million.
CARA LESSER
Founder and CEO, Kid Museum
Cara Lesser is Founder and Executive Director of KID Museum, a pioneer in maker education and experiential learning in the greater Washington DC region. The museum is a dynamic hub for hands-on, maker learning that builds STEM and creative problem-solving skills, empowering the next generation of innovators and change-makers. Under Cara’s leadership, KID Museum has grown from an idea into an anchoring regional institution that has served more than 300,000 visitors since opening its doors in 2014.
workshop: learning the basics of financial literacy
ALYSSA HERMANN APPLEBAUM
VP, Commercial Banking Associate
Alyssa has worked in the financial services industry since 2014. As a commercial lender at Sandy Spring Bank, she helps local businesses grow and is passionate about making the community a better place to live, work and raise a family. She also serves on the board of Adoptions Together, an organization that supports children and families formed through adoption and foster care throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia.