20th Women Spanning the Globe Leadership Conference

9:00 am

Welcome remarks: Our hosts from the past, present, and future kick off the day, celebrating the conference’s 20-year history and looking ahead to what the future holds.

9:30 am

Keynote: Letters to Lilly. Letters to Lilly is a keynote experience that begins where most conferences never go: with vulnerability, honesty, and the quiet things women carry into every room. Authors Melissa and Ali guide attendees through storytelling, unexpected connection, and one powerful question: what is the most valuable lesson of your last 20 years, and are you sharing it? You’ll leave with more than notes; you’ll leave with a story worth telling. 

10:30 am

Fireside Chat: AI – Global Leadership. The most powerful technology of our lifetime is being built right now. Will women help lead it or watch from the sidelines? Artificial intelligence isn’t just a tech story. It’s a leadership story. A capital story. A humanity story. And the women shaping it most boldly aren’t waiting for an invitation. In this high-stakes fireside conversation, two extraordinary leaders sit down with Dr. Valerie Ashby, one of the most respected voices in research and higher education, for an unfiltered conversation about what it really means to lead with conscience in an age of disruption.

11:15 am

Panel: Innovations in Women’s Health – Breakthroughs Shaping the Next 20 Years. Your health has been under-researched, underfunded, and overlooked for decades. That is finally changing, and the women driving that change will be in the room with you. From regenerative science to precision oncology, from minimally invasive surgery to digital health monitoring, the pace of innovation in women’s healthcare has never been faster. But speed alone is not enough. The next breakthrough depends on who is leading the research, who controls the capital, and who sits at the policy table. This session brings together two of the most compelling minds working at the frontier of women’s health today, a biotech innovator and a leader in gynecologic surgery and research, for a candid, forward-looking conversation about what is working, what is still broken, and what the next two decades could look like if we get this right. 

12:00 pm

Lunch

1:00 pm

Leadership Spotlight: Cindy Wolf. 

1:30 pm

Interactive Workshop: Your Voice, Your Circle – Leading Civil Conversations on Women’s Economic Opportunity. What if the most powerful leadership skill you could build right now was the ability to bring people together across differences, spark real dialogue, and turn a room full of opinions into a force for change? In a world that increasingly rewards whoever talks loudest, the ability to facilitate thoughtful, fact-based conversation is rare and in high demand. This hands-on session gives you that skill, and a community of women ready to practice it alongside you. Partnering with The Policy Circle, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to building civic leadership through structured dialogue, this interactive workshop invites you to do something most conferences never make time for: think out loud, together, with women who see the world differently than you do. 

2:00 pm

Leadership Spotlight: Valencia McClure. 

2:30 pm

Venue Remarks & Yoga Break  Gather at Timbre  for venue remarks, followed by a refreshing yoga break to recharge and reset. The session will offer a welcome moment of mindfulness and connection during a full day of programming—giving everyone the chance to pause, stretch, and refocus together.

3:00 pm

Leadership Spotlight: Detria Cortalis. 

3:30 pm

Interactive Workshop: Owning Your Message – The Next 20. You have done the work. You have delivered the results. So why is it still so hard to talk about it? If you have ever downplayed a win, deflected a compliment, or stayed quiet in a room where you absolutely should have spoken up, you are not alone. And you are not the problem. But it is time to change that. In this high-energy, hands-on workshop, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Randi Braun, whose book Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work has already changed the game for thousands of women, takes you inside the real reason so many talented, accomplished women struggle to own their story. Then she gives you the tools to do something about it, starting right now. 

4:00 pm

Closing Remarks

4:30 pm

Happy Hour