Speaker Lineup

Click here for the most up-to-date event info.

Discover a lineup of distinguished speakers at the Cultivating Authentic Leadership Regional BGS Conference. Join thought leaders, industry experts, and influential voices as they share insights and expertise.

Friday Speakers

Dr. Erika Michalski | Dr. Kanika Jones | Christopher Murphy | Jamil Wells

Saturday Speakers

Margie Warrell | Dr. Brandy Alfred | Ben Ficks | CAPT Juliette Taylor

Friday Speakers

Dr. Erika Michalski
Sessions: Keynote Address: Evolving Authentically Amplifies Your Impact & Key Leadership Skills Workshop

Dr. Erika Michalski (she/her) is an aggressive optimist and fierce authenticity advocate. She has a robust history of providing enthusiastic keynotes and engaging workshops dedicated to empowering participants and cultivating new ideas about professional development. She has also been guiding teams through strategic planning and long-range tactical visioning processes for over a decade. Dr. Erika is passionate about creating environments where individuals feel equipped to tackle new challenges as they move forward in personal and professional endeavors. She chooses to frame her work in the most current information around neuroscience, positive psychology, employee engagement, human evolution, and just a hint of behavioral economy … In other words, there’s a little something for everyone when Dr. Erika gets involved!

Dr. Erika earned both her Bachelor of Science focused on Human Environmental Sciences and her Master of Education focused on Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri's flagship institution in Columbia, Missouri. A few years later she completed her doctoral work in adult education theory at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. She spent the early part of her career working with academic institutions and nonprofit organizations in the St. Louis area, designing leadership and professional development curriculum, guiding large departments, and coaching strategic planning efforts for a variety of stakeholders. While in St. Louis, she was fortunate enough to lead a variety of high-performing teams through large-scale initiatives. But the mountains called, and she relocated to Fort Collins, Colorado with her young family at the close of 2016. This move propelled her to fully engage in the consulting and contract work she had grown to love. 

For more than a decade working in the consulting space, Dr. Erika has provided support for small teams with big dreams and Fortune 100 companies striving to beat competitors to the next level of performance. Additionally, she has supported non-profit organizations through large-scale initiatives and pilot programs and coached university administrators during times of tight budgets and ever-changing student needs. To further this work, she founded Strategically Authentic, a consulting company dedicated to helping people leverage who they are to get where they want to be. She proudly serves as the company's CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer), embracing her roots as a competitive cheerleader and collegiate cheerleading coach to the benefit of everyone she encounters. She takes this same approach as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Missouri, teaching in both the Trulaske College of Business and the College of Education and Human Development. Dr. Erika is known by clients, colleagues, and students as the one who believes in even the most ambitious possibilities as long as there is a plan rooted in authenticity ... and she is always ready to celebrate your successes along the way!

Back to top

Dr. Kanika (Magee) Jones
Sessions: Professional Development Session: Authentic Leadership

Dr. Kanika (Magee) Jones is the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of the Executive Leadership Honors Program at the Howard University School of Business, Washington, DC. She oversees student services in the School of Business, including the 21CAP personal and professional development program for incoming students, study exchange programs, recruitment and admissions, and the Honors program. Dr. Jones a member of the faculty of the Management Department, leading two courses including one course she developed for undergraduate students: Leadership, Power & Spirituality in Management. This course explores dimensions of leadership and personal belief alongside organizational culture, diversity management, and company identity. 

She is the former Associate Dean of the Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel at Howard University and continues to coordinate campus interfaith education and programming. Dr. Jones has a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Divinity from Howard University, a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and she has completed post-graduate studies in Organizational Behavior at The George Washington University and in Old Testament Literature at the Baltimore Hebrew University.  In 2012, Dr. Jones earned a Ph.D. in Spirituality at the Catholic University of America. 
 
A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Dr. Jones has provided independent consulting services to universities and non-profits throughout the nation, securing over $40 million for faith-based and community programs.  She is the former Director of Youth Leadership Development for the Children’s Defense Fund national office through which she launched service and advocacy initiatives on university campuses across the country.  Dr. Jones has also led youth conferences annually attracting over 1,000 youth from across the nation, cross-country college tours, grief initiatives for children and youth and entrepreneurship initiatives through her work in the AME Church.   
 
Dr. Jones’ efforts have been recognized through her acceptance into the Cambridge Professional Listing of Non-Profit Professionals and Leadership Greater Washington class of 2008. She was a decade long Board Member for the National Association of College and University Chaplains, is currently on the Board of the Micro-Enterprise Council of Maryland and is the Director for Community Builders Ltd. Dr. Jones is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and the NAACP.

Back to top

Chris Murphy
Sessions: Authentic Leadership in Practice: Uncommon Ways to Utilize Your Business Degree [Panel Discussion]

From 2015-2023 Christopher Murphy served as Vice President of Government Relations and Community Engagement at Georgetown University where he managed the university’s strategic relationships with the Federal and District governments, community organizations and leaders, and the Georgetown neighborhood. Through this work, he advanced the university’s long-term sustainability, promoted the common good, and worked to enrich students’ educational experience.

Prior to coming to Georgetown Murphy served as Chief of Staff to former Washington, DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray. In this capacity he managed the Executive Office of the Mayor to advance Mayor Gray’s highest priorities: growing and diversifying the District economy to create jobs and expand revenue, educating our children and preparing our workforce for the new economy, and improving the quality of life for all District residents.
 
Before joining the Gray Administration, Murphy served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Chief of Staff to then U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan. Murphy coordinated HUD’s Public Affairs, Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, Public Engagement, and Scheduling and Advance functions and co-led the Secretary’s agency Transformation Initiative. He also served as the Secretary’s liaison to the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs and the HUD Inspector General.
 
Before serving in the Obama Administration, Murphy was General Counsel and Executive Director for Human Resources of Atlantic Media Company – whose print and online publications include The Atlantic, National Journal , and Government Executive – where he advised Chairman David Bradley, served on the firm’s Executive Committee, managed the company’s diverse legal work, and oversaw employee recruitment, training, benefits, organizational culture, and community engagement.
 
For the eight years prior to joining Atlantic Media, Murphy founded and led City Year Washington, DC, the local chapter of the AmeriCorps national service program that unites diverse 17-24 year olds for a demanding year of full-time community service, leadership development, and civic engagement. Under Murphy’s leadership, City Year Washington, DC twice won the award for the best City Year program in the country.
 
Prior to founding City Year Washington, DC, Murphy was an attorney at Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) with a practice focused on commercial, antitrust, and education litigation. He also worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy and served on the start-up team for President Clinton’s AmeriCorps initiative.
 
Murphy is an honors graduate of both Harvard University and the Georgetown University Law Center where he served as an Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. He is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bars as well as the Leadership Greater Washington Class of 2010 and currently serves on the boards of the DC Housing Authority and Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School.

Back to top

JAMIL WELLS
Sessions: Authentic Leadership in Practice: Uncommon Ways to Utilize Your Business Degree [Panel Discussion]

Jamil Wells is an Oakland, California native and an educator for 20 years. As a classroom teacher for ten years Jamil taught Ancient Civilizations, World History, American History,  Economic, Government and Geography through a lens of social justice and equity. For 7 years Jamil lead schools in the Bay Area and Stockton, California, not only managing and supervising staff but building school culture, establishing multi-tiered systems of student support, designing, implementing and facilitating professional development, championing social emotional and restorative justice teaching practices, and developing performance management systems. Currently, Jamil works as the director of entrepreneurship with Junior Achievement of Greater Washington, delivering financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work force development services to students, families, and communities across the Greater Washington area. 

Back to top

Saturday Sessions

Margie Warrell
Sessions: How to bring your best and bravest self to your Work, Leadership and Life

Margie Warrell has spent 25+ years working with leaders across the world to improve decision making, igniting purpose and unlock the potential in themselves, their teams and organizations. Originally from Australia and now living in Washington D.C., Margie is a Senior Partner in Board, CEO Succession and leadership advisory at Korn Ferry, a sought after keynote speaker, team facilitator, Forbes columnist and bestselling author of Stop Playing Safe and You’ve Got This! A passionate advocate for women in leadership, Margie is also a Women’s Economic Forum honoree and sits on the advisory board of the Women’s Democracy Network advancing women internationally into public office.  More information at margiewarrell.com

Back to top

Dr. Brandy Alfred
Sessions: Being Authentic Leaders and Incorporating BGS into Their Work, Leadership and Life [BGS Alumni Network Member Panel]

Brandy Alfred, PhD is a Health Technology Executive highly skilled in governance, joint venture/partnership development and business transformation as an early adopter of ESG principles. Brandy brings 20+ years of experience growing revenue and profitability through operational transformation. She leverages her deep understanding of building sales, channel/alliance, GTM and industry strategies to  outsize growth across global markets.  Within the Healthcare Industry, Brandy is a growth operator, technology innovator and  impact strategist with proficiency in creating and sustaining stakeholder value. Brandy’s differentiated value is  her ability to operationalize corporate responsibility around growth at varying stages of an organization’s maturity. Brandy has translated her skill into advisory and has demonstrated global-scale of her advisory work evident by the inaugural 2023 World Economic Forum’s Zero Health Gaps Pledge. Brandy currently advises on Data Governance, Workforce Governance, Employee Health, People Risk, Operations and hyper-scaled Revenue Generation.

Brandy is actively serving on the Steering Committee for the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Equity Network. Brandy leverages her public policy expertise to govern the network’s market activation to gain commitments by industry CEOs  to close health equity gaps within their organization.  As a result of her efforts, Salesforce CEO, Marc Benoiff, and 38 other CEOs of the world's largest brands adopted equity as an operating priority and signed the inaugural Zero Health Gaps Pledge during the January 2023 Annual Meeting in Davos. She continues to lead an effort to recruit more CEOs to sign the pledge which can increase brand favorability and open financial inclusion for ESG-driven corporate initiatives (Scope 1, 2 & 3). 

As Global Vice President of Innovations & Partnerships at Salesforce, Brandy oversaw the strategy of  a $24.5M partner portfolio and used Salesforce’s Health & Life Science $1B+ balance sheet to manage profitable partnerships that delivered new capabilities to the  $8B+ Population Health Software Market. Brandy led commercialization of new capabilities in the high-growth market (21% CAGR) after her outsized 223% YoY growth performance with her initial AMER Sales Team. Her academic contributions linking sustainability goals to health equity goals opened new TAMs for the Chief Revenue Officer that resulted in 4 new paths to market. In her current capacity as Board Advisor for NP Consulting, a boutique tech implementation firm, Brandy serves on the Nomination and Governance Committee planning the succession for the current CEO.

Brandy serves as a Health Policy Advisor for the Public Administrators Council for the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy.  Brandy’s a fellow of UC Berkeley's Black Venture Institute and serves as a Limited Partner on two VC funds: Portfolia’s Rising America Fund and Capitalize VC’s Initial FinTech Fund (alongside Bank of America).

Back to top

Lee Benedict (Ben) Ficks, Jr.
Sessions: Being Authentic Leaders and Incorporating BGS into Their Work, Leadership and Life [BGS Alumni Network Member Panel]

Ben Ficks is the immediate past President of the BGS Washington DC Alumni Chapter Board and was a member of the Board for three years.  Under his leadership, the Chapter hosted numerous events for its over 300 members ranging from financial literacy, data analytics to career networking via Linked-In.

Professionally, Mr. Ficks is the former Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and currently serves as the Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer for Workforce Analysis.  

Mr. Ficks earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Maryland.

Back to top

CAPT Juliette Taylor
Sessions: Being Authentic Leaders and Incorporating BGS into Their Work, Leadership and Life [BGS Alumni Network Member Panel]

CAPT Juliette Taylor has over 19 years of policy, clinical, and teaching experience with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS), academia, and private sector. She has led teams in developing and implementing new policy and legislation, international harmonization, domestic and international stakeholder engagement, contractor management, and managed care consulting. She has represented FDA and CMS, presenting at large national and international conferences. She’s led many process improvement initiatives and contributed to development of FDA Guidance for Industry in the areas of labeling and clinical trial design for psychiatric drugs. She has also served as the Associate Director of Labeling and Regulatory Project Manager in the Division of Psychiatry.  She completed a residency in geriatric pharmacotherapy, is board-certified in psychiatric pharmacy, and completed an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. She is passionate about advancing international public health and applying best business practices to strengthening partnerships with academia, industry, and global counterparts in promoting drug development. 

Back to top

If you have questions about the Authentic Leadership BGS Conference, please email programs@betagammasigma.org.