Leadership Lessons From the White House
Dr. Eleanor "Connie" Mariano, First Female Commander of the White House Medical Unit, First and Only Filipino-American to Achieve the Rank of Rear Admiral, Author of White House Physician

A dynamic and confident leader, Connie Mariano will share her journey as a woman, mother, naval officer and head of the White House Medical Unit and the invaluable leadership lessons she learned that helped her make the leap from constant underdog to top dog. Confidence is a survival tactic Connie learned early on. She was born in a U.S. military base in the Philippines and relocated every few years when her father, a career Navy enlisted serviceman, was restationed. "I was constantly trying to readjust and prove myself." The hardest part for Connie was being judged before she even opened her mouth. "Some people assume I'm going to be meek and deferential because I'm a petite Asian-American woman," but she's proved them wrong time and again.

Connie served as an Officer in the U.S. Navy for 24 years and was the first and only Filipino-American in history to achieve the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. In 1992, she was nominated by the Navy and selected by the White House as the first military woman in American history to serve as White House Physician. Two years later, she was named the first female Commander of the White House Medical Unit. By attending to three American presidents over a nine-year period, Dr. Mariano is by far the longest-serving White House physician in American history.

After her retirement from the Navy, Dr. Mariano became a consultant in the Executive Health Program at the Mayo Clinic and subsequently founded the Center for Executive Medicine, a medical concierge practice which provides presidential-quality care to the Center's patients. An expert in presidential health care, including the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, Dr. Mariano is a frequent guest speaker on CNN and in print media on the topics of presidential disability, including the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, optimizing quality of care and leadership. She is the author of White House Physician, which will be published in early 2010 by St. Martin's Press.

A Conversation on Leadership in Times of Change
Sue Clark-Johnson, Former President of Gannett Newspaper Division, Gannett Co., Inc.

Sue Clark Johnson is a proven international business leader who helped to successfully steer the newspaper industry through its most challenging period of change. During her long career with Gannett, she was highly regarded not only as a talented manager of very complex and far-flung operations but also a gifted strategist and visionary. Sue was the first woman to serve as President of Gannett's Newspaper Division, its largest operating group, and during her tenure, she also served as Chair of the Newspaper Association of America. She previously served as senior group president of Gannett's West Region and regional vice president of Gannett's East Region.

Gannett is a diversified news and information company with operations in 41 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore and is headquartered in McLean, Va. Gannett is the nation's largest newspaper group in terms of circulation. The company's 84 domestic daily newspapers, which include USA Today, have a combined circulation of about 5 million readers. The Newspaper Division also publishes about 100 websites and hundreds of weekly newspapers and magazines.

In 2003, the National Association of Minority Media Executives awarded Clark-Johnson the Distinguished Diversity Award for Lifetime Achievement for her success in championing diversity in the media industry. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Female Executives. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of the Translational Genomics Research Institute and Pinnacle West Capital Corporation. Although she planned for and announced her retirement from Gannett months in advance of her actual retirement in 2008, her retirement did not last long. The energetic Clark-Johnson recently came out of retirement to serve as Executive Director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Leading "UP"
Suzanne J. Peterson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Management and Leadership, Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business, Contributing Author, Handbook of Top Management Team Research

After receiving rave reviews as a breakout session speaker at a previous AWLF symposium, Suzanne Peterson has accepted our invitation to be a keynote speaker at this year's Symposium. With Suzanne's breadth and depth of knowledge in the leadership area, we've chosen an intriguing and important topic, but one that is often not given enough attention.

Leadership is usually viewed in terms of managing your team or subordinates. But effectively leading or managing "up" has a tremendous impact on your performance and career. Whether you are in middle or senior management, a partner in a professional firm or a CEO, you still have a "leader" above you - even if it is the executive committee, board of directors or, in some cases, your customers. Do you know what your leader really expects from you? Are you communicating in a way that you are perceived as a valued team member? Do you know your leader's "frustration code?" If not, you may not be effectively managing impressions in the upward direction. Suzanne will discuss some of the best practices used in "leading up" and also explore ways you can help your direct reports better lead up as well.

At ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business, Suzanne teaches MBA level courses on leadership and organizational behavior. She specializes in the development of leadership behaviors that characterize extraordinary leaders. Emphasizing leadership style, effective communication and relationship building as critical building blocks to leadership success, she has conducted research and served in an advisory capacity to leaders in some of today's largest Fortune 500 firms. Dr. Peterson's research has appeared in top business and psychology journals and she has presented her leadership ideas to a variety of audiences worldwide. She is currently working as a contributor on a new book titled the Handbook of Top Management Team Research by Edward Elgar. Before entering academia, Dr. Peterson worked as a change management consultant for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Women in Negotiation: Unleashing Your Innate Social, Emotional and Analytical Skills to Get What You Want and Deserve
Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Author, Understanding Negotiation.

At last year's symposium, Sara Laschever spoke about the gender divide in negotiations - women's tendency to avoid "self-interest" negotiations and the high cost women pay in both lost wages and career advancement as a result. Karen Walch's research, both nationally and internationally, tends to support this gender divide. Karen views negotiation in a broad sense - as a means of getting what you want by working through others. She, like Sara, has found that women often excel in highly-structured, professional negotiations on behalf of their companies or clients, but do not do as well in less-structured settings where their own interests are at issue. Starting where Sara left off last year, Karen will demonstrate how women can enhance, often unconscious, social and emotional skills already latent in women's style, as well as prepare for the strategic elements in a negotiation, to enable them to outmaneuver even the most predatory negotiators. Karen will provide a practical framework to enhance negotiation preparation, including steps to clarify how we think, behave, feel and believe - in any negotiation situation - personal or professional. This preparation framework has been tested across cultures and industries and builds on the latest research in brain science. The result is that when negotiators use the whole brain in preparation and social interactions we can accomplish anything we want.

Dr. Karen Walch is internationally recognized for her expertise in the areas of negotiation planning and strategy and cultural competencies, with over 30 years of experience in various business and academic contexts. She has worked in the legal, insurance and tourism sectors and, in addition to teaching at Thunderbird's Glendale campus, has taught courses in Mexico, Taiwan, Germany, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Korea and Cuba. Her executive education clients include Exxon/Mobil, Delta Airlines, SK Korea, Honeywell, Kellogg, Acer Taiwan, LGE, EDS, Legrand and Gate Gourmet. She has authored or co-authored numerous books and articles, including Understanding Negotiation, "Communication and Negotiation Barriers in Global Organizations," and Feminist Ideas on Cooperation and Self-Interest for IR." She has received accreditation from Harvard's Program on Negotiation, the Centre for Dispute Resolution in London, The Training Management Center, Princeton, the Hay Group, Boston, Creativity Institute, New York, Atwood Institute and Defensive Systems, AZ. Karen is also one of the most dynamic, down-to-earth and practically-oriented professors you will ever meet, which is probably why she has received over a dozen teaching awards.

Releasing the Power of Positivity in Organizations
Beth Cabrera, Ph.D., President, Cabrera Insights, Internationally Recognized Organizational Psychologist

Beth Cabrera helps companies and other organizations to apply the latest insights from positive psychology to achieve peak performance. Her expertise in individual and organizational effectiveness was gained through a lengthy academic career and expertise advising organizations in both the U.S. and Europe. After earning her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, Beth joined the faculty in the Department of Business Administration at Universidad Carlos III, one of Spain's top universities, where she taught for ten years, achieved tenure and held various leadership roles. Upon her return to the U.S. in 2005, Beth continued her academic career in global management and leadership until, very recently, when she made the "leap" into entrepreneurship. She founded Cabrera Insights in order to help organizations increase employee engagement and organizational effectiveness, and she continues to conduct cutting-edge research. Over the course of her career she has published more than 25 articles in some of the world's most influential academic and professional journals and has routinely presented her work at leading international conferences.

Beth believes that positivity is the key to leveraging your most important asset - your people. She is convinced that, in today's economy, maximizing the potential of employees is more important than ever, but more challenging to achieve in these uncertain times. Beth's mission is to transform organizations through a focus on strengths, positive communication and empowerment in order to achieve increased individual and organizational effectiveness and peak performance. Her positive, strengths-based philosophy is extremely effective in helping to develop leaders, build teams and advance careers.

Are You Living Your Leadership Calling?
Sharon Lamm-Hartman, Ph.D., CEO, Inside Out Learning, Inc., Adjunct Professor of Leadership at Columbia University, Author of The Heart's Way: Discover Your Passionate Calling

Recently featured in The New York Times and Oprah Magazine, Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman is an award-winning coach, writer and educator. With over 20 years of global experience, Sharon has worked across the United States and Europe as well as Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand for clients such as American Express, GE's Leadership Development Center, Exxon, E*TRADE, ARCO Chemical Company, Mobil Oil Corporation, Berlex Pharmaceuticals, Fannie Mae and Volvo Corporation. Currently, she is a preferred executive coach at Boeing. She has designed and delivered over 1000 innovative programs at the companies listed above as well as at numerous professional organizations around the world. In addition to her work through Inside Out Learning, Inc., Sharon is an adjunct professor of Leadership at Columbia University.

Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman holds two Bachelor degrees in Psychology and Business, a Masters in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a doctorate from Columbia University in Leadership and Organization Development. She has published 14 articles and book chapters and produced an audio CD workbook, with her colleague, Mirabai Galashan, on Discovering Your Purpose. Her book, The Heart's Way: Discover Your Passionate Calling, will be published in 2010.

Sharon believes that NOW is the time to make the leadership contribution you were born to make! She will help you to discover who you are as a leader, what is your greatest leadership gift, whether you are living up to your greatest leadership potential and what is your most powerful way of adding value by expressing your unique gifts and talents.