Valencia Adams, Chief Diversity Officer
BellSouth Corporation

Valencia I. Adams , an Atlanta native, is Vice President - Chief Diversity Officer for BellSouth Corp. She has responsibility for BellSouth's diversity and inclusion efforts and will be responsible for inclusion strategy development and implementation across BellSouth, including collaboration with the Chairman's Diversity Council.

Prior to her November 2002 appointment to her current post she was Chief Operating Officer - Consumer Services, responsible for planning, developing and implementing strategies to service the residential market in BellSouth's nine-state territory. She is a former advisory council member to the President of BellSouth Telecommunications Inc., providing feedback and counsel on managing employees, in particular women and minority issues and concerns.

The Governor of Georgia recognized her as an outstanding Junior Achievement volunteer for her many years of service. She is a recipient of the American Business Women's Association Business Associate of the Year Award. She is also a graduate of Georgia 100, a group formed to support outstanding women in business. She currently serves as a mentor in the BellSouth Mentor Exchange program designed to support emerging leaders. Adams is also featured in the 2001 and 2002 "Who's Who in Black Atlanta."

Community involvement has included raising funds for notable institutions. She is a lifetime member of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. BellSouth Telecommunications has also benefited from Adams's fundraising talents. She was the 1998 Chairperson for the Metropolitan Atlanta United Way Campaign. Under her leadership BellSouth raised more than $4 million dollars in employee contributions. Adams has also served as a departmental coordinator for the Woodruff Arts Center Campaign and a team leader for the Empty Stocking fund.

She currently serves as a trustee for the Georgia Council on Economic Education and is on the boards of the BellSouth Foundation, Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, and the Possible Woman Foundation. She was featured in the March 2001 Ebony and the May/June 2001 Competitive Edge magazines. She is also featured in the 2001 Who's Who in Black Atlanta Millennium Edition as a New Millennium Leader. She is recognized in the July 2002 edition of Business to Business magazine as a 2002 "Diva" in business and in the July 2002 edition of Atlanta Woman magazine.

Adams is a graduate of Georgia State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. She has continued her education by completing management courses at Columbia University and Emory University

Deanna Berg, President
Innovation Strategies, Inc.

Dr. Deanna Berg is an internationally known consultant, speaker and coach to business organizations. She is President of Innovation Strategies International, a Minneapolis firm known for producing significant improvements for its clients and for unique approaches to the critical areas of change, innovation, and team performance.

Innovation Strategies has won praise from major organizations throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Dr. Berg is also co-founder of a Singapore-based innovation firm Dr. Berg earned a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology and Business from Indiana University. She is a published author and a member of the National Speakers Association, the International Federation of Professional Speakers and is past Faculty Chair of Innovation University. She is an Associate of The Learning Circle, a Boston-based network of leading thinkers and practitioners in the area of organizational learning Dr. Berg's sessions are best described as non-traditional and highly-interactive, with immediate take-home value.

Nellie Duke, Chair, Georgia Commission on Women They Said We Couldn't Get There from Here, merges the qualities of communicator, health educator, poet and athlete, community activist, advocate for women and children, into what has evolved as a leader among women. Sworn in as a commissioner with Georgia Commission on Women in 1992, she has served as Chair since 1994.

Connie Glaser, Author, Speaker

Connie Glaser, author of When Money Isn't Enough, has assisted thousands of women in breaking the glass ceiling with her best-selling books and dynamic seminars. Her bestseller, Swim with the Dolphins has provided a new navigational map for women in management. She was recently named to The World Who's Who of Women.

Robin Hensley is a business development coach for attorneys and CPA's assisting them in achieving their professional goals and objectives, primarily in regard to business development.

Robin serves on the board of directors of Northside Hospital and is one of the few women to serve on the board of directors of a public company and chair the audit committee of a company on the American Stock Exchange.

In 2000, Robin founded the Atlanta Women's Alliance which serves as an umbrella group for over 40 non-profit women's organizations in the city for joint networking and "best practices". She also serves on many other boards including the Possible Woman Foundation. She was founding President of the Georgia Executive Women's Network and was on the founding board of The International Alliance (TIA).

Her honors include honorary lifetime board member of the American Cancer Society, Atlanta Business Chronicle's Top 20 Self-made Women of Atlanta, NAWBO Rising Star Award, United Cerebral Palsy's Woman of the Year and Leadership Atlanta class of 2003.

Marjorie Barlow, Founder
Possible Woman

Marjorie Barlow, Ph.D., born in 1929, has had several different careers, primarily as a teacher and counselor. She values most highly her family relationships, which include her five children and her husband, Dr. Paul Barlow In 2001, the Barlows and their colleagues created the Corpus Christi Therapeutic Sound School which is dedicated to bringing "good things to the community”. Marj continues to serve as mentor to young women and consultant to organizations. She is the founder of the Possible Woman concept and author of the book, "The Possible Woman."

Betty Siegel, President
Kennesaw State University

Dr. Betty Siegel, inducted into the 1999 Atlanta Business Hall of Fame and named for the third time to Georgia Trend Magazine's list of "100 most powerful and influential Georgians," has been president of Kennesaw State University since 1981, when she became the first woman to hold this distinguished position in the University System of Georgia. Since then, the university has evolved from a four-year college to its current university status and has been lauded by U. S. News and World Report as a "rising star" among colleges and universities in the South. A nationally known speaker, civic leader, and administrator, Dr. Siegel uses the "invitational model" to espouse methods for strengthening the education and leadership process. She has lectured or consulted with educational, professional, government, and civic groups in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and nine foreign countries.

Joan Herbig was named CEO of XcelleNet in February 2000 when the company was purchased by Francisco Partners from Sterling Commerce. For the five years prior to that appointment, she held various positions with Xcellenet including President of the Managed Systems Division and Vice President of Marketing. She was named 2001 Woman of the Year in Technology by Technology Association of Georgia. She is recognized as the driving force behind the re-emergence of XcelleNet and its aggressive move into the mobile and wireless technology market. Herbig earned a B.A. in French from the University of Louisville and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky.

Astrid Pregel is Canada's Consul General resident in Atlanta. She heads a team of 40 Canadians and Americans working in the Canadian Consulate General in Atlanta and the Canadian Consulate in Miami.

She is responsible for the entire scope of Canada's relations with the seven southeastern states, a region whose GDP is larger than all but 5 industrial nations. Astrid has been with Canada's foreign service for 22 years. In the early eighties she spent three years at the Canadian High Commission in Naiobi, Kenya where she was responsible for 10 east African countries. From Africa, she returned to Ottawa to focus on accelerating Canada's commercial ties with the Republic of Korea. From East Asia she turned her attention to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal in her position as Counsellor Commercial at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi, India. She returned to Ottawa in 1993 as the Director of Trade Information Systems at the Department of External Affairs and International Trade where she lead the development of the specialized software essential to the success of Canada's diplomatic commercial teams around the world. Astrid was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to Canada as a child. She holds an honors Bachelors degree and an MBA from York University.

Patricia L. Willis, President
BellSouth Foundation (retired)
Executive Director, VOICES for Georgia’s Children

Pat Willis is the executive director of VOICES for Georgia’s Children, a statewide organization that supports research, communication, and advocacy for public policy related to children and families. She became the first director of VOICES in August 2003 after achieving over 30 years of accomplishments in the corporate sector, the public sector and in volunteer service.

During 20 years at BellSouth Corporation, she was the founding director and subsequent president of the BellSouth Foundation, an endowed trust devoted to improving education in the Southeast and Latin America. Through almost $50 million of grants and programs, the foundation achieved national recognition and respect in the issues of teacher preparation, school leadership and education technology, and international recognition for Pronino, an education initiative in 10 countries of Latin America.

In Atlanta Ms. Willis currently serves on the boards of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta. Nationally she is a board member of the Foundation Center in New York and the Center for Leadership in School Reform in Kentucky. She also serves on the Ethics and Accountability Committee of the Independent Sector and the Task Force on Cross Sectoral Relations at the Aspen Institute. Ms. Willis is vice chair of the board of trustees of Marietta (OH) College, her alma mater.