Sarah began her career in Human Resources at companies like SiriusXM, Coach, and Gilt Groupe before transitioning to the role of Head of Sales at Gilt City—the company’s luxury lifestyle experiences arm. In this role, Sarah ran a 65-person sales team, managed $60 million in yearly revenue, and expanded the brand to top cities across the U.S. It was there that she identified the direct correlation between culture and the bottom line—when employees failed to address their issues with colleagues and managers, revenue suffered.

Before co-founding Bravely, Sarah launched an EdTech company (accepted into the acclaimed 500 Startups accelerator) that helped educate kids on the importance of environmental and wildlife conservation.
Sarah’s experience in HR, team management, and tech—combined with an ongoing obsession with helping people gain the confidence they need to find meaning in their work—inspired her to co-found Bravely in 2017.

TeNita Ballard is a Diversity Business Partner for SMG at Intel. She joined Intel in February 2021 as Global Supply Chain’s Diversity Business Partner. Quickly after joining the team she partnered with key stakeholders to create Supply Chain's Diversity and Inclusion SharePoint site, was BHR D&I’s point of contact for XLT’s Authentic Leadership Pilot, presented Intel’s D&I story at Modern Health’s Juneteenth Panel, provided Supply Chain’s African American Resource Group A3iS with the resources and support to get the data they needed to grow their initiatives. 

In her previous role, she was the Lead Consultant for Diversity & Inclusion at AT&T. She led D&I strategy for the Asian Pacific Islanders, Individuals with Disabilities and Veterans segments where she partnered with both internal and external stakeholders to ensure AT&T is seen as a great place to work and their service provider of choice. TeNita joined DIRECTV in 2006 with roles as an Investigative Analyst investigating Customer Risk Management and as a Commercial Analyst where she was responsible for commercial dealer account auditing to ensure company policy compliance.

In 2013, TeNita’s dedication to relationship building and community outreach inspired her to lead the group responsible for the creation and launch of DIRECTV’s first African American employee resource group. BAALANCE (Building African American Leaders and Navigating the Company Experience) launched in January 2014 and quickly became known for providing access to influential African Americans at on-site networking events.

With the DIRECTV and AT&T merger, BAALANCE merged into Community NETwork, which is AT&T’s African American Employee Resource Group. She served as the Community NETwork Los Angeles Chapter President and Vice President for the past 3 years. TeNita received her B.A. in Psychology from Cal State Long Beach and her Master of Business Administration from Keller Graduate School of Management. TeNita also held a full-time HR position at Coca-Cola Bottling Company Los Angeles while pursuing her BA and a full-time position at DIRECTV while pursuing her MBA.

Joanne Mallia-Barsati is Vice President, Global Talent Management for Penguin Random House. A member of the Global Executive Committee and reporting directly into the Global CEO, Jo is responsible for continuing to advance Penguin Random House’s global talent management and development strategy. In addition, Jo oversees the Learning and Organizational Development function for the U.S. business.

With a pragmatic and collaborative approach, Jo and her team advise and support all aspects of talent management, learning, and organizational development in the U.S. and globally, delivering best-fit solutions for individuals, teams, and the organization. Jo is passionate about using coaching as a development tool and believes in the power of coaching skills in developing high-performing and empowered teams and cultures. As an accredited Associate Professional Coach with the International Coach Federation, Jo also works directly with talent internally to support them in reaching their goals and potential.

Jo joined Random House U.K. in 2011 to lead the Learning & Development function and moved to New York in 2014. Prior to that, Jo spent over 13 years honing her talent and learning expertise at the creative agency Leo Burnett, and The Walt Disney Company.

Mike is part of Manulife’s Global Leadership and Senior Human Resources teams and leads a group of professionals across multiple geographic locations.

In his role, Mike is responsible for driving HR strategy and initiatives anchored in human-centered design and technology, providing excellence in employee relations, innovating positive colleague engagement and career outcomes that accelerate business results.  

Mike’s responsibilities include: 

• Leading the AskHR Shared Services organization including the Moments that Matter focused response teams

• Leading cross-functional strategies and initiatives supporting Manulife’s Working Better strategy

• Directing HR Centers of Expertise for HR Strategy & Transformation, Human Capital Analytics & Reporting, HRIS, Employee & Labor Relations, Payroll, Global Mobility and HR Operations 

Prior to joining Manulife, Mike worked in a variety of Senior HR roles for Hewlett Packard as well as served in a variety of Board of Director and Advisory capacities for public and private companies.

Mike received his Master’s Degree in Human Resources and Marketing from Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor Degree in Marketing from Penn State University.

Michele has 26 years of experience in the wine and spirits industry. During her time with Southern
Glazers Wine & Spirits Michele has been Director of Digital Operations, Director of L&D for PNW, Alaska and Hawaii, Off Premise State Manager for Washington Brokerage, Chain Call Manager, Military Sales & Pricing Manager, Division Manager and Sales. Michele has held a key role with delivering Proof/eCommerce initiative as they optimize their digital route to market. Additionally, Michele has completed her Master Cannabis Certification to support business diversification.

As one of the leaders of our PNW C.H.E.E.R.S. to Diversity group, Michele regularly facilitates events
for our employees, customers, and supplier partners. The C.H.E.E.R.S. group started for the Pacific
Northwest March 2017, and the leaders have held eleven general sessions, resume builds, professional photo events and group learning sessions.

Michele currently resides in Washington on the Key Peninsula with one of her sons, her oldest is a
Sargent in the US Army. Her free time is filled with gardening, boating, and always learning.

Anna Maltby Patil is an award-winning journalist and editor who currently works as a freelance editorial director and consultant, fitness programming and performance coach, and personal trainer and Pilates teacher. Until April 2021, she was the executive editor of Elemental, Medium’s health and wellness publication. She was previously the deputy editor at Real Simple magazine and a deputy editor at Refinery29, and also held staff positions at Men’s Health, Marie Claire, SELF, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health and Condé Nast Traveler. Her writing has appeared in such outlets as The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and O. She received her BSJ and MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Anna is also an American Council on Exercise–certified personal trainer and functional training specialist, a certified prenatal and postnatal exercise specialist, and a certified mat Pilates teacher.