Emerging Conversations: The Second Act of Your Career

Are you thinking about what comes next in your career? Whether your next move is approaching quickly, or further down the road, join us for a conversation with Emerson alumni who have successfully lifted the curtain on their second act.

Panelists:

Kristina Smith '74 develops and implements strategies to create workspaces that are diverse, equitable, inclusive and where all people feel like they belong. She educates organizational leaders on systems that support hiring, mentoring, and promoting all staff equitably. Facilitated conversations among leaders assist in identifying and combating systemic and institutional racism. Kristina facilitates conversations at every level in the organization for staff to understand unconscious bias, microaggressions and their role in creating equitable workspaces. She assesses documents that reveal unintended biases and provides training for staff to be able to identify and create future unbiased documents. Kristina coaches leaders to be able to have difficult conversations with staff to ensure continuity in culture change.

Maura Tighe '81 is the Artistic Director at Boston Arts Academy (BAA). Maura began her career as a theatre director after graduating from Emerson College with a BFA. She worked as a stage manager and assistant director on high profile shows in New York City, and then transitioned to directing experimental theatre, new works, musical reviews and Off Off Broadway productions. Since moving back to Boston, Maura has directed many productions at BAA, and at New England area theaters. She has also worked in film and television as a casting director and started her own successful company, Maura Tighe Casting. Her professional casting credits include many feature films and independent, local projects such as the original Queer Eye, and shows for PBS/WGBH, Bravo, Oxygen, ABC Family and others. Maura transitioned to become a full-time faculty member at Boston Arts Academy after 15 years as a private acting and voice coach for television and film. BAA has been the perfect synthesis of her passions: working with young people to create theatre, and advocating for access to high quality arts experiences for them. Maura has lectured at many local colleges and universities, including Boston College, UMass, Emerson and Brandeis.

Rosalie Sheffield '81 was in the group hired to start CNN2 and then went on to be a news and special projects editor at the ABC affiliates in Houston and Austin. She formed the Emerson College Colorado Alumni group more than15 years ago after meeting classmate Ron Bostwick at their 20th reunion. Her pivot occurred when she couldn’t find a job in Colorado in TV news and went to work in sales and events for a company bringing a new type of editing system into the US. She then became the Special Events Director for a business journal and the Boulder Chamber before starting her own company.

Steve Scott '95, MA `'98, founder & CEO of Retirement Solutions Group, has leveraged the strong communication skills he learned at Emerson to help build one of the nation's larger independent retirement plan consulting practices. Taking the complicated concepts of investing, compliance and ERISA and finding ways for business owners and participants to make more informed decisions has been a cornerstone for Steve and RSG Steve has been named a Top Advisor on the Financial Times 401 List and his team at RSG has received national recognition from the National Association of Pension Administrators (NAPA) Top Defined Contribution Teams for four years and running.

Moderator:

Margie Sullivan '81 is a seasoned business professional with noteworthy experience as a corporate leader, executive producer, and creative manager. She is the director of operations for The Client Relationship Consultancy Inc. in Boston, headquartered in London. Prior to joining CRC, she was an executive producer at Redtree Productions, and before that, she was the EVP/director of creative service at the Boston global headquarters of Arnold Worldwide. During her tenure at Arnold, Margie managed and produced work for many award-winning accounts such as Volkswagen, Truth, Royal Caribbean, Fidelity, and McDonald’s. She was also the executive producer on the award-winning documentary A Hero for Daisy, directed by Mary Mazzio. Sullivan is currently serving on the Hingham Access TV Board of Directors and is an executive board member for the MA Production Coalition. Margie has extensive experience with production companies, advertising agencies, in-house creative departments/agencies, documentary producers, access television and relationship management consultancies. She is a past adjunct professor at Boston University and a past board member for the Boston Ad Club. She received a bachelor’s degree from Emerson College and a master’s degree in management science from Lesley University.

Reminder emails with a link to access this virtual program will be sent in advance of the event.

Emerging Conversations: Learning for Life is a series of events to provide space for the Emerson community to connect around professional development topics. The events are hosted by the Professional Development Committee of the Emerson College Alumni Board.