The President's Circle: Women Who Lead

Join us as we will hear from multi-term NAMIC Chapter Presidents who lead teams, manage large projects, further the mission of NAMIC in our local chapters, all while chasing their passions and life's purpose. In this candid roundtable conversation, they will share their life lessons, tips on running a successful business, and how they prioritize self-care in their busy lives. This hour-long educational and empowerment dialogue will focus on bringing awareness to the working women's plight of balancing priorities, passions, and purpose, combatting ageism in the workplace, and managing self-care and boundaries.

This event is presented to you by: NAMIC-New York, NAMIC-Viriginia, NAMIC-Atlanta, in conjunction with NAMIC-Capital Area.

**********************************************

Meet the panelists

Alexandria Latimer is a business intelligence, research, and insights professional, with a passion for increasing diversity in the media and entertainment industry. She has over a decade of experience in leveraging consumer insights and audience analytics to influence strategic corporate decisions. She is currently the Director of Audience Insights at TEGNA, Inc., where her focus is to understand the needs, wants and consumption intentions of local news consumers. She joined the NAMIC Capital Area board in 2018 and for the past 3 years, she has served as the chapter President for the Capital Area chapter of NAMIC. During her tenure, she has found innovative ways to have tough DEI conversations through events and programming, which aimed to shake up the status quo in her market.

Alexandria is a multi-passionate individual, with a love and knack for fashion design (sewing), baking, event planning, traveling, and more. In 2020, she launched FACE Unlimited, a company and brand dedicated to highlighting and tapping into all of per passions: Fashion, Art, Creativity and Education. In 2022, she launched the educational component of that brand, Intra-Face Consulting, which focuses on using data and insights to help corporate companies and associations understand their audiences, as well as enhance and grow their meetings. Alexandria is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and is in the process of completing her first novel.

*************

Lakysha Laing has 30 years of leadership experience and is experienced in leading high performing teams in a call center environment; primarily in Technical Support. She has a passion for leadership development and mentoring employees to bring their personal best each day. She is currently a Director, Customer Care at Cox Communications. At Cox, she is on the board for the women's Empow[HER] ERG, a regional ambassador for the Diverse Ability ERG bringing awareness to ways to support individuals with disabilities and an avid champion for diversity, inclusion, equity & belonging. For the past 3 years she has been the President of the NAMIC-Virginia Chapter and is one of the founding members when the chapter was incorporated in 2017.

Lakysha is a foster care alumna and sits on the board for the Tidewater Friends of Foster Care where she passionately gives back to foster care causes. She is also a 4-year breast cancer survivor and can be found bringing awareness to the resources needed, sharing her story with others as the author of "The Strength of Silk - Living a Life of Grace & Gratitude" and volunteering in support groups for women currently in the fight. She finds joy in whale watching which taps into her love of nature, taking walks anywhere she can to stay active and tapping into her side hustle of braiding hair.

*************

Lynnette Smith has been an integral part of The Weather Channel strategic leadership team for over 20 years and is the Manager of Advertising Operations. She is responsible for the overall execution of the Cable Ad Products on the network and her role is critical because she is the liaison that collaborates between the sales and broadcast engineering teams to create, develop, and execute ad products that directly impact the bottom-line profit margin.

To fulfill her passion for Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace, Lynnette has been a volunteer on the NAMIC Atlanta Board since 2004. Under Lynnette’s leadership as the President, the Atlanta Chapter won back-to-back “Chapter of the Year” Awards in 2009 and 2010, 2012 & 2013, along with other chapter awards. In 2014, she was the recipient of the Mae Douglas Leadership Award for recognition as a leader, who stood out for her work as a result of her commitment and the integrity of her character to achieve excellence and success in the communications industry. In 2020, she received a Diversity and Inclusion certificate from Cornell University. And in 2021 she was appointed as the Director at Large –Diversity, Equity & Inclusion on the WICT NETWORK (SE chapter) board. She currently serves on the NAMIC Atlanta Board as the Immediate Past President, and is a general member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

*************

Rahdiah Barnes is currently the Strategic Diversity Partnership Liaison at Pride Global and President of the New York Chapter of The National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMICNY). Under her leadership, her Chapter has planned and executed over 100 corporate events and community outreach initiatives, ranging from large-scale corporate events to intimate panel discussions and workshops. She particularly takes pride in creating Social Responsibility Initiatives and Community Outreach events. Before her pivot into DEI/CSR she had a 20- year career in the telecom industry as an Account Manager.

Rahdiah is the founder of Pappy's Heart, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to bringing comfort to the homeless by providing bags filled with essential items that ease the burden of hunger. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from St. John’s University and credits the school for implementing in her the love of volunteering. In 2019 she was awarded the Outstanding Community Service Award by the Shannon's Share Foundation. Born in New York City, and raised in upstate New York, she now lives in Harlem. She loves to travel, having visited over 20 countries and 100’s of eateries all over the world. She enjoys watching documentaries, listening to 90’s Hip Hop, and living life to the fullest. A big-time foodie, she runs a fun food blog, ChiChiEats, that documents her love of diverse cuisines and cultures.