Saturday, June 5 from 10:00 – 11:30am
St. Pius X Church Scarsdale, NY (outside church entrance)
Speaker Bios for this event:
Women’s Leadership in the Church: Beyond Martha and Mary
Dr. Natalia Imperatori-Lee is Religious Studies Director, Catholic Studies Program at Manhattan College and the author of Cuentame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present, the story of the Catholic Church from the Latino/a perspective. Her research interests focus on Catholic ecclesiology, relationship between Catholic theology, sexuality, and education; gender studies; and the relationship of women, the poor and other marginalized groups to church structure and governance.
Served on the governing boards of the Catholic Theological Society of America, of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the U.S and of FutureChurch. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion. Dr. Imperatori-Lee earned her PhD. from University of Notre Dame, her MA from University of Chicago and her BA from Fordham University.
Facing the New Reality for Women: Career + Caregiver + Educator: Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Discussion with Sima Saran Ahuja and Lisa current workplace practices and the need for a new post-Covid paradigm to help women succeed in their multi-dimensional roles.
Sima Saran Ahuja was appointed College Counsel at Marist College in November 2018. She provides the College with in-house legal expertise to inform decision making at both executive and administrative levels. Previously, she was General Counsel at Metropolitan College of New York, and she has served in the Office of General Counsel at The City University of New York. Sima has a generalist skill set that spans higher education and nonprofit law, litigation and regulatory compliance, employment, intellectual property, and complex agreements and transactions.
Sima has a JD from the B.N. Cardozo School of Law where she was symposium editor of the Arts and Entertainment Law Journal and trained to become a certified mediator. She received her BA from Barnard College where she was a double major in Political Science and South Asian Studies. Sima is pursuing a Master’s degree in Higher Education at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College to complement her JD in service of higher education institutions. She lives in Scarsdale with her husband, Sameer Ahuja, and two daughters.
Lisa Tretler is the CEO of Business Boosters Consulting, a company focused on the professional development of women business owners and advising on entrepreneurship, business growth and intrapreneurship. Lisa has nearly 25 years of experience training, coaching and consulting to individuals and companies in the areas of goal setting, business plan development, and marketing and growth strategies. Lisa co-founded The Acceleration Project (TAP), a nonprofit which harnesses the talent of professionals to accelerate small business growth. Prior to her current work, Lisa worked as a business strategy consultant at American Express, Accenture and Towers Perrin.
Lisa has been a member of the Professional Faculty at the Wharton School of Business, where she has taught multinational marketing strategy and consulting skills development. She has lectured for the International Relations Program and the Fox Leadership Institute at Penn and teaches entrepreneurship at Iona College. Lisa is actively involved in the nonprofit community, serving currently as Board Chair of the Scarsdale Adult School, and a Board Member of the Women’ Enterprise Development Center, the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts & Sciences Ambassador Council and a founding member of the International Relations Department Advisory Board.
Lisa received a BA in International Relations from Penn, an MBA from Wharton, and an MA in International Affairs/Spanish from the Lauder Institute.
Lisa and her husband Jon currently live in Scarsdale. They have two teenage daughters, one a Freshman at the University of Pennsylvania and another a high school Sophomore.
When Home is Not A Safe Haven
Vanessa Barreto, a bi-lingual Domestic Violence Counselor at My Sister’s Place. In this position, Vanessa works with youth and adult survivors as she did in a prior position as a certified Rape Crisis Counselor at Westchester Medical Center. Filling both roles during the pandemic has not only shown Vanessa the effects the pandemic has had on services for survivors, but also the effects it has had on survivor’s home environments.
My Sister’s Place is a non-profit organization whose mission is “providing hope, achieving justice and changing lives”.