Friba Rezayee is the Founder and Executive Director of Women Leaders of Tomorrow, a Vancouver-based, non-profit organization dedicated to empowering Afghan women and girls.
Born and raised in Kabul, Friba made history in 2004 when she became the first Afghan woman to compete in the Olympic Games. She shares her journey from childhood defiance into global activism, and details the threats and obstacles she faced along the way.
Friba also discusses what it will take for change to come to Afghanistan, and why she believes youth—especially girls—are the key to positive transformation.
Leigh Morgan is the Founder of Imaginal Leadership Strategies and a former global executive with experience spanning biopharma, philanthropy, higher education, and community activism.
Leigh details how she’s learned to navigate complexity and lead change across vastly different sectors — and why she believes nuance, trust, and culture are always at the heart of making a meaningful impact.
Tune in to hear about the catastrophic effects of global health and science funding cuts, the bright spots of innovation that can emerge in these times, and the growing role of women in leadership worldwide.
Lynne Varner is the CEO of Washington STEM, a nonprofit working to ensure that every student in Washington — regardless of race, gender, income, or geography — has access to a meaningful STEM education and a clear path to economic mobility.
Lynne shares the barriers students face when exploring career paths and discovering their skills and passions. She outlines how Washington STEM is a key part of connecting students and schools with industry leaders who want to invest in the educations of the next generation of workers and innovators.
Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman is the Founder and Executive Director of the Refugee Artisan Initiative (RAI), a Seattle nonprofit that empowers refugee and immigrant women through skill-building, sustainable manufacturing, and micro-business development.
Ming-Ming shares how her family's immigration story inspired her to start RAI, creating a pathway for women of diverse backgrounds to use their skills in sewing and design to build confidence, achieve economic security, and start their own businesses.
This conversation also touches on the current landscape for immigrants in the United States, the impact of fast fashion and waste, and how RAI has built partnerships with prominent Seattle businesses like Starbucks and Tommy Bahama.
Stephiney Foley is the Founder and CEO of Yuzi Care, the first personalized, AI-powered marketplace for postpartum care.
Stephiney shares how her own delayed diagnosis of postpartum depression sparked her journey from careers in big tech and the military into maternal health innovation.
The discussion covers how American healthcare is lagging countries in Europe and Asia in postpartum recovery support, and how the mother's experience impacts families and generations.
Shari Graydon is an award-winning author, speaker, and advocate with 30 years of experience. She serves as Catalyst for Informed Opinions, a Canadian organization working to amplify women’s voices in media, politics, and public discourse.
Shari unpacks the systemic barriers that continue to sideline women’s perspectives — from social conditioning and time scarcity to online harassment and political underrepresentation.
Shari also shares the perspective of a Canadian confronting the state of U.S. tariffs and politics, and threats to her country’s sovereignty.
Kate Isler is the Co-founder and CEO of WMarketplace, an economic development company with a mission to equip women entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to thrive in the digital economy.
Kate shares how the idea for WMarketplace grew out of the shift to online shopping during the pandemic, and gives insights on how her personal career journey has driven her mission to help women entrepreneurs all over the world.
Gena Cook is the founder and CEO of Kaliper Health, whose mission is to improve population health through integrated screening, multidisciplinary technology, and a guided patient experience. The company's initial focus is early detection of lung cancer, one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
Gena shares details on the AI technology behind Kaliper Health, and stresses the importance of the human touch in guiding patients through their experiences in the healthcare system.
A two-time founder, Gena also gives insights on raising capital as a woman in the world of venture capital, and shares her optimism about the positive progress that women entrepreneurs make every year.
Ashley Huston is a strategic communications executive who has navigated industry and organizational change for leading global brands. In this episode, Ashley gives us an in-depth look at one of the most high-stakes moments of her career: serving as the crisis communications lead for the Wall Street Journal after the paper’s reporter, Evan Gershkovich, was arrested and illegally detained in Russia from 2023-2024.
Through this fascinating story, you’ll learn insights on crisis management, and see the critical roles that leadership and teamwork play in the face of complex challenges.
Justina Lai is the head of impact investing strategy for Laird Norton Wetherby, a Seattle-based personal wealth advisory firm. In this episode, Justina discusses her personal journey into impact investing, the challenges faced by the industry, and how investors from all financial situations can effectively create positive social and environmental change with mindful, informed decisions. Listen in for insightful strategies on integrating impact investments into your portfolio and leveraging diverse forms of capital in service of long-term goals.
In this episode, we sit down with Tahmina Watson, an immigration attorney based in Seattle who has become a fierce advocate for immigrant entrepreneurs who want to stay in the U.S. to start and run their businesses. Watson explains the state of immigration in the country, how the issue will affect the upcoming presidential election, and how she finds hope when change feels so very far away.
Biotechnology and health care executive Yin Ho has a unique background: She got an MD from Yale and was an emergency physician, but then decided to switch gears and went and got an MBA from Harvard. While that combination created challenges for her career, it actually set her up well for this moment we find ourselves in: As AI transforms the way we look at patient treatment options and disease research, it will take leaders like Yin who see the possibilities and the limitations, and are prepared to have hard conversations about whether we should use AI or if the human brain is still better at solving some of these issues instead.
Alaska Airlines Base Chief Pilot Julie Ann Thiele had to overcome some significant challenges on her way to the cockpit — including a serious case of motion sickness. She also faced sexism in the industry. Now, Thiele is a leader among pilots and is working to encourage more women and people of color to join her doing what she describes as a "dream job." We also talk about what she thinks of Boeing jets amid the company's safety crisis, and how she navigates turbulence onboard.
Former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force Colonel Cady Coleman has been to space three times and spent nearly six months on the International Space Station, an experience most people will never have. But Cady is more grounded than you'd think. In this episode she shares insights into leadership in a crisis, building a team you can trust with your life, and what happens when an organization's economic decisions end up limiting access to opportunity for women. We also talk about the Boeing Starliner team that remains on the ISS, and whether she'd take a commercial flight back to space.
Shelly Lombard had a highly successful career in a very challenging industry, working in distressed debt for the big banks. But when she wanted to transition away from that, she found out her network wasn't as strong as she'd hoped. So she started Schmooze, offering master classes and events for women who want to learn how to develop and engage their networks. She offers tips of her own, advice on getting onto corporate boards, and even shares some thoughts on all the wild meme stock trends.
In this episode, we hear from Provail Interim CEO Emily Cantrell, who shares her perspective on the best ways to support people with disabilities and create a DEI policy that is truly inclusive. She also shares her experience with racism and her own racial identity, and her story of recovery after surviving the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. in Las Vegas, and how those experiences have shaped her leadership style.
Connie Collingsworth spent 22 years at the Gates Foundation as the chief legal officer and chief operations officer. She also serves on a variety of corporate and nonprofit boards. In this episode she shares what it was like to work with larger than life personalities, including Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, why she thinks imposter syndrome is made up, and how to speak with confidence in the boardroom.
In this first episode of the Formidable Podcast, we sit down with Seattle Chocolate CEO Jean Thompson to discuss the crisis facing chocolate makers as cocoa bean prices soar and climate change decimates prime cocoa-growing regions.
