PANELISTS

Sheila Lewis, Interim Director, Marketing & Communications, Tides

The trait setting Sheila apart from her peers is her calm intensity when navigating complex business ideas and opportunities. She is exceptionally skilled in linking the idea of business growth with the strategic rigor and behavior to achieve it. An accomplished business strategist, she understands how systems, processes, and people work, and has an innate ability to synthesize disparate data points into easy-to-understand concepts. She easily untangles the knottiest issues, and with her candid, yet thoughtful, communication style, lets you know how she did it and what it means for your business.

Ask anyone who has worked with Sheila and they’ll tell you she is inclusive and collaborative. She is accomplished in developing successful and diversely skilled high-performing teams using inherent inclusive leadership instincts. Sheila loves hearing and building on the perspectives and ideas of her co-workers and clients and is skilled in asking tough questions that help team members dig in and add dimension to the discussion.

After 15 years of scaling the corporate ladder in marketing innovation with leading companies including Quaker Oats and Visa, Sheila took what she’d learned and struck out on her own, building a multimillion-dollar company along the way. In 1997, Sheila opened her first entrepreneurial venture, Flyin’ West LLC, a firm that provided strategic and tactical marketing consulting services. In 2012, she integrated Flyin’ West into Ashton 212, LLC, a new business impact consulting firm that she grew into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Sheila served as the Chief Executive Officer until January 1, 2020. 

In March, 2020, Sheila joined Tides, a $700M social impact philanthropic organization. She is responsible for driving strategic communications and marketing efforts to increase Tides’ brand awareness, voice and influence; deepen engagement with current and prospective clients and stakeholders; and strengthen and protect the organization’s brand and reputation. Reporting to the CEO, Sheila also co-leads 2 organization-wide strategic growth initiatives.

Sheila earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Marketing and Management from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA with highest honors in Marketing and Finance from Atlanta University. She was named the San Francisco Bay Area Distinguished Alumni of 2018.

Maria Hernandez, PhD, CoFounder, LatinaVIDA

A first-generation Latina born and raised in Southern California, Dr. Hernandez has been active in advancing post-secondary educational and workplace training and development programs to set a level playing field for career-minded Latinas. As Assistant Dean of Special Programs at Saint Mary's College, she facilitated a recognition program for Latina trailblazers in science, journalism, the arts, philanthropy, and labor. She next went on to consult to major Fortune 100 corporations on advancing diversity and inclusion. As a motivational speaker, Maria often highlights that only 3% of all senior executives are Latina and face the greatest disparity in pay among all women—key factors that threaten the vitality of the Latino community. Through LatinaVIDA she oversees a unique set of workshops and webinars that highlight the key skills necessary for executive presence, working with sponsors, navigating corporate cultures and building a strong network for success. LatinaVIDA's "Rise to the Top" Workshop has been sponsored by LinkedIn, Bank of the West, PG&E, Charles Schwab, Sprint, Cisco, Intuit, AAA and other major corporations.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Maria is a Danforth Fellow and holds a doctorate in community psychology. Maria's radio commentaries have aired in the Perspective Series of KQED FM in San Francisco and on Latino USA of Public Radio International. She has also written for Latina Style on careers and business and has been quoted or featured in Fast Company's FastCoExist, American Medical News, and Forbes ASAP.

Dr. Hernandez is Practice Leader for the healthcare sector at InclusionINC and serves as President for Impact4Health, its wholly-owned subsidiary. Maria is a member of the Board of Trustees for Alameda Health System and the Board of Directors for one of the largest clubs in AAA serving Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona Alaska, Wyoming and Montana.

Lisha Bell, Sr. Product Manager, Paypal

Lisha is currently at Braintree, a Paypal company, where she is the lead for the Pay with Venmo Product. Lisha's prior tenure with Wells Fargo, Kohl's, Feedzai in product management helped to inform a strategic look at payments, fraud, and customer experiences that examine not just the transaction itself, but also its impact on consumers from all segments. As Dealflow Lead at Pipeline Angels, an angel group of impact investors focused on women and non-binary femmes, Lisha liaises with Pipeline Angels' 300+ members to assess due diligence process and funding opportunities to complement the 4M Pipeline Angel portfolio. Lisha is a tireless advocate of diversity, inclusion, and access. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, cooking, and dancing, all while balancing motherhood duties with her toddler daughter. Lisha holds a BSc in Business Administration, Information Systems from USC, as well as MBAs from UC Berkeley and Columbia Business Schools where she was recognized as the USC Widney Outstanding Alumna and 2013 Berkeley Columbia Distinguished Service Award recipient, respectively.

I am a native Californian, from LA to the Bay Area, and yes I love both places equally! I love people, culture, music, and food. I smile and laugh a lot, and try to find humor in everyday life.

 

MODERATOR

Shay Phillips, Regulatory Compliance Consultant

Shay Phillips, regulatory compliance consultant, and seasoned banking officer with over 20 years’ experience in financial services and business operations specializing in regulatory compliance of private equity funds, asset management and commercial real estate lending. Experienced in BSA/AML operational risk and data management that includes performing periodic examination reviews of processes, monitoring and investigations of alerts generated through suspicious transactions and extensive due diligence management on medium and high-risk clients.

Prior to dedicating her experience in independent consulting, Shay served as a consultant with Wells Fargo, and also served as an Assistant Vice President for MUFG Union Bank, N.A. In her roles with both Wells Fargo, N.A. and MUFG Union Bank, N.A., Shay was able to successfully blend the ability to interpret complex and ever-evolving global and division-wide policies and best practices and she continues to advance in the field of regulatory compliance through independent consulting and staying abreast on the latest regulatory due diligence practices (whereby aligning processes and procedures with corporate policies) in banking products, services and consumer acquisitions. And one of the highlights and gratifying accomplishments of her tenure in financial services was participating and facilitating in MUFG Union Bank, N.A.’s Diversity and Inclusion Initiative Program, where she mentored young men and women (High School Seniors – Undergraduates) in its summer intern program focusing on learning the value of financial services, accounting, technology, business writing, organizational leadership, as well as how to advance into a financial service training program. Shay has always believed in the gift of paying “success” forward to young people.

Shay holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration; and a Master’s in Organizational Leadership from Saint Mary’s College; as well as certifications in Project and Financial Management from Cornell University; and Risk Management from Stanford University. Currently, she’s serving on the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of Financial Women of San Francisco; member of the American Heart Association and previously held positions on the board of directors of the Girls Scout of the USA and served in a liaison role to Vison 20/20 of the city of Fairfield, CA.

Shay has always carried the belief that the core value to successful companies derives from the practice of transparency, and being transparent is a powerful tool that breeds trust; and trust is the foundation of implementing great processes, systems and performance. And it is with that strategy that creates opportunities for all to build better long-term relationships in both business and within one’s personal life.

Shay enjoys reading, family-time, cooking, gardening, hiking, traveling, doing art crafts; has an overwhelming enjoyment of most sports and will forever find admiration and love in performing arts and music.