Lauren Bean Buitta is founder and CEO of Girl Security, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building equitable pathways in national security for girls, women, and gender minorities.  Lauren began her career in national security in Chicago, IL in 2003 as a policy analyst with the National Strategy Forum, where she specialized in national security law.

The Honorable Elaine Duke was the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from April 10, 2017 to April 15, 2018. She also served as the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security from July 31, 2017 to December 6, 2017.

Vanessa Ruiz '01 is currently a Creative Director at Wolters Kluwer Clinical Effectiveness, creating engaging experiences to help patients understand their health. Vanessa is the driving force behind Street Anatomy, a blog that aggregates works that explore the intersection of art and medical illustration.

Eric Smith is chief operating officer of Fifth Third Bank (Chicago), which includes more than $9.7 billion in assets. He is responsible for the growth and strategic alignment of our Commercial, Wealth & Asset Management and Consumer businesses to deliver distinctive value to our customers and community impact in the region.

Connie Capone is Chief Financial Officer at SpotHero. In this role, she oversees the company’s financial functions as it enters its next phase of growth, and brings extensive experience from her previous roles in operations, consulting and venture capital. Prior to SpotHero, Connie served as the CFO and Chief Administrative Officer at GeoDigital, an Atlanta-based high tech software company.

Charlotte Kremer M.D., MBA is currently the executive vice president and head of Medical Affairs for Astellas Pharma Inc. In this role, Kremer provides leadership for the Medical Affairs organization globally. She joined Astellas in 2012 with 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Patricia Besser, Managing Director, is responsible for leading teams in Chicago focused on the wealthiest families in the world. Ms. Besser joined Bank of America’s private wealth group in 2001 following over 20 years in corporate finance and investment banking with several other U.S. and international financial firms.

Kathleen Williams is the Global Program Director at Capgemini. She is responsible for managing the delivery, customer satisfaction and sales across all of Capgemini’s service lines including consulting, systems integration, application management, and business process outsourcing.