Sessions and Speakers

Led by Dr. Alexandra Dunn

Dr. Alexandra (Alex) Dunn is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Mary Washington, where she teaches leadership, organizational behavior, and human resource management. Her work focuses on helping people understand how they lead, work with others, and navigate important transitions throughout their careers.
Alex is passionate about creating opportunities for women to build confidence, develop meaningful professional connections, and recognize themselves as leaders. She serves as faculty advisor for UMW’s Women in Business organization, which she has helped grow into a thriving community of nearly 100 students focused on professional development, mentorship, and connection. She also serves on the Women’s Leadership Colloquium Advisory Board and as a Faculty Fellow in UMW’s Center for Career and Professional Development.
Alex’s research and teaching span leadership, employee experiences, onboarding, and career development. Across these roles, she is especially interested in helping women lead authentically, build careers that reflect what matters to them, and recognize that leadership happens in many different spaces—not only through formal titles.

Opening Panel

More Than a Title, Stories Behind the Success

Moderated by Alicia Turner

Step into a living room of wisdom—a candid, inspiring conversation among women who have led in very different ways and through very different seasons of life. This multigenerational panel brings together accomplished entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, and changemakers whose journeys reflect both remarkable achievement and the realities of navigating change, challenge, and growth.

Hear from women who have built award-winning businesses, helped shape the community, served those experiencing homelessness, and championed opportunity and impact across the region. Through honest stories and thoughtful conversation, our panelists will explore resilience, purpose, leadership, success, and the choices that shape a life and career.

Resilient by Design: Navigating Change, Challenge, and Capacity

Dr. Julie Armstrong

Session Description:

Women often lead in several places at once—at work, at home, in relationships, and throughout their communities. When change and responsibility accumulate, even highly capable people can find their capacity stretched thin.

This interactive session reframes resilience not as simply “pushing through,” but as something we can intentionally strengthen. Based on her emerging research, Dr. Julie Armstrong introduces The Resilience Quad to help participants recognize where their capacity may be under strain and explore practical ways to navigate challenge with greater clarity, adaptability, and emotional awareness.

Participants will leave with a simple framework they can use across the many places they live, work, and lead.

About the Speaker: 

Dr. Julie Armstrong is the Founder and Principal of 3H Leadership Consulting, where she helps organizations develop the head, heart, and hands to lead people well. As a leadership development consultant, speaker, and researcher, Julie specializes in equipping leaders and teams to carry culture, communication, and change into everyday practice so that everyone thrives at work.

Julie is an alumna of the University of Mary Washington (MWC ’98), where she earned a BA in American Studies. She also holds an MA in Executive Leadership (’17) and a Doctor of Strategic Leadership (’22), both from Liberty University. She is a Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and SHRM Recertification Provider.

Before founding 3H Leadership Consulting, Julie held leadership roles across corporate, nonprofit, and small business environments. Julie and her husband, Mike, live in Fredericksburg and have four grown children and two grandchildren.

From Invisible to Undeniable: 5 Strategic Visibility Moves That Turn Great Work Into Recognition and Opportunity

Andrea Grant

Session Description:

You show up. You do the work well. So why does doing great work alone keep you overlooked?
This session reveals the exact framework Andrea has used to help hundreds of women, across industries, career stages, and roles, move from invisible to undeniable. You’ll walk through the 5 strategic visibility moves that get you seen and valued, whether you’re leading a team, building a business, growing in your field, or navigating what’s next, without resorting to self-promotion or political maneuvering.
You’ll leave with a clear framework, a Monday morning action plan, and the confidence to position your value authentically. This is how you move from invisible to undeniable, one strategic move at a time.

About the Speaker:

Andrea N. Grant is a fractional COO, consultant, and executive coach who partners with leaders navigating growth, complexity, and change. With 30 years of experience across operations, HR, sales, and leadership development, she helps organizations move beyond duct-tape solutions and build scalable, sustainable operating models. Andrea specializes in designing AI-powered operations that eliminate bottlenecks, improve execution, and multiply leadership capacity, without adding headcount. Her work is grounded in rapid diagnosis and measurable impact, helping organizations identify profit leaks, operational risks, and misalignment that others often miss. Known for her human-centered, results-driven approach, Andrea works alongside CEOs and leadership teams to ensure growth doesn’t come at the expense of people or principles. Her belief is simple: when operations work, teams thrive, and performance follows.

Take off Your Mask: How to Stop Hiding Your Awesome & Biting Your Tongue

Dr. Rebecca Hamm

Session Description: 

Women learn early in their careers which parts of themselves are welcomed at work and which are better kept hidden. Over time, we may soften our opinions, downplay our expertise, hide our ambition, suppress our emotions, or become a carefully edited version of ourselves in order to fit expectations and succeed. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the professional masks women wear, where they come from, and what they may be costing us. Participants will identify one mask they’ve learned to wear, consider what it has protected them from and how it has served them, and decide where they’re ready to show up more fully as themselves. They’ll leave with greater awareness of the choices they’re making at work and one concrete way to lead with more of who they really are.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Rebecca Hamm is an executive coach, educator, and former senior academic leader with more than two decades of experience developing leaders and strengthening organizations. As Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Marine Corps University, she led a 50-person team responsible for educating more than 70,000 Marines annually across eight global campuses and oversaw a $47 million budget. Today, as Founder and CEO of Women Lead Well, she supports successful women leaders through one-on-one executive coaching, the Women’s Executive Leadership Lab, and the Joyfully Unstoppable podcast. Her honors include the Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award. She serves as Secretary of the Board of Governors for Wesley Theological Seminary, on the Board of Directors for Cornerstone for Women Leaders, and on the Advisory Board for the University of Mary Washington’s Women’s Leadership Colloquium.

Be Seen: Visibility is a Leadership Skill

Madeline McMahon

Session Description:

Doing meaningful work is only part of leadership. People also need opportunities to understand what you know, what you contribute, and what you care about.

In this interactive breakout session, Madeline McMahon of Synctivate reframes visibility as a practical leadership skill rather than an exercise in self-promotion. Participants will explore how everyday actions, from sharing an idea and asking a thoughtful question to participating in an event or recognizing someone else’s work, can build professional visibility, advocate for themselves and others, and strengthen the people and organizations around them.

Using the colloquium itself as a live exercise, attendees will identify opportunities to capture and communicate what they are learning, practice turning those moments into meaningful professional content and connections, and leave with practical ways to become more findable, observable, and memorable without feeling like they have to become a “personal brand.”

About the Speaker:

Madeline McMahon is a marketing strategist, speaker, and business development professional who leads marketing strategy and community engagement for Synctivate, a Fredericksburg-based custom software and systems integration company.

Rest is a Leadership Strategy

Alona Orofino

Session Description:

Leadership takes energy, attention, and capacity—but those resources are limited.  In this interactive session, participants will explore how to balance rest and action and how intentional pauses can strengthen their ability to lead and thrive. Through reflection and practical exercises, participants will identify what drains and restores their capacity and develop strategies for creating more sustainable rhythms of leadership in both work and life.

Rest is part of how we sustain our ability to lead

About the Speaker:

Alona Orofino is the founder of Orofino Wellness, a Pilates and nutrition studio she built to give the Fredericksburg community a safe place to move their bodies. As a Nutritionist who works closely with clients navigating disordered eating, Alona designed her studio around a simple belief: everyone deserves to move without the pressure of weight loss. That vision has resonated, and Orofino Wellness has grown quickly, now home to over 275 members, since opening in 2023.

Alona’s path here wasn’t what you might expect. She trained as a performer at North Carolina School of the Arts and later moved to NYC, where she met her husband, before moving into wellness in 2013. She began working as a health coach and studio instructor while earning her Master’s in Nutrition and Integrative Health. Along the way, she ventured into restaurant ownership with her husband, became a mother of 3 beautiful boys, and kept returning to the same calling: creating spaces where people feel safe in their bodies.

Today, Alona balances running Orofino Wellness with family life alongside her husband, Danilo, their three sons, and their restaurant, Orofino, in downtown Fredericksburg.

Unapologetically curious, Madeline has built her career around asking better questions, connecting ideas across industries, and turning strategy into practical action. Her experience spans marketing, technology, public relations, professional networking, and community engagement, giving her a unique perspective on how people and organizations become more visible, build stronger connections, and uncover new opportunities.

A frequent speaker and facilitator, Madeline is known for making complex or emerging topics approachable, practical, and relevant to the people in the room.

Scaling Your Leadership through Advocacy

Jordan Seurattan

Session Description:

About the Speaker:

Jordan Seurattan serves as the Northern Virginia Field Manager with the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, where she leads environmental education and advocacy initiatives across the region. With five years of professional experience in community and policy advocacy, Jordan has earned a reputation for organizing high-performing programs and mobilizing broad, collaborative coalitions. She specializes in translating complex policy objectives into actionable, community-centered campaigns that drive legislative engagement. Jordan has served as the Lead Organizer for the Student Climate Action Summit for the past several years, and under her leadership, the program has scaled significantly, equipping an increasing number of high school and college students with the skills to conduct environmental research and execute effective, evidence-based advocacy.