WE R.I.S.E: REAL STORIES OF (FEMALE) EMPOWERMENT
MAR 8, 2022
WE R.I.S.E: REAL STORIES OF (FEMALE) EMPOWERMENT
SISCA is proud to announce a special event in honor of the 2022 International Women’s Day, on March 8th at 6 PM. In the spirit of this day, SISCA plans to host a conversation with inspirational and influential Iranian-American women in the Greater Seattle Area and uplift their stories with the hope of educating and inspiring our community. This is a free event and open to all, brought to you by the generous support of our volunteers and members.
International Women’s Day, first adopted by the United Nations in 1977, is meant to serve as an opportunity for all of us to recognize women for their achievements and contributions to our society, culture, economics, science and linguistics among other fields. We hope to take this opportunity to highlight some of these women in our own community in Washington State and encourage you to join us for a lively conversation!
Meet our panelists:
Dr. Fariba Alamdari
Fariba is currently a senior consultant with a number of companies including Inside-Out Learning Company, and OLI Global, an executive consortium offering consultancy and advisory to the aerospace and space market. Fariba is an executive coach and frequent speaker on issues related to leadership development and the importance of diversity and inclusion. She has done a TEDx talk on the “Power of Diversity."
She is a former Vice President of Marketing Strategy for the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. In 2006, Fariba was recruited by Boeing from Cranfield University in the UK where she served as the Chair of Department of Air Transport, and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Manufacturing and Science where she taught and mentored many of the industry executives of today.
Fariba is recipient of awards including: "Ellis Island Medal of Honor“ from The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO), “Woman of the Year” by Air Transport News, "Leadership Award” from the Centre for Women & Democracy, the “Professional Achievement Award’ from Women of Color, “Professional Practice Recognition Award” from the State University of New York in, and “Sorenson Best Paper Award” for the paper on “Marketing to Female Business Travelers”.
Currently, she serves on the Advisory Board of Foster School of Business Center for Leadership & Strategic Thinking, University of Washington. She has served as the Chair of the Chancellor Advisory Board of the University of Washington Bothell, and several nonprofit boards.
Fariba received a PhD, Doctor of Science and a Master degree from Cranfield University in the UK. She resides in Bellevue, Washington with her husband, and has a son and a daughter.
Linda Bernardi
Linda Bernardi is an author, technology provocateur, entrepreneur/ex-CEO, strategist, investor, lecturer, and board member. These combined functions enable Linda to have a truly global perspective regarding cutting-edge innovation around the globe.
Linda Bernardi lives and breathes technology disruption and innovation. Today, technology is evolving like never before, and Linda is involved in cutting-edge technologies across all sectors, such as Finance, Retail, Healthcare, High Tech, Logistics, Automotive, Consumer Goods, and all others. Her focus is to enable all enterprises to imagine, disrupt, innovate at record pace, and make the impossible become possible. She works with startups all around the globe, as well as large companies, to enable and inspire enterprises to build a culture of mindful innovation. She loves to practice the beautiful Art of Imagination – the first step towards innovation.
Linda believes that the best ideas are the ‘crazy’ ideas, stemming from a keen sense of unbounded imagination, and she works to unleash people’s imaginations. Over the last few years, she has focused a lot of her work around the topic of how to disrupt and innovate in today’s (possibly permanent) virtual/disconnected world and the art of Leveraging the Digital Workforce to enhance innovation in companies. Unless we mindfully and creatively adopt new ways of thinking about innovation, we will not succeed in this new world. This is at the center of her 3rd book to be published in 2023.
Linda’s background is equally focused on her history as a highly successful serial entrepreneur, as well as a serial high-level executive. She is a very active technology disruptor and a passionate innovator. She helps clients imagine, develop a vision, build products, reshape, and re-imagine their future. As a well- known author in technology disruption and innovation, she reaches thousands of people each year, helping re-shape companies. Today she is embarking on her most ambitious startup – connecting the world of video gaming and music, dynamically via AI and machine learning. Like many other ideas, she is told this is ‘crazy’ and impossible, and she welcomes the challenge! To learn more about Linda please check her website at the link below:
www.lindabernardi.com/about/
Dr. Sara Safari
Dr. Sara Safari is an author, speaker, mountain climber, college professor, Electrical Engineer and advocates for women empowerment. She is the founder and president of a nonprofit called Climb Your Everest that focuses on empowering marginalized Young women through educational programs.
She has received the award for The Global Citizen from United Nations Association in 2015. She is a board member and director of development in Empower Nepali Girls foundation. She also has received the award for Outstanding Practice with Broad Impact in the area of women and leadership from the International Leadership Association in 2017.
Sara will be the first Iranian in history to climb the Seven Summits, the seven highest peaks in each continent. To learn more about Sara, Please check her website at the link below:
www.sarasafari.com
This event is hosted by Maryam Hosseini, SISCA BOARD MEMBER
A storyteller by heart and an employee advocate by trade, Maryam Hosseini Mozari loves a good story, especially if it is about the triumph and success of Iranians around the world.
Born in 1979 in Iran, she spent the first 16 years of her life in Iran, which she considers her informal storytelling training. Her love for community building, equity, and storytelling has shaped her decade-long career in communications, leading her to a few notable organizations such as REI, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Amazon, and now Google.
Maryam shares her life stories of immigration and the American dream through mentorship and non-profit board service for Seattle-Isfahan Sister City Advocacy, elevating the voice of Iranians in local communities and promoting peace through citizen diplomacy.
Professionally, Maryam develops content and strategy for executives and organizations, telling the story of organizational identity, purpose, and impact.
Academically, she holds a Master’s Degree in Professional Communications from Westminster College, earning a wide range of expertise in organizational communication, editing, writing, and public relations.
Maryam's life’s dream was to seize the opportunity to thank her father publically for his remarkable sacrifices.
Check out her talk at Ignite Seattle
The best life advice she ever received, which she now gives to others, is to pay it forward and accept the responsibility to unlock the doors of opportunity for others.
