One year’s worth of empowering ideas and problem-solving strategies from the women

who make up Women@Work.

changemakersTHE BREAKFAST SERIES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DAWN ABBUHL – President, Repeat Business Systems January 2018 | Page 4

HEATHER HOWLEY – CEO and Lead Pilot, Independent Helicopters, LLC February 2018 | Page 6

COLLEEN COSTELLO – Co-Founder and CEO, Vital Vio March 2018 | Page 8

DR. DORCEY L. APPLYRS – Founder & CEO, InVision Her, Albany Common Council Member – Ward 1 April 2018 | Page 10

NANCY R. MARTIN – Nancy R. Martin Consulting LLC May 2018 | Page 12

LADAN ALOMAR – Executive Director, Centro Civico, Inc. July 2018 | Page 14

JEN ONEAL – Studio Head, Vicarious Visions August 2018 | Page 16

TEDDY FOSTER – Campaign Director, Universal Preservation Hall September 2018 | Page 18

AMY KLEIN – Chief Executive Officer, Capital Roots, Inc. October 2018 | Page 20

JENNIFER L. MACPHEE, CFP – Market President, Bank of America; Market Executive, Merrill Lynch December 2018 | Page 22

LIBBY POST – President, Communication Services; Managing Partner, Progressive Elections; Executive Director, NYS Animal Protection Federation December 2018 | Page 24

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TECH FIRM LEADER FOSTERS A CULTURE OF KINDNESSChangemaker” spoke about the value of colleagues helping each other

“

The culture at work matters, Dawn Abbuhl, president and co-founder of Repeat Business Systems, told an audience of nearly 100 women on Jan. 10, 2018 at the Times Union’s Hearst Media Center.

“Our culture (at Repeat Business Systems) is helping each other ... doing what your heart tells you to do,” Abbuhl said, adding that her company should run efficiently so “we have a lot to give.”

Abbuhl was the first speaker for Women@Work’s 2018 “Changemakers” breakfast series presented by Bank of America. Abbuhl, who started her career in special education, pivoted to start a business with her husband, John, and over the years has continued to practice as a child psychologist. She offered women tips on what she’s learned along the way, including how writing everything on her calendar a month in advance helps her to achieve a work-life balance.

“We started selling just fax machines 30 years ago, and I’m not sure anyone even knows what those are anymore,” Abbuhl said of her business’ origins. The company’s product line has evolved to include copier-printers with cloud- computing portals, office technology and information-technology services.

Because she works closely with her husband, Abbuhl said a key to their success is that they “really try to stay in our own lanes.”

“The only time we have conflict is when he tries to do something in my role or I try to do something in his role,” she said. “We stick to what we do best.”

Although he may have a different opinion, according to Abbuhl, her husband does the “boring” work (long-term planning and financial management) and she does the fun work.

“My role is everything from running the day-to-day operations to acquiring companies,” she said.

Abbuhl has learned a lot along the way. When the business started, she and her husband sold a lot of fax machines quickly. Six years into their business they became the leading fax business in the Capital Region but weren’t profitable, she said. The company needed to eliminate 11 positions.

“We had too many people for what we were doing,” she said.

Abbuhl had done much of the finances by hand. They learned they needed a more sophisticated financial planning system that could carry them five or 10 years into the future.

DAWN ABBUHLPresidentRepeat Business Systems

518-869-8116

dabbuhl@rbsalbany.com

www.facebook.com/Repeat-Business-Systems

www.linkedin.com/company/repeat-business-systems-inc

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changemakers

She is president of a technology firm, which is a male-dominated sphere. Recently, she attended a conference in Florida of 750 people.

“I looked and there were no females around,” she said, adding she believes men have sought her opinion because they think she knows something they don’t.

Abbuhl’s passion comes through when she talks about the culture of kindness at Repeat Business Systems. If employees at her firm do something nice for others they get entered into a bucket-list drawing, Abbuhl said. Whether answering the phone in a profes-sional way or producing accurate invoices, they are noticed.

“I wanted to find a way ... if someone did something special they felt that we valued it,” Abbuhl said. “Once per year, we take a ticket out and we do something on their bucket list.”

Abbuhl said it’s not for selling the most; the bucket list drawing has nothing to do with that.

The first year Abbuhl offered this to workers, she had hired someone who had some issues in his background that wouldn’t typically make for a great employee, she said.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

• GET IT DOWN ON PAPER Write absolutely everything on your calendar one month in advance. This includes exercise, hobbies, and time with family and friends. This is how you can do it all.

• NEVER GIVE UP Don’t be afraid to be persistent. “No” means: “Not yet.” Be open to criticism. It is an opportunity to grow.

• RELATIONSHIPS ARE EVERYTHING Customers buy from whom they like. The top reason people leave a job is that they don’t feel valued and connected.

“Every day he would come to me and say, ‘I know I was a big risk and I’m so appreciative of you hiring me. Thank you so much.’ And he really tried hard.”

Three years ago, during the company holiday party, it snowed. Unbeknownst to everyone, that employee went outside and brushed the snow off everyone’s car.

During the holiday party his name was drawn and he was asked to choose something from his bucket list.

“He started crying and said all he wanted to do was take his mother on a trip ... for all he had put her through,” she said.

But when that employee learned the next day his co-worker’s father had cancer, the employee went to Abbuhl and asked to give the money for the trip to the other employee, instead.

“So that’s what we did,” Abbuhl said, adding she paid for his trip too.

• GIVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WITHIN YOUR MEANS The most important thing I have learned is to give as much as you can within your emotional, time and physical means,” Abbuhl said. “Give to your staff, your customers, spouse, partner, friends, and family. This doesn’t mean only tangible items – it can be advice, assistance, or just time. Never give in order to get something back, or keep tally. Give because you are part of the world and it will connect you.

– Alicia Biggs

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She calls herself bullheaded.

But gumption, resiliency and authenticity were among some of the characteristics Women@Work members used to describe the February Changemakers speaker Heather Howley, CEO and lead pilot for Independent Helicopters, LLC. About 100 Women@Work members attended the Feb. 14, 2018 breakfast, part of a series sponsored by Bank of America, at the Hearst Media Center.

Howley, who grew up in Niskayuna, didn’t plan to start her own business until the flight school where she worked closed shop. That spurred Howley to start Independent Helicopters in the Newburgh area in 2008. In 2013, she expanded her helicopter flight school to Saratoga County, where she teaches lessons and sells tours from Saratoga National Golf Course.

After receiving a biology degree at Hudson Valley Community College, Howley decided to move to San Diego, where she took ground school lessons at another community college. She felt lucky she had a female flight instructor. Women comprise nearly 7 percent of pilots in the U.S., according to Women in Aviation International.

“She told me, ‘If you really want to do this as a career you should try helicopters,’” she said, adding that her instructor told her the field is “more stable. You can make more money.”

An opportunity presented itself: Soon after that talk, an advertisement came on the radio for a free helicopter ride.

“I had $1,000 to my name,” she recalled. “I went to the free seminar and that was it. I knew it was something that I had to do. It was something that struck me. I loved every second of it.”

But many naysayers surrounded her, she recalled.

“I remember telling my mom and she said, ‘Why would you want to do that? You just got your degree in biology.’ She said, ‘You’re going to kill yourself.’” Howley responded to her mom: “Either you cosign my loan or you don’t,” citing her independence and stubbornness. It took Howley less than two years to become a flight instructor.

HEATHER HOWLEYCEO and Lead Pilot Independent Helicopters, LLC

INDEPENDENCE LIFTS PILOTCEO of helicopter flight school worked hard to silence doubters

independenthelicopters@gmail.com

www.independenthelicopters.com

www.facebook.com/independentheli

www.linkedin.com/company/independent-helicopters

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changemakers

• OWN WHO YOU ARE Give yourself credit and remember to reflect and forgive yourself. For every person who says you can’t, let it fuel you. Find the people who love and support you and treat others the way you want to be treated (yes, even the ones you don’t like).

• CREATE A TIME AND SPACE WHERE YOU CAN JUST BE PRESENT AND REGROUP Having a few minutes of silence with your eyes closed and breathing will propel you further.

Howley relocated to Colorado, but soon after moved back to New York. She started her job as an instructor with a flight school based at Stewart Airport in Newburgh and worked there for six months before the business went bankrupt.

“I thought there are all these students that are displaced from this school and I want to help them,” she recalled. “As everyone in this room can relate to, you want to help someone achieve their goal.”

Working for another company she told the owners what she wanted: “I was like, ‘I’m going to lease this two-seater helicopter that’s already there and I want to help them,’” she said. “And they said ‘Great, send us your resignation letter. Start your own business and we will be business partners.’”

Howley did, registering a doing-business-as name. “And I never heard from them again and I had no students,” she said. But she didn’t give up. She created her own website and business plan, and found customers for Independent Helicopters.

“I was 25 when I started the business,” she said. “When I first started, I had several men say I couldn’t do it. But it really didn’t matter what anyone said to me. I was doing it anyway. I wanted it so badly. I work with the Girl Scouts and what I tell them all of the time is: If you want something bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to make that happen. And I did.”

She currently has three male pilots working for her and has six helicopters. She works seven days a week.

“I’m not kidding when I say I work hard and you can’t tell me no because I will just work harder,” she said.

But Howley faced a personal tragedy in 2014 that made her question whether she wanted to fly for a short period of time. Howley’s husband, Ciprian Marius Ivascu, was 33 in 2014 when the Cessna 180 he was piloting crashed into a tree near the Heber Airport in Saratoga County. The plane had been towing an advertising banner for Saratoga Skydiving. Ivascu and his passenger were killed, and federal officials later concluded pilot error caused the crash.

“My entire world imploded,” she said. “So I basically had to learn how to start over. And create a new world for myself. And new dreams. New plans that didn’t involve him or what we had planned together.”

Ivascu was doing skydiving and Howley was piloting heli-copter rides when they first met. He would have wanted her to continue flying, she says.

“My business has literally doubled since his death because I had nothing else to focus on,” she said. “As much as it hurts and is painful – I miss him every day – it has propelled me further and made me realize how strong I can be.”

• LIFE IS ONLY AS HARD AS YOU MAKE IT. Perspective is a powerful tool to have. Listen. Really listen. Not everyone needs advice or an opinion. They just want to be heard. It will make you a better communicator.

• MAKE A HABIT OF REFLECTING ON YOUR WEEK And preparing for the week ahead.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Alicia Biggs

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COLLEEN COSTELLOCo-Founder and CEOVital Vio

Troy-based Vital Vio Inc. has entered the consumer market by partnering with Evolution Lighting, creator of Ellumi Lighting, a new line of under- cabinet antibacterial LED lighting, Colleen Costello, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer, announced March 14, 2018 to Women@Work members.

Costello, 27, was the speaker at the networking group’s March Changemakers breakfast, part of a series presented by Bank of America, at the Hearst Media Center. About 60 people, mostly women, attended.

Since 2012, the growing health care solutions company has marketed its patented “white light disinfection LED technology,” powering light fixtures that kill harmful bacteria, to commercial entities, including hospitals, athletic facilities and hotel operators, among others.

Vital Vio has also worked with Code 3 Inc., a company based in St. Louis that designs and manufactures emergency lighting through a licensing agreement. Code 3 in January took to market a light with Vital Vio’s technology that can be installed in ambulances.

Costello was inspired to create her startup after her grandmother contracted a dangerous infection – the antibiotic-resistant MRSA – while in the hospital. Costello has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering with a minor in technological entrepreneurship from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

“I was attending RPI at the time,” she said of her grandmother’s hospital infection. “She ended up there 12-plus days. (It) seemed crazy that we, in a first-world country, could end up worse at a facility than when (we) went in. I thought, what better use of my degree than to try and find a solution to this issue?”

Costello said she used her background in engineering to research and identify what the issues were with transmissions of these infections.

“What I found was that unfortunately surfaces play a huge role in transmission,” she said. “We have germs that are invisible that grow exponentially. It causes a whole host of issues.”

VITAL VIO ANNOUNCES NEW CONSUMER PRODUCT LINECEO co-founded the lighting start-up after grandmother’s illness

518-833-0261

info@vitalvio.com

www.facebook.com/vitalvio

www.linkedin.com/company/vital-vio-inc-

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changemakers

• DO THINGS THAT MATTER Choose to spend your time in ways that matter to you. As former RPI professor Burt Swersey taught me: “Don’t do nonsense” and embrace the question: “Why not change the world?” Prepare to fail. Do not fear failure. Prepare to manage through failure when it happens because it will.

• MAKE A PLAN Then execute the details. Progress, whether in your work life or personal life, does not happen by accident. It requires planning, action, communication, flexibility and follow-up. Play three- dimensional chess. Get in the game. Look at the whole board, think three or four steps ahead, and consider the future consequences of current moves. Then make your play.

Costello assembled a team and thought: How can we use this technology available to us to address this surface contamination issue?

“Basically what we’ve designed is a unique spectrum of light to target molecules that are only in germs (and) are not in human cells which allows us to create a continuous LED light,” she said.

According to Costello, harnessing the power of light to kill germs is not a new invention. Scientists used filters over sunlight in the 1890s for the same purpose.

“It’s fascinating, the time we live in, (that) we can have a convergence of technologies ... to address our new challenges,” she said.

Vital Vio has 17 employees, 53 percent of whom are women. Duke University and the Chicken & Rice Guys food truck franchise are among those using the company’s VioSafe antibacterial lights. Additionally, consumers can now purchase the Ellumi under-cabinet lights for household and office use online at Amazon, Wayfair and Houzz.

Costello told the audience she became interested in science in middle school. When her younger brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, that fueled a passion for her to learn more about his condition and led her to take part in a science research program during high school.

“I was fortunate enough to then do biochemistry research at Cornell and Mt. Sinai,” she said. “I got some early experience in a lab setting.”

She said she fell in love with science when she experimented with insulin in the lab and then came home and talked to her brother, who used insulin, and told him about the results.

“It was something that could have personal impact on people,” she said.

This recognition that science could have such a direct effect on people informed Costello’s decision to pursue her work with Vital Vio.

While the technology for Vital Vio was not developed at RPI, she received startup funding from the school.

“RPI has a fantastic, cultivating entrepreneurship program,” she said. “There are so many talented people at RPI. They provide a fostering environment. I believe businesses are a fantastic way to propel technologies.”

Costello expressed her gratitude to the New York State Department of Health, which was initially willing to test Vital Vio’s technology at its Wadsworth Center labs.

• TREASURE AND CULTIVATE YOUR NETWORK Build a broad network and stay in contact. Your connections will make the difference in the success of your efforts, and in how you live your life. Value differences. Embrace, explore, and amplify the cultural, philosophical, and experiential differences that people have to offer. Be open to the views and ways of others.

• TAKE TIME To excel at work, do more than just work. Getting outside, hearing music, volunteering, spending time with family and friends give you the distance and perspective that will help bring often undervalued clarity to your work.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Alicia Biggs

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DR. DORCEY L. APPLYRSFounder & CEO, InVision Her Albany Common Council Member – Ward 1

When she moved to Albany 15 years ago, she counted down the days until she could leave.

“I grew up in Washington, D.C. I went to Delaware State University. Then I moved to Albany. It was a culture shock,” Dorcey Applyrs, founder and CEO of InVision Her and 1st Ward Albany councilwoman, told a crowd of 90 women on April 11, 2018 at the fourth “Changemakers” breakfast held by the Times Union’s Women@Work networking group.

Applyrs has built a personal and professional life in the city of Albany devoted to improving the quality of life for residents. With a doctorate in public health, she has focused on health disparity and environmental safety issues affecting her constituents. She recently launched InVision Her, further promoting advocacy and female empowerment through events and experiences.

“I’m going to be very candid and honest,” Applyrs said. “I was used to being in communities in which multiple people I was surrounded by looked like me.”

The only two people she knew when she arrived in Albany were Dwight Williams, a professor at University of Albany’s School Public of Health, who recruited Applyrs to attend the graduate program there, and his wife.

“I spent a lot of time in my studio on South Lake crying,” she said. “I had to learn to grow where you are planted. I was thinking about Albany the wrong way. I was thinking about Atlanta and what my life would have been like had I decided to move there. Once I changed my mindset about Albany, things just started to happen.”

She met her husband and, fast forward several years, she received a quality education and became a strong young woman in Albany, she reflected.

“When I campaigned I talked about my obligation to give back to the community. This community has poured so much into me,” she said. “It is an obligation to give back.”

She said she looked at the opportunity to address Women@Work members as another “when opportunity meets fate” circumstance.

APPLYRS EMBRACED ALBANYCouncilwoman launched InVision Her to promote female empowerment

518-894-8981

dorceyapplyrs@gmail.com

www.invisionher.com

www.facebook.com/Dorcey.Applyrs

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changemakers

• WHEN YOU KNOW YOUR WORTH, NO ONE CAN DEVALUE YOU Often, we rely heavily on the opinions and perceptions of others to influence and shape our identity and self-worth. You must set the tone for how others treat and respond to you in your personal and professional life. Be intentional about investing in yourself as a means to build self-worth and confidence.

• SITUATIONS DON’T MAKE YOU, THEY REVEAL WHO YOU ARE True leadership is not determined by how you perform under the best of circumstances but how you perform under the unfavorable ones. The strain and stress of life has a way of illuminating integrity, tenacity, compassion and resilience in some, and selfishness, deceit and compromise in others.

“In addition to when opportunity meets fate, I believe God puts people in your path to help usher you along in your journey,” she said.

Applyrs had the opportunity to be a Center for Women in Government and Civil Society fellow. From there she met Judith Mazza, director of the HIV Comprehensive Case Management Program at the state Health Department AIDS Institute. Mazza later would encourage her to first run for public office in 2014.

“That program changed my life,” she said. “It changed my trajectory.”

She has learned campaigning is a “contact sport.”

“Women do have a hard way to go,” she said. “There is a double standard. There’s a certain expectation that you have to be a backslapper. That you have to fit a certain mold.”

But when she tries to recruit other women to run for public office, she explains what they should expect.

“If you’re not prepared it’s enough to leave you running and not wanting to move forward,” she said. “We should not be paralyzed by people’s ignorance.”

To that end, she has created InVision Her – a business seeking to motivate women to achieve their goals.

• YOUR DESTINY AND SUCCESS ARE TIED TO THE PEOPLE YOU SURROUND YOURSELF WITH The journey to success can only be accomplished with the support of people you know and at times, strangers. It is for this reason, you must take time to nurture and grow your relationships while being kind and gracious to people who cross your path.

• LEARN TO GROW WHERE YOU’RE PLANTED Many of us find ourselves in communities, work environments or other settings that don’t seem like the best fit for us and where we are in our lives. Instead of focusing all of your energy on an escape plan, take time to discover your purpose for being there and allow yourself to show up in a way that is positive and beneficial to the environment and the people in it.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Alicia Biggs

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NANCY R. MARTINNancy R. Martin Consulting LLC

If you fail and recover, you understand you can bounce back from just about anything, said Nancy Martin, retired General Electric Global Research Technical Development Manager, on May 9, 2018.

“When you know you can recover that’s when you start to have confidence,” Martin told a crowd of 85 people at the May Women@Work Changemakers breakfast at the Hearst Media Center.

Martin oversaw 1,000 people in 60 locations prior to her departure from GE in December 2017 after 30-plus years. While at GE, she held 17 jobs, married and raised two children. She created a gender-balanced workplace in science, technology, engineering and math. In her new role as owner of Nancy R. Martin Consulting, she now speaks about work-life balance, self-confidence, and time management.

Martin remembers early on asking a manager what it took to become a manager.

“He turned to me and said, ‘You need to be 35,’” she recalled. “It is still sort of the viewpoint in engineering.”

But Martin entered a managerial role by age 26 and one year later became the manager of about 100 people. Martin’s idea of risk taking may not match those of others.

“When people think over and over, ‘What are the pros and cons?’ I never did that,” she said.

Instead she asked: “Would it make me happy?”

Many didn’t believe Martin deserved the job she had.

“That was tough,” she said. “(Someone) thought they’d be helpful in telling me what the rumor was. The rumor was I was sleeping with my boss, which wasn’t true.”

Her career had many highs and lows.

RECOVERY, CONFIDENCE LINKEDFormer GE manager talks about failure, taking risks

518-894-8004

nancy@nancyRmartin.com

www.nancyRmartin.com

www.twitter.com/NancyRMartin

www.instagram.com/Nancy Reese Martin

www.linkedin.com/Nancy Martin

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changemakers

• IT IS NORMAL TO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR CAREER While there are some people who know what they want early in life, most of us must figure it out. Consciously write what you love, and what you hate. I call this the “love/hate list.” These are the things that move us from where we are in our career and get us closer to where we are meant to be.

• BUILD YOUR RESILIENCE Many successful people get to where they are by trying to be perfect. While it may be a good strategy in our younger years, it is impossible to keep up when you have a career and family. You will burn out. You need to know you can come back from failure. You need to get back up when you are down. Once you know you can survive, you will be willing to take more risks and grow.

“You can always have that voice in the back of your mind that puts that doubt there but you have to say, ‘well OK, I’m going to forget about it,’” she said. “But I always think, cry first, then put a plan together and distract yourself.”

Still, Martin told her daughter she’d write her a book of advice prior to the start of college.

Her daughter told her no.

“(My daughter) said, ‘When you drop me off, you can only give me one piece of advice,’” she said. “So when I dropped her off, I said, ‘Don’t die. Everything else you can come back from. There are some horrendous things you can come back from.’”

In June 2017, Martin faced a significant setback. She collapsed during an exercise class from excruciating pain in her head. She needed brain surgery two months later. While recovering, she found out she needed another brain surgery which took place in 2018.

“In between we had a house fire,” Martin said. “I remember one person saying, ‘You must have so much perspective.’”

But she said she had none, adding that she needed to “muster everything” to make it through a day.

People told her she was courageous.

“I was just trying to live my life,” Martin recalled. “I don’t know if you muster the courage as much as you think, ‘What do I do next?’”

She found the answer in her own advice: she recovered.

• ADD “FOR NOW” AT THE END OF YOUR SENTENCE We get caught in the trap of thinking that whatever is happening now will last forever. (I’m unhappy – so I will always be unhappy; I failed – so I will always fail). As we age, we realize that nothing is permanent, and this is part of being resilient. Good times don’t last, and neither do bad times. “My life is too tough – for now.” “I don’t know where I’m headed – for now.” Then take control of what you can to change your situation.

• VACATION LIKE YOUR DOG WOULD Dogs live in the moment: They sleep, eat, play and prioritize their relationships. We have a “work until you drop” culture, and that isn’t healthy. You must truly disconnect to reconnect with who you have become. We are constantly evolving, and you can lose sight of what you really want in life if you don’t stop and think about it. You need down time to connect with friends and family. Next time you are on vacation, ask “WWMDD” (What would my dog do?)

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Alicia Biggs

14

LADAN ALOMARExecutive Director Centro Civico, Inc.

Ladan Alomar remembers celebrating the new year as a 9-year-old in Iran, with a bow in her hair and a colorful polka dot dress that had a satin sash.

“One of the traditions is, from head to toe, you wear new clothes,” Alomar told a crowd of some 50 women on July 25, 2018 at the sixth “Changemakers” breakfast held by the Times Union’s Women@Work networking group.

“I felt like I had the whole world and I was this little princess,” she said, recalling the dress her mother had sewn. “And I ran out of the door to just say ‘hello’ to the world.”

But she fell and her dress ripped and her knees bled. She felt her “world shatter.”

“My father hugged me and ... said, ‘Many times in your life you will fall but it’s about standing up.’”

Alomar, as executive director of Centro Civico, a not-for-profit orga-nization headquartered in Amsterdam with a branch in Albany, has continued to use that philosophy throughout her life.

Alomar joined Centro Civico in 1989 to coordinate the Liberty Partnership Program to serve youth at risk of dropping out of high school. Three years later, she moved into her current role working to provide a range of services to the Capital Region’s Hispanic community.

Alomar, who is an immigrant from Iran, said she has always felt acceptance and safety within the Hispanic community. Her road to the Capital Region began when her plans to attend college in her home country were dashed by the revolution there and the American hostage crisis, which began in 1979.

“All of those dreams were shattered because all of the colleges and universities closed,” she said.

CENTRO CIVICO DIRECTOR SHARES WISDOM AT BREAKFASTAttendees told “many times ... you will fall but it’s about standing up”

518-842-3762

Business: alomarl@centrocivico.org

Personal: ladannik633@gmail.com

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changemakers

• MY WORTH IS NOT DEFINED BY OTHERS No one can devalue you. When you are authentic and true to yourself, your focus is not on what others think about you, but your purpose. People are entitled to their opinion regardless.

• EVERY EXPERIENCE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN We grow from every situation if we manage that situation and we don’t let it manage us. We reveal our values, inner strength and skills by the way we handle any situation that comes our way.

“Being there during that time and seeing people getting killed in the street ... has an impact on you. And I knew I could not stay because no one knew when all of the colleges and universities would open. And if they opened, the priority would be given to men, not women, for enrollment.”

She decided to leave the country.

“It was not the norm,” she said. “I had the support of both my parents. Eventually I got a visa to go to Canada.”

Her sister joined her and they studied English in Toronto. But they felt discriminated against and her sister had a more difficult time. When they saw a derogatory poster of then- Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini in Toronto, they realized he represented them, although they did not believe in him.

“It was very hard to see that poster and realize that’s the way people think about you and your country,” she said.

She then went back to Iran and eventually to Italy. After three tries, she finally received a visa to come to the United States and arrived in Albany to continue her studies. She attended Hudson Valley Community College and transferred

to the State University of New York at Albany, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in theater and a master’s degree in educational administration.

While Centro Civico provides educational, health services, and housing assistance programs among others, most recently, Alomar said it has served a critical role in helping immigrants facing deportation as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues making arrests. She recounted a case in which a legally documented Dominican woman living in Amsterdam with two 4-year-olds was detained recently.

“She has one phone call to make,” Alomar said. “She makes it to Centro Civico.”

Alomar explained how she frantically worked to organize care for the woman’s children while also making phone calls to lawyers and politicians to help sort out the situation.

Later that evening, Alomar said, “ICE released her.”

It was all in a day’s work for Alomar, who said she strives to treat everyone who comes to Centro Civico with dignity.

• I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF WE, BUT ULTIMATE RESPONSIBILITY LIES WITH EACH OF US I am in charge of my own destiny by the decisions I make, and my success is based on my hard work. We can always surround ourselves with the people who support who we are and who we want to be, people who give us the opportunity and or push us forward are our support system.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Alicia Biggs

16

She says she has the epitome of imposter syndrome.

“A French major-ballet dancer is now running a video game studio,” Jennifer Oneal, studio head for Vicarious Visions, told a crowd of 60 Women@Work members on Aug. 8, 2018. “I could have had a lot of hang-ups over that. Every time you do something and put yourself out there, and give it a shot, generally you don’t die. You just keep doing it again. Eventually you overcome those fears.”

But how does one with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and a master’s in business administration end up in the video game industry? Oneal told her story during the August edition of the Women@Work Changemakers breakfast series, presented by Bank of America.

Her love of video games began as a child. Her best friend’s little brother had a Nintendo system. Every time she went to her house, she played with him instead.

“I played Princess Peach and he played Mario,” she said. “I really loved video games growing up. I didn’t really think that would be my career.”

Once she realized ballet was not for her anymore after “too many Nutcrackers” she decided to stop.

“I became a flight attendant because I thought that was a great way to travel the world. And that’s where ballet dancers go when their dreams die,” she said, laughing.

While flying, she took a Gameboy with her. Later on, she got her first personal computer. It was bundled with all the games from developer Activision. She noticed an ad that said, “play video games and get paid.”

“I said, ‘That sounds like a pretty cool deal,’” she said. “’Why don’t I give that a shot?’”

So she went in and worked with some testers.

“I started to fit in there and realized this was a career I wanted to pursue,” she said. “I did everything I could to dive completely in it.”

GOODBYE BALLET, HELLO VIDEO GAMESVicarious Visions chief recounts how she made a big course change

JEN ONEALStudio Head Vicarious Visions

vv@vvisions.com

www.facebook.com/Vicarious-Visions

www.twitter.com/vvisionsstudio

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AKA: A VIDEO GAME NERD’S GUIDE TO SUCCESSI share with you my favorite quotes from those far wiser than I am.

• NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE – Buckaroo Banzai You are always a work in progress. Whatever you need to work on to be a better leader, employee, or person is going to follow you wherever you go. Before you assume that taking a new job or moving to a new location will solve your problems, give yourself a healthy evaluation of why you feel the need to move on. Is it the job or is it you?

• ALRIGHT STOP. COLLABORATE AND LISTEN – Vanilla Ice The more you listen, the more you learn. The more you collaborate, the more you gain the benefit of the group’s total intelligence. I’ve learned that I alone will never have all the answers. I work with people far smarter than I am and my success is absolutely dependent on how well I tap into that collective knowledge.

Oneal spent time with the developers and asked them how they got to where they were.

“Ultimately I found production management was the right fit for me,” she said.

Oneal eventually landed a job at LucasArts, a video game publisher, working in production management on “Star Wars” games, which she calls “the beginning of her career.”

Still, since Oneal joined Vicarious Visions in 2008, she has watched it evolve. The company became known as the lead developer of handheld games as well as the “Guitar Hero” series on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, and has since gone on to produce its own games, including the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy, a remastering of the popular marsupial-led series.

Guha and Karthik Bala, occasionally known as the Bala brothers, started the company in high school in the 1990s and moved the business to Albany because one of the Balas attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. (They have since started game development firm Velan Ventures.)

“Every time I came here (to Albany), I felt a connection,” she said. “I was ready to leave LA.”

Finally a role opened up at Vicarious Visions here and she made the move.

Oneal earned recognition as a leader this year as a recipient of a 2018 For All Leadership Award, given through the Great Place to Work Institute.

She believes her success has stemmed from the grittiness she’s had.

“I just wouldn’t give up,” Oneal said, adding it was, “that tenaciousness of getting in front of people who I knew were experts, people I knew who would help me build a network.”

She also shared how she tries to be a leader who listens to her team, being responsive and hearing what’s on their mind.

“It’s a constant thing,” Oneal said.

• DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY – Yoda Fear of failure crushes your confidence and can paralyze you into inaction. The only way to get over that fear is to just do. The more risks and chances you take, the easier it is to overcome this fear and build confidence. So what if you fail? You look at that failure as an opportunity to learn and do better the next time.

• DON’T PANIC – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Having a steady response to crisis is an important quality to have in a leader. Panicking doesn’t serve anyone nor does it solve your issues. Rather, it riles everyone around you, making them unproductive and ineffective. Don’t get sucked into the drama. Rise up and observe. Think, then do, not the other way around.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Alicia Biggs

18

Failure is not an option for Teddy Foster. In 2015 when the former financial services professional took on the multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign to transform a once-condemned church into a premier performance venue, she had no experience in restoration and little in entertainment. But it wasn’t the first time she’d reinvented herself.

“I learned over time that if you believe in yourself and really love yourself first and have faith in your abilities, there’s nothing you can’t do,” Foster told 50 professionals on Sept. 12, 2018. The capital campaign director at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs was the guest speaker at Women@Work’s monthly Changemakers breakfast, presented by Bank of America.

At the time, Foster said the campaign she runs is $300,000 away from meeting its $5.5 million goal to renovate an 1871 former Methodist church on Washington Street into a 700-seat theater in the round for live music performances, plays and community programs. Construction was set to begin the next week and the center is slated to open February 2020.

“Feel the fear then do it anyway. You have no idea what a powerful thing that is to say and a scary thing to do,” Foster said. “There are no victims in life. There are only volunteers. You volunteer to have a victim mentality.”

Foster said she got her friendliness from her father, a banker in Fishkill, Dutchess County. She spent her childhood hiding her mother’s alcoholism and dropped out of college after three years to begin her short-lived first marriage.

At the age of 40, Foster left her second marriage and re-enrolled in college, at Skidmore, to get her business degree and support her two sons.

Within a decade, she had worked for a grocery store, hospital foundation, pro football team and plastic surgery center before rising to the head of training at insurance company Genworth Financial, a division of General Electric.

CHANGEMAKER: HAVE FAITH IN YOUR ABILITIES’‘Head of Saratoga Springs UPH campaign shares her life story

TEDDY FOSTERCampaign Director Universal Preservation Hall

518-584-2627

tfoster@universalpreservationhall.org

www.universalpreservationhall.org

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• BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR ABILITIES Never stop. Love yourself. You are worth it.

• NO VICTIM MENTALITY ALLOWED There are no victims, only volunteers. Be brave. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

When the recession hit, she lost her job. She created her own wellness and weight loss coaching company, Foster Good Health – a name she made up in the shower, Foster told the crowd with a laugh.

Around that time, the 35-year resident of Saratoga Springs had become a board member of the dilapidated UPH. The building, taken over in 1976 by the Universalist Baptist Church that couldn’t afford upkeep, was condemned by the city in 2000. Citizens banded together to preserve the historic site where presidents and abolitionists spoke before the masses.

When the board’s president stepped down in 2009, Foster took over and began brainstorming how to keep the space alive. She tried out hosting performances to make profits with sporadic success and knew something had to change to make it sustainable. So she called Philip Morris, CEO at Proctors in Schenectady, the Capital Region’s foremost entertainment venue, to get advice.

“It’s really hard for me to ask for help,” Foster said. “I didn’t want to ever show weakness, but then I realized it was OK. It wasn’t the same as being a victim. It was OK to be a little bit vulnerable and ask for help.”

Foster was surprised: Morris told her Proctors had already discussed ideas about expanding its reach and how UPH could be a part of that. After a five-hour meeting and two feasibility studies, they agreed to become partners and renovate the building.

The only barrier was a $5.5 million fundraising campaign that three years later is close to meeting its goal. Foster said she’s succeeded by telling the story of UPH and believing in her product.

Foster writes down 10 things she’s grateful for every day – either what has already happened or what she wants to happen.

“I live my life being grateful. I show people the love. I try to be kind to everybody and treat everybody the way they want to be treated, because I’ve been treated badly before and I don’t want to be treated that way anymore,” Foster said.

“I can’t tell you what a difference this had made in my life.”

• BE KIND Show people the love and they will love you back. Be grateful every day. Gratitude attracts all positive things to you.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Mallory Moench

20

AMY KLEINChief Executive Officer Capital Roots, Inc.

Amy Klein says her favorite word is grit. After 22 years as the CEO of community food organization Capital Roots, she now has three bulging discs from carrying 40-pound bags of soil to create community gardens.

“It’s a badge of honor,” Klein told the crowd of professionals on Oct. 10, 2018 at the event, presented by Bank of America. “The organization was founded on grit and back in the day, that was because we had no choice.”

Today, Capital Roots works to reduce the impact of poor nutrition on public health by organizing community gardens, providing healthy food access, and educating populations in Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady and southern Saratoga counties. But more than two decades ago when Klein took over what was then called Capital District Community Gardens, the little-known organization had a budget of $60,000 and only 13 community gardens in Troy.

“I thought, this has no place to go but up,” Klein said.

Immediately, Klein wanted her organization to live up to its name to serve the entire Capital Region and reached out to neighboring cities, starting with Albany. She also planned a street festival featuring local farmers, art and music to boost the organization’s profile – and it paid off.

Today, Capital Roots has a budget of $2 million and a staff of 30 offering 12 distinct programs and 56 community gardens that bring together longtime residents and recently arrived immigrants. The organization partners with small-scale farmers to get fresh food into local convenience stores and school cafeterias. Its Veggie Mobile delivers fresh produce to elderly, low-income and disabled residents. Its job readiness and life skills training program helps community members overcome issues of institutional poverty.

Four years ago, the organization changed its name and constructed a regional food hub called The Urban Grow Center at 594 River St. in Troy. Capital Roots has now increased fresh food distribution from 250,000 pounds up to 750,000 pounds a year.

KLEIN STILL NURTURING CAPITAL ROOTS’ GROWTHCEO says community food organization was “founded on grit”

amy@capitalroots.org

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• LEAD BY EXAMPLE There is nothing that I would ask someone else to do that I won’t (and don’t) do myself. It is invaluable for staff morale and long-term investment from your team.

• BE WILLING TO FAIL Not everything works out. But taking a step outside your comfort zone or a leap of faith on a well thought-out idea is always worth the risk.

The woman at its helm, Klein, grew up on Long Island, where she said her grandmother modeled a “community garden” by giving her sister, brother and her growing plots. Although she was the youngest child, Klein said she was always in charge.

Klein attended American University in Washington D.C., where she started her career in the dilapidated office of a food policy organization as a college student.

She now lives in Delmar, where she grows cucumbers, tomatoes, leeks and peppers in a small garden at her town house.

A main push of Klein’s job as head of a nonprofit is fundraising, which she argues is positive and important, regardless of the less-than-kind comments some have made to her about her persistence when in comes to the raising money.

“Fundraising is the most noble kind of work you can do in the nonprofit sector,” Klein said. “I couldn’t do fundraising for an organization that I couldn’t be absolutely passionate about. If you’re out there raising money for a cause that you care deeply about in the very core of your being, then that comes through. That is really hard work. People should applaud that.”

Klein also prioritizes hiring, which she said at her organization is like “joining our family.” She said she looks more at personality and passion than credentials, although she said it will continue to be hard to recruit the right people for an organization that’s sorely underfunded.

Capital Roots is apolitical, but Klein said the organization hopes to move into advocacy and policy in the near future.

• ASK FOR WHAT YOU NEED You probably won’t get what you ask for ... but you shouldn’t fear asking. Because you don’t get what you don’t ask for and you’ll always regret not asking.

• ALWAYS KEEP IMPROVING My grandmother taught me to always keep learning. I believe deeply in continually looking for ways to just be a better person.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Mallory Moench

22

JENNIFER L. MACPHEE, CFPMarket PresidentBank of America

Market ExecutiveMerrill Lynch

When Jennifer MacPhee was just 35 she was called into the office of Anne Finucane, then chief marketing officer for Fleet Bank. MacPhee, who worked at Fleet, was in Boston at the time for a private banking meeting. MacPhee had only met Finucane once before. “She was always a presence,” MacPhee said.

Finucane extended an offer, asking MacPhee if she’d like to be the market president. MacPhee thought about it: The two people who had occupied the job before her were men in their mid-50s. It was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up, but she recalled it took her 6 to 9 months to find her footing in the job.

“It was the one time I felt I was about to do something I wasn’t ready for,” she told the crowd in the Hearst Media Center on Dec. 7, 2018, gathered for the second-to-last Women@Work Changemakers breakfast, presented by Bank of America. (The event had been postponed in November due to inclement weather.)

MacPhee has held the market president position for the Albany/Hudson Valley Region of Bank of America (which acquired Fleet Bank in 2004) for 15 years, and also manages the New York Capital Central Market for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

She was frank and colorful during the breakfast discussion, speaking broadly about her professional life, the choices she’s made and the people who have mentored or supported her along the way, including her mother, Judy, who was in attendance along with Women@Work members and some of MacPhee’s peers and coworkers.

MacPhee has spent most of her life in the Capital Region, graduating from Shenendehowa High School before earning an accounting degree at Ithaca College. Although she could have chosen to start her career anywhere in the country, she distinctly made the decision to come back to the area after college. Her husband also hails from the Capital Region, and she’s raised her two children here.

“If I went to a big city, I’d need to recreate that (support system),” she said.

STEPPING UP TO CHALLENGES WHILE STAYING AUTHENTICJennifer MacPhee not afraid to shake things up in banking world

jennifer.l.macphee@ml.com

www.twitter.com/JenniferMacP8

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• BRING YOUR TRUE SELF TO WORK I feel it is critical that as you advance in your career you be open to coaching and feedback and continuously seek opportunities for self-improvement. That said, you should not completely change your personal style and who you are as a person and leader, as many of those qualities are what make you unique and have contributed to getting you to this point in your career.

• BE AN ENERGY-GIVER, NOT AN ENERGY-TAKER People want to surround themselves with individuals who have positive energy and get things done, not those who give you reasons why you can’t try to approach something differently. People who have a positive attitude and possess a high sense of urgency are contagious and can completely change the dynamic of an office or a team.

The same question of where she wanted to work came up through several professional moves as she transitioned from public accounting to banking. When she first took the market president role, one of the changes MacPhee said she made was to make meetings more inclusive. When leaders from the bank’s various sectors couldn’t attend, she asked them to send a junior staff member instead.

“It was a small shift, but all of a sudden, those (junior staffers) were empowered,” she said. “They were on the front lines of their field. We’ve created a good camaraderie.”

She shared her perspective on remaining authentic, even in a business setting. A leadership coach told her, “You’re very colorful,” and she took that to mean she needed to tone down her personality in a professional setting, so she tried holding back on sharing her opinions or speaking up during meetings. She asked her peers for their thoughts.

“(They) literally said, ‘... stay the way you are,’” she said. “I’m back to being colorful.”

“You should be authentic without compromising who you are,” she advised those in the audience.

MacPhee also addressed the topic of work-life balance, but said her approach has been more about blending her personal and professional lives when possible, rather than navigating the line between them. In her family and at work, good-natured competition thrives. She said raising her children to be high achievers meshes with the tack she takes as a leader and mentor.

Though she would like to still achieve more in her current position – the markets she oversees often perform in the top 20 in the country, if not higher on that list, she said – she’s also thinking about her next step up now that her children are in college.

During the question-and-answer session, a young woman who said she is weighing whether to take a promotion sought MacPhee’s advice on how to make the decision.

“You have to grab those opportunities because they don’t come around very often,” MacPhee said.

• NO LIMITATIONS AND LEARN FROM YOUR SETBACKS The only limitations on what you can accomplish are those you set for yourself. I was raised to believe and strongly encouraged by my parents to embrace the concept that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. I have learned more from my setbacks than some of my successes.

• FIND YOUR PASSION AND PERFORM BRILLIANTLY There is no better way to get noticed than to consistently outperform and that is easier to do if you are passionate about your purpose and believe in what you do.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Sara Tracey

24

Politics is Libby Post’s addiction. And after 40 years in Albany, she carries a wealth of memories about the city’s favorite sport.

Post, 60, shared stories of her life and career with an audience of Women@Work members on Dec. 12, 2018 at the Hearst Media Center. Post’s appearance was the final installment of the group’s Changemakers Breakfast Series.

Post came out as a lesbian when she moved to Albany for an internship in 1978 and has been active in the LGBT community ever since. She is a past president of Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, now the Pride Center of the Capital Region, and she was the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda. Post said decades ago she was fired for being a lesbian and lost potential clients because of her sexuality and activism.

“Now we’re mainstream,” Post said. “There are so many more out business owners.”

New threats have arisen to LGBT people under President Donald Trump’s administration, Post said.

“But we’re so much stronger and have more access now ... they can make our lives difficult but it won’t be as bad as it was in the 1980s,” Post said.

Post started her business, Communication Services, in 1984, as a way to promote progressive causes in the same slick, professional way the right was promoting itself, she said. Post only takes clients who are pro-choice and pro-gay rights. She worked for political candidates while doing lesbian and gay work, and met her spouse, Lynn Dunning- Vaughn, on a political campaign.

In 2012, Post changed her business model for Communication Services, scaling back on staff and relocating her office from a private space to a co-working space.

LGBT ACTIVIST ADDICTED TO POLITICSLibby Post talks business, life at Changemaker” breakfast in Colonie“

LIBBY POSTPresidentCommunication Services

Managing PartnerProgressive Elections

Executive DirectorNYS Animal Protection Federation

lpost@commservices.net

www.facebook.com/LibbyPost

www.facebook.com/communicationservices

www.twitter.com/LibbyPost

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• WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER There are times when we can make some big mistakes – ones that are costly. Learn from them. Don’t dwell on the negativity of the mistake, but on how you can learn and grow.

• WHEN A DOOR IS OPEN, WALK THROUGH IT Women must lead. We can’t wait for an invitation. When an opportunity presents itself for leadership, step up. Don’t just lean in. Step up and speak out. I believe women lead differently – we are collaborative, we want to create change, we care about people and policy. It’s not just about power.

• BE GOOD TO YOUR PARENTS I was very close to my parents. I know not everyone has that fortune. But, if you can, make them a priority because they’re not with you forever. As they age, we become their parents – making decisions, keeping them safe. Doing what they did for us when we were kids.

Asked if she turns down work if she isn’t familiar with the subject matter, Post said no. In 2005, she started working on behalf of public libraries even though she was at first unfamiliar with issues affecting them. Her job in these cases is to help convince voters to pay higher taxes to support libraries. It’s some of the most rewarding work she does, Post said, because “when you strengthen a library in a community, you strengthen the community.”

Post is careful not to give away her talent for free, even though over the years she’s forged friendships with clients. Every politician she works with must sign a personal guarantee. Giving your talent away makes it seem like it doesn’t have value, she said.

Still, Post has causes she will help for free.

She volunteered her services when Albany developed the human rights ordinance, and she has worked for the Pride agenda. She also works on behalf of animals as the leader of the New York State Animal Protection Federation, the voice of the state’s animal protection and advocacy groups. She lobbied successfully to get $5 million in the state budget to help animal groups with capital campaigns.

Post and Dunning-Vaughn have three pets; a golden retriever puppy named Shayna and cats Ira and Smudge.

• COME OUT Whether you come out as a lesbian, a transgender person, a Democrat, a business owner, a football fan or a fashionista, come out! Be proud of who you are. Don’t look to others for approval. Just do it and give others the respect you want for yourself.

• TO QUOTE THE WASHINGTON POST – DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS Do not shy away from politics. Get engaged. Run for office. Speak out on women’s issues. Support democracy and fight the darkness of fascism at every turn. Our lives, our businesses, our well-being depend on it.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

– Leigh Hornbeck

26

Women@Work offers a unique opportunity to provide your employees with useful networking, training and information about business and careers. Members include prominent local business people like the leaders of financial institutions, consulting firms, non-profits, healthcare organizations and small businesses.

Company memberships – sold in packages of 5 or more – give the women on your team a 20% discount on Women@Work’s $25 annual membership dues. Please consider offering Women@Work membership as a benefit to your employees. Email us to learn more at magazines@timesunion.com.

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DESIGNER Alana Feldman WRITERS Alicia Biggs Leigh Hornbeck Mallory Moench Sara Tracey

THANK YOU TO OUR DESIGNER AND WRITERS

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WOMEN@WORK TEAM MEMBERS

2018 WOMEN@WORK ADVISORY BOARD

Anne Saile, Chair • Gemma Allen • Marri Aviza • Kristen Berdar • Debra Best • Nathaalie Carey • Andrea Crisafulli

Cathy Crosky • Teddy Foster • Tammis Groft • Ann Hughes • Daquetta Jones • Georgia Kelly • Deb Leach

Julie Massry Knox • Zory Pineiro • Carolyn Stefanco • Aneesa Waheed • Marcia White

WOMEN@WORK Ambassadors

Women@Work Ambassadors are former board members and others who support the mission of Women@Work and help to grow the network to offer more and deeper connections between members and the community.

Sujata N. Chaudhry • Carmen Duncan • Leslie Foster • Corey Jamison • Brandi Landy • Annmarie Lanesey Theresa Marangas • Angela McNerney • Sari M. O’Connor • Suzanne O’Connor • Tracy Ormsbee Brianna Snyder • Linda Tepper • Liska Wilson

EDITORIALSusan MehalickExecutive Editorsmehalick@timesunion.com

Sara TraceySenior Editorstracey@timesunion.com

Leigh HornbeckSenior Writerlhornbeck@timesunion.com

SALES/MARKETINGPatti HartDirector of Cross-Media Business Development pahart@timesunion.com

Cira MastersAdvertising Sales Managercmasters@timesunion.com

Natalia RobinsonMarketing Assistantnrobinson@timesunion.com

Dakota JacksonMarketing Assistantdakota.jackson@timesunion.com

Alana FeldmanAdvertising Artist

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