Equity in the workplace
begins with us.

Beverly is an energetic and passionate coach-sultant. Beverly brings to AWE over 15 years of experience in leadership development, with an emphasis in coaching, consulting, facilitating, and teaching. She is a big-picture strategist who enjoys formulating a meaningful story and conveying that story with detail yet simplicity. She has worked with industries including technology, higher education, non-profits, hospitality, professional services, and athletics.

As Senior Director of Content & Delivery, Beverly is responsible for content design, training facilitation and experience, and coaching at AWE. Prior to joining AWE, Beverly served as a Learning Consultant designing, developing, and implementing coaching experiences for leaders, teams, and individual contributors. She also taught Leader Development courses in Master’s and Doctorate programs at Alliant International University.

Beverly received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University. Beverly continues to advocate for professional development and executive opportunities for women in the working world. She also provides coaching and consulting services to Coaching for Everyone, a 501c3 nonprofit organization providing complimentary coaching and leadership services to the BIPOC community.

Born and raised in Southern California, Beverly finds ultimate serenity near water. When she is not working, you can find her spending time outdoors with her husband and 2 children paddle boarding, riding skateboards, or hiking trails in the Pacific Northwest. You might even catch her at a football game cheering very loudly on the sidelines!

Laura is a producer and a problem-solver. No matter what the project, she brings to it a unique mix of project management savvy, an analytical mindset, purposeful persistence and a dash of creativity. Her latest project is being AWE’s Head of Operations which includes oversight of Marketing, Finance and HR.

Her producing career began at age eight when Laura talked her younger sister into acting in comedy skits for her new tape recorder (they got rave reviews from her parents). With that success under her belt, she went on to have a 28-year career in television as executive producer and network executive. An integral part of the launch teams for three cable networks (Paul Allen’s /TechTV/, Comcast’s /G4/ and NBCUniversal’s /Esquire/), Laura acquired, developed and oversaw more than 500 hours of programming, including American Ninja Warrior, which has gone on to become a prime time hit for NBC.

In addition to putting her extensive skills to work for AWE, she serves as Board member for the Village Green, a 627-unit, multi-family community in Los Angeles on the National Register of Historic Places. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in History and is looking forward to resuming her road trips to the Southwest with her husband and two standard poodles.

Reena’s diverse and storied career path spans the performing arts, education, and communications sectors within private, public, and nonprofit settings. She is an experienced content creator, curriculum developer, and dynamic instructor – having designed and delivered theater and public speaking programs for schools, as well as professional development workshops for Fortune 500 companies.

She holds a B.F.A. in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and an M.P.A. in Strategic Performance Management from Rutgers University’s School of Public Affairs and Administration. Equipping individuals to realize their full potential as both leaders and team-players, while simultaneously encouraging them to be risk-takers is her passion. Along with helping organizations identify areas of needed growth and developing metrics that are in-line with company mission & vision.

Born in Zambia, raised in New York and currently residing in the Garden State (NJ) with her husband and teenage sons, Reena is an avid traveler – having visited Australia, Dubai, India, Singapore, South Africa and more! She cares deeply about people from all walks of life, as evidenced by her time spent mentoring inner-city youth, promoting anti-trafficking initiatives, and supporting women in recovery. Reena firmly believes that growth is on-going and learning is a life-long adventure!

Carrie is an executive & leadership coach specializing in helping female executives develop their authentic leadership style while staying true their purpose, in turn increasing their efficacy and impact as leaders. She is driven to advance the growth of women in leadership, supporting them as they grow their influence, make their voices heard and take purposeful action to shift the status-quo in business. 

Prior to becoming a coach, Carrie worked for 15 years as a creative executive in entertainment marketing. Most recently, she was the President and Partner of a top creative advertising agency, managing a large team of seasoned creatives and overseeing all aspects of agency management – including finance, HR and operations. During her time there, she discovered a different way to lead that felt more authentic to who she was as a female leader and not surprisingly, turned out to be effective in delivering business results. 

Combining 20 years of personal development work, professional coach training, and leadership experience, Carrie holds a BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley, is a Hudson Institute Certified Coach and is ACC ICF certified. Carrie’s favorite role is being the mother of two children. She is a fierce advocate for working mothers and the unique challenges they face.

Passionate about empowering women, Jessika Portney is an executive and leadership coach and founder of Journey On. Jessika has worked in the field of leadership development for over a decade, supporting leaders of all backgrounds and tenures. In addition to her work with private clients, Jessika coaches and facilitates leadership development training programs for non-profit organizations and government agencies. Her approach to leadership has been informed by the cross-cultural experiences she’s sought out: pursuing a graduate degree and teaching English in Rome, facilitating Fulbright fellowships for mid-career leaders from 90 different countries, and implementing USAID projects for Egyptian women pursuing a STEM education.

Clients value Jessika’s deep curiosity about the human experience and ability to create a warm environment for them to be vulnerable and dig deep. She became a coach to honor these gifts and create space for those who want to do similar transformational work. Jessika finds true joy in partnering with clients to embrace their superpowers and manifest their potential.

Jessika obtained an M.A. in Government and Politics with a concentration in International Relations and a certificate in Diplomacy and International Law from St. John’s University in Rome, Italy. She received a B.A. dual degree in Communication and Italian Language & Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Supriya Venkatesan works with executives and entrepreneurs across the globe to unlock their total potential. Her focus areas include interpersonal communications, overcoming subconscious blocks, achieving peak performance, and broader culture change within organizations while exceeding business metrics.

With over 18 years of experience across a diverse career spanning marketing, journalism, and the military combined with extensive coaching training, she helps clients achieve professional and business goals by mastering the three levels of communication: Unconscious communication with the self, conscious communication with the other, and collective conscious communication within group dynamics.

Supriya holds a Masters degree in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, is a certified Trainer and Master coach in Neuro-linguistic Programming. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Communications from Maharishi University with a minor in Vedic Science and a certificate in Yoga Philosophy from Oxford University.

In 2020, she was awarded the ADCOLOR award by ADWEEK for exemplary leadership in DEI. in 2007 she was given the Commandant’s Award by the US Army for performing in the top 10%  at the US Army Leadership Academy. Supriya is a combat veteran having served 6 years in the US Army where she first honed her leadership skills leading teams of 100+ personnel of soldiers and civilians while stationed across 3 continents.

Her writings have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Redbook and elsewhere.