We’re thrilled to announce the theme for TEDx HandleyBlvd Women 2026: ALL OF US

Julia Healey is the Chief Executive Officer of United Charitable, a nonprofit organization that empowers philanthropic initiatives through donor-advised funds and fiscally sponsored programs nationwide.
With a strong foundation in finance and accounting, Julia holds a B.S. in Business Administration, an MBA in Finance, and a Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate from Georgetown University. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in Organizational Leadership, expanding her expertise in mission-driven leadership.
Julia began her career in the finance sector, gaining analytical and operational experience that shapes her leadership today. After seeing firsthand the inequities in access to resources and education, she shifted into the nonprofit space.
This passion continues to guide her work and commitment to breaking down barriers in philanthropy, championing communities, and supporting charitable initiatives so they can thrive.

Shanel Evans is a visibility strategist, business advisor, and speaker known for challenging performance-driven models of success in the digital age. She supports purpose-driven entrepreneurs and leaders in building presence rooted in conviction, discernment, and connection—without sacrificing integrity or wellbeing.
She is the co-founder of a nationally recognized nonprofit serving youth through leadership and mentorship, and an active member of The BOW Collective and the Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, where she advocates for economic equity and community-centered business models. Shanel’s work has been featured in Essence and she has been recognized by the African American Marketing Association as one of the Top 50 Black Marketers to Watch.
In her TEDx talk, The Danger of Digital Fame, Shanel examines the emotional cost of visibility built on performance and invites audiences to reclaim presence, purpose, and agency in a world that equates being seen with being worthy.

Svetlana Makarova is Associate Vice President of AI Technical Product Management at IKS Health. Formerly at Mayo Clinic, she led AI initiatives across 90+ medical specialties, impacting tens of thousands of clinicians and patients. She's co-authored peer-reviewed research on AI in healthcare and speaks globally on AI strategy and implementation.

Now a doctorate candidate in AI/ML at George Washington University, Svetlana helps organizations adopt AI with clarity and measurable impact. Her focus: building systems that enhance human expertise rather than replace it. She brings a unique lens to the question everyone's avoiding: what makes humans irreplaceable when AI can replicate 15 years of routine work? She's developing her first book, The Human Margin, which explores the answer.

When she's not training executives or debugging neural networks, she's snowboarding - building the kind of experience you can't delegate.

Meredith Speir-Cavalier is an Owner, Co-Founder, and Executive Director of The Recovery Connection, a women-focused treatment facility in Winchester, Virginia. Drawing on both lived experience and professional leadership, as a recovery advocate she works to dismantle system barriers that prevent people from accessing care. Her work centers on transforming broken pathways into real access to treatment – and redefining what leadership looks like through the lens of recovery. More importantly than her job title, Meredith is a person in long term recovery from substance use disorder and has been in continuous recovery for seventeen (17) years. Meredith has a Bachelor of Psychology Degree in Psychology from Liberty University. She is also a Certified and Registered Peer Recovery Specialist in the state of Virginia, a published author of two Amazon best sellers, and has been calling Winchester home since 2007.

Dr. Yolanda Shields, MBA, Ph.D., is the Founder of YESBuilds a global consultant business. She is an internationally recognized business leader, best-selling author, with more than 20 years of experience helping entrepreneurs and organizations scale with purpose and sustainability.
Her work spans the United States, Europe, and Africa, focusing on entrepreneurship ecosystem development, social enterprise, workforce innovation. A sought-after speaker and trainer, Dr. Shields specializes in business startups, the gig economy, and human capital management. Her influence extends beyond academia and government into the entertainment, ministry and nonprofit sectors, having worked with renowned figures such as CeCe Winans, Darrell Green, and Tony Boselli.
She serves on the Virginia State Labor and Workforce Development Board by gubernatorial appointment, is Chairwoman of the GO Virginia Region 8 Council, and Adjunct Faculty Director of Entrepreneurship HIVE at Shenandoah University. Dr. Shields is the author of six books, including The Gig Economy (2023).

Montressa L. Washington, PhD is an Associate Professor of Management at Shenandoah University and a certified change management professional. She has over 20 years of experience in management and organizational transformation consulting, with prior roles at IBM Global Business Services and Accenture. Her expertise spans organizational development, design thinking, human capital management, and technology assimilation. Trained in Designing Sustainable Systems at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, Montressa’s research and teaching focus on reflective structured dialogue (RSD), organizational behavior, change leadership, and innovation. She has served as a speaker and panelist at professional and academic conferences, including the IBM Academy of Technology Collaboration Conference, and is a graduate of Leadership Maryland and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. Her work bridges scholarship and practice to support adaptive, human-centered leadership in complex systems.