International Women’s Day Power Luncheon: A Conversation Dedicated to Caregiving

Join us as we celebrate International Women’s Day with a special luncheon dedicated to caregiving. We are honored to have acclaimed author of Postcards From Within, Savita Harjani, Tia Newcomer, CEO of CaringBridge and Susan Parriott, Region Leader of the Alzheimers Association discuss the impact and blessings received from caregiving. This panel discussion will be emceed by the talented Cathy Paper, CEO of RockPaperStar.

Savita Harjani, originally from Bombay, India, relocated to the U.S. at twenty. Residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for over thirty-two years, she studied law at Hamline University, graduating cum laude in 1994. Savita began her legal journey at Thomson Reuters, later joining the high-tech startup Bermai as a member of the founding team, overseeing legal and HR then transitioned to her own strategic-legal-management consulting business. In 2016, Savita paused her professional life and moved to India to take care of her mother. After completing her tenure as a caregiver in 2020, Savita retired from the active practice of law. She is now exploring her second career as a writer in the third act of her life, starting with her debut work, Postcards from Within, a memoir. She also does hospice care volunteer work at an organization called LifeSpark.

Tia is an experienced board member and healthcare leader known for leading strategic pivots that drive transformation, creating enterprise value through customer experience at companies that care about, and for, humans.

She joined CaringBridge as the CEO in 2021, ensuring all operations contribute toward the CaringBridge vision – a world where no one goes through a health journey alone. Building on the 25+ year legacy, she brought the team together around a common vision of transformation that has led to two consecutive years of unprecedented revenue and impact growth.

Before joining CaringBridge, Tia was the Chief Commercial Officer at Generate Life Sciences and has spent the last 20 years in executive roles with a foundation in blue chip technology and consumer packaged goods companies. She has led commercial value creation, creating successful go-to-market strategies in Global Fortune 100, Private Equity, and VC-backed companies primarily in the Healthcare Tech industry.

In addition to serving on the CaringBridge board of directors, Tia is an independent board member for Inherent BioSciences, a biotechnology company pioneering epigenetic medicine for diagnosing and treating complex diseases, starting in reproductive health. She also serves on the Advisory Committee for the American Cancer Society National Breast Cancer Roundtable and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Once a Husker, always a Husker. Tia holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Nebraska and is a Seth Godin altMBA graduate. Her free time is spent enjoying the outdoors with her husband, two teenage daughters and white lab on feet, bikes, skis, and water devices.

Susan Parriott joined the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota Chapter as the chief executive officer in 2012 and became the Region 5 leader for the Association in January of 2017 managing the Association’s operations in Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. At the Alzheimer’s Association, Parriott has expanded care and support services, including programs focused on diversity and inclusivity. She has advanced public policy at the state and federal levels, with legislation for Alzheimer’s research and support being passed every year in Minnesota and increased state funding for the North Dakota Dementia Care Services Program, a program that provides services and support across the state. For two years, the Chapter hosted the largest Walk to End Alzheimer’s® in the country, raising $1.7 million. The event continues to be in the top 5 of Walk to End Alzheimer’s across the country. The Purple Gala in the Twin Cities is one of the largest gala in the country, raising a record $1.2 million in 2023. In 2020, with the COVID pandemic, she led the region to convert all programs and services to virtual formats to meet the needs of individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer’s. Under Parriott’s leadership, the Minnesota-North Dakota Chapter has achieved all strategic plan goals every year since 2013 and the Chapter has also doubled its funding. She has served on numerous Association-wide task forces, including a 2016 work group that focused on realigning the chapter reporting structure following the Alzheimer’s Association merger. She now serves on the task force to develop the next three-year strategic plan for the Association.

Before joining the Alzheimer’s Association, Parriott served as the executive director of The ALS Association, Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota Chapter for eleven years, where she substantially grew its revenue allowing the chapter to expand its services and service area to include North and South Dakota. Before her work with ALS, she was the executive director of the Pearson Lakes Arts Center in Okoboji, Iowa. Parriott has been a proud member of Rotary since 1999. Parriott holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Iowa State University.

Cathy Paper is the founder of RockPaperStar, a consulting firm specializing in coaching and training for individuals and teams to improve networking confidence and ultimately sales performance. She is also the Co-Founder of Networking4Referrals.com, an online networking training school. Cathy has coached executives and managers at Best Buy, Paramount Pictures, John Deere, and Apple, as well as many Minnesota-based privately held companies and service firms. With energy and enthusiasm, Cathy shares her networking savvy and marketing skills to guide leaders to define and reach goals for their teams and organizations. Cathy is a certified National Speaker, see e-Speaker for details and is available for online and in-person events. Her naturally competitive nature – Cathy runs, played rugby, and was a Minnesota State Tennis Doubles Champion – is inspiring and contagious. Cathy earned her BA at Williams College and holds a Master’s Degree in Organization Development from the University of St. Thomas. She is a national speaker, a columnist for the American City Business Journals, a Forbes Council Coach; a winner of the Minnesota Business Magazine’s “Real Power 50, and the National Association of Women Business Owners “Woman on the Way” award, given to a woman business owner who has demonstrated ahead-of-the-curve achievement for herself and her company.

Cathy is currently on the board of TeamWomen and since 2012 has been an active member of the Twin Cities Dunkers. She was on the board of The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. She has worked at William Blair & Company, Fallon McElligott, and Best Buy. She and her husband live in St. Paul with their three children and two dogs.

REGISTRATION CLOSES:  MARCH 4TH, 2024!

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