Women in Leadership

2025 Fall Forum Program & Speakers

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

4:00 PM    Registration Opens

5:00 – 7:00 PM    Welcome to Texas Reception

Join us for cocktails and great food as we reconnect with old friends and forge new connections with bright, strong women in the senior living industry.

Thursday, September 25, 2025

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM    Continental Networking Breakfast / Welcome

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM    Leading and Living Through Your Values

Denise Boudreau - Clipped

Denise Boudreau, President of Drive Culture Outcomes, LLC

Attracting and retaining top talent starts with authentic leadership and at the core of every great leader is their personal values. Yet, many leaders never take the time to fully identify, embrace, and leverage these guiding principles to create workplaces where people want to stay and thrive. This session provides attendees a powerful opportunity to reflect on their own values and recognize how aligning leadership with these principles strengthens culture, inspires teams, and directly impacts recruitment and retention. When leaders lead with clarity and purpose, it ripples outward, building trust, fostering engagement, and creating an environment where employees feel valued and committed.

10:15 AM – 10:30 AM    Break

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM    You Can Be Perfect or You Can Be Happy: Introspection as the Gateway to Inclusive Leadership

Karith Headshot - clipped

Karith Foster, Foster Excellence, Cultivate Connection, Inversity Solutions, Author

In a world obsessed with perfection, Karith invites you to embrace your authentic self on the path to happiness. This session is for women battling perfectionism and the pressure to “do it all.” Karith introduces the B.A.S.I.C.S. framework, which challenges the myth of perfectionism and celebrates the freedom in imperfection. With humor and insight, Karith helps you break free from comparison and self-doubt, empowering you to acknowledge your inherent worth. In this session, you’ll gain actionable strategies for cultivating happiness and leading with compassion, even amidst life’s imperfections.

11:30 – 11:45 AM    Break

11:45 – 1:00 PM    Networking Lunch

Take time to connect with other attendees while enjoying lunch.

1:00-3:00 PM    Workshop: The Impact of Leading and Living Through Your Values

Denise Boudreau - Clipped

Denise Boudreau, President of Drive Culture Outcomes, LLC

A continuation of the earlier session, this workshop session will take participants on a deeper dive into understanding how their own personal values, beliefs, and experiences influence their thoughts and behaviors as a leader. In the keynote, participants identified what their personal values are and strategies to involve them in their daily life. In this session, participants will spend more time understanding the personal and professional impact of leading and living in an authentic, values-driven way. Leading in this way creates an organizational culture that people want to come work for and don’t want to leave!

3:15 – 3:30 PM    Break

3:30-4:30 PM    Generation M: Living well in perimenopause and menopause

Jessica-Shepard 1 - clipped

Dr. Jessica Shepherd, board-certified OB/GYN, wife, mother, on-air TV expert, CEO, and entrepreneur

This session focuses on empowering women to navigate the pivotal stage of perimenopause and menopause with confidence and clarity. Dr. Shepherd will share insights from her book, Generation M, to help women embrace this transformative phase as an opportunity for growth and empowerment.

5:30 PM    Bus Ride to Dinner

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM    Networking Dinner

We’ll wrap up the Forum with dinner at an offsite location where you can reflect on learnings, cement new friendships, and wind down from an event-filled day!