Events

Last, but hardly least, please meet panelist Tim Holtsnider LMW 2025

Tim Holtsnider spent 40 years working in corporate America for Fortune 500 companies such as Gillette, Coca Cola, EMC/Dell in sales, operations, and management. In his recent semi-retirement he has launched Passages Consulting, where he draws on his extensive personal and professional experience to guide young adults entering the workplace to start strong and build a path to success. He has lived, traveled, worked, and hitchhiked across parts of four continents, ten countries, and more than 35 U.S. states.

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Please meet our next Fall Breakfast Panelist!

Deborah Minori LMW 2022

Debi Minori is a human resource leader specializing in diversity, equity,and inclusion, relationship and performance management, and talent acquisition. She has extensive experience directing HR for well-known for-profit and non-profit organizations in Greater Boston and MetroWest such as in the hospitality and financial services sectors and more recently was a Chief Human Resource Officer for the MetroWest YMCA. She holds a MS in Human Resource Management/Labor Relations from Loyola University of Chicago.

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Please meet our next panelist for our Fall Breakfast, Leading the Generational Mosaic: Turning Differences into Superpowers

Sheniqua Rogers LMW 2023

Sheniqua Rogers is the Board Operations Coordinator for Metro SouthWest Work Force Board, a nonprofit agency working to develop a dynamic regional workforce system advancing workers and businesses through trend communication, collaboration, and program development. She is deeply committed to nurturing young talent and supporting youth development through mentorship, education, and hands-on training. In her prior role as the organization’s Youth Programs manager, Sheniqua worked directly with in-school and out-of-school youth, ages 14-25, assisting with intensive case management, career exploration, and finding paid internship opportunities, summer jobs programs, and training programs in trades and construction.

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We have a wonderful line up of expert panelists for our Fall Breakfast on November 12!

Introducing Shilpa Pherwani, CEO, IBIS Consulting Group

Shilpa Pherwani is an organizational psychologist, leadership advisor, and CEO of IBIS Consulting Group. For more than two decades, she has helped leaders build the skills to navigate the conversations that shape trust, performance, and workplace culture.

Shilpa has partnered with organizations including Google, American Express, the Federal Reserve Bank, Hasbro, American Airlines, Nestlé, and Stanford University. Her work focuses on turning leadership learning into behavior change through immersive, practice-based experiences.

Shilpa’s approach combines interactive business theater with professional actors, facilitated leadership practice, digital learning, and AI-enabled simulations, giving leaders a safe and realistic environment to rehearse difficult conversations, practice feedback, and lead effectively through change and uncertainty.

She is also the creator of the Inclusive Organization Framework (IOF), a practical model for aligning leadership behaviors, organizational systems, and culture. At the heart of her work is a simple belief: leadership is built not through passive learning, but through experiential practice grounded in real-life leadership challenges.

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Thursday, November 12, 2026, | 9-11 am at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts

Just as gifted artists transform handfuls of individual tiles into beautiful, unified masterpieces, gifted leaders bring together people with different strengths, perspectives, and experiences to create cohesive, high-performing teams. How, exactly, do our best leaders unite teams where the people span multiple generations, and are coming to work with vastly different expectations?

Panelists
Tim Holtsnider LMW ‘25 | corporate America Fortune 500 manager of sales, operations, and management; founder of Passages Consulting, which is helping the next generation of professionals find their voice, own their value, and take the next step with purpose.

Deborah Minori LMW ‘22 | human resource leader specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion, relationship and performance management, and talent acquisition for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Shilpa Pherwani | organizational psychologist, leadership advisor, and CEO of IBIS Consulting Group, which helps leaders build the skills to navigate the conversations that shape trust, performance, and workplace culture.

Sheniqua Rogers | LMW 23, Board Operations Coordinator for Metro SouthWest Work Force Board, a nonprofit agency working to develop a dynamic regional workforce system advancing workers and businesses through trend communication, collaboration, and program development; former Youth Programs manager.

Moderated by Amanda Zuretti | LMW ’22 | lawyer

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Let`s all give a great big HOWDY to Matt--

Matt Brand LMW’26 Natick
Occupation/Community Activities: Chair of the Natick School Committee / Senior Vice President of Engineering @Uwill

Interests: being a nerd, writing, reading, summer camp, sarcasm, seeing movies
Favorite thing about your Academy experience: the people and also getting to visit and learn about all the great work happening in our community
What you`re now looking for from LMW alumni: future networking and just being part of a community of leaders

Favorite motivational quote: "You miss 100% of the shots you don`t take." -Wayne Gretsky

https://linkedin.com/in/mattbrand
https://mattbrand.com/

Join us for Encore on Tuesday October 20 for an intimate behind-the-scenes visit to Better Day Adult Social Day Program, a small, innovative nonprofit providing nonmedical daytime care for adults living with early- to mid-stage dementia. See for yourself how a peer group, caring staff, and a welcoming, residential environment can provide social engagement and cognitive stimulation in ways that work for guests and caregivers alike. We`ll learn how Better Day is working to bridge the gap between senior centers and residential memory care. After the visit we`ll gather for lunch, reflection, and conversation at Main Street Cafe, 182 Main St, Marlborough 01752. (Please note lunch is not included in your registration.)

Whether you have a personal connection to dementia, an interest in senior services, or are simply curious about how organizations can creatively approach care, here`s a wonderful chance to see, learn, and connect.

Register at https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/AWi-hhOv-FlsbxuUUJolug

Leadership Academy Day is at Special Olympics MA today! It is such a treat to introduce the new class to the wonderful, tightknit community of SOMA LMW alums and staff, the Athlete Ambassadors, and their families. Thank you #specialolympicsma 💙🧡

Welcome Jess D!
Jessica DeBenedictis LMW’26 | Somerville & Ashland
Occupation/Community Activities: Deputy District Director for the Office of Senate President Karen E. Spilka, Farmers Market volunteer

Interests: Movies, volunteering, basketball and softball, farmers markets, hiking/trail walks

Favorite thing about your Academy experience: The lifelong friendships I made and the organizations I got to learn more about

What you`re now looking for from LMW alumni: Continued networking opportunities and events – I love to meet new people!

www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-debenedictis