Featured Speakers Announced for Circles USA Leadership Conference 2019

3 Powerful Women Ready to Share their Vision with the Network

Dr. MarYam Hamedani
Tuesday’s Featured Speaker
MarYam Hamedani, Ph.D., is Managing Director and Senior Research Scientist at Stanford SPARQ. SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions ) is a “do tank” that partners with industry leaders to tackle disparities and inspire culture change in criminal justice, economic mobility, education, and health using insights from behavioral science.
At SPARQ, Dr. Hamedani studies and puts into practice strategies to help people live, work, and thrive in today’s increasingly diverse and divided world. She works on improving police-community relations, promoting racial literacy, educating people about social differences, and designing empowering schools and programs for underrepresented students.
The former Associate Director of Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), Dr. Hamedani is also a Stanford Ph.D. alum in psychology. Her work has been published in leading journals such as  Psychological Science, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,  and  Perspectives on Psychological Science,  and has been covered by national media outlets like  National Public Radio, The New York Times, ABC News, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic,  and  The Huffington Post.

Lisa Marsh Ryerson
Wednesday’s Featured Speaker
Lisa Marsh Ryerson is president of AARP Foundation, the charitable affiliate of AARP.
A bold, disciplined and collaborative leader, she sets the Foundation’s strategic direction and steers its efforts to realize an audacious vision: a country free of poverty, where no older person feels vulnerable.
Since she took the helm, AARP Foundation has developed pioneering initiatives, explored new avenues for collaboration, and secured unprecedented funding to support programs and services that truly change lives.
Ms. Ryerson has spearheaded innovative partnerships with other organizations to create and advance effective solutions that help vulnerable older adults increase their economic opportunity and social connectedness. Before joining AARP Foundation, Ms. Ryerson served as the president and CEO of Wells College in Aurora, N.Y.
Diana Dollar
Thursday’s Featured Speaker
Driven by a deep, life-long commitment to fairness and justice, Diana came into her role as the founding Executive Director of The Prosperity Agenda dedicated to transforming big, complex systems in order to drive meaningful, sustainable change.
“In large systems, it’s easy to inadvertently optimize for cost, number of people served, simplicity, or throughput, but not to focus on what really matters: the experience of the individuals and families who are impacted by poverty and have no reasonable way out.”
With more than 20 years of leadership experience in human, workforce, and economic development systems, Diana now focuses her attention on transforming traditional approaches to poverty by leading The Prosperity Agenda toward  solutions that honor the lived experiences of families impacted by poverty and which give families the equity, dignity, security, and choice they deserve.