Women's Leadership Conference

Event Sponsors

Williamson, Inc. and Vanderbilt Health invite you to join 160 female professionals on August 24th at the Tennessee Governor’s Residence Conservation Hall. Hear how local leaders paved the way for personal success, leaving a smoother road behind them for future generations.

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM: Shuttle transportation, networking, and breakfast
9:00 AM - 10: 30 AM Program

Speakers

Brittany N. Cole, Career & Inclusive Leadership Consultant
Author of Thrive Through It & CEO of Career Thrivers®

Brittany N. Cole lives by this motto as a TEDx speaker, coach, leadership consultant, and author of the best-selling book on redefining resilience, Thrive Through It! Through her experience as a former commercial leader in the healthcare industry, Brittany has learned what it means to be a resilient and inclusive leader that builds high-performing teams and cultures that leverage the business value of diversity.

Today Brittany serves as the CEO of Career Thrivers, a leadership development firm that partners with organizations to prioritize equity in the workplace through targeted leadership development, strategic planning, and coaching. Career Thrivers specializes in an inclusive leadership development approach that helps corporations cultivate a culture where everyone can thrive!
Brittany is a graduate of The University of TN, Knoxville and studied Strategies for Building and Leading Diverse Organizations at The Harvard Kennedy School.

She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and serves on the board of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville, BrainTrust, and CABLE Nashville. She is also a mentor with Pathway Women's Business Center, and a speaker coach for TEDxNashville.

Stacy Spencer Executive Director of Narrow Gate Foundation

TOPIC: "The Path to Purpose"

When Stacy Spencer graduated from Belmont University, she set her sights on a life of leadership and success. Her success. She worked in her field as a TV & Film producer for over a decade culminating as a producer of a popular daytime TV show. Then, with her husband, she launched a software start-up and grew it into a thriving business. But at the pinnacle of her success, a personal encounter with God changed everything for Stacy. She and her husband never planned to have children, but as God would have it, they opened their hearts and home to a young man who was searching for direction. A year later, they had seven young men living with them in their three-bedroom, two-bath house and they realized God was up to something. They gave away their business and in 2004 founded a nonprofit known as Narrow Gate. Today, 17 years later, over 500 young men have come to Narrow Gate Lodge seeking the answers to life’s most important questions. They come to discover a life that matters. She uses her role as a leader not to improve her own life, but to help give life to others. For Stacy, success is helping those who come behind her find their way. Last year, for her impact on the lives of others, Stacy was recognized as Middle Tennessee’s Remarkable Woman for 2020. She is a frequent Bible teacher and inspiring speaker across the country. Stacy believes that leadership is not an end in itself. It’s a way to begin a ripple effect. Impact the lives of others for good. Then watch as they touch the lives of others, and so it goes. For Stacy, leadership is about more than personal success. It’s about creating a positive impact on the lives of others that echoes into eternity.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Website – www.narrowgate.org
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NarrowGateFoundation
Instagram - @ngstacyspencer (personal) @narrowgatelodge (business)

Stephanie E. Dedmon, MBA, PMP Chief Information Officer

TN Department of Finance and Administration

TOPIC: “Making the Most of Your Mentoring Relationships”

Stephanie Dedmon was named CIO for the State of Tennessee in October 2018. In this role she is responsible for all operational areas of the state’s central IT organization, Strategic Technology Solutions. This includes managing the team’s IT service delivery, technical infrastructure development and support and customer service management and a workforce of almost 1200 IT professionals.
As Deputy CIO, Dedmon was previously responsible for the Enterprise IT Transformation (EIT) initiative that furthered the State’s enterprise IT organization by transitioning over 800 Executive Branch Department IT employees to STS. Prior to being named Deputy CIO in November of 2015, Dedmon served as the Director of Business Solutions Delivery (BSD), also within the Department of Finance & Administration. BSD was created in late 2011 to build a team of experienced senior project directors, project managers and business analysts to help lead the state’s most complex IT/business solution implementations and improve project delivery success rates.

Prior to joining the State in 2005, Dedmon was an Associate Partner with Accenture in Nashville and served as project director on many public sector software implementations. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University (TTU) in Cookeville, Tennessee, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, also from TTU. She achieved her Project Management Professional certification in August of 2012.

Dedmon is a member of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), where she serves as Secretary/Treasurer with the Executive Committee and as Co-Chair of the Innovation Committee. She is a member of the Greater Nashville Technology Council, where she serves as the Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair and is a Board Member. She is also an active member of Women in Technology in Tennessee and the Nashville Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. Stephanie was the recipient of the George H. Bass award for Leadership in Tennessee State Government in October 2019. Most recently, Dedmon was awarded CIO of the Year at the Greater Nashville Technology Council’s 12th Annual NTC Awards in April 2021.