Bios
Why is it important to have a terrific bio and eye-catching portrait? Because you are branding yourself—and it is the key in any marketing plan. After all, whatever product or service you sell, the people you work with want to know and trust that the leaders of the firm are honest, credible, and have experience in their field.
That’s why having an engaging bio, one filled with interesting details about your business and experience, should be the first step in this process. That’s why we make sure our Inkandescent PR clients have top-notch bios and wonderful portraits.
To book the writers and photographers at Inkandescent PR to help you soup up your bio and create a gorgeous portrait you’ll want to show off to the world, send an email to hope@inkandescentpr.com.
Because it’s never easy for a novice to navigate the home remodeling and renovation process, Northern Virginia entrepreneur Mina Fies has developed a company to choreograph all aspects of the project — from concept to completion. Her Reston VA-based firm, Synergy Design & Consulting, acts as a liaison between the designer and construction team.
“In previous jobs in the real estate industry I saw firsthand how tough it was for homeowners to remodel their homes,” Mina says. “They simply didn’t have the experience or expertise to know the right questions to ask, which designers and contractors to hire, and what a reasonable budget and timeline should be.”
So in 2008, Mina and her husband Mark — who has decades of experience in retail sales and operations management — created a company to remedy the problem.
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With a master’s degree in international studies from Harvard University, Laura Lee Williams is a businesswoman with a flair for numbers and fashion. She’s worked for Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, American Express and Apple Computer. But when she was the vp of global business with Hong Kong’s Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), she was inspired to create a company of her own.
In 2003, she launched the luxury handbag firm Laura Lee Designs, and ever since her stylishly appealing, fabulously chic handbags have adorned the arms and outfits of celebs including Desperate Housewives’ Eva Longoria, Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, and Touched by an Angel actress Roma Downey.
“Each bag is handmade with Nepalese fabrics, high quality satins and swirling patterns of Japanese beads,” Laura Lee explains. “Colorful snakeskin accentuates each bag and adds functional elegance to each piece. The bags are less an accessory and more a piece of wearable art. A Laura Lee Designs handbag captures individuality and verve. You definitely can’t be a wallflower and wear one of these bags!”
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Since April 2006, Noonan has served as assistant superintendent for Cluster VII schools, including the Centreville, Chantilly, and Fairfax High School pyramids. In this position, he initiated instructional and organizational change using professional learning communities, increased accessibility to educational technology resources for students and staff members, and school leadership development to support diverse learners.
Noonan served as principal of Centreville High School from July 2004 until April 2006, where he developed a principal’s round table for aspiring student leaders, initiated a freshman transition team for rising ninth grade students, and secured funding for an Honors and Advanced Placement Summer Institute. Prior to that, he served as principal of Lanier Middle School. Noonan came to FCPS in 2001 to serve as assistant principal at Langley High School.
Prior to joining FCPS, Noonan served as dean of students, assistant principal, and principal of several schools in Albuquerque. He began his career as a special education teacher at Roosevelt Middle School in Albuquerque, where he was named Teacher of the Year in 1993.
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Educational leader and City of Fairfax resident Ann Monday became Superintendent of the City of Fairfax Schools on July 1, 2007.
“We are pleased and excited that Mrs. Monday has agreed to become our new Superintendent,” said City School Board Chairman Janice Miller. “Her background and experience are unparalleled, and we know she will be a wonderful leader of our four schools and will continue to work with Fairfax County Public Schools to enrich academic programs for our students.”
Monday retired on June 30 as the Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), a district she has worked in since 1973 when she became a teacher at Kilmer Intermediate School in Vienna. She then served as chairperson of the English department at Chantilly High School from 1976-1980, when she became an administrative aide at Marshall High and subsequently a subschool principal at Lake Braddock High School.
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Alice Waagen, PhD, is president and founder of Workforce Learning, LLC, a leadership development company which since 1997 has provided managers and C-level executives with the skills and knowledge they need to build a more productive work environment.
Since earning a BS in Art Education from New York State College at Buffalo, and MS and PhD degrees in Art Education from Pennsylvania State University, Alice has conducted hundreds of workshops and training classes at many of the country’s Fortune 500 companies and top nonprofit organizations, as well as at government agencies in the Washington DC area. In just the last three years, more than 55 leaders from 20 regional organizations have graduated from her unique leadership development workshop series.
Giving back to the community is also important to Alice, who currently serves on the District Training Committee for Boy Scouts of America as well as on the Boards of Directors for the Human Resources Leadership Forum and for Habitat for Humanity, Northern VA.
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What do Apple, Pfizer, Kellogg, ExxonMobil, Chase, Wells Fargo, Homeland Security, USA Today and ABC News have in common? When it comes to training, developing and motivating their greatest asset, their people, they turn to Steven B. Wiley and the The Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg.
“We are dedicated to serving as a resource for individuals, teams and organizations who find themselves having to perform or produce in a stressful and rapidly changing environment with limited resources and limited information,” explains Steven B. Wiley, president and founder of The Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg.
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Steven B. Wiley is an entrepreneur, author, and highly acclaimed speaker who has influenced and entertained tens of thousands of top executives from around the world. Without exception, he receives the highest ratings possible from his audiences. His business experience includes the founding of three companies: two international franchise organizations and a national chain of fleet management centers.
He has successfully negotiated multi-million dollar funding agreements for his own companies with some of the top venture capital organizations in the world. His strong leadership ability has earned him recognition in top publications including Venture Magazine, USA Today, and Entrepreneur magazine.
Steve’s speaking experience includes three years as National Spokesperson for the Quaker Oats/Pritikin Longevity Centers for whom he has been featured in television commercials and advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Over the past ten years he has conducted thousands of seminars on negotiation, sales leadership and wellness for numerous public and private sector organizations.
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Angela Sontheimer is the Managing Director of the Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg. She has a background in institutional advancement and has worked extensively in events management, and is a graduate of Gettysburg College. In 2009, Angela finished her Masters degree in Leadership and Liberal Studies at Duquesne University.
Along with Steve, Angela developed and created A Transformational Journey from Gettysburg.
“This intimate, small group program explores several customized case studies of your choosing while providing participants with a unique team-building opportunity,” Sontheimer says. “The Journey actually begins long before setting foot in the Gettysburg area. Participants prepare for their experience through compelling pre-session readings and an optional battery of assessment tools.”
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
The Essential HR Handbook: A Quick and Handy Resource for Any Manager or HR Professional is a 250-page reference guide, published in the fall of 2008 by Career Press.
It is a must-have for everyone who deals with employees on a daily basis, believe Mitchell and Armstrong. They wrote the book because, as human resource professionals with decades of experience, they wanted to shed light on the issues that keep managers up at night.
“Human resource professionals are not only charged with resolving labor issues,” explains Mitchell, who worked for Marriott Corporation and several technology firms in the Washington DC area before launching her own company‚ The Millennium Group International‚ in 1998. “We also help acquire, train, appraise, and make sure employees are fairly compensated, while attending to their concerns about labor relations, health and safety, and fairness.”
“It’s a big job, but we make it easier by outlining guidelines and best practice recommendations in the 12 chapters of our book,” adds Armstrong, who began her career in human resources in 1985 as a recruiter/trainer in a large Manhattan law firm before launching Sharon Armstrong and Associates in 2000. “Whether you are a newly promoted manager, a seasoned business owner, or a human resources professional, knowing the ins and outs of dealing with HR issues is critical to your success.”
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Sharon Armstrong began her career in human resources in 1985 as a recruiter/trainer in a large Manhattan law firm. She took over as Director of HR at the DC firm Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in 1991, and in 1994 became the Director of HR and Administration at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
In 2000, she opened her own firm, Sharon Armstrong & Associates, and since has consulted with many large corporations and small businesses. She has facilitated training, completed HR projects and provided career transition services for a wide variety of clients in the profit and non-profit sectors. Her firm also serves as a brokerage house for other HR professionals.
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Barbara Mitchell is a human resources and organization development consultant who is widely known as an expert in the areas of recruitment and retention. She has experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors and has consulted to a variety of organizations around the world.
She served in senior human resources leadership positions with Marriott International and several technology firms in the Washington DC area before co-founding the Millennium Group International, LLC (TMG) in 1998, which she sold in 2008.
She recently served on the Society of Human Resource Management as a Special Expert Panel on Consulting and Outsourcing in recognition of her expertise and long service to the HR profession. Barbara is a graduate of North Park University, Chicago, IL, with a degree in history and political science and has taken graduate level courses at UCLA. Contact Barbara by email: barbaramitchell@comcast.net.
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With a doctorate in Musical Arts under her belt, international award-winning pianist Celia Im decided to use music to help others and in 2003 founded Lighting the Creative Spark, LLC, an innovative company dedicated to helping clients develop their own intuition to enhance their relationships, career and life.
The music (often her own original work) is a tool she uses to engage the active imagination, explains Celia, who has been on the faculty and taught aspiring musicians at George Mason University, University of Maryland and Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.
“In my work, I combine an intuitive process called Music-Evoked Imagery (MEI) with my experience as a performing artist and teacher. It’s very effective because I use my own experiences as a creative person to help others find their creativity. It seems to work as well for artists and musicians as it does for lawyers and bankers.”
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Photo by Steve Barrett
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs, Inkandescent PR
Michael Gibbs has been a freelance illustrator since the early ’80s. After majoring in architecture for a year at the University of Maryland, he attended Pratt Institute as a photography major, switching to illustration in his final year.
Michael’s style has evolved from traditional painting to a unique blend of traditional and digital techniques, with frequent forays into purely digital illustration. He was an early devotee of the Macintosh, Photoshop and digital illustration, and has been using the Mac and Photoshop since shortly after they were introduced in 1984. His work has been featured in books on illustration and design skills, including Information Graphics and Visual Clues [Rockport Press] and Step-by-Step Graphics.
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Chef Kim Katz Alvarez is the co-owner of the hot new Latin American restaurant Avenida, www.avenidarestaurant.com in Mt. Airy, PA.
A graduate of Syracuse University’s restaurant management program and the two-year chef program at the Culinary Institute of America, cooking has been her passion since she was 7.
Kim says: “I clearly remember the day my mom enrolled me in a cooking class at Bloomingdales in Jenkintown, PA. It was Thanksgiving time, and our first assignment was to make homemade stuffing. My cousin Brandi was also in the class, and she also liked all the tearing of the bread and combining it with the wet ingredients using her fingers. But I loved it.”
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I grew up on a ranch in Guatemala, and the one thing that is etched in my memory is the scene of my grandmother, aunts and mother preparing a meal in the kitchen. It was an all-day affair, for we were a giant family and when breakfast ended all the women in the family would go off to the market to buy the freshest produce, meat and fish for lunch and dinner. They did not have much to spend, but la comida was always full of love and flavor.
I remember my mother plucking fresh chickens in the yard. She would cut up tons of vegetables and then toss everything in a giant pot. It would simmer just long enough to bring out the most mouthwatering flavors. She was truly an amazing chef, although she would never consider herself one, she taught me everything I know. I watched closely the way she would add some of this and not too much of that. She gave me a love for good, healthy, hearty food just the kind I prepare today.
When I came to this country, I worked as a sous chef at some of the best restaurants in Philadelphia, including the original Dock Street, the four-star restaurant, The Striped Bass and the gourmet Chinese restaurant Susanna Foo. I had the opportunity to work under the excellent chefs who cooked there, as well as Phillippe Chin and Keong Bahn, when I worked at Phillippe.
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Photo by Steve Barrett
www.stevebarrett photography.com photography.com
When Stephanie Cohen, CEO of the health benefits firm Golden & Cohen, decided it was time to launch a PR campaign, she hired Inkandescent PR to help. The first step was to get great new pictures of herself and her partners: husband and COO Scott Golden (left) and her brother CFO Jack Cohen.
“Steve was a real professional,” said Stephanie of the photo shoot. “He made us feel relaxed, but kept us in line. That’s not always easy, but he managed it. Scott, Jack and I are thrilled with the results.”
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Since co-founding the Gaithersburg, MD health care benefits firm Golden & Cohen in 1992, Stephanie Cohen has helped it grow into one of the largest female-owned companies in the Washington metropolitan region.
With more than two decades of experience in small group health insurance, disability programs and life insurance, she was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, serves on the prestigious United HealthCare, Coventry, Aetna and Kaiser Broker Council and is a member of the Womens’ President Organization, the District of Columbia Insurance Commissioner Advisory Council and The Greater Washington Health Underwriters.
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Jack Cohen graduated from the University of Maryland in 1991 with a degree in consumer economics. Soon after, he founded Nu Image construction, which quickly grew into a 50-employee firm that generated $3 million in annual sales.
Jack joined Golden & Cohen in 1997 as its Chief Financial Officer, and has instituted new technologies and efficiencies that have helped the company increase revenue by more than 20 percent a year. Jack is married and has 3 children.
For more information about the insurance brokerage firm Golden & Cohen, visit www.golden-cohen.com contact Jack Cohen by email at jack@golden-cohen.com.
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Photo by Steve Barrett Photography
Bio by Hope Katz Gibbs
Scott Golden is recognized as an industry leader in the small to mid-size insurance market, and ranks among the area’s top producers according to the Washington Business Journal’s Annual List.
He received a BS in Marketing from the University of Maryland in 1985, an MBA from George Washington University in 1990, and later a JD and LLM in taxation from the University of Baltimore. His advanced academic and legal degrees enable him to evaluate local and national mandates in conjunction with helping his clients prepare and implement the proper strategy.
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By Hope Katz Gibbs
Rokas Beresniovas is a DC business leader who serves as the vice president of Eagle Bank, and vice president of the Georgetown Business Association.
Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, he immigrated to the U.S. after graduating with a marketing degree from Kaunas College in 1999. He began his career in the retail food industry, working as southwest regional distribution manager with Whole Foods Market — in Dallas before being promoted to specialty operations manager in the Washington, DC, where he won two Regional Vice Presidential Award for Excellent — and at the largest DC stores in the CVS Caremark Corporation chain from 2004 to 2006.
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