Meet the Board Members 

2009 - 2010

Katherine Edgecumbe— Katherine Edgecumbe is a senior at Archbishop Mitty High School. She has been involved with Girls Lead Now for three years: one year as Project Co-Chair and is now on her second year as Project Chair. In addition to her executive role, she is the leader of the Health, Fitness, and Body Image workshop.

At her high school, Katherine has received many accolades for her academic excellence and involvement in service.  Most notably, she has received the General Excellence Award for all of her years at Mitty. This award is given to 3-4 students from each grade level signifying excellence in three or more departments. On top of academics, she runs Varsity Cross Country and is captain of the team, and is a member of Mitty’s Life Emmaus Corps Team—a senior religious leadership group.

 Along with Girls Lead Now she is passionate about Teens for Teens, her project to get Christmas gifts for homeless teens. In her free time, she loves to run, read, listen to music, and spend time with friends and family. After her recent trip to El Salvador to do service work and be in solidarity with the people, she has changed her career path to become a social justice lawyer in order to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Mary Beth Deans is Chief Operating Officer and social media strategist for Ahoy Software, Inc., a firm that brings practical solutions to mobile platforms and helps clients extend their brands into new markets.

Prior to joining Ahoy Software, she founded Douglas Partners and built it into a boutique career transition that helped clients leverage social media to develop their personal brands. She co-found Sedaa Global Business Trust (GBT), a global network of OD practitioners. Based on proprietary technology. GBT has members in 22 countries on 5 continents who are using GBT to collaborate, learn and share business opportunities.  

Prior to Douglas Partners, MB was recruited to establish the Educational Services department for  Cygent, Inc., a telecom software provider.  There she led creation of workshops, classes and seminars to educate employees, partners and clients, designed and implemented a certification program for vendors and partners, and collaborated with HR to create programs to attract and retain top talent.  As co-founder of Axiom Management Consulting, MB helped build the business to nearly 200 consultants worldwide. After being acquired by Cambridge Technology Partners, a global systems integrator, MB remained with the newly merged company to lead critical projects and help grow the business 5-fold.  

She is a member of Women in Consulting and is on a member of the Board of Directors of Girls Lead now. She earned a MS Degree in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BS Degree in Biochemistry from Rutgers College.

Ann Tardy - is the Founder and President of The LifeMoxie Consulting Group (www.lifemoxie.com), a human potential company that works with organizations to strengthen the resilience, perseverance, and vitality of their workforce. 

She is also the founder of The JEWELS Forum, connecting the leaders of corporate women’s networks around the country (JEWELS: Joining Executives & Leaders for Women’s Engagement, Leadership, and Success www.jewelsforum.com).

Prior to launching LifeMoxie, Ann was an attorney for 14 years, practicing corporate securities law at two of Silicon Valley’s largest law firms. Subsequently, she managed the legal departments of a start-up that fell to the dotcom bust and a start-up that squeaked by to IPO, before launching her own law firm representing entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes.

During her tenure as in-house counsel, Ann also served for five years as co-director of the Entrepreneurial Education program at a girls’ middle school, training 12-year-olds how to start and run businesses. She also founded Girls Lead Now, a girl leadership program for teenaged girls who create and execute a yearly girl empowerment conference (www.girlsleadnow.org).

Ann earned an accounting degree from the University of Illinois, a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law, a CPA from the State of Illinois, and licenses to practice law in Illinois and California.

Ann is the recipient of the prestigious Vanguard Award from The McGraw-Hill Companies, to acknowledge her contributions to McGraw Hill employees. Ann is also the recipient of the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year by the American Business Women’s Association.

Ann is the author of LifeMoxie! Ambition on a Mission—9 Strategies for Taking Life by the Horns and the forthcoming book New Workforce by Friday.

Mary Welty-Dapkus served as a mentor for Girls Lead Now in 2008-2009 and is proud to continue her service this year as a member of the Board of Directors. 

A graduate of Santa Clara University, Mary is a transformational life coach trained by Martha Beck, PhD and holds a masters certification in Intuitive Medicine (MIM) from the Academy of Intuition Medicine®. 

Married for 23 years, Mary is the mother of two amazing children.  An active school community member, Mary has brought extensive experience creating auctions, fundraisers and managing volunteer programs.  Additionally, Mary served for three years on the Board of Directors at Casa di Mir Montessori Elementary School.  Mary is also the Associate Director of Foothill Music Theatre located in Los Altos Hills and is proud of her 20 year association with this award-winning theatre company. 

Mary is passionate about education, theatre, coaching, holistic health and Girls Lead Now. 

Michelle F. Edgecumbe is the Director of an award winning non-profit Parent Participating Preschool, Cupertino Co-op Nursery School.  She has been their Director/Teacher since 2001.  Before taking on this role, she taught Kindergarten and First Grade in Santa Clara Unified School District for 8 years. 

Michelle's responsibilities include overseeing a Board of Directors consisting of 12 parent volunteers and 3 credentialed teachers.  

Her primary function is maintaining the high standards set forth by this 57 year old preschool.  

She has successfully led her program through the rigorous NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) re-accreditation process, which is the benchmark for early childhood education.  In this role Michelle also understands the importance of empowerment.  

Through educating the 88 families at her preschool each year, she helps parents feel confident in the critical task of raising children to ultimately be strong, independent, and ready to face the challenges of elementary school.

Andrea Nelson is a personal life coach and a marketing communications professional with a passion for working with teen girls and young women.

As an entrepreneur, Andrea has a 15-year track record of helping companies, large and small, meet their sales and marketing goals in the high-tech and financial services industries.  Simultaneously, she is building a second business as a life coach to fulfill her passion and utilize her skills for helping others. 

She is known for finding practical solutions and driving results—whether she is developing corporate marketing initiatives or guiding individuals through their life’s challenges.  Andrea’s coaching is an extension of her life-long interest in helping others live a full, courageous life. 

She has mentored young girls privately and as a volunteer through the Berkeley YMCA Scholar’s Workshop and Berkeley public school’s WriterCoach Connection.  

In addition to her professional knowledge and skills, she draws from her own experience as a teen mother, which has given her first-hand understanding of the courage and self-esteem women of all ages need to make sound choices and live fulfilling lives. 

Andrea received her life coach training from The Coaches Institute and earned a B.A. in Human Services from St. Mary’s College of California.

Maya Seshadri is a senior at Homestead High School. She has been involved with Girls Lead Now for three years as Head of PR/Communications and hopes to pursue International Business in college. 

At her high school, Maya holds executive positions as Publicity Chair, Bulletin Editor, and Project Chair of Homestead's National Key Club. She has been working with the Sacred Heart Community Center, the American Cancer Society, and the Sunnyvale Kiwanis Club in planning for some of Key Club's major events. Apart from Key Club, she is an active member of Homestead's National Honor Society and California Scholarship Federation, believing that we all can touch lives through our service. Maya has also received annual Green & White Awards from Homestead notable staff in literature and science courses. 

Along with Girls Lead Now, Maya is passionate about all forms of Indian dancing as a professional dancer of three different  companies. She has been learning Indian classical dancing for ten years and is now a senior student of Lasya Dance Company. Currently, she is under advanced training for her solo debut performance this spring. In addition to this six-month training, Maya is a professional dancer and instructor for the largest nation-wide Bollywood dance company, Mona Sampath Dance Company (MSDC). She has performed with major Bollywood stars and been a part of music and fitness videos.

Last but not least, she is Assistant to the Artistic Director and a team captain of Nrityakalya Indian Folk Dance Company -- a competition team that performs the forgotten folk dance styles of India and has just successfully completed its first full-length show. 

Jasmine I-Hua Shih is an energetic bi-lingual professional with a unique blend of experience in product marketing, business and sales development, and operations.  After starting a successful produce enterprise in San Diego while attending college, Jasmine continued to develop her career with multi-national companies and start-ups, including leading Silicon Valley high-tech companies, such as Applied Materials, Coherent, and G.E. Capital.  She has significant experience working across cultures to develop businesses across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Jasmine had overcome countless personally challenges since immigrated to the U.S. at age 14 alone and without speaking any English. She successfully supported herself through college and continued with her career growth.  With a passion for girls and women leadership development, Jasmine revitalized and served as the first term Chair of Applied Materials' inter-company non-profit organization, the Women Professional Development Network, Santa Clara Chapter in 2005.  Jasmine Shih is also a regular volunteer for Fountain Blue, Life Science and High Tech sectors, Clean Energy Forum, as well as VLAB with Stanford University. 

Jasmine received her Bachelor of Science from California State University, San Marcos, where she also served as the School of Business Representative for the College of Business, and is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration at Santa Clara University. 

Jasmine currently serves as the Treasurer and Fundraising chair for the GLN.