Meet the team

Board of Directors

Erika Brechtel

Erika Brechtel is an LA-based brand strategist, designer, speaker, and mentor supporting women leaders and female founders for over 18 years. Featured in SELF magazine and on Vogue, HuffPost, PopSugar, HGTV.com, Today.com, and Refinery29, Erika has helped over 400 brands in the lifestyle, food and wine, beauty, wellness, kids and baby, fashion, and home decor industries. Erika also leads strategy sessions and speaks at events for organizations such as Women Founders Network, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Fabletics, and Bumble Bizz, and serves as a volunteer for multiple nonprofits that support women’s and girls' rights and education locally and globally. To connect with Erika on LinkedIn, click here.

Anu Bhardwaj

Founder Anu Bhardwaj is a serial social entrepreneur and philanthropist, listed on the 2020 Inc. Magazine Global Top 100 Female Founders and one of seven female award recipients of the 2020 Transform Fund from the Islamic Development Bank (from a pool of 5,000 applicants worldwide). Anu also co-chaired the second annual Blockchain for Impact Summit at the United Nations in 2019, and is the founder of Women Investing in Women Digital with nearly 1 million followers and The State of Women Institute. To connect with Anu on LinkedIn, click here.

Amy Millman

Amy Millman is a passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs, with a career spanning decades of impactful work in Washington, D.C. and beyond. The highlight of her distinguished career has been founding Springboard Enterprises, an organization she led for 21 years. Under her guidance, Springboard Enterprises had a profound impact on the successful careers of over 800 talented women innovators in the tech and life science sectors. Her dedication to empowering women in business continues unabated to this day.

Prior to founding Springboard Enterprises, Millman served as a representative for corporate and industry groups in Washington, D.C. During the Clinton Administration, she was appointed as Executive Director of the National Women's Business Council, further cementing her role as a champion for women in business. Millman's expertise and passion have led her to serve on the boards of numerous organizations, including JumpStart Inc., DellEIR, and Enterprising Women Magazine. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she also holds a Master's in Public Administration from The George Washington University, providing her with a strong foundation for her impactful work in both the public and private sectors. To connect with Amy on LinkedIn, click here.

 Advisory council

Betty LaMarr

Betty LaMarr, Author/ Founder of EmpowHer Institutue, is a passionate servant leader committed to being a spark to ignite transformation in girls' and women's lives. After a successful corporate career, while living in South Africa, Betty saw girls and women who lived with dignity in poverty through their entrepreneurial spirit. She also saw what happens when women gain access to even modest opportunities for empowerment. Empowered women discover independence; girls seek education, life changes for entire families.

Inspired by her South Africa experience, Betty returned to the United States. She founded EmpowHer Institute in 2003 with a small group of committed friends, focused on improving the lives of women and girls. They saw the epidemic of 5 out of 10 minority teens dropping out of high school. That was the start of EmpowHer Girls Academy. Betty passed on the legacy of EmpowHer Institute in January 2021. The organization continues to focus on gender equity, social and economic justice.

Betty earned a BA in Business Administration from California State University at Los Angeles and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Today, Betty is redesigning her 'next chapter'. She is serving on non-profit boards and blogging to encourage women to travel to improve self-care and self-love.

CHristina Korp

Christina Korp is an astronaut manager, space advisor and the president of Purpose Entertainment. For ten years she managed Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and launched his education foundations – ShareSpace and the Aldrin Family Foundation. She produced the last five galas at Kennedy Space Center celebrating Apollo 11 and the Webby winning and Emmy nominated, “Cycling Pathways to Mars” VR experience. She is passionate about promoting ways space benefits the planet and people every day and promoting women’s issues. She spearheaded projects in 2020 to celebrate the Women’s Vote Centennial in the USA. She leads SPACE For a Better World producing events and experiences that raise money for partner charities. She currently works with Apollo 16 moon walker Charlie Duke and NASA astronaut and aquanaut Nicole Stott.

She has traveled the world as a singer, producer, tour manager and as an Astronaut Wrangler. She produced ground breaking, mass participation experiential artworks and event that focus on inspiring people and giving back to the planet.

Darya Allen-Attar

Darya is passionate about the advancement of women. In 2013, she recruited several colleagues to form Women Founders Network (WFN). Subsequently, Darya founded the nonprofit Women Founders Foundation (WFF) in 2017, with a mission of educating women and girls about entrepreneurship. In 2008, Darya founded Broads Circle, an executive level women's networking group with a focus on money and power for women. 

Darya has been recognized for her community work and the advancement of women by the LABJ and California Women Lead. She currently serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Westside YMCA and the Los Angeles Chapter of Advisors in Philanthropy (LA-AiP). Darya earned her BA from Kalamazoo College, Certificate in Accounting from Northwestern University, and her MBA in Finance from Fordham University.

Riane Eisler

Riane Eisler (www.rianeeisler.com) is a cultural historian, systems scientist, internationally renowned keynote speaker, and president of the Center for Partnership Studies (www.centerforpartnership.org).

Eisler's 2019 book published by Oxford University Press, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future (co-author, Douglas Fry), shows how we can lay foundations for a more just, caring, and sustainable future. The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 26 foreign editions and 57th US printing, shows that the status of women is key to whether a culture is democratic or authoritarian, warlike or peaceful, generally equitable or inequitable.. Her The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics – hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking” and former President of Iceland Vigdis Finnbogadóttir as “an essential tool for government leaders, politicians, and economists” – introduces a new economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and for our natural environment.

Eisler pioneered inclusion of women and children in human rights theory and action and is Editor in Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, an online peer-reviewed journal housed at the University of Minnesota inspired by Eisler’s work. Dr. Eisler keynotes national and international conferences and lectures at universities, corporations, religious institutions, and governmental and nongovernmental agencies such as the U.S. Department of State, Congressional briefings, the United Nations General Assembly.

Shelli Brunswick

Shelli Brunswick, COO of Space Foundation, brings a broad perspective and deep vision of the global space ecosystem — from a distinguished career as a space acquisition and program management leader and congressional liaison for the U.S. Air Force to her current role, including overseeing Center for Innovation and Education, Symposium 365, and Global Alliance. 

Advocating for space technology innovation, entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion, Shelli collaborates with organizations around the world to connect commercial, government and educational sectors. Shelli actively participates with Women in Aerospace Foundation, Women’s Global Gathering, United Nations Space4Women, WomenTech Network, World Business Angels Investment Forum, New York University, Tod'Aérs, Manufacturer’s Edge, and Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC.