SoCal Women's Leadership Summit 2026

The SoCal Women's Leadership Summit brings together leaders, technologists, innovators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers for a day of leadership development, community building, and meaningful connection.

The 2026 program will feature:

• Keynote presentations
• Leadership programming
• Technology programming
• Breakout sessions
• Women in Technology Leadership Awards
• Networking opportunities
• Professional development
• Executive insights and industry perspectives

Hosted by Women in Technology: Hollywood Foundation and presented by AWS.

Agenda SummarySoCal Women’s Leadership Summit 2026

Built for This Moment
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Directors Guild of America

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Registration & Networking Breakfast
Check in, enjoy breakfast, connect with fellow attendees, and explore sponsor activations.

10:00 AM – 10:20 AM
Opening Remarks
WiTH leaders Christina Aguilera, President & Executive Director, WiTH Foundation, and Co-founder & Managing Partner, Synthis and Nadya Ichinomiya, Chair, WiTH Foundation, and Vice President, Head of Agile Transformation, Enablement, & Operations, Sony Pictures Entertainment

10:20 AM - 10:30 AM
Summit Welcome
Katie Dixon, Global Account Manager, AWS, Media & Entertainment

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Opening Keynote: Aim High and Bounce Back
Deborah Grayson Riegel, Keynote speaker, Executive coach, Consultant and Author
Failure hits women differently, and the data backs that up. A global study of 1,100 women across 60 countries found they face harsher consequences for missteps and get less useful feedback afterward. Many also end up carrying the weight of a setback long after everyone else has moved on. Add cultural expectations and the sheer number of roles women juggle, and it's clear why bouncing back takes more than a pep talk.
Deborah Grayson Riegel has spent years researching this gap, and she brings it straight to the stage. An executive coach, keynote speaker, and instructor at Wharton, Columbia, and Duke, Deborah draws on her new book, Aim High and Bounce Back: A Successful Woman's Guide to Rethinking and Rising Up from Failure (River Grove, March 2026), to unpack why women often pay a higher price for failure and get judged against a different standard than their male peers.
Setbacks that a man might shrug off, women tend to internalize. In tech and entertainment, where visibility is constant and reputations move fast, that dynamic can quietly stall a career.
Through story, research, and real interactive reflection, participants leave with tools they can use immediately: how to reframe a setback without minimizing it, how to ask for the feedback nobody volunteers, and how to rebuild credibility on their own terms.

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Leading with Purpose: The Women Behind the Impact
Moderator: April Schneider
Panelists:
Dawn Brown, President/CEO, EmpowHer Institute
Cora Carmody, Founder & Chair, Technology Goddesses
Cristina Gutierrez Medina, Executive Director, DIY Girls
Lee Ann Kline, President & Founder, STEM Advantage
Sharon Plunkett, Senior Director, Social Innovation & Workforce Development, St Joseph's Center
Go behind the mission with the leaders driving lasting change in our local community. In this panel session, you’ll hear from the founders and executives behind WiTH-supported nonprofit organizations as they share their leadership journeys, the communities they serve, and the challenges and opportunities they navigate in creating meaningful impact. The conversation will explore what it takes to turn a vision into action, build and sustain an organization, and expand its reach, while highlighting how partnership and support from the WiTH community help these organizations advance their missions and create lasting change.

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Fireside Chat: When Intelligence Becomes Cheap, What Becomes Valuable?
Croi McNamara, Global Lead Studios & Creators, AWS Media & Entertainment, and Christina Aguilera, President & Executive Director, WiTH Foundation, and Co-founder & Managing Partner, Synthis

As artificial intelligence makes knowledge, analysis, and even expertise increasingly accessible, the qualities that distinguish exceptional leaders are changing.

In this fireside conversation, Croi McNamara of AWS joins Christina Aguilera, President of Women in Technology: Hollywood, to explore what becomes more valuable when intelligence itself is no longer scarce.

Together, they’ll examine the distinctly human qualities that technology cannot easily replicate: judgment, taste, trust, courage, context, relationships, and conviction. The conversation will challenge leaders to think beyond what AI can do and consider a more consequential question: What will people look to us for when intelligence is everywhere?

A candid discussion about leadership, decision-making, and the human advantage in an AI-powered world.

12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Lunch, Sponsor Activations & Networking

1:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Afternoon Keynote: Same Room. Different Reality.
Dani Tumbusch, Chief Technology Officer | Strategy Executive | Culture Architect at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

What if everything you thought you understood about leadership changed simply because your perspective did?

In this provocative and deeply personal keynote, Dani offers a rare view into the invisible dynamics that shape how we experience power, belonging, trust, and opportunity. Drawing from two radically different perspectives on leadership, she challenges us to reconsider what we think we know about the rooms we enter, the people beside us, and the systems we have learned to navigate.

This is not a conversation about who is right or wrong. It is an invitation to see what we may have been unable to see before, and to consider what becomes possible when we choose awareness, courage, and abundance over the assumptions we have inherited.

1:45 PM – 2:00 PM
Transition to Breakout Sessions

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Concurrent Breakout Sessions

Track A: Built Before the Moment: The Women Who Create What Comes Next
Theatre 1
Moderator: Dr. iAsia Brown, Chief of Staff to the CEO | Strategy & Business Operations, Boies Schiller Entertainment
Panelists:
Angela Roseboro, Founder, The Roseboro Group; Culture Strategist & Executive Advisor
Cydney Gillon, Eight-time Figure Olympia Champion; Entrepreneur & Coach
Sheryl Swoopes, Basketball Hall of Famer, Three-Time Olympic Gold Medalist & Four-Time WNBA Champion
Trishtan Williams, Filmmaker, Director, Showrunner & Executive Producer

Long before women’s sports became one of the fastest-growing opportunities in media, technology and investment, women were building the foundation, often without the visibility, infrastructure or resources available today.

This cross-generational conversation brings together women who have helped shape culture from very different vantage points: sports icon Sheryl Swoopes; filmmaker TrishTan Williams; gaming and technology executive Angela Roseboro; and champion athlete, entrepreneur and production/technology founder Cyd Gillon.

Together, they’ll explore what it means to recognize possibility before the rest of the world sees it, to build in spaces that weren’t designed with you in mind, and to turn individual achievement into platforms, businesses, stories and opportunities for the women coming next.

From the evolution of women’s sports to gaming, media, technology and entrepreneurship, the conversation will examine what changes when investment and technology finally catch up with talent, and where the next opportunities are already beginning to emerge.

Because the most transformative leaders don’t wait for the moment. They help build it.

Track B: Message to Movement
Theatre 2
Dayna Del Val, Visibility Coach | 2x TEDx Speaker | Brave Middle Ground podcaster | Writer | Retreat and Experience Creator

Inspiring people isn’t enough. The most effective leaders know how to turn their ideas into action.

In this highly interactive 90-minute workshop, Dayna Del Val will help participants strengthen how they show up and communicate in the rooms and conversations that matter most. Through live exercises and practical techniques, participants will explore how presence, authenticity and human connection can transform the way a message is received.

Whether you’re speaking to colleagues, executives, stakeholders or partners, you’ll learn how to move beyond simply delivering a message to creating genuine connection, leaving a powerful impression and inspiring people to act.

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Networking & Sponsor Refresh Break

4:00 PM – 4:30 PM
From Spark to Screen: How AI Changes Production from Idea through Delivery for Branded, Episodic and Feature Films
Moderator: Christine Carr, Creative Technologies & Post-Production Consultant
Panelists:
Mariana Acuña Acosta, Vice President, AI Native Productions, FoxNXT, FOX Entertainment
Monica Monique, Founder, ChAIn Reaction
Kathryn Brillhart, Supervisor, Virtual Production & AI Workflows, Promise
Laura Tornga, Creative Technologist, Innovative Dreams

What happens between the spark of an idea and the moment it reaches the screen? AI is opening new paths through that journey, changing what we can imagine, how we choose to make it, and what ultimately gets made.

Leaders across branded content, episodic television, and feature filmmaking share how they navigate those possibilities—from exploring a concept through planning, production, post, and delivery. Bringing perspectives from an AI-native studio and established production organizations, they’ll explore how their different environments shape the choices they make and the work they create.

Through stories from their careers and current projects, panelists will discuss how AI has accelerated their creativity and ambitions, what they’ve accomplished, and what they want to build next. Join us for a conversation about the evolving relationship between storytelling and technology—and the people shaping its future.

4:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Fireside Chat with Keisha Howard - Who Gets to Shape the Future? Play, Power and Possibility
Keisha Howard, CEO and Founder
Dr. iAsia Brown, Chief of Staff to the CEO | Strategy & Business Operations, Boies Schiller Entertainment
As artificial intelligence and emerging technologies reshape our world, who gets to decide what the future looks like, and whose voices are being left out?
Join futurist, entrepreneur, and Sugar Gamers Labs founder Keisha Howard for a thought-provoking fireside chat exploring the intersection of technology, creativity, and human agency. Drawing on her pioneering work in gaming, interactive storytelling, and emerging technologies, Keisha will challenge conventional thinking about innovation, inclusion, and the power of play to help us understand complex systems.

From AI and cybersecurity to the influence of digital narratives on human behavior, this conversation will examine how we can move beyond simply adapting to technological change and become active participants in shaping it. Attendees will leave with a fresh perspective on leadership, the importance of questioning assumptions, and why building a better future requires more than technological advancement. It requires imagination, intention, and the courage to challenge who holds the power.

5:00 PM – 5:40 PM
WiTH Leadership Awards

5:40 PM – 6:10 PM
Closing Keynote - The Future Has No Mold
Verena Puhm, Founder & CEO, Matriarch
What happens when the tool you're told to fear becomes the thing that helps you find your voice? Filmmaker and creative technologist Verena Puhm shares how AI took her from waiting for a green light to creating work on her own terms and, unexpectedly, back to the playful storyteller she was before Hollywood taught her to be serious.

In this closing keynote, Verena explores what it means to break the mold without losing what makes us human. Drawing on her journey from filmmaker to head of studio at a foundational AI company to founder of Matriarch, she makes the case for new tools, new voices, and stories that could only come from us. We're not just resilient enough to meet this moment. We're built to shape what comes next.

6:10 PM – 7:15 PM
Cocktail Networking Reception
Connect with attendees, sponsors, and special guests as we close the day.

Schedule subject to change.

Limited parking is available onsite at the Directors Guild of America Theater Complex.

The venue includes underground parking as well as overflow parking located across Hayworth Avenue. Parking availability is first-come, first-served.

Additional public parking options are available within walking distance of the venue along Sunset Boulevard. Detailed parking instructions will be emailed to registered attendees prior to the event.