Women in Leadership Advisory Committee Members

This dynamic group is comprised of female executives who share diverse perspectives and insights into their experiences with students in SMU CAPE's Women In Leadership: Influence and Impact noncredit certificate program. Members are business, nonprofit and educational leaders from industry sectors relevant to SMU’s educational mission.


Women in Leadership Advisory Committee Members

Members of the SMU Women in Leadership Advisory Committee share their voices, experience and expertise for the Women in Leadership: Influence and Impact Certificate program.
Women in Leadership Instructor Alison Hansen

Alison Hansen

Senior Director of Learning Design and Development

PepsiCo Foods North America

Alison Hansen is a Senior Director of Learning Design and Development at PepsiCo Foods North America. In this role Alison drives the capability strategy and curriculum for field and frontline employees.

Alison started her career at Accenture in human performance consulting. She spent 10 years at global consumer goods company Mary Kay Inc. in learning, change leadership, and marketing. She joined PepsiCo in 2015 as a director in the PepsiCo global learning center of excellence, Pep U. There she led learning strategy for five global functions and created a team focused on improving the global learner experience at PepsiCo, including launching PEP U Degreed.

In 2020, Alison joined PFNA leading broad-based leadership capability programs including CORE, PFNA’s flagship leadership experience, and created a portfolio of innovative offerings for thousands of CORE “graduates” to continue building skills. She launched PFNA’s first Advanced Strategy Program, modernized popular training programs such as DiSC, and served as a LeAD and Accelerated Leadership Program coach. She was instrumental in creating Leadership and Talent and Learning Portals, and managed regular communication about development and career programs for all employees. Alison led a new team to create an innovative Global Business Services (GBS) onboarding experience for new hires in Hyderabad and beyond. Most recently, she led GBS, Sales and Supply Chain learning teams to create best-in-class onboarding for designate new hires and key roles, including launching refreshed Supply Chain new employee orientation, and innovative ways to build in-role capability.
 
Away from work, Alison loves to cook and spend time with her 9-year-old son Spencer and husband Mike. She’s a member of the Children’s Medical Center Complex Care pediatric advisory board and a Junior League of Dallas sustaining member. She has a dual bachelor’s degree – Journalism and Spanish - from Baylor University and a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from Southern Methodist University. She was a Fulbright Scholar, holds a Society for Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional accreditation, and recently completed an eCornell HR Essentials certificate.

Jennifer Bartkowski

Jennifer K. Bartkowski

Chief Executive Officer

Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas

Jennifer Bartkowski is the Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX). She has been with GSNETX since 2009 and previously served as Chief Development Officer and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Jennifer pioneered a national Girl Scout STEM initiative built on the success of the $15M STEM Center of Excellence in southwest Dallas. This 92-acre campus opened in 2018 and is a living laboratory for girls to explore science, technology, engineering, and math. Under Jennifer’s leadership, GSNETX has accelerated the rollout of a mental health initiative, and has re-strengthened its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and the outdoor leadership experience. Today, GSNETX is reimagining its future with a multi-year vision of an inclusive and accessible Girl Scouts that meets the needs of girls, families and communities throughout North Texas.

She holds a Master of Public Administration from Texas A&M University. She has worked with a variety of organizations including the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, American Lung Association of Texas, and as an independent consultant. Jennifer is a graduate of Leadership Dallas and the Stagen Social Change Leadership Cohort. She is a member of the Leadership Dallas Alumnae Board, the Dallas Summit Board and serves as a founding board member for Carson’s Village. Jennifer was the recipient of the Dallas Business Journal’s 2017 Women in Business Award and is proud to showcase GSNETX as the 2016 Nonprofit of the Year by the Center for Non-Profit Management.

Women in Leadership Advisory Committee Member Nancy Bernardino

Nancy Bernardino

Executive Director, Single Gender and Transformation Schools

Dallas Independent School District

Dr. Nancy Bernardino is the Executive Director for Single Gender and Transformation Schools in Dallas ISD. In 2016, she founded Solar Preparatory School for Girls and she served as the principal until 2020. As an executive director, Bernardino continues to support Solar Girls as well as the other five single gender schools in Dallas ISD. Due to her experience with creating unique experiences for students, she also supports non-traditional school models, including: five Montessori schools, Dallas Hybrid Preparatory, iLearn Virtual Academy and Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Bernardino has achieved numerous accolades in her career. She was recognized by D Magazine in its August 2021 issue as one of 78 women “Making Dallas Great.” Her most recent awards include being recognized as an Emerging Latina Leader by Hispanic 100 and receiving The Profiles in Leadership award from the Southern Methodist University Women’s Symposium. This award honors women who exemplify educating women for social and political leadership.

In December 2019, Dr. Bernardino was recognized as Dallas ISD Principal of the Year. Additionally, she was awarded the Master Principal designation in Dallas ISD in 2018 and 2019, an honor that is earned by the top 10% of principals for high performance on student achievement and professional practice.

Dr. Bernardino is an engaged civic and community leader. She serves as a Trustee for the International Coalition of Girls Schools, the leading advocate for girls’ schools around the world. Additionally, Dr. Bernardino is the past president of the Association of Hispanic School Administrators, an organization dedicated to increasing the pipeline of Latino leaders in school administration. She also serves on the following non-profit boards: Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, Child Care Group, Catch Up and Read, and The Hockaday School.

Dr. Bernardino holds a Master of Education from Texas A&M Commerce as well as the following degrees from Southern Methodist University: Doctorate in Education Leadership, Master of Liberal Arts, Advanced Graduate Studies in Dispute Resolution, Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Affairs and Corporate Communications.

She is the proud mother of four teenage boys and spends most of her spare time on the soccer field sidelines cheering them on.

Women in Leadership Advisory Member Lisa R Davis

Lisa R. Davis

Managing Partner

UnTapped Sustainable Operations

Lisa Davis is Managing Partner of a consultancy that will help companies assess and strengthen their businesses by working with leaders to create a culture of accountability by building predictable and sustainable work processes. She has a proven track record as a strategic leader and building organizational culture, a turnaround specialist for underperforming operations, business transformation and project management as well as in operations (including sales operations, warehouse, delivery, and technical service).

Lisa held many roles at Coca-Cola over a 30+ year career, with vast leadership experience. Her position before retirement in 2018 was working with a senior level team of experts responsible for the transition of Coca-Cola territories, assets, and employees to the bottler network. This was one of the largest refranchising efforts in North America at the time.

Prior to joining the Transition team, she held the role of Regional Vice President of Sales Operations responsible for all aspects of sales, operations and marketing in a territory delivering revenue targets of approximately $300M. Other positions Lisa had while at Coca-Cola were Director of Technical Field Service for the Southeast Region, National Director of Strategic Initiatives, Sales Center (Territory) Manager where she transformed three struggling facilities from “worst to first” performance, and Director of Operations. She was noted for consistently achieving performance targets while balancing operating efficiency, reducing costs by eliminating waste and maintaining high levels of customer service. She attributes the keys to her success as (1) hiring talented diverse empowered teams, (2) implementing effective processes and controls, and (3) engaging customers and key stakeholders.

Instructor Carla Davis-Madgett

Carla Davis-Madgett

President

UnTapped Sustainable Operations

Prior to becoming president of Untapped Sustainable Operations, Carla Davis-Madgett served as Vice President of Environment, Health & Safety for The Boeing Company through November 2022. In this role, Davis-Madgett was responsible for strengthening the company’s workplace safety programs and its efforts to improve the environmental performance of Boeing’s global operations, products and services.

Before joining Boeing in August 2021, Davis-Madgett had a successful 37-year career in the petrochemical industry where she held several leadership roles in process design, project management, production, maintenance, business planning, and health, safety & environment (HSE).

She served nearly 12 years at Shell Global where she was most recently the general manager of Safety and Environmental for Shell Integrated Gas Ventures based in Houston, Texas. In this role, Davis-Madgett was responsible for safety and environmental performance at liquefied natural gas facilities in 14 countries.

Previously she was the Process Safety Assurance Manager and a member of Shell’s Corporate Assurance Group. An independent body of senior leaders, the Process Safety Assurance team was created by Shell’s Executive Committee to promote process safety improvements and assurance activities for all Royal Dutch Shell businesses.

Prior to Shell, Davis-Madgett had a 22-year career at BP and Mobil Oil Corporation where she progressed through a number of leadership roles with increasing responsibilities. These positions included Global Supply Planning manager, Assistant Plant manager of Amoco Chemicals Plant in Houston, Texas, and superintendent of Sulfer Recovery Unit for Amoco Refinery.

Davis-Madgett holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University and a master’s degree in Project Management from Keller School of Management.

Linda O'Brien

Linda O'Brien

Vice President and Chief Engineer for LM Aeronautics

Lockheed Martin 

Linda is currently serving Lockheed Martin as the Vice President and Chief Engineer for LM Aeronautics, leading the team of program chief engineers to provide independent technical integrity and authority to ensure the safety, quality, and adequacy of Lockheed Martin products. Prior to this role, she served as Director and Deputy of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Unmanned Aerial Systems in Advanced Development Programs where she was responsible for operations and management across the ISR portfolio as well as strategic leadership of the multi-mission expendable product line. Linda previously held the role of Engineering Operations Director and chief of staff to the VP of Engineering and Technology where she was responsible for engineering strategy, infrastructure, and workforce management. Prior to that she was Chief Engineer for the Advanced Pilot Training Program, leading technical efforts associated with proposal development and technical execution planning.

Linda transferred from Sikorsky where she worked various engineering roles including Program Manager for the DARPA-sponsored VTOL X-Plane, pursuing the design, development and flight testing of an autonomous, high speed, vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Before joining Sikorsky Research and Engineering in 2012, Linda was employed by Bell Helicopter for six years where her roles included Director of Commercial Programs, Director of Air Vehicle Integration and Systems Engineering, and Deputy Chief Engineer of the Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. Prior to joining Bell, Linda had a 20-year career with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, where her technical focus was advanced design and subsystems integration. Linda’s role in technical integration was a natural entry point to project management and technical leadership. Her roles included an ex-patriot assignment in South Korea working with Korean industry on the preliminary design of the T-50, leading a diverse international team on the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) program as a Senior Manager in Vehicle Systems, and serving as the Director of Vehicle Sciences and Systems in Lockheed’s functional engineering organization.

Linda is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Tennessee, a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Texas Christian University. Linda and her husband Tom O’Brien have a blended family of four grown children and six grandchildren. Linda’s daughter is a bio-medical engineer and resident MD in family medicine.

Adrienne C. Trimble

Adrienne C. Trimble

Vice President & Chief Diversity and Culture Officer

Sysco Corporation

Adrienne Trimble is the Vice President and Chief Diversity and Culture Officer for Sysco Corporation. She is a known thought leader for advancing corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She has led DEI and Social Impact initiatives for large, complex organizations nationally and globally. Additionally, she has served as the leader of a non-profit national organization, with global affiliates, providing certification and development for minority owned businesses.

Trimble began her diversity and inclusion work at Toyota Motor North America, where she worked closely with the company’s senior leadership team in developing advocacy and accountability measures to integrate DEI processes across the organization’s business operations. She oversaw Toyota’s Supplier Diversity initiative from 2005-2012. In this role, she grew the company’s diverse supplier base to reflect an increase in spend that exceeded 300 percent, topping nearly $3B in spend with diverse suppliers.

Ms. Trimble served as Executive on Loan as the President & CEO for the National Minority Supplier Development Council from August 2018 – February 2021. Under her leadership, the organization grew the number of corporate members, certified minority businesses and implemented a strategic plan for long term organizational sustainability. She has served on various boards and committee, including The Billion Dollar Roundtable, Lean Enterprise Institute and Unidos, the leading civil rights organization for Hispanic and Latino Americans. She is also a Trustee for her alma mater, Wilberforce University. Ms. Trimble has previous Human Resources leadership experience in financial services, healthcare and media broadcasting industries.