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Expert speakers

On Women and Leadership

Bring in one of our expert speakers for your next keynote.

Looking for expert keynote speakers, an educational presentation, or an interactive workshop on how to make your workplace more diverse, inclusive, and supportive of gender equity?

Since 2001, Forté's leadership team has been working to help women succeed in business. Today, we have the support of more than 125,000 members and 200+ organizations—including top corporations and universities—and our efforts are fueling the future of business across industries.

Forté speakers are available to share insights, training, and best practices with your business or organization.

We can help you:

Develop a more inclusive work culture

Create opportunities for women to thrive

Support the next generation of women leaders

mba

Shake up the status quo

Why Engage a Forté Keynote Speaker?

  • Elevate Awareness: Our speakers translate research and real-world experience into actionable insights.
  • Drive Engagement: Keynotes are tailored to resonate with diverse audiences, from students to senior leaders.
  • Catalyze Change: By highlighting both challenges and solutions, we empower organizations to take meaningful steps toward gender equity.​
  • “Forté's workshop on ‘Engaging Men in the Gender Equity Conversation’ provided practical, hands-on advice for women AND men in fostering allyship at work. And their website had a wealth of information, ideas, and best practices for creating Male Ally groups.”
    Rachel Joyce, Vice President, Operations, Interstate Hotels

Interested in scheduling one of Forté's expert speakers for a keynote speech, presentation, or workshop?

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topics our EXPERT speakers address:

  • Allyship in Action: Understanding and practicing effective allyship in the workplace.
  • Inspiring Women in Business: Motivating students and professionals to pursue leadership roles.
  • State of Women in Business Education: Insights from Forté’s research on women’s enrollment and advancement in MBA programs.​

FOR WORKING PROFESSIONALS OR MBA STUDENTS

Diversity Matters in the 21st Century

Diversity and Inclusion has been a business imperative for nearly fifty years, yet despite efforts to recruit, develop, promote, and retain women and other underrepresented groups, progress to shift the leadership landscape has been slow. Women continue to be underrepresented in business, and causative factors include unconscious bias, lack of sponsors and mentors, and less access to the people, information, and opportunities that accelerate careers.

Activating Allyship: Frameworks for Action

In this 60-80 minute session, facilitator Amy Orlov will introduce a foundational allyship vocabulary to ground the conversation, before introducing the Ally Empower Framework, a powerful tool to create ongoing gender equity action within your organization.

Encouraging Allyship: Engaging Men in Equity Conversations

Gender equity isn’t just about women. Men must be part of the dialogue. But how do you invite men to a discussion from which they have been traditionally excluded or been stereotypically cast as the “bad guy?” In 2016, Forté launched its pioneering Men as Allies initiative across top business school campuses, and in 2018, we extended our efforts into the corporate space. This interactive session explores how to engage male colleagues in the gender equity conversation.

Exploring the Ally Continuum

In this 60 minute session, facilitator Amy Orlov will introduce foundational allyship vocabulary, explore myths associated with the concept of allyship, and introduce the Ally Continuum to demonstrate the importance of moving from apathy, to awareness, to action, and finally advocacy.

FOR COLLEGE WOMEN:

Leverage the "Power of Now" to Create Your Future

Women hold 11% of Fortune 500 CEO positions, less than 29% of US Congressional roles, and they make anywhere from 56 cents to 84 cents for every dollar a white male makes. The “Power of Now” is the concept that there are actions college women can take now to change the balance of power in the future—not only for themselves, but for all women. The “Power of Now” encompasses three Ps: your person, your profession, and your people.

Five Steps to Career Savvy

A deep-dive into five essential topic areas: Personal Branding, Networking, Professional Values, Internship and Job Search, and Career Exploration. This session offers insightful tips to help college women develop the skills, career savvy, and confidence to succeed in the workplace.

Five Steps to Spark Your Career

One of the best ways to exemplify strong leadership is through effective communication—but speaking out and speaking up can be scary prospects. How can students overcome these fears and make sure their voices are heard? Using improv techniques and listening practices, this session will give participants a toolkit of games, activities, and brainstorming skills that will enable them to come to the table at any meeting with quality ideas and a way to engage others to participate, too.

Everyday Leadership: A Case Study

Diversity & Inclusion experts monitor certain numbers—including Equal Pay Day, the number of female business majors, and diversity hiring stats—as measures of gender equity in the business world. But numbers only tell part of the story. Forté is dedicated to seeing #MoreWomenLeading in business and changing the status quo in terms of culture, behaviors, and attitudes.In this session, attendees participate in a case study discussion exploring what gender equity looks like beyond what is quantifiable. Following that, Forté will lead an interactive dialogue about the everyday actions that women in business can take to improve the gender equity balance.

  • “The session ended up being a terrific ‘therapy’ session for all of us to discuss workplace biases, success stories engaging with men, and ways to effect change.”
    Feedback from an audience member

Meet Our Speakers:

  • Elissa Sangster, CEO

    Elissa Sangster serves as CEO of Forté and brings to the role extensive knowledge of issues affecting women’s abilities to seek, prepare for, and attain business leadership positions, drawn from her prior experience as Assistant Dean and Director of the MBA Program at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. There she oversaw all activities related to the full-time McCombs MBA program, including marketing, admissions, student services, and alumni relations. Before McCombs, Elissa was Assistant Director of the MBA Program at Texas A&M University’s Mays School of Business. Elissa recently served as Treasurer and Board Member for the Thirty Percent Coalition. She sits on the Women’s Initiative Council of the CFP Board (Certified Financial Planning Board). She is past Chair of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Annual Industry Conference and formerly served as chair of MBA Student Services Professionals (MBA SSP). Elissa sits on the board of Forté as an ex-officio member. She enjoys reading, running, cooking, Aggie football, and Astros baseball. Elissa received her MBA and her B.A. in English from Texas A&M University.

  • Amy Orlov

    Amy Orlov, Director

    Amy is the Director of Professional Programs at Forté, a role in which she introduces women to new ideas and deep networks. She is constantly finding new ways to leverage and extend Forté’s programming to provide additional impact for women in college, MBA and professional audiences. Amy is also a co-author and architect of the Forté Allies for Gender Equity initiatives which offer men a framework to be stronger allies in gender equity. Prior to Forté, Amy was the Director of Professional Education and Training at the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), managing a portfolio of onsite and online conferences, symposia and training events. Prior to that, Amy was the Director of the MBA Program Office and Student Services at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Throughout her career, Amy has also worked as an educational consultant, providing clients with program design and delivery, assessment and strategy input, and workshop facilitation and leadership program development. Amy holds a Master of Education from the University of Maryland, and a Master of Government and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philadelphia with her human, canine, and feline daughters.

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