Joyce M. Averna
Executive Committee | Vice President
Joyce Averna is a Vice President with J.P. Morgan’s Private Bank in Orange County, California. She is responsible for serving and advising families on all facets of their financial life including investment and wealth management strategies, banking, lending, trust and estate planning, and charitable giving.
Sonja Strzoda, CFP®
Executive Committee | Vice President
Sonja Strzoda is an active board member and inspirational investment management executive who has consistently advanced financial service organizations. Sonja brings broad proficiency in capital markets as well as in the marketing and distribution of both traditional and alternative investments. She possesses strong strategic growth expertise, and has worked across market channels including institutional investors, intermediaries and retail organizations with large global networks.
Kasey Buharie
Board Member | Chief Marketing Officer
Kasey Buharie, a devoted volunteer and recent board member since November 2013, serves as the VP Marketing Officer for WISE. With a focus on social media, she shares impactful content to raise awareness and engage new members. Her keen eye for design is reflected in visually captivating graphics, brochures, and a comprehensive website for WISE. Her efforts support educational initiatives, empowering women and young ladies in the realms of investing and personal finance. Kasey's unwavering dedication contributes to fostering a more financially empowered society.
Veronica Dagher
Tearing Down The Pink Wall Advisory Board
Veronica Dagher is an award-winning personal finance reporter for The Wall Street Journal where she focuses on housing, retirement and insurance. She’s the author of the WSJ ebook, Resilience, How 20 Ambitious Women Used Obstacles to Fuel Their Success. Veronica hosts videos for WSJ’s social media accounts and is a regular guest on CBS, Fox, Yahoo! Finance and other national media where she speaks about personal finance, markets and the economy.
Elizabeth B. deSousa, CFP®
Board Member
As a senior financial advisor, Liz provides financial planning and advice, working with clients to develop strategies unique to their financial and personal goals. She coordinates all aspects of wealth management and collaborates with Running Point’s team of cross-disciplinary professionals to provide options and solutions for individual situations.
Linda DiMario
Advisory Board Member
DiMario is a multi-dimensional economic development professional with over forty years’ experience in public, private and non-profit sectors. She served as the Greater Irvine Chamber’s Executive Vice President for over seven years leading a full scope of economic development and tourism work including business attraction, business growth strategies, foreign direct investment focusing on UK life science and technology company expansion to Irvine/Orange County, talent attraction solutions, growing the Irvine/OC innovation eco-system and winning the 2018 Presidential “E” Award for export assistance.
Cathy Fiztpatrick, CFP, RICP
Advisory Board Member
I believe that everyone deserves financial security. My goal is to educate you on the tools and behaviors that will build and protect your wealth. This isn’t taught in most schools, and perhaps your parents didn’t model it for you. That’s why I work to teach the behaviors and provide the strategies that will contribute to growing your wealth and helping to achieve financial security.
Reshma Kapadia
Tearing Down The Pink Wall Advisory Board
Reshma Kapadia is an award-winning financial journalist with more than two decades of experience covering markets, economics and business news. Currently, Reshma is an associate editor at Barron’s Magazine, where she writes frequently on China, retirement, and investing themes at the intersection of geopolitics, economics and markets. Reshma helped launch Level Up, an event series featuring conversations with influential women in finance about investing, caregiving, philanthropy and more.
Stephanie King, CFA
Board Member | Investment Committee Chair
Stephanie King is a seasoned investment management executive whose career includes seventeen years at PIMCO. As head of institutional sales groups, she drove strategy to exceed revenue targets. And, she advised and educated investors and their boards on investment strategies as a senior account manager.
Xandra Laskowski
Board Member
Xandra Laskowski is an angel investor and startup advisor with over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience with large multinational tech companies as well as startups as founder, investor, advisor and board member. She has held positions as Worldwide Commodity Manager and National Major Accounts managerial roles before moving into the Angel Investment and startup worlds. She founded OSEA Angel Investors in 2017, a woman focused angel investment group based in Newport Beach, California.
Janelle Metzger
Board Member
Janelle has 20 years of global experience across human resources, operations and strategy. With Latina roots from Honduras, she co-founded Aneuvia with the simple belief that diversity isn’t about counting numbers – it’s about making the numbers count. Janelle’s deep passion for diversity and inclusion, coupled with her strategic forte in investments is highly sought after by clients.
Mark Moehlman, MBA
Advisory Board Member
Mark Moehlman holds an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business, and has dedicated his entire business career to helping others manage their wealth. Mark was born in Los Angeles and moved to Newport Beach in 1975, and has lived in Big Canyon for the past twenty years.
Becky Porter
Board Member
Becky is the Senior Vice President of Talent Development and Organization Effectiveness at Capital Group, home of the American Funds. Capital Group is one of the world’s largest investment management organizations, managing over $2.4 trillion. For over 90 years, Capital has helped people take control of their financial futures by staying true to our core beliefs, our approach to investment and our commitment to community. We believe that the success of the people who invest with us depends on the success of the people we invest in.
Jerri Rosen
Advisory Board Member
In 1990, Jerri Rosen was President of J.L. Rosen & Company, blending 25+ years of marketing communications experience in developing results-oriented planned giving and development programs for nonprofit organizations. Jerri and five friends found themselves disturbed by the growing statistics of domestic violence. The group set out on a mission to help. With the intention of hosting a onetime only event, they held the first ever “Day of Self-Esteem™,” which served 67 women from six shelters. The event became the launching pad for Working Wardrobes. In 1995, the organization received official nonprofit status.
Tina Schackman, CFA®, CFP®
Advisory Board Member
Tina re-joined Benefit Financial Services Group in 2019 after spending 7 years with Prudential Retirement as a Vice President, Consultant Relations where she was responsible for managing the firm’s largest advisory firm relationships in the Western region. Tina was originally with BFSG from 2004 to 2011 and primarily served as an Investment Consultant to a number of corporate and public clients. Tina currently serves as a Principal and Senior Retirement Plan Consultant where she advises on investment strategies, plan design and governance, and provides employee education. Her expansive background in the retirement industry allows Tina to contribute to the firm’s overall vision and best practices.
Katrina F. Sherrerd, PhD, CFA
Tearing Down The Pink Wall Advisory Board
Katrina F. Sherrerd serves as an advisor to the firm and is a member of the Executive Committee of the board of Research Affiliates. Katy joined Research Affiliates in 2006 as a managing director responsible for strategic planning and affiliate relations, and served as the CEO, president, and COO before becoming the vice chair.
Laura Tarbox, CFP®
Advisory Board Member
Laura has been sought after to serve on professional boards throughout her career. She is currently a member of the TD Ameritrade Elite Advisory Board, where members meet quarterly to weigh in on industry issues. She was recently appointed a Trustee of the Board of Foundation for Financial Planning, a national organization that supports pro bono financial planning. Laura has also served as a Director on the National Board of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, and is a past President of the Orange County Society of the ICFP. Laura served on the Charles Schwab Institutional Advisory Board and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards’ Board of Examiners.
Susan Willig
Board Member
Susan is CEO and Chief Brand Strategy of TrueNorth – a brand and marketing advisory firm. She a visionary marketing executive with a proven career in global brand, marketing strategy and therapy / market development for market leaders such as Edwards Lifesciences, Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, and Gateway computer. Susan has uniquely established herself as a pioneer and leader in harnessing the power of digital innovation in the medical device industry to positively impact patient care and engage clinicians.
Anna Yu, CAIA
Advisory Board Member
Anna Yu a Senior Vice President and an Account Manager at Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) with over 20 years of experience working in the asset management industry. Anna focuses on client servicing and business development in the U.S. and works primary with institutional corporate retirement plans.
Evelyn M. Zohlen, MBA, MS, CFP®
Advisory Board Member
Evelyn is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) professional and serves on the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association. She was an adjunct professor in the Personal Financial Planning Program at the University of California at Irvine and serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at UCI.
Helen M. Olson, Ph.D. (1936 - 2021)
Founder
Helen M. Olson, Ph.D., was a founding member of the Invest in Yourself Conference and Founder of WISE, Women Investing in Education and Security®, a nonprofit foundation formed in 1999.
She retired from a career in molecular biology and clinical chemistry having published extensively in those areas. Sadly, Helen passed away on July 1, 2021. Because of her inspiration and vision, WISE continues to educate thousands of women every year.