Women Inspire

For the twelfth year, Women Inspire showcased Smith’s fearless alumnae leaders excelling in business. This annual event celebrated female empowerment that inspired attendees and challenged them to realize and reach their full potential.

The 2023 Honoree, Maryland Smith alumna Janice deGarmo, MBA ’07 was celebrated during a moderated discussion held at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center on Maryland’s College Park campus. Smith professor Nicole Coomber served as the moderator for the discussion.

Event Highlights

The program was recorded and a link to the video will be posted once it is finalized.

For additional insights about women in leadership, check out the Management in a Minute video featuring our 2023 Honoree: The 4 P’s For Your Career Transition with Janice deGarmo, MBA ’07.

For questions about the event, please contact the Smith Office of Alumni Relations 301-405-4095 or maf31@umd.edu.

2023 Honoree

Janice deGarmo, MBA ’07

Janice deGarmoJanice deGarmo serves as the Director of the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions (M/SS) focused on providing strategic insights and solutions to help improve the Department of State’s management platform and advance foreign policy goals.  In this capacity, Janice oversees the Policy and Global Presence (PGP), Center for Analytics (CfA), and Consulting and Advanced Projects (CAP) directorates.  In her role, she is focused on a variety of initiatives that are headlined in the Secretary’s modernization agenda to include global presence and agility, mobility and the Future of Work, risk management, data and analytics, optimization, and sustainability across the enterprise.

Janice was previously the Deputy Director for M/SS, as well as the Department’s first ever Acting Chief Data Officer where she created and scaled the Department’s first enterprise analytics capability, the CfA, and worked to elevate data-informed diplomacy across the enterprise. Prior to that, Janice was the Executive Director for the Bureau of Administration (A) and the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM).  The Executive Office provided management operations to the Chief Information Officer and Assistant Secretary to include strategic planning and evaluation, budget execution and formulation, contract support, personnel and human resources, and global application IT development for the enterprise. Janice was pivotal in modernizing business process management and cloud services at the Department.

Read Janice deGarmo’s full bio.

2022

Dr. Margo Thomas, MS ’90
Founder and CEO, Women's Economic Imperative

Audrey Awasom ’18
Founder and CEO, Noble Uprising, Inc.

Event Highlights | Watch Video

2021

Wendy Sanhai, PhD, EMBA ’09
Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting

Ali von Paris ’12
CEO and Founder, Route One Apparel

2020

Meg Goldthwaite, MBA ’96
Chief Marketing Officer, NPR

Sherika Ekpo, MBA ’09
Global Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Google AI

2019

Carly Fiorina, MBA ’80
Chairman, Carly Fiorina Enterprises

2018

Donna Blackman, MBA ’10
Senior Vice President of Business Operations, BET Networks

2017

Marguerita M. Cheng ’93
Founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth

2016

Past Honorees Reunion

2015

Andrea Brody ’87
Senior Vice President of Global Marketing, BravoSolution

2014

Brenda Freeman ’87, MBA ’91
Global Head of Television Marketing, DreamWorks Animation

2013

Kristen Welch ’90, MBA ’96
Senior Vice President, Global Content Operations, Discovery Communications

2012

Lisa Anders, MBA ’95
Vice President, Business Development, McKissack & McKissack

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