Dr. Tammy Wu
Dr. Tammy Wu is a board-certified plastic surgeon who co-founded Surgical Artistry with her general surgeon husband, Dr. Calvin Lee, MD. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Dr. Wu immigrated to the United States when she was 12 years of age. Not knowing a word of English nor the alphabet, Dr. Wu struggled to learn the English language and to understand the American culture while attempting to adjust to life at a boarding school in Atlanta, Georgia, half a globe away from her parents who lived (and currently reside) in Taiwan. Dr. Wu managed to not only learn the English language but won first place in a southeast regional French competition as a junior in high school.
Dr. Wu was accepted into the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) at Brown University and was awarded the Patricia McCormick Award given to the #1 graduating female medical student. She subsequently completed her plastic surgery residency at Southern Illinois University Integrated Plastic Surgery Program, which was one of ten integrated plastic surgery programs in the nation at that time with only 18 positions available in the entire country.
Dr. Wu was then accepted into the world-renowned microsurgery fellowship in Taiwan with Dr. Fu-Chan Wei, with plans to practice academic plastic surgery following the completion of her fellowship. However, SARS-COV 1 hit Asia that year, and she was unable to attend her fellowship. Her husband Dr. Calvin Lee had chosen Modesto initially as his temporary landing pad while waiting for his wife to finish the fellowship. But when the fellowship fell through, Dr. Wu came to Modesto with her husband and joined Gould Medical Group as the only plastic surgeon for the then 60+ physician multi-specialty group.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta is president and Founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF).
She is a celebrated Latina labor leader, activist and community organizer. She has worked for civil rights and social justice for over 50 years. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She served as vice-president and played a critical role in many of the union’s accomplishments for four decades.
In 2002, she received the Puffin/Nation $100,000 prize for Creative Citizenship which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation. DHF connects community-based organizing to state and national movements to register and educate voters; advocate for education reform; bring about infrastructure improvements in low-income communities; advocate for greater equality for the LGBT community; and create strong leadership development.
Dr. Duana Demus Leslie
Women's Campus Connection speaker series: "Honor Self Amidst Uncertainty" with Dr. Duana Demus Leslie.
Join Stan State Warrior Alumna, Dr. Duana Demus Leslie, Soprano – Hailed by critics as possessing an "incredible voice," as she inspires us to “Honor Self Amidst Uncertainty.”
Originally from San Francisco California, she has performed more than 20 leading operatic and musical theater roles including Aida, Tosca, Contessa, Donna Anna, Serena, Clara, and has been featured as a soloist with numerous opera companies and national symphony orchestras. She has appeared at the Gallo Center for the Arts, Los Angeles Opera, Fresno Philharmonic, Livermore Valley Opera, Oakland Symphony, to name a few. She has performed world premiere compositions of sacred and secular music by living composers. She has won awards and competitions including, MJC faculty grant, West Bay Opera Superstar, Fe Bland, Saritelli-DiPanni Bel Canto, Loren Zachary, African Americans for Los Angeles Opera, NATS, AIMS in Graz scholarships, Dean Lesher, Renata Tebaldi, and many others. Her repertoire expands into the genres of jazz, folk, gospel, and Christian contemporary. Duana received full-ride scholarships to complete the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts scholarship from Stan State. She holds Associate of Arts degrees in Music and Liberal Arts from Los Medanos College. She has been teaching at Modesto Junior College since 2008. She currently resides in Brentwood, Tennessee, and is an active member of the Stan State Alumni Advisory Council.
Erica Ayala
Founder and Executive Director of Invest in Me
Erica Ayala is one of Stan State’s remarkable alumna Warriors who exemplifies true commitment to creating opportunities for the next generation of community leaders.
She holds a double bachelor's in Communication and Gender Studies from California State University, Stanislaus and a Masters of Arts in Leadership from Saint Mary's College of California where she penned her thesis, “Invest and Empower Young Women of Today." She is the Founder and Executive Director of Invest In Me, named non-profit of the year in Stanislaus County in 2021.
Erica’s passions are developing leadership and access to youth, health equity issues and elevating the people of California’s Central Valley. Erica’s service to her community includes serving on the Downtown Revitalization Committee for the City of Patterson where she resides with her husband and two children, Amaya and Ezekiel. She currently works for Blue Shield of California in the region of Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties as the Community Engagement Manager.
Erica’s dedication to her community has been acknowledged by various awards including Modesto Junior College’s Community Women’s Empowerment Award, Stanislaus County Commission for Women’s Outstanding Women of Stanislaus County and Modesto’s Bee’s 20 Under 40 leaders.
Pam Kehaly
President & CEO Blue Cross® Blue Shield® of Arizona
View May 7 Event Details
Pam Kehaly is President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ). With a mission to improve the quality of life for all Arizonans, she is leading the 2,500-employee company to inspire health through inventive programs, services, and health insurance products. Pam joined BCBSAZ in 2017 and was quickly recognized by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of the state’s “Most Admired Leaders” and made Arizona Business Magazine’s “Most Influential Women in Arizona” list.
Prior to joining BCBSAZ, she served as president of Anthem Inc.'s West Region and Specialty business, responsible for $20 billion in annual revenue. Pam started her career in 1986 with Blue Cross of California, where her various responsibilities ranged from operations to profit-and-loss management.
With more than 30 years of experience in the health insurance industry, Pam has developed an expertise in collaborating with doctors and hospitals to drive results. She was a driving force behind Vivity, a first-in-the-nation joint venture between an insurer and seven hospital systems to align financial incentives behind better outcomes. She was also a leader in Patient Safety First (PSF), a National Health Institute award-winning collaboration with Anthem, the National Health Foundation, and California’s regional hospital associations.
Among the many strategies Pam is spearheading is Mobilize AZ, which began in 2018 to address substance use disorder, mental health, and diabetes in Arizona. Mobilize AZ is cultivating cross-sector, community partnerships to build capacity, increase access to care, and strengthen statewide activities and resources for prevention, treatment, resiliency, and recovery in these critical areas of health. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University, Stanislaus.
She serves on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Greater Phoenix Leadership, HealthCorps, Phoenix Police Reserve Foundation, Translational Genomics Research Institute, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, and UNS Energy Corporation. She is a member of CCI Inc. and is on the Advisory Board of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California.
Judge Dawna Reeves
Judge Dawna Reeves earned her undergraduate degree in Liberal Studies at San Diego State University in 1991 and graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1995.
She worked as a deputy district attorney in Stanislaus County DA’s office from January 1997 to December 2008. As a judge, she is assigned to a criminal trial department. She has been a member of the Court’s Executive Committee for several years and currently serves as the Presiding Judge for Stanislaus County Superior Court. She is the first African American judge to serve in Stanislaus County.
Dr. Rocio G. Garcia
Rocío R. García is an assistant professor of sociology at Arizona State University. García earned a doctorate degree in sociology from the University of California-Los Angeles in 2019. Originally from California’s Central Valley, García is a proud daughter of immigrant parents and an alum of California State University-Stanislaus. Across the qualitative study of race and gender, García’s research focuses on intersectional feminist theories and practices; reproductive justice; the politics of knowledge production; and Latinx politics. García is currently working on a book manuscript, Latinx Feminist Thought: On Messiness, Incommensurability, and Politicmaking, that uses mixed qualitative methods to upend commonplace assumptions rampant in the academy and outside of it about who Latinxs are, our concerns regarding an array of social problems, and our contributions to U.S. politics and knowledge production.
Kristina Hacker
Kristina Hacker is Editor of the Turlock Journal newspaper and 209 Magazine. She has also been the moderator of the 209 Women’s Leadership Round Table event since 2016.
A Hoosier native, Kristina moved to California in 2000. She got her first taste of journalism working on The Signal staff at Stanislaus State and graduated with a degree in Organizational Communications in 2007.
Kristina’s first journalism position was writing for Turlock Living magazine.
In 2005, she started working for the Turlock Journal as a freelance writer and then moved into a part-time position. In 2006, Kristina became the Journal’s full-time sports reporter. In 2007, she was promoted to Editor.
During her tenure at the Journal, the newspaper has branched out into multimedia platforms with Studio209 and other video projects, established a social media presence and began publishing 209 Magazine.
In 2016, Kristina had a vision of bringing women leaders from around the area together in one room to share their experiences. Thus, the 209 Women’s Leadership Round Table breakfast event was launched.
You may also watch the Livestream of this event directly on the MediaSite
Marian Kaanon
President & Chief Executive Officer
Stanislaus Community Foundation
Marian Kaanon is the President & CEO of the Stanislaus Community Foundation. A first-generation Assyrian American, Marian Kaanon was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and grew up in Modesto.
After graduating from UC Davis, Marian began her career in broadcast journalism before working for public relations and lobbying/legislative affairs. Marian has launched award-winning marketing campaigns for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to nonprofit advocacy groups. She served as Vice President of Marketing for Community Hospice for 8 years, developing and executing a holistic brand strategy that grew the organization triple-fold prior to her departure.
Marian joined Stanislaus Community Foundation as their CEO in late 2012. Stanislaus Community Foundation is a place-based funder that provides grants and scholarships to community organizations in Stanislaus County. To date, the organization has invested nearly $17 million in local nonprofits and close to $3 million in scholarships to students.
During Marian’s tenure, Stanislaus Community Foundation has tripled its charitable assets under management and now supports the Cradle to Career Partnership, a systems-change movement aimed at boosting outcomes for more than 110,000 local children and their families. Stanislaus Community Foundation is also the backbone of the Irvine New Leadership Network, which equips emerging diverse local leaders with cutting-edge social innovation tools.
In 2006, Marian was named by The Modesto Bee as one of ’20 Under 40’ young civic leaders to watch, and in 2015 she was named an Outstanding Woman for Stanislaus County. In 2017 Marian was named the Distinguished Alumna of the Year for Modesto Junior College, the youngest person to be so honored. In 2018, Marian was the recipient of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award. She is an active Rotarian with Modesto Rotary Club, a Senior Fellow with the American Leadership Forum, and a graduate of the Irvine New Leadership Network. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Doctors Medical Center.
Jeani Ferrari
Jeani Mendes Ferrari grew up in Modesto, California. She attended Modesto Junior College and California State University, Stanislaus, where she studied art. In 1966, Jeani married John Ferrari and established a home in Turlock, where the couple has resided for 53 years.
If asked about her greatest satisfaction in life, Jeani would quickly tell you it has been parenting. Her greatest passion has been working as a community-builder and her unending commitment is advocating for the long-term preservation of farmland in the Great Central Valley of California.
Currently, Jeani serves on the boards of Carnegie Arts Center Foundation, Turlock Certified Farmers’ Market and Farmland Working Group. She was on the founding board of each of these organizations, including California Farmland Trust.
While raising her children, Jeani’s artistic energy was focused on Ludlowe & Co., a design and gift boutique she opened in 1973, as well as her interior design business, a fulfilling profession for thirty-five years.
As a family, there were ski trips, water polo matches, recitals, hiking in Yosemite, spending time with family and friends, weekly trips to the library and regular jaunts to Disneyland!
Stephanie Gallo
Vice President of Marketing for E. & J. Gallo Winery
Stephanie Gallo is a Vice President of Marketing for E. & J. Gallo Winery. The winery, co-founded by Stephanie’s grandfather Ernest and great uncle Julio 84 years ago, is now the largest family-owned winery in the world, exporting wine and spirits to 90 countries. Stephanie is leading worldwide marketing efforts for several prominent brands including Barefoot and Gallo Family Vineyards. Many of the brands she manages are consistently recognized for outstanding success, including the Beverage Information Group’s Fast Track Growth Brand Award, Market Watch Magazine’s Hot Brand Award, Event Marketer Magazine’s Ex Award for Best Retail/In-Store Event Program, and the Cause Marketing Forum’s Halo Award. In honor of this success, Stephanie was named one of the Top Women in Grocery by Progressive Grocer Magazine in 2017.
Stephanie earned her bachelor’s degree in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame and obtained an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She serves Notre Dame as a Board of Trustee, student mentor, and guest speaker.
Stephanie is involved in her community as a regular speaker on women in business, family business and the importance of community giving. She lives in her hometown of Modesto with her husband Chris Tyler and their two children, Amelia and Harrison. As a family, they enjoy traveling, skiing, and spending time outdoors.
Dorothy Leland
UC Merced Chancellor Emerita
Read About Chancellor Leland
Updated: February 29, 2024