Women Who Impact San Diego

Women Who Impact San Diego — 2018

Leah Strickland

Leah Strickland is a partner a Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith, a skilled litigator and an asset to the San Diego community. Her practice encompasses business litigation, employment litigation and intellectual property disputes. She also has extensive experience defending against claims under the state and federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. At the trial level she has drafted numerous successful disposition motions in both state and federal courts. She is extremely active in the San Diego County Bar Association and is vice chair of the association’s Legal Ethics Committee. She has also been very active in the association’s Intellectual Property Section working to advance the development of intellectual property laws. Strickland was promoted to partner at Solomon Ward earlier this year. She also is listed as a San Diego Super Lawyer. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and holds her law degree from the College of William & Mary.

 

Aly Jamison

Aly Jamison is chief executive officer of Jamison Public Relations. She has attained  the coveted Accreditation in Public Relations, achieved by only 19 percent of public relations professionals. She has secured favorable press coverage for her clients in some of the most well-read publications in the country. She is making six donations (the maximum allowed in a calendar year) to the San  Diego Blood Bank. Jamison is a member of the Rady’s Children’s Auxiliary Poway unit. It is her way of giving back to the hospital that has helped her own children. She is a member of the Kylie Rowand Foundation, set up for a local 2-year-old who was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. She was heartbroken when Kylie passed, and in less than a year she promoted two fundraisers helping to bring awareness for pediatric cancer research. She has also made a tremendous impact for a company called RAIN Group, a sales training and performance improvement company.

 

Luda Safransky

Luda Safransky is business development manager at Balfour Beatty Construction’s California division, leading the company’s pursuit and management effort for both higher education and public civic markets. Prior to her promotion, she was one of Balfour’s most prominent and dedicated marketing professionals. Over her seven years with Balfour, she has secured more than $230 million in various projects for the company through her efforts in marketing and business development.  Safransky serves on the Developing Leader Council of the NAIOP, the commercial real estate development organization. She volunteers for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, supports Junior Achievement and continuously participates in the annual Ronald McDonald Red Shoe Day. In the last 11 years, Balfour Beatty has raised over $130,000 for Junior Achievement. Safransky joined Habitat for Humanity by participating in the Women Build Event, where, together with her team, raised $8,500.  She is a graduate of San Diego State University.

 

Ann Hill

Ann Hill is a sustainer at the Junior League of San Diego. In her 30 years with the Junior League, she worked with Bill  Clinton to chair the first national dropout prevention conference, won a $5 million grant to lower San Diego’s dropout rate and supported immigrant students. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

 

Rachel Shermirani

Rachel Shermirani is vice president of marketing for Barons Markets. Her favorite Barons happening is the quarterly Barons Backroom Beer Pairing, from which she has raised $65,000 for local charities. She leads the Taste Team, which evaluates products before they stock the shelves for customers, and coordinates the store design that allows a 10-minute shopping experience.

 

Susanne de la Flor

Susanne de la Flor is a regional litigation consultant at Litivate Trial & Reporting  Services. She is a resilient spirit who truly displays heart when it comes to giving to the community. She has coordinated the annual Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Blood Drive. She organizes professional clothing drives for Dress for Success. After her husband, George, suffered cardiac arrest and brain damage in 2011, she turned her attention to educating others on sudden cardiac arrest.

 

Nastasha McKeon

Natasha McKeon is the founder and chief executive officer of Choice Superfood Bar and Juiciery. She supports local farms/agriculture, advocacy for sustainable business practices and the healthy benefits of plant-based eating.

 

Anneke Stender

Anneke Stender is an executive vice president and part owner of TAG who oversees the corporate accounting, bill pay and family CFO division with a team of over 30 client relationship managers and accounting staff.   Originally from Germany, she moved to San Diego for a year of English language studies. She fell in love with San Diego, stayed and graduated summa cum laude from San Diego State University.

 

Dr. Jeanne Loring

Dr. Jeanne Loring is a stem cell researcher and professor at the Scripps Research Institute. She has been working on human pluripotent stem cells for 20 years. Her human embryonic stem cell lines were among those approved for federal funding by President George H. W. Bush in 2001. Her research team pioneered the use of genomic and epigenetic analyses to ensure the effectiveness and safety of stem cells for therapy. She is heavily involved with the San Diego Zoo.

 

Rita Abbati Albert

Rita Abbati Albert is a lawyer specializing in intellectual property law. She has worked in private practice, taught as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego Law School and co-authored a treatise for over 10 years about intellectual property rights on the Internet. She is a co-founder of ConnectMed International and helps identify an unmet need for philanthropic global surgical care and medical outreach to underserved  communities around the world.

 

Karen Burges

Karen Burges is the executive director of NAIOP San Diego, and a unifying force behind NAIOP’s role as a leading, high-powered commercial real estate association. Under her leadership, NAIOP San Diego continues to make significant impacts on legislation to promote job creation and enhance economic development within the commercial real estate industry. NAIOP’s Adopt A Platoon program provides supplies and assistance to locally-stationed Marines and their families.

 

Debra Aitken

Debra Aitken is director of project strategy for Wright Management, serving as the project lead on large commercial design and construction projects and advising clients on workplace strategies. A cancer survivor, she started PALS (Patients, Assistance, Liaison and Support) for San Diego Pacific Oncology and Hematology. She has received the coveted CR San Diego Golden Sail Award and Legacy Member of the Year honor.

 

Sabrina Daneshvar

Sabrina Daneshvar serves as vice president of clinical services at Autism Spectrum Therapies, a leading national behavioral health organization. She is a board certified behavior analyst-doctoral. She is an active and contributing member in the autism community and continues to support families impacted by autism. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the Claremont Graduate University with a concentration in the behavioral treatment of developmental disabilities.

 

Catherine McCullough

Catherine McCullough is president and chief executive officer of McCullough Landscape Architecture. After serving as marketing director of Westfield UTC, she joined her husband, David, at McCullough in 2001. She oversees all of the company’s marketing and business development as well as its financial management. The firm has a major landscape design project in China, a mega, 800-acre waterfront site along the Huangu River, located 18 miles south of the Bund of Shanghai. She has taken her design knowledge and marketing skills to help create a Morley Field Historic Street Light District.

 

Mia Roseberry

Mia Roseberry is the founder of Wounded Warrior Homes, a mission to provide affordable housing, hands-on resources and a defined path for each post-9/11 service veteran transitioning to independent living. Since its start, Wounded Warrior Homes has provided 38 homes, 646 months of housing and 1,254 referrals. After hosting a group of Marines who shared their experiences about the silent effects of war, she was determined to give back through Wounded Warrior Homes.

 

Kathleen Ferrier

Kathleen Ferrier is an urban planner with 18 years of multi-disciplinary experience. She is currently policy director for Council District 3. As policy director, she manages policy issues related to land use, housing, transportation and infrastructure in District 3.  \Before joining District 3, she was the policy and communications director for Vision Zero Network, a national nonprofit working with U.S. cities. Ferrier also spent 2-1/2 years with the Peace Corp in El Salvador and she and her husband founded Bridges to Education in Central America.