Entrepreneurs in Training Instructors

10-Day Program, Residential Only

Sunday, July 7 - Tuesday, July 16

IN COLLABORATION WITH THE ATHENA CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP STUDIES

Meet the Instructors! 

Caroline Ceniza-Levine

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career and business expert, having launched diverse business from SixFigureStart® career coaching to FBC Films sci fi/ horror film production. An extreme career changer who trained in classical piano at Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music, Caroline specializes in working with people who want to make a change – from individual contributor to leader; from one career to a new one; from employee to entrepreneur. Caroline blogs for Forbes.com Work In Progress and is the co-author of “Six Steps To Job Search Success” 2011, Flat World Knowledge; and “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” 2010, Two Harbors Press. Her career advice has been extensively quoted including repeat guest expert appearances on CBS, CNN and Fox Business and mentions in Business Insider, BusinessWeek, CNN Money, Newsweek, NPR, Real Simple, Success Magazine, and Yahoo! Finance. Caroline is a 2010 grant recipient of the Jones New York Empowerment Fund and performs stand-up with Comic Diversity. Caroline is a graduate of Barnard College and teaches professional development courses at Barnard and Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.

Elise Hernandez (Santora)

Elise recently starred as Abuela Claudia in the first national tour of In The Heights as well as its Broadway company. Other Broadway credits include Paul Simon's The Capemanand Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Additional national tours include Man of La Mancha with John Cullum and A Chorus Line starring Bebe Neuwirth.  Toured internationally as a vocalist for such legends as Bowie, Julio Iglesias and Danny Kaye's Unicef in Africa tour. She was one of the first Latina dancers on the nationally syndicated program, Soul Train. In addition to extensive commercial/voice-over work and directing, Elise has served as teaching artist, acting/voice coach and audition coach for such varied venues and participants as Manhattan Theatre Club, Henry Street Settlement Center, Theatre Development Fund, Frank Sinatra H.S., Professional Performing Arts H.S. and York College.
 
 
 
 

Vanessa Hurst

Vanessa Hurst is a data-focused technologist turned social entrepreneur and the founder of CodeMontage, where software developers improve their skills while improving the world. Vanessa founded and runs Developers for Good, a network of technologists who help non-profits and social mission businesses. She also co-founded Girl Develop It, which provides accessible and affordable in-person software development courses worldwide.Vanessa previously led data and analytics for Paperless Post, a customizable online invitation startup that redefines the tradition of stationery. Before entering the startup world, Vanessa worked in business intelligence at The Ladders and financial data at Capital IQ. She serves as a technical advisor to a number of non-profits and startups, including Ohours, and is a scout for Mozilla’s WebFWD. Vanessa holds a B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Systems & Information Engineering from the University of Virginia.
 
 

Angela Lee

Angela is an entrepreneur and angel investor with a focus on education.  She is a marketing consultant to Fortune 500 companies and started her consulting career at McKinsey.  She teaches Strategic Problem Solving and Executive Communication at Columbia Business School and NYU.  Angela holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from University of California, Berkeley. She's the co-founder of 37 Angels.

Nathalie Molina

Nathalie Molina Niño, together with the Office of Pre-College Programs, developed Entrepreneurs in Training as part of the Entrepreneurship mission of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies. She launched her first startup at the age of twenty. A global business guru with over a dozen years deep in the globalization trenches, she’s advised Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Disney, Mattel, MTV and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. Nathalie is a frequent speaker on the topic of international SEM, global crowdsourcing and multicultural marketing and contributed to “The 4-Hour Work Week” (2009). Nathalie is currently on a storytelling hiatus at Columbia University where she also advocates for women-owned start-ups by spearheading entrepreneurship strategy at the Athena Center at Barnard College.
 
 
 
 
 

Michaela Murphy

Her work as a writer, playwright and storyteller has been featured on NPR, Off-Broadway, The Moth Mainstage, the Clinton White House and in The New Yorker, while her talents as a digital storyteller and social media guide have produced both happy clients and measurable results. Michaela is an expert in how to effectively engage and connect with an audience. For the past 18 years, Michaela has served as a brand conduit, drawing on her audience expertise to help companies create brand loyalty, forge new markets, and meaningfully convey a brand’s message through dynamic and interactive engagement. Michaela has a long list of happy clients. They include Quest International Fragrances, Estee Lauder, Yale University, The 52nd Street Project, Manhattan Theater Club, Second Stage Theater, The Taunton Press and Track Research.

Grace Ng

Grace is an entrepreneur, designer, and Co-Founder of Lean Startup Machine, in which she trains entrepreneurs around the world in a scientific process to create successful companies. As the youngest practitioner and thought leader on Lean User Experience, Grace has been a featured guest speaker for the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows, and is an instructor for Princeton University, Singularity University, and Wharton School UPenn.

Eva Sasson

Eva is a Barnard senior majoring in Economics and is greatly interested in the startup tech world. At age 19 Eva started her first company TappMob, a mobile and web applications company and complete student initiative, creating highly specialized applications for students by students. The company has been featured in many notable press outlets and won the People’s Choice Award at the MobileBeat 2011 conference in San Francisco. The company was acquired in early 2013. In addition to TappMob, Eva spent a summer at the London School of Economics, enjoys discovering new music and is greatly involved in her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau, on the Columbia Campus.

Elizabeth Talerman 

CEO and Managing Partner of Nucleus – a brand strategy collaborative. She has spent more than 25 years working with leading brands in the consumer, business, and non-profit sectors. Elizabeth’s more recent experience includes conducting a feasibility study for the Prince of Wales that analyzes a global expansion for his Duchy Originals brand, defining and developing a brand architecture for Gilt Groupe, helping reposition the radio industry for future growth, launching 9 new brands for the merchandising division of Martha Stewart, developing ground- breaking augmented reality campaigns for Audi and Levis, re-positioning both the MSN and Yahoo! brands, and creating innovative digital work for IBM, NBC, Gillette, The Food Network, Met Life, and Credit Suisse First Boston. Additional collaborations include work with Ogilvy PR, MWW, O’Keefe Brands, Neil Powel, DiMassimo Goldstein, The Brooklyn Brothers, Deputy Consulting, Faith Popcorn, eatbigfish, Ted Sann, and Campfire for brands including Hanes, Sundance, Colgate, Gerson Lehrman Group, Radio Shack, Sharp, Old Spice, HP, Timex, Kellogg, Pepsi, Unilever and Kodak.
 

Meet the Expert Pitch Panel! 

Galia Gichon

Galia is an independent personal financial expert with more than 18 years in financial services, including nearly 10 years on Wall Street and an MBA in finance. She founded, Down to Earth Finance, which offers individual sessions and seminars without selling any investments. She is the author of, My Money Matters, a boxed set with money affirmations, instant money tips and workbooks. Galia has been widely quoted as an expert on money and women, including mentions in The New York Times, TODAY Show, Newsweek, Real Simple, NBC Weekend Today Show, Essence and more. She is a frequent speaker at Barnard College and Freelancers Union. Before starting her own company, Galia was a securities research analyst at Bear Stearns and Nomura Securities, and also worked for Institutional Investor. She is also actively involved in Angel Investing for women-owned comapnies and was part of Pipeline Fellowship. You can visit her at www.downtoearthfinance.com and sign up for her newsletter at DownToEarthFinance-On@zines.webvalence.com

Adam Quinton

Adam is an active investor in and advisor to early stage companies. He is a Managing Director at Golden Seeds. He serves as a Mentor for 37 Angels and the Women Innovate Mobile accelerator program. Adam, is a member of the Global Advisory Board for Astia and a Founding Angel at Astia. He is also an Advisor at Topstone Angels. He supports Women2.0 as a first stage judge for their San Francisco and New York pitch competitions.  

Adam is a Board member at Thrive Metrics. He serves on the Advisory Board of leading Board and executive search firm RSR Partners as well as Philadelphia based start up Cloudamize. In the not for profit space he is on the Board of the Center for Talent Innovation and International House, New York. He is also a member of the 2020 Women on Boards New York Steering Committee.  

Adam has over 25 years of investing and management experience most recently at Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was Managing Director and head of Global Macro Research. He was a top ranked sell side investment analyst in the UK, Asia and the US.  

Additionally he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs where he is a Capstone workshop advisor and member of the Management and Gender & Policy faculties. He holds a MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Cass Business School, London.

Joanne Lang

Joanne Lang is the founder and CEO of AboutOne. She designed AboutOne, based on her direct experiences as the mother of four children.Since launching first on stage at VentureBeat’s DEMO Spring 2011, Lang was named a Forbes Top Ten Female Entrepreneurs to Watch, won the StartupNation and the Startup Princess competitions, received seed funding from Ben Franklin SEP, Series A from Golden Seeds and MAG, and was accepted to the Astia portfolio and DreamIt Ventures. A regular blogger on StartupAmerica, Women 2.0, and The Huffington Post, Lang is also a frequent panelist, including the NYU 2012 Women Entrepreneurs Festival with Arianna Huffington (founded by Joanne Wilson and Nancy Hechinger), the CES MommyTech Summit, Women 2.0 Founder Friday, Penn State’s Igniting Innovation Forum, BlogHer’s Entrepreneurs ’12, and was the keynote speaker at the Chamber of Business & Industry’s Annual Small Business Dinner. She is also a member of the elite Dell Founders Club and is a frequent speaker at Founder Factory.

Avani Patel

Avani Patel holds a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Avani practiced Corporate and Securities law and while practicing law, she founded a luxury fashion company called Nasaani. Nasaani evolved into a major buzz on the Chicago fashion scene and was featured in newspapers, magazines and TV shows. She used her learnings from Nasaani to launch TrendSeeder. TrendSeeder is an emerging designer platform that grants customers exclusive access to hand picked, up and coming designers.

John Gerzema

John Gerzema is a pioneer in the use of data to identify social change and help companies anticipate and adapt to new interests and demands. A New York Times best-selling author, columnist, speaker and social theorist, his books have also appeared on “best of” lists at Fast Company, Inc., and The Week Magazine. His research, writing and interviews have appeared in The Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNBC, NPR, Forbes and many others. As Chief Insights Officer at Young & Rubicam he oversees the world’s largest database of brands and consumer behavior and studies social change and its impact on business, society and the economy. John’s TED talk ‘The Post-Crisis Consumer’ has been viewed by over a quarter of a million people. His latest book The Athena Doctrine: How Women (And The Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future was released April 2013 and is a New York Times best-seller.