women’s impact Network

Check out a recap of our recent Virtual Career Panel!

 
 

Our Members

 

WIN ADVISOR

A 2008 US Lacrosse National Hall of Fame inductee, Chris Sailer concluded her 36th and final year at the helm of the Princeton women’s lacrosse program in June of 2022.

She guided the team to three NCAA championships, 11 national semifinal appearances, 27 NCAA tournament appearances and 16 Ivy League titles.

She retired as the fifth-winningest coach all-time in women's lacrosse with 433 wins, and she is the all-time leader in wins by a head coach at one Division I program.

Sailer’s involvement in the sport of women’s lacrosse doesn’t end with coaching. Throughout her career she was actively involved in stimulating the growth of the sport. She is a former chair of the Tewaaraton Trophy selection committee, a former member of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Committee, former president, treasurer and board member of the IWLCA and former member of the US Lacrosse Women’s Division Board of Governors. Sailer currently sits on the board of directors of Harlem Lacrosse, and works as a recruiting consultant with BBL club.  Her heavy involvement in the sport earned her the 2008 Diane Geppi-Aikens Memorial Award, presented by the IWLCA for lifetime achievement in contribution to women’s lacrosse.

Chris Sailer

Harlem LAcrosse executive board

As New Balance’s Global Director of International Marketing, Romina leads the deployment of the Global Game Plan’s brand and category campaigns working with teams in the APAC, EMEA, China, Japan and LATAM regions. 

Formerly the brand’s Global Director of Communications & Entertainment, Romina led public relations, social media and entertainment strategies that earned greater share of voice and consumer acquisition for New Balance via storytelling grounded in innovation, craftmanship, style, and purpose. 

Before joining the New Balance brand, Romina held various leadership positions, including Group Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, where she oversaw global communications for Toyota including the automobile and mobility company’s Olympics & Paralympics campaign, “Start Your Impossible,” and the U.S. programs for “Let’s Go Places.” 

Romina Bongiovanni

Charlotte North highlights the HL Women's Impact Network

 

Champion Level

Melissa is global chief operating officer for Compliance, Legal and the Conflicts Resolution Group (CLC), as well as global head of Core Compliance and Compliance Employee Services. In these roles, she is responsible for developing and executing strategic initiatives for all three divisions and oversees the firm's integrated regulatory compliance program, including firm-wide policies, compliance learning, risk assessment and regulatory change management. Melissa serves as a member of the Global Compliance Operating Committee.

Melissa previously served as the chief of staff for Compliance, head of Global Compliance training and held a number of roles within the Investment Management Division. Melissa joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 as an analyst, was named managing director in 2012 and partner in 2022. Melissa earned a BA in Business Administration from the University of San Diego.

Melissa Barrett Crandall

Kerry Hanson began her interior design career in San Francisco. She studied Interior Design and Interior Architecture at U.C. Berkeley and worked under Edward Lobrano. Kerry's development was strongly influenced by Lobrano, whose impeccable taste and incredible attention to detail, heavily influenced her approach to design. Kerry started her own firm, Kerry Hanson Design, in 2004. Kerry graduated from Hamilton College. She lives in New Canaan, CT, with her husband and their four daughters.

Kerry Hanson

Sherry Ramsay graduated from the University of Virginia in 1990 with a degree in Communications from the College of Arts & Sciences. She spent her first two years out of college teaching US History and serving as the Head Field Hockey and Lacrosse Coach at the Gunnery School in Washington, CT. She went on to work in the Human Resources field at Grey Advertising and then joined Impact Recruiting New York City, where she spent nine years as a Job Recruiter.  Since 2001 she and her husband have lived in Darien, CT where she has been a powerful community volunteer and activist, “Super-Mom” and “Domestic Engineer Extraordinaire”, splitting her time between coaching, volunteering, and raising her three children: Katie, former Captain of the USC Women’s Lacrosse Team: Maggie, current player on the USC Lacrosse Team and Jack. a current student at the University of Virginia. Sherry has been the Varsity Field Hockey Coach at Darien High School since 2013 and currently serves on two boards, the UVA College Foundation and Harlem Lacrosse New York.

Sherry Ramsay

 

Heroine Level

Allison Alexander is a Managing Partner at The Marathon Fund, a venture capital firm whose thesis focuses on generating VC market rates of return while facilitating economic impact within underrepresented founder communities. At Marathon, she is primarily responsible for developing the firm’s strategy and portfolio selection process, facilitating investment transactions, and managing the firm’s investments and operations. Allison became a LAX Mom quite unexpectedly when her eldest daughter picked up a stick in the 4th grade and never looked back, achieving her dream by being recruited to play D1 lacrosse in the Ivy League at Dartmouth College starting in the fall of 2025. Shaped by her daughter’s experience, Allison and her family have become passionate about helping to make the sport of lacrosse more accessible and inclusive.

Allison Alexander

Heather Waters Borthwick is a partner at DLA Piper. Heather’s experience includes advising leading financial institutions, commercial and investment banks, direct lenders, private equity firms and corporate borrowers on a broad range of financing matters. These include syndicated and direct lending leveraged acquisition financings (both domestic and cross-border), asset-based financings and investment grade lending transactions, debtor in possession financings and exit financings.  

Prior to her current role, Heather was a partner at White & Case LLP and she also previously served as assistant general counsel for an international media corporation.

Heather Waters Borthwick

Kristin Noto is the author of Live E.P.I.C. Excellence Personified In Character: Embracing 7 Everyday Virtues to Increase Happiness and Personal Success. Her “Live E.P.I.C.” Principle is a fresh spin on the ageless wisdom of growing in everyday virtues as means to cultivate personal character, transforming an ordinary life into an extraordinary life. 

Over the past thirty years, Kristin has been a “career mom” raising five children. She sought after secrets of success and realized, similar to the way a corporation establishes core values, she needed to establish a system of morals and values to raise her children. Kristin became immersed in the “business” of building personal character in herself and her children. Her area of expertise is an everyday approach in developing personal character for a lifetime of happiness and personal success.

Kristin Noto

 

Guardian Level

Darby Fox is a child and adolescent family therapist with over 25 years of experience with children and families from diverse backgrounds. Darby’s first book, Rethinking Your Teenager: Shifting from Conflict and Control to Structure and Nurture to Raise Accountable Young Adults, was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. An expert on parenting and family topics, she has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, and Newsmax and is a monthly contributor to Psychology Today. Darby serves as a pro bono mental health consultant on the boards of both Brunswick School and the American Red Cross and has worked with at-risk children through Horizons and the Open Door Homeless Shelter. She received a BA from Middlebury College and an MSW in Clinical Family Practice from Columbia University and has pursued specialized training at several leading institutions including Yale’s Child Study Center, NYU’s Silver School of Social Work, Harvard Medical School, the Anna Freud Centre, and The Ackerman Institute for the Family. Darby has four children of her own.

Darby Fox

Layla Lisiewski was raised in Connecticut and grew up with a dad who made it his life’s work to help people. She knew at a very young age she wanted to follow in his footsteps. Layla went on to study International Relations and play Division I lacrosse at Brown University. Layla worked in private wealth management at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Manhattan for seven years before becoming a mother and creating the Local Moms Network, a national digital platform providing parents with comprehensive collections of resources and opportunities for connection in 100+ locations across the country. She is an entrepreneur who bootstrapped a company from $0 with 100% year-over-year growth in revenue and built a team of over 100 women and a few men. She and her husband Gary live in Connecticut with their four children (Ella 11, Michael 9, Alexandra 6, Luke 3).

Layla Lisiewski

Vivian Quaye is Senior Vice President at Auldbrass Partners and is responsible for shaping comprehensive investor relations strategy and leading its fundraising initiatives.

She has more than 14 years of financial industry experience including experience in marketing Equity, Fixed Income, Multi Asset Strategies and Solutions to Institutional businesses. Most recently, she was a Director, Public Funds & Taft Hartley plans at Northern Trust Asset Management.

She spent six years at Schroders where she was Director of Relationship Management, responsible for coverage of various client types with a primary focus of Taft-Hartley sales and client relationships. Prior to Schroders, Vivian worked at Voya Investment Management where she held various roles in Institutional Distribution.

Vivian earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Denison University and a master’s degree in investor relations from Fordham University. She currently serves on the board of Denison University.

Vivian Quaye

 

Advocate Level

Heidi Barron is an accomplished medical device executive with over 20 years of experience at Boston Scientific Corporation, where she has served in multiple executive commercial leadership roles across Global Marketing and Clinical, most recently as Global VP of Clinical Education & Healthcare Operations. Throughout her career, she has led worldwide commercial teams while managing complex integrations and strategic initiatives across international markets. She has now transitioned to Executive Consultancy, working with Medical Technology startups to help drive their strategic growth and commercial success.As a career-motivated working mother, Heidi has balanced her executive leadership while raising two accomplished student-athletes - Hannah, who currently plays Division 1 lacrosse at USC, and Nicholas, who will begin his Division 1 baseball career at Northwestern in fall 2025. Her passion for youth sports and the life skills they develop has led to active involvement with non-profits focused on creating opportunities for young athletes. A graduate of Bentley University with a Bachelor's degree in Finance, Heidi brings both business acumen and a dedication to mentoring the next generation of leaders. She currently splits her time between Bradenton, FL and Harwich Port, MA.

Heidi Barron

Paige Hanson

Hannah Burgess is a graduate of Yale University with a B.S. in Cognitive Science with a focus on machine learning. Also, I was a member of the Women’s Lacrosse Team! She is a Chicago native but has been living in NYC since 2020 where she started her first job on Wall Street. She spent two years at Goldman Sachs in their analyst program working as a US Equities Sales Trader, covering both asset managers and hedge funds. In 2022, Hannah transitioned to her current role on the Institutional Sales team at Galaxy where she covers traditional and crypto native institutions on all digital asset trading needs (Spot/Derivatives/Lending/etc). Outside of work, she lives with her boyfriend on the Upper West Side – She is still super into exercising, having run both the NYC and Boston Marathon. But, she also has the biggest sweet tooth and has picked up making homemade ice cream as her hobby (Hannah has made 20+ flavors and DOES TAKE REQUESTS!)

Hannah Burgess

Karen McArthur is a Canadian and New York Attorney who advises Canadian venture capital firms, tech incubators and financial institutions. Karen worked at Canada’s top mutual fund firm before law school. Karen started her Masters in Economics, concurrent with her law degree.

Karen McArthur has practiced law since 1991. Throughout her legal career, Karen has risen to the challenge of litigating many high profile cases in the courtroom. She is passionate about hearing people’s stories and presenting their narrative in all of its context, and bending the views of the ‘powers that be’, to victories for her clients.

Karen embraces being a feminist. She particularly enjoys representing and advancing women’s cases and issues both in the courtroom and beyond onto the world stage; economic, social and political challenges abound in this arena. 

 Karen is raising three children, on her own, and teaching them by example, that “one shot that’s all we get – make a difference.”

Karen McArthur

Lisa Caputo is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing, Communications and Customer Experience Officer at The Travelers Companies, Inc., a component of the Dow 30. Lisa oversees the company’s marketing, digital, advertising, media, customer and agent experience and service, corporate communications, market research, customer and agent insights, branding, creative services, sponsorships, customer relationship management (CRM), and analytics, and works closely with government affairs and investor relations. She is a member of the Travelers Foundation Board, the Travelers Innovation Council, and the Travelers Executive Diversity & Inclusion Council. As a prominent advocate for women, Lisa developed the company’s SHE Travels initiative, a program to promote and develop women in the insurance industry. She also founded SHE Rises, an internal professional business group committed to helping women achieve their career goals with the support of allies, sponsors, and mentors, and has served as the Executive Sponsor of the company’s Women’s Diversity Network.

Lisa Caputo

 

View our most recent newsletter below!

Our Vision

The Women’s Impact Network (W.I.N.) addresses systemic and programmatic challenges, provides intentional opportunities for networking and mentorship and raises funds in support of the girls of Harlem Lacrosse.

Our Community

We are an inclusive network of thought leaders that represents a cross-section of professional experiences and backgrounds. We work in synergy to cultivate the academic, professional, and personal development of the girls of Harlem Lacrosse.

Our Goal

Building an impactful community of women is our top priority. We work to breakdown barriers of inequity while providing the girls of Harlem Lacrosse resources and pathways for fulfilling advancement.

Our Commitment

We aim to connect the girls of Harlem Lacrosse with inspiring role models who can open doors to opportunity, provide insight into educational and career paths, and support them on their journey to success.