2024 Speakers & Special Guests

Keynote Speaker

Jessika Rozki

Jessika Rozki, the founder and driving force behind Rozki Rides, has a journey marked by resilience, faith, and an unwavering commitment to community service. Fifteen years ago, Rozki’s career in transportation began as a school bus driver in Chicopee. Cherishing her interactions with children and their parents, she found great satisfaction in her role. However, the birth of her last child brought a need for more flexibility in her professional life. Turning to prayer for guidance, Rozki envisioned the concept of a transportation service in a dream.

In 2019, with the resolve to balance her professional aspirations and family life, Rozki launched Rozki Rides. Based in Greater Springfield, the company started as a professional transportation service catering primarily to families. Despite beginning operations at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Rozki Rides navigated through the challenges, filling a crucial gap in the market. It offered a reliable alternative for families who didn’t qualify for transportation or daycare vouchers, providing a service that was not just a convenience but a necessity.

Rozki Rides differentiated itself by focusing on children and seniors, areas often overlooked by traditional transportation services. In its first year, the company served over 100 families, a number that continued to grow as it expanded its services to include daycares and summer camps across various locations.

Key to Rozki’s success was her participation in the Holyoke EforAll entrepreneurship program, which provided vital mentorship, business coaching, and networking opportunities. This support, coupled with her passion and unique vision, helped shape Rozki Rides into a reliable, affordable, and invaluable service for families navigating difficult times.

Jessika Rozki’s approach is deeply personal and community-oriented. She emphasizes the importance of meeting families and understanding their needs, ensuring her service is more than just transportation – it’s a dependable part of their daily lives. Her commitment to keeping her service accessible, even amidst inflation and economic challenges, speaks to her dedication to the community.

Rozki’s entrepreneurial journey reflects her beliefs in resilience, self-belief, and the power of support systems. Her childrens encouragement, allowing her to prioritize her daughter while pursuing her business, played a significant role in her success. Today, Rozki Rides stands as a testament to her vision, serving as a reliable support system for families, just as the community and her family have been for her.

Keynote Speaker

Meghan Rothschild

Meghan is a multi award-winning professional, business owner, public speaker, and social influencer. As President and Owner of the marketing and public relations firm Chikmedia, she offers strategic marketing planning and creative PR services, with an emphasis on supporting female-run organizations and women business owners. She has been a public speaker for over 14 years, engaging audiences on topics such as social media, marketing strategy, public relations, women in business, melanoma survivorship, and living with endometriosis. Her speaking style is energetic, entertaining and educational all wrapped in one. For the past 15 years, Rothschild has worked closely with IMPACT Melanoma, formerly the Melanoma Foundation of New England, as a board member and now serves as an official spokesperson for the organization. A melanoma survivor herself, she is a national advocate for awareness and prevention, having been featured in numerous media outlets such as Marie Clare Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Teen Vogue, WebMD, ABC World News, The Huffington Post, Associated Press, Inside Edition, NBC Nightly News and CNN, to name a few. She was featured in one of 2011’s most shared YouTube videos called Dear 16 Year Old Me. Her work in skin cancer awareness landed her an award from Cosmopolitan Magazine alongside Kristen Bell and David Wright. Meghan is a regular contributor to The Rhode Show and WWLP’s Mass Appeal, and is the Host of iHeart Radio’s Pioneer Valley Communities, where she shares professional tips from social branding to lifestyle marketing and public relations strategies. She is also a Professor of Social Media, Personal Branding and PR Campaigns at Springfield College and Southern New Hampshire University. Meghan’s social savvy has led to Influencer work for accounts such as Dunkin’, Pride Stores and Loft, where she has acted as a paid spokesperson and product advocate for her enthusiastic following. Most recently, Meghan was featured as a Guest Blog Expert for TIZO Mineral Sunscreen and Skincare. According to Brenda Canning of Springfield College, “Meghan’s ability to engage a large audience is remarkable. Her presentations appeal to everyone in the room regardless of the demographics or diversity of the participants.” Info:  meghan@chikmedia.us

Emcee

Christina Royal, PhD

Dr. Christina Royal is the President & CEO of Infinite Unlearning, LLC, a woman, BIPOC, and queer-owned executive coaching and consultancy service supporting mid to senior leaders and their organizations. Her goal is to educate leaders on a new paradigm of the future of work and help them shed their limiting beliefs and lead from a place of potential. In September 2023, Governor Healey appointed Dr. Royal to the Board of Higher Education for the State of Massachusetts. She is also chair of the board of the Western Mass Economic Development Council, and a board member for the LGBTQ Leaders in Higher Education. Dr. Royal also teaches in a doctoral program at Bay Path University. Previously, she was the fourth president of Holyoke Community College (HCC), and the first woman, first multi-racial, and first queer leader to lead this institution from 2017 to 2023. Dr. Royal has served in progressively responsible roles in both academic (community college and private four-year institutions) and corporate environments. In her presidency, she led the creation of the college’s first strategic plan, which prioritized equity by removing barriers for historically marginalized learners, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, first generation, adult learners, and students living in poverty. Dr. Royal established the President’s Student Emergency Fund, collaboratively transformed the institution’s shared governance model, launched El Centro to support Latinx students as a Hispanic Serving Institution, expanded mental health services, and secured the largest philanthropic gift to a community college in Massachusetts, among other notable accomplishments. Dr. Royal earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and a Master of Arts degree in Educational Psychology, both from Marist College, and a Doctorate in Education with a specialization in instructional design from Capella University. She lives in Northampton with her wife, Karen, and their two dogs, Tia and Marlie

Comedian

Jess Miller

Using her own life as her bedrock, Jess has built an act that shows the humor in every aspect of life.  Her fresh and friendly presence on stage makes her appealing to audience members from every walk of life. Her quick wit, ability to connect with the crowd and her on-the-fly creativity enables her to manipulate her material from an “every day girl” to brash and bawdy and back seemingly effortlessly. Her brand of comedy is a brilliant and fluid creation unto itself and it never fails to fill the seats wherever she appears.

Jess has performed at the Women in Comedy Festival, Boston Comedy Chicks, won the Ladies Room Comedy Festival, was a finalist at the Devil Cup Comedy Festival, Big Pine Comedy Festival, She Devil Contest and has worked all over the country at clubs such as Caroline’s, Broadway Comedy Club, Crackers, Off-the-Hook, Funnybone, The Coming Strip, The Punchline, Laugh’s Unlimited, The Comedy Factory Hollywood and many more. She recently headlined The No Nuts Comedy Tour which toured the country.

Jess ran a wildly successful monthly show called The “OMG! It’s Only Wednesday?” Comedy Show at the Hu Ke Lau in Chicopee, Mass before the venue permanently closed then turned the show into a pop up comedy club to collect toys for foster kids.

Since diving into comedy, Jess has helped raise nearly $700,000 for non-profits, groups and individuals with her FunnyRaising Comedy Shows, including her Annual Toy Drive for Foster Kids and Art Kits for Foster Kids which has brought in over $100,000 worth of toys.

She facilitates of an anonymous group of individuals on a private Facebook group page called “The Kind Squad” whose mission is to perform small acts of kindness for people around their community and in the world.

Prior to winning The Ladies Room Comedy Festival in 2021, the only contest Jess had won was a karaoke contest against a 9 year old in which she had to sing “My Life Will Go On.” While Jess considers herself a relatively humble person and a good sport, she admits it was challenging not to gloat in front of a 9 year old, but managed to hold her jubilation in until she reached her car in the mall parking lot.

From host to headliner, Jess Miller will have you belly laughing from the moment the show starts!

Goddess Award

Dianne Fuller Doherty

Dianne Fuller Doherty has her own working definition of ‘entrepreneur.’

“Someone who’s resourceful,” said the now … well, let’s call it semi-retired director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network’s Western Mass. office, before elaborating in some detail.

“Successful entrepreneurs are willing to ask for help; many people, particularly young people, think they have to have all the answers themselves,” she explained. “They don’t, and they need to develop the willingness to seek help and not be ashamed to ask. It is amazing how many people have struggled with that.”

For more than 20 years, it was the MSBDC — and quite often Fuller Doherty herself — that entrepreneurs, including BusinessWest founder John Gormally, would turn to for such help and guidance with everything from financing a venture to marketing a product, to simply deciding if a concept had legs. Often, it didn’t, and she would help them come to that important conclusion.

It was immensely rewarding work — and it still is.

Indeed, even though she officially retired from the MSBDC in 2016, Fuller Doherty remains quite active — with everything from mentoring young entrepreneurs, and especially women, to serving on the boards at Valley Venture Mentors, Tech Foundry, and Western New England University, where she sits on the committee now searching for a successor to long-time president Anthony Caprio.

Fuller Doherty — who bylined a piece for the New York Times in 2010, one in a series of pieces spotlighting people working past, or well past, what would be considered retirement age — has always believed in keeping the calendar full, and today, four years after retiring and also losing her husband, Paul Doherty, to cancer, she does so with everything from yoga and Pilates to consulting and mentoring.

“My feeling is that, as long as I’m doing something of value, why not continue doing it?’ she asked rhetorically in the piece she wrote for the Times. And those words ring true as she continues to do a number of things of value.

Especially in her role as a mentor and, yes, a role model to entrepreneurs, including a number of women who have been steered in her direction, continuing work to build the region’s economy through the development and maturation of small businesses.

“I love helping people, and I learn more from any job than I’ve ever given to people,” she told BusinessWest. “And that’s definitely true with mentoring; you learn about new industries, jobs, and approaches. I learn so much from my clients and mentees.”

Throughout her life and her career, Fuller Doherty has been a strong advocate for women — she was one of the founders of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts — and “ensuring they have full and equal share in economic, social, cultural, and political decision making,” as she put it. There is still some work to do, but overall, she believes great strides have been made.

And she feels the same about the region itself.

“We have a lot going for us here — there is quality of life, great colleges and universities, and wonderful communities in which to raise families,” she said. “It’s a great story, and we need to be telling it.”

For all that she has done — and all she continues to do — she’s a true Difference Maker.