Joanna Dutra is the founder of The Creative Confidant. As a creative confidence coach and branding expert, she brings a background in product marketing for Fortune 500 companies to a personal level. Joanna gives clients tools to activate and uncover hidden talents and build their best personal brand, offering them a chance to move beyond their self-imposed limitations.
Joanna has a broad musical and theater background, plays the piano and violin and loves to sing – all making her comfortable in front of an audience. Her biggest challenge (and thrill) was doing stand-up comedy.
Joanna is also active in her community, running confidence workshops for adults as well as students elementary through university. People of all ages can harness their creativity; her passion is finding ways of unveiling and illuminating strengths.
Joanna holds a BA in English and Fine Arts from Georgetown University and an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Boston University. She is a frequent contributor to Forbes, where her vision of the world is a source of humor and positivity. Whether she’s making presentations or making people laugh, Joanna believes confidence is contagious. It’s just a matter of finding the right view of yourself.
Follow Joanna on Instagram as The Creative Confidant, additional information can be found on her website: www.thecreativeconfidant.com
Keynote Speaker
JC Monahan
JC Monahan is an Emmy award winning journalist with more than 25 years of experience. She is not only an anchor and reporter, she is also an AMS sealed meteorologist.
She came to NBC10 Boston in 2017 from WCVB where she began as a weekend meteorologist in 2001.
After 10 years forecasting for the weekday EyeOpener, JC was promoted to co-anchor of Chronicle, the station’s evening magazine show, where she earned both a regional Edward R. Murrow award and a Gracie award. She was also WCVB’s evening news anchor. During this time, she covered the Boston Marathon tragedy, co-hosting a one-hour special on the first anniversary and helping develop a live special for the Boston Strong concert.
JC has traveled extensively throughout New England, reporting from northern Vermont to southern Rhode Island. Some notable events include covering Pope Francis’ first trip to the U.S. and the presidential election of Donald Trump.
For NBC10 Boston, JC reported from the Super Bowl in Minnesota and spent more than a month in South Korea covering the Winter Olympics.
A Newton native, Boston has always been home for JC. She’s the proud mom of two beautiful daughters. When she’s not trying to keep up with her kids, JC enjoys dancing, reading and being with friends and family. She lives by the motto “Life is not a dress rehearsal. Live it.”
Emcee
Stacey Shipman, M.Ed.
Stacey Shipman is a podcast host, aspiring singer & comedian, and creator of Engage The Room, an unconventional training studio for the technically trained, analytically minded, or self-proclaimed introvert to relinquish formal protocols stifling their personality and ideas.
Because you cannot advocate for yourself or your genius hiding behind: “I’m too busy,” perfectionism, data, PowerPoints, a computer screen, collaborators who get all the credit, or the belief you need more credentials. Plus, human connection is impossible when you are acting like a robot.
Boring, bland and basic are default settings – but they aren’t the only settings. With Stacey’s guidance, you can drop learned behavior that never felt natural in the first place, step out of the conventional bubble and engage the room with who you really are.
Christine Hurley loves what she does…making people laugh! Married to Jimmy Hurley and having five kids, Christine is never at a loss for comedic material. Like any great comedian, Christine has an innate ability to see humor in “everyday” situations. For years, she entertained family, friends and neighbors in their kitchens, at barbeques and the grocery store aisles. The only difference now is she uses a microphone and a stage.
Christine’s maiden voyage into the world of stand up comedy was an open audition in New York City. The television network Nick at Nite was looking for “AMERICA’S FUNNIEST MOM.” She figured if it didn’t go well, no one in New York would have known who she was anyway…
Turns out it went well! Out of thousands of entries, Christine was selected to be a finalist on the nationally televised show. The producers of the show included Carol Leifer (Seinfeld show producer), Jeff Singer (talent scout, Montreal Comedy Festival), Jeffrey Ross (Comedy Central roast master) and actress Sandra Bernhardt. Her stories and views on motherhood and marriage are exactly what everyone is living through…people get it and love it!
Christine Hurley has quickly become a favorite in the Boston comedy world. She works with, and is respected by Boston’s comedic legends. Among them being; Don Gavin, Lenny Clarke, Steve Sweeney, Paul D’Angelo, Paul Nardizzi, Patty Ross, Tony V, Loretta Laroche,…and her biggest fan and mentor Johnny Pizzi.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
At the South Shore Conference for Women, we are committed to highlighting the local women who work, live and thrive in the cities and towns in the area of South Shore, MA. Each year we reach out to the community to hear from women in our region who are experts, ready to share their passion and hard work with women, close to home.
