2025 Agenda
1:30 - 1:40 - Welcome from West Michigan Woman
Welcome remarks by Jennifer Feuerstein.
1:40 - 2:00 - Presenting Your Best Self and Making Meaningful Connections
Connection is powerful, but how do you get started? In this opening session, attendees will have the opportunity to get to know one another and lay the foundation for creating meaningful connections in their own life.
2:05 - 2:30 - Define Your Style, Own Your Brand
Presentation by Michelle Krick and Elise Kutt.
Are you clear on your personal brand? Is your style defined? Whether you're walking into a boardroom, stepping onto a stage, or meeting someone for the first time, your presence speaks before you do. In this empowering and interactive seminar, we’ll dive into the core of what makes you uniquely you, and how to bring that forward with confidence and clarity.
In this session, you’ll learn to: Discover your personal brand; define your personal style and understand body types; identify what’s holding you back; clear the roadblocks to showing up as your best self; and gain clarity to walk away with a sharper vision of how you want to present yourself to the world. Join us and unlock your authentic confidence to align your image with your intention!
2:30 - 3:00 - Pursuing Passions and Finding Your Mission
Panel discussion with Tammy Meyers, Kasie Pickart and Arlen Dean-Gaddy.
There’s no “right” time to make an impact or chase after your dreams. Sometimes your mission finds you, rather than you pursuing it, and from there, it becomes a ripple effect of creating meaningful impact. In this panel discussion, our panelists will explore what meaningful impact looks like, how it’s never too early (or too late) to achieve your dreams and more. At the end of the panel discussion, attendees will have the opportunity to ask their own questions to the panelists.
3:00 - 3:30 - Break
3:30 - 3:50 - Overcoming Adversity and Creating the Life You Dreamed Of
Q&A with Catherine Ripley, 2025 Brilliant Woman of the Year.
Catherine Ripley has overcome the various decks of cards stacked against her throughout the years, whether it was facing homelessness with her two daughters as a young single mother, or choosing to tackle starting a business in a male-dominated industry at 39 with no entrepreneurial experience. Regardless, she managed to forge ahead, having now created a life she's wildly proud of. In this Q&A, hear firsthand how she made it happen and the advice she would give to other women facing adversity.
3:50 - 4:15 - Rewire Your Brain for Success: Shifting from Default Thinking to Deliberate Thinking
Presentation by Carrie Holland, MD, CPT.
Success isn’t about working harder; it’s about thinking differently. In this presentation, Dr. Carrie Holland will dive into the brain’s default mode—how it runs on old patterns and resists change—and introduce a simple approach to retraining your brain and unlocking your potential.
4:15 - 4:40 - Audience Q&A
Featuring an audience Q&A with Tasha Blackmon, Michelle Krick, Elise Kutt and Carrie Holland, MD, CPT.
This is your opportunity to go deeper with our speakers in an interactive Q&A session! Whether you're looking to gain deeper insight into specific areas or explore broader career advice, this Q&A session is your chance to ask questions directly to these inspiring and accomplished leaders.
4:40 - 4:45 - Closing Remarks
4:45 - 5:30 - Networking Reception