Meet the Mona Lisa Mentors
Director, Strategic Engagement & Ecosystem Development at The Wond’ry, Vanderbilt University
Yesi has 20+ years of experience in leadership roles across varying global biotech and healthcare industries, consulting, and higher education. She has focused on the following priorities 1) Corporate: marketing, business development, client engagement, innovation; 2) Nonprofit: community engagement, fundraising, innovation, Diversity; and 3) Education: co-curricular student engagement, marketing, fundraising, design-thinking, innovation, and Diversity Equity & Inclusion. Yesi holds a B.G.S. from the University of Miami, and a certificate in Multicultural Mentoring from the University of Florida. Her diverse industry background, global business acumen and multilingual skills make her an invaluable resource in innovating, collaborating, building, and leading.
Yesenia B. Sevilla
Tired of witnessing talented women put their dreams on the backburner – or worse, completely lose their spark because they were so far in the trenches – Tiffany Napper launched the Upleveler Society.
A Nashville-based Holistic Business Coach and decade-strong entrepreneur, Tiffany is no stranger to the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. But with five successful ventures under her belt, she now spends most of her days helping female founders sidestep years of struggle to build sustainable empires that bring them abundance and joy.
Through coaching and community, the Upleveler Society helps gutsy dream chasers move from side hustle to full-time hustle, from five-figures to multi-six figures by creating a plan that is aligned with their heart and on a clear track for growth.
Not only that, but Uplevelers report having a greater sense of peace, waking up with more energy, and treating themselves with more compassion because they know their value and they are ready to leave their mark. Tiffany believes an abundantly rich life is about so much more than the amount of dollars in a bank account, so well-being is at the heart of the Upleveler Society.
Since launching her entertainment and wellness PR agency in 2011, she has worked with artists, global health companies, film makers, and musicians, including Grandmaster Flash and Elton John. She has run PR campaigns that stretch from Good Day New York to the LA Times and believes knowing how to tell a good story is at the heart of every success story.
Tiffany Napper
Founder of Tennessee Women Connect.
Born and raised in Franklin, Lucy’s love for connecting others spurred the creation of this group. Lucy was looking for a networking group to fit her needs. Not finding exactly what she wanted and noticing a need for a professional women's networking opportunity in Williamson County, she started events in January of 2020. What she found as 2020 wrapped up and 2021 got off to a fast start, was that women were looking for opportunities to make real connections, in person, and were excited to collaborate with others. Growing Fast in 2021 as they moved into Nashville and Brentwood, Ashley Fitz and Jenna Griffith came on board to help grow and expand the reach of TN Women Connect. Now in 8 cities they are excited and so inspired by all of the business women’s lives they touch with events all throughout the month designed for connection and collaboration.
Lucy also uses her sales and relationship skills to help buyers and sellers in the real estate industry. Together with her business partner, Ashley Fitz, they are partnered with the luxury brand Zeitlin Sotheby's International Realty. Lucy helps her clients with top notch service, refers to colleagues around the US and world, and ensure smooth transactions to secure someone's next home. Social media and marketing skills imperative to success in this industry.
Lucy Miller
I am a mompreneur, proud Latina business owner, and wife. I am the founder of twisted for sugar. Founded in 2016, we are a bespoke cart treat and snack service with an activation style of delivery. Our mission and motto is “we bring the JOY.” We aim to bring JOY, seek JOY, and be JOYFUL.
Lucia Rios
Owner/CEO of Kathy Thomas Photography & Collective615
Kathy never let lack of experience stop her from taking bold leaps to new career paths. Kathy got her feet wet in retail with GAP; this resulted in Kathy falling in love with talent management and fashion. Kathy worked her way up through the industry to become a high-level multi-store manager, operation director and talent acquisition expert for brands Lucky Brand Jeans, INTERMIX and Louis Vuitton. She then left that career path to start her own business as a completely self-taught photographer. Today, Kathy Thomas Photography is an internationally published brand, and Kathy travels the globe to photograph her clients and celebrities.
As a small business owner and a mom, Kathy realized early on that working from home made it difficult to establish a healthy work-life balance. After moving to Nashville and struggling to find an office space that inspired her, Kathy decided to build her own. With Collective615, Kathy created the first coworking space for women in the state of Tennessee.
Kathy’s best known as a connector of people. Kathy’s dream of creating a space that provides female business owners and those who work remotely a place to collaborate and feel inspired came to fruition when Collective615 opened its doors with 67 founding members in Feb. 2020. – bio by Her Story of Success.
Kathy Thomas
Founder at DG Consulting Services
Coined the judgement free bookkeeper, Diana Gleason launched DG Consulting Services inside of the COVID-19 pandemic after working for a bookkeeping firm for 6 years. Nationally established, Diana, helps creatives in business put organization around their internal bookkeeping and accounting practices. Diana truly believes the numbers tell the story of your business. She works alongside business owner’s serving as their CFO and finance coach, while empowering them with their numbers to help them grow the business of their dreams. Diana’s consistent work ethic, reliability, and upbeat attitude that anything is possible has made her a sought-out leader within her industry.
Diana Gleason
Deputy Director at the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt University’s Innovation Center and the CEO of fashion technology company Couture Technologies
Deanna began Couture Technologies, alongside her cofounder Dr. Marcelino Rodriguez-Cancio, to empower direct-to-consumer fashion and workwear apparel brands with virtual try on technology, 3D garment creation services, and enhanced data analytics designed to reduce returns and increase conversion rates. Couture Technologies is a National Science Foundation funded company that was recognized as one of the Top 9 tech startups in the world during the 2021 Olympics of Tech and the 2022 Most Innovative Apparel Sales Software Company.
Deanna is a successful tech entrepreneur and inventor that describes herself as never meeting a challenge she didn’t like. Her love of problem solving and the ability to develop solutions that impact the lives of people has driven each of her business ventures. She started her first company during graduate school and grew it to multiple physical locations in 2 states until it was acquired by a larger company. After selling this company, she spent 7 years conducting rigorous education and juvenile justice research for Vanderbilt’s Peabody Research Institute (PRI). During her time at PRI, she was the resident innovator and developed a paperless data collection system for collecting assessment and observational data in the field. This system has been featured in multiple articles and colloquia, including the Institute of Education Science’s showcase entitled, “Using Technology in Research”, and is now in use at other universities across the U.S., South Africa, Portugal, Australia and Sweden. In 2017, she joined 3 other inventors to develop Chalk Coaching, a tool for improving classroom experiences for preschool children through observation and data-driven coaching. The development of Chalk was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Deanna is the recipient of the Unsung Hero award for her work with underserved youth, as well as the Young Alumni Achievement Award from her undergraduate university for her innovations (the highest honor the university bestows on alumni under the age of 40, out of over 400 nominees).
Over the last 5 years, she has taught 15 cohorts of aspiring entrepreneurs and mentored over 400 teams as they evaluated new technologies and launched new ventures. Deanna really enjoys working with creators, inventors, and entrepreneurs that dedicate their lives and talents to making a positive impact in the world.
Deanna Meador
Senior vice president of marketing and public relations of Legends Bank
A Tennessee native, Britney Campbell is a graduate of Austin Peay State University and currently lives in Nashville with her furbaby, Gertie.
She has served on many local boards and committees including the Clarksville YMCA, Manna Cafe, Roxy Regional Theatre, Leadership Clarksville, Clarksville Chamber of Commerce, Visit Clarksville, and Austin Peay’s Governors Club. Campbell is also a graduate of both Leadership Clarksville (2006) and Leadership Middle Tennessee (2019).
Britney received the Spirit Award (2011) and Distinguished Alumni Award in Community Service (2018) from her alma mater, Austin Peay State University.
With a 22-year career at Legends, Britney has been actively engaged in the community, using the power of intentional, authentic connection to build a bridge between women and banking beyond the transaction.
With her banking experience and passion for championing women, she was inspired to co-create Legends Bank's newest brand for women, Her Bank, which launched in May of 2021.
Britney Campbell
Brielle Cotterman will speak on curating connections, publicity and celebrity for entrepreneurs called to share their story and make a difference. Her Clients have been seen in/on Forbes, Entrepreneur, NBC, ABC, Good House Keeping, Better Homes & Gardens & more.
Brielle Cotterman
Bonnie Kirby is the founder of Well-Dressed Nashville, an online elevated closet sale featuring the closets of Nashville’s most stylish and influential women. A portion of each sale at Well-Dressed Nashville directly benefits Tennessee Kids Belong, a Tennessee foster care initiative bettering the lives of foster families and children in foster care. Bonnie spent the last decade working as a pediatric hematology/oncology nurse, but she has chosen to fully focus on her new entrepreneurial pursuits. Bonnie is a Nashville native, wife, mother to three children, and a lover of all things fashion.
Bonnie Kirby
Alyson Campbell is the CEO & Founder of Heart & Soul PR, Inc., based in Los Angeles, California, founded in 2015. With her 18 years of experience in PR/marketing, she has served Fortune 500 clients from Mercedes-Benz to Procter & Gamble, to Hewlett-Packard, the Timberland Company, and more, and founded Heart & Soul PR to provide opportunities for emerging brands to develop and grow their business.
Her mission is to bring back the humanity in business and ultimately change the way business is done. She focuses on working with brands to grow their visibility and reach new levels of success with her expertise across a range of PR/marketing services and support, including strategic business counsel, brand strategy,
thought leadership, media relations, social strategy, partnerships and celebrity/influencer relations. She is proudly woman-owned and operated and has a fully woman-powered team.
She is the recipient of PR Week Awards’ “PR Innovation of the Year”; SABRE Award for “PR Agency Initiative”; and Ragan’s PR Daily Nonprofit PR Award among other honors and contributes to Comm.Pro Biz. She has been featured in InStyle, Uproxx, Thrive Global, Authority Magazine, The Pop-Marketer Podcast, New York Times, PRWeek and more.
Alyson Campbell
Allison Manning-Carroll, a Nashville native and entrepreneur, is the founder and managing attorney of Manning Carroll Law LLC. MCL is a boutique virtual law firm that helps other entrepreneurs and small businesses legally protect their companies and brands.
Prior to launching Manning Carroll Law, Allison spent several years as a trial attorney for the world’s largest retailer and also focused on litigating family law disputes. Now, Allison brings her business and legal sharpness to work with small businesses on entity formation and corporate structure and planning, legal risk management, and brand protection through the use of trademarks, contracts, and dispute resolution. Allison also works with small businesses and their owners on business succession and estate planning.
Allison is passionate about working with small business owners to help them establish solid foundations for the growth and protection of their companies. As a virtual law firm, MCL makes legal services more approachable and accessible by providing streamlined legal services virtually. This innovative approach enables MCL to work with clients throughout the state of Tennessee and trademark clients nationwide. In addition to advising Manning Carroll’s clients, Allison regularly provides pro bono legal services throughout the Middle Tennessee area as a volunteer attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands and various bar associations.
Allison received her law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law after receiving her undergraduate degree from Tennessee State University. She is licensed to practice law in all Tennessee State Courts, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Allison is a current member of the American Bar Association and the Napier-Looby Bar Association.
Allison Manning - Carroll
Coined the judgment-free bookkeeper, Diana Gleason launched DG Consulting Services during the COVID-19 pandemic after working for a bookkeeping firm for 6 years. Nationally established, Diana, helps creatives in business put organization around their internal bookkeeping and accounting practices. Diana truly believes the numbers tell the story of your business. She works alongside business owners serving as their CFO and finance coach, while empowering them with their numbers to help them grow the business of their dreams.
Diana’s consistent work ethic, reliability, and upbeat attitude that anything is possible have made her a sought-after leader within her industry.