JOURNEY Co-Founder
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Nina began her journey on the beaches of Southern California, where big dreams swirled as she took in the vast and haunting beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Journalism—combining a love of writing with a front-row seat in the theater of public life—became her calling at UC Berkeley. She co-wrote a best-selling book on a U.S. President at age 24, went on to cover the business and fame of Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times, and finally found her groove at the paper’s Sunday Magazine, The Boston Globe, and as Fortune’s Washington editor—writing about policy, politics, and the people behind both. Along the way, she had three kids, wrote a book, taught at the Harvard Kennedy School—and discovered a new passion: empowering global women leaders. As chair of Fortune Most Powerful Women International, Nina was inspired by women leaders in Hong Kong, Toronto, London, and Paris. At the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), she helped launch a program to amplify the voices of women in global security. And now, in addition to her leadership at multimedia company SellersEaston Media, Nina is excited to be building the lifelong network of support we call JOURNEY.
JOURNEY Co-Founder
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Pattie’s journey began in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and took her to the University of Virginia, where she created a magazine called Creator—her first stab at profiling leaders and innovators. Never imagining a career in business journalism, she fell into a job at a startup, The Washington Business Journal, and loved it because business leaders, she realized, can change the world. Two years later, Pattie landed an entry-level reporter job at Fortune, quickly moved up to writer, and built a reputation for procuring hard-to-get interviews and probing the humanity of leaders. Pattie pioneered deep coverage of women business leaders—a tiny club in 1998 when she co-founded Fortune Most Powerful Women. Over the next 22 years, Pattie led MPW, expanding it from a list to a conference to a community with events around the world. She co-founded (with Dina Powell McCormick) the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Mentoring Partnership and other programs to support women leaders. Prodded by many MPW to do her own thing, Pattie took the leap in 2016, co-founding SellersEaston Media with Nina Easton to tell stories of leadership and impact for prominent companies, non-profits, and people. Pattie is Co-CEO of SellersEaston. Her lifelong passion to connect and empower women leaders now continues with JOURNEY.
Executive Director / Founding Partner
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Julie’s journey started in Southern California, surrounded by supportive parents and family who cared more about others than themselves. This upbringing has been critical to the way she sees the world and the decisions she’s taken along the way. A passion for understanding others and seeing the world led to a focus on foreign policy, a Master’s from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a career in journalism. Julie spent a decade at Fortune, writing and editing. She also developed and ran Fortune’s Notebook Mentoring program for 10 years. Inspired by entrepreneurs she met along the way, Julie co-founded and ran Altruette, a social enterprise, for the next decade. Today, as JOURNEY’s Executive Director, she drives the organization’s strategy and operations, equipping the best women leaders of tomorrow to reach the top and scale their impact.
Founding Partner
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Nicole Didda’s journey began in New York City and continued in Brussels, where the seeds of her lifelong love of language were planted. She went on to attend the School of Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown before launching a 30-year career in communications. As an EVP and General Manager at Edelman, she headed the firm’s San Francisco office. She also served as a partner at Mercer Delta Consulting and later Chief Communications Officer at Skanska, a Fortune 500 construction and commercial real estate firm. Nicole joined SellersEaston in 2020, where she works with corporate clients and individual executives to hone their messages and vision and communicate their story to all stakeholders with impact and authenticity. A Founding Partner of JOURNEY, Nicole provides executive coaching, communications counseling, presentation training, and board placement support to Fellows.
Program Coordinator
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Mary’s journey began in Clear Brook, Virginia (pop. 3,259), where she discovered a love of creative leadership. Inspired by her late father’s dedication to serving their community, Mary worked on Capitol Hill while working towards her degree, which she obtained from James Madison University in a BS in writing, rhetoric and technical communications.
With her artistic talents, graphic design skills, and attention to detail, Mary constantly improves processes as she helps us build JOURNEY.
Director of Operations
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Sam’s journey began in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where her modest upbringing instilled humility, resilience, and a strong work ethic. Sam has spent her career supporting high-level executives in a range of fast-paced, demanding environments. Her diverse experience in law and sports, including her role as sponsorship coordinator for the Washington Bullets, Washington Capitals, and Washington Warthogs, honed her meticulous attention to detail, event planning creativity, and collaborative spirit. Sam’s can-do attitude, proactive approach, and dedication to teamwork make her an invaluable asset to the JOURNEY team.
EVP of Marketing, Communications and Customer Experience, Travelers
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Lisa honed her skills in media (Walt Disney and CBS) and government (as First Lady Hillary Clinton’s press secretary) before she moved to financial services, first at Citigroup (where she headed global marketing and public affairs) and then at Travelers, where she has been an EVP since 2011. Lisa is on the boards of Best Buy and the Travelers Foundation.”
Co-Founder, Flywheel Digital
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After serving as chief of staff to Maryland’s governor, Chip DiPaula
co-founded Flywheel Digital, a digital advertising and technology firm that is now part of London-based Ascential. In 2012, Chip helped lead Maryland’s successful marriage equality campaign, and later led sweeping governance and operations reforms as chair of the University of Maryland Medical System. Chip is on the board of WaveDancer, a Nasdaq-listed blockchain-based supply chain platform.
CEO, Institute for Education (IFE)
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Kathy rose to prominence – and earned the nickname “Coach” – as head of Georgetown University’s women’s tennis team. Over 30 years, she has coached celebrities, pro athletes, monarchs and ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, top presidential appointees, and members of Congress.
Coach founded IFE in 1992 to engage the global community to harness the power of soft diplomacy, innovation, data and technology. IFE partners with the University of Southern California on CS camps teaching machine learning and AI science to underserved youth around the world. Coach Kemper is a General Partner at her family office, Family Futures, LP. Other than “mom”, Kemper embraces being called “Coach!”
COO, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
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Gwen grew up on the South Side of Chicago with working class parents who deeply valued education. After graduating from Butler University in Indianapolis, Gwen worked in development at Marquette University and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. In 2011, she joined the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago as a deputy director. As COO since 2020, she has worked to increase access to art for people of color and other underrepresented groups and played a key role in remaking the 60-person MCA board to be one of the most diverse in the U.S. Gwen joined the JOURNEY board in 2023.
SVP And General Counsel, Gap Inc.
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Yolanda began her career at the law firm Morrison & Foerster and moved to Gap as a contract attorney in 2003. She was General Counsel of Athleta—a Gap brand focused on “igniting the limitless potential of all women and girls”—and Gap Inc.’s Deputy General Counsel before being named SVP and General Counsel in early 2023. Yolanda also co-leads Gap’s Legal Diversity Committee. On a mission to make paths smoother for those behind her, she has developed initiatives to provide jobs for attorneys who tend to be overlooked in traditional recruiting. Yolanda was a 2022-23 JOURNEY Fellow and joined the JOURNEY board upon finishing the year-long program.
CEO, Teach For America
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Straight out of college, Elisa joined Teach For America as a corps member and taught first and second grade bilingual education in South Phoenix. Hooked on TFA’s mission to advance educational equity, she led the non-profit’s work in her hometown in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, rose quickly to COO, and became CEO in 2015. Based in Houston, Elisa now oversees a network of more than 65,000 TFA corps members and alumni working in over 300 communities across the U.S. She is on the board of edtech company GoGuardian.
JOURNEY Co-Founder
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Nina began her journey on the beaches of Southern California, where big dreams swirled as she took in the vast and haunting beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Journalism—combining a love of writing with a front-row seat in the theater of public life—became her calling at UC Berkeley.
She co-wrote a best-selling book on a U.S. President at age 24, went on to cover the business and fame of Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times, and finally found her groove at the paper’s Sunday Magazine, The Boston Globe, and as Fortune’s Washington editor—writing about policy, politics, and the people behind both. Along the way, she had three kids, wrote a book, taught at the Harvard Kennedy School—and discovered a new passion: empowering global women leaders. As chair of Fortune Most Powerful Women International, Nina was inspired by women leaders in Hong Kong, Toronto, London, and Paris. At the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), she helped launch a program to amplify the voices of women in global security. And now, in addition to her leadership at multimedia company SellersEaston Media, Nina is excited to be building the lifelong network of support we call JOURNEY.
JOURNEY Co-Founder
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Pattie’s journey began in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and took her to the University of Virginia, where she created a magazine called Creator—her first stab at profiling leaders and innovators. Never imagining a career in business journalism, she fell into a job at a startup, The Washington Business Journal, and loved it because business leaders, she realized, can change the world. Two years later, Pattie landed an entry-level reporter job at Fortune, quickly moved up to writer, and built a reputation for procuring hard-to-get interviews and probing the humanity of leaders. Pattie pioneered deep coverage of women business leaders—a tiny club in 1998 when she co-founded Fortune Most Powerful Women. Over the next 22 years, Pattie led MPW, expanding it from a list to a conference to a community with events around the world. She co-founded (with Dina Powell McCormick) the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Mentoring Partnership and other programs to support women leaders. Prodded by many MPW to do her own thing, Pattie took the leap in 2016, co-founding SellersEaston Media with Nina Easton to tell stories of leadership and impact for prominent companies, non-profits, and people. Pattie is Co-CEO of SellersEaston. Her lifelong passion to connect and empower women leaders now continues with JOURNEY.