2025 Girlhood Summit: Be Unapologetically You

Ann Bancroft is a celebrated polar explorer, educator, and philanthropist. As the first woman to cross both the North and South Poles, she has inspired countless individuals to pursue their dreams, no matter the obstacles.

Ann is the founder of the Ann Bancroft Foundation, where she continues to empower young women to reach their full potential. 

Ethelind is passionate about many things and wears many hats with one purpose: to spark in others the same curiosity about advancing human equity, potential, and dignity that motivates her work and life.

As the Executive Director of the Ann Bancroft Foundation since 2021, Ethelind champions its vision—a world in which all who identify as a girl have a chance to live their dream and reach their full potential.

Ethelind is founder of The Stargirl Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering teen and tween girls, for which she was named a Changemaker by MN Women’s Press. She has also received recognition by Twin Cities Business as one of the “100 Top People of 2024,” and by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as one of “50 Black Leaders To Know.”

Ethelind offers her experience to several organizations, including The Jeremiah Program as a Board Member, and serves on the Board of Regents at Augsburg University.

Beverly Martinez is a dedicated advocate for social development in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, currently serving as the Youth Coordinator at Esperanza United. With a strong commitment to fostering healthy relationships and promoting mental health awareness among young people, Beverly plays a pivotal role in facilitating these discussions and initiatives within her community.

Before joining Esperanza United in November 2021, Beverly was actively involved in human rights advocacy and youth empowerment programs in the Bloomington District. Her experience and passion for empowering youth have equipped her with valuable insights into effective community engagement and the importance of inclusivity in decision-making processes.

Driven by her aspiration to create a platform where young voices are heard and valued, Beverly continues to advocate for social equity and positive youth development in her role at Esperanza United. Her journey underscores her dedication to making a meaningful impact on the lives of young people in Minnesota.

Gigi Chawla, MD, MHA, pediatrician, is the Chief of General Pediatrics at Children's Minnesota.

In her professional role, she has oversight over primary care, rehabilitation services, and mental, developmental, and behavioral health, including the development of an inpatient mental health pediatric unit and partial hospitalization mental health programs.

Dr. Chawla is often called upon by the media for her pediatric expertise and is a regular contributor to the Minnesota Parents column and WCCO's segment, "Ask the Pediatrician."

Gursimrat Dahry is a nationally recognized collegiate speaker with five national titles in competitive speech. She currently serves as a two-term President of the University of Minnesota Speech Team and as the circuit's senior national student representative. 

Beyond competition, she hosts the podcast Women in Forensics, amplifying stories of gender equity in the activity, and coaches high school speakers at Shakopee High School.

Having seen firsthand how speech and debate shape confidence, sharpen critical thinking, and empower civic leadership, Gursimrat advocates for younger students to become public speakers to champion what matters to them. 

Heritage Aluko (she/her) is a senior at Visitation School, an all-girls school in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. She is the founder of Impact Future Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping and empowering young women of color through mentorship. She developed her non-profit through the Women’s Foundation Innovator’s program.  At Visitation School, Heritage leads as the captain of the Students of Color Society (SOCS), which works to foster inclusion and build a close-knit community across campus by leading initiatives that celebrate diversity. A dedicated musician, Heritage plays the saxophone, piano, and flute and plays in a jazz band, marching band, and concert band. She also contributes to her Church’s music ministry and Dechantle music ministry in singing.

Additionally, she is a member of the Leadership Ambassador team at her school, where she works alongside her peers to amplify the voices of other students and plan initiatives. In her free time, Heritage loves to write poetry that has been published in the lit mag at her school and was a competitor in the MN Poetry Out Loud competition. Heritage strives to uplift Young Women to lead with courage, resilience, and purpose. 

Jecinta Scott is Associate Director Medical Science Liaison at Novartis specializing in Radioligand and radiopharmaceutical cancer therapy. With 17 years of experience in clinical and translational research focused on hematology and oncology, she supports healthcare providers with clinical and scientific information. 

Before joining Novartis, she was the Senior Medical Science Liaison at Exact Sciences, where she focused on cancer screening, early detection, and ctDNA. Jecinta has 4 years of experience in biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Before that, she was the Oncology Site Development Director at the University of Kansas Cancer Center, where she served as the primary liaison between pharmaceutical sponsors and institutional providers to build relationships and interactions to grow their oncology clinical and preclinical disease-specific trial portfolios. Before that, she was the Enterprise Director of Hematology and Oncology Research across the Sanford Health footprint in SD, ND, and MN, where she had oversight of clinical research strategy and operations. 

She is also a Board member of the West African Institute for Liver and Digestive Disease. 

She holds a PhD in Health Sciences focused on cancer risk factors and a master’s degree in Biology Medical Sciences. 

Jennifer Baldwin is the Vice President of Capstone Programs, Junior Achievement (JA) North. Jennifer has spent more than 16 years with JA North, enhancing and expanding impactful programs, including JA BizTown and JA Finance Park.

Before JA, Jennifer spent years as a classroom teacher and has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of St. Thomas.

Jennifer is committed to experiential learning and providing equitable opportunities for all students across our state to thrive.

Jess Smith Chuya is an eighth grader at Columbia Academy who joined Esperanza United through the Youth Leadership Training this past summer. Since then, she has demonstrated strong leadership and a commitment to uplifting her community. Outside of school and leadership activities, Jess enjoys playing volleyball and staying active with her peers.

Jorja Wodziak is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth in Law, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to creating accessible mentorship opportunities for high school students interested in law. Under her leadership, Youth in Law has grown from a local initiative to a multi-chapter organization across the Midwest, connecting students with judges, attorneys, and legal professionals through mentorships, court viewing programs, and hands-on workshops.

Beyond her nonprofit work, Jorja is pursuing her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with the goal of becoming an attorney. She is passionate about closing the networking gap in the legal field and ensuring that students from all backgrounds have the resources and guidance to explore careers in law.

Dr. Karen Ruth-Jarmon is the Capstone Outreach Manager for Junior Achievement North.

She resigned from Farnsworth Aerospace Upper Middle School in June 2022 to begin her retirement after nine years of teaching. For more than 25 years, she held various management positions in veterinary vaccine production, cleanroom validation, and 13 years in various leadership positions within Medtronic, Inc.

While at Medtronic, she was instrumental in achieving regulatory approval for several pacemakers in the challenging Japanese market. She was also the first African American to lead a team of engineers in the company’s history.

Dr. Ruth-Jarmon is the president of the Association of Black Women in Higher Education for the Minnesota chapter and serves as the Financial Secretary for the National Committee.

Dr. RJ’s love of science was encouraged by her parents, a Methodist minister and a housewife. Her passion is to spread that love to as many young people of color as possible.

In addition to her professional career, Dr. RJ is wife to Jeffrie and mother to Jamaal. Her hobbies include tennis, watching Marvel movies, and dancing.

Karlyn Coleman is an award-winning writer, teacher, and creative collaborator based in Minneapolis.

She is the author of the picture books The Great Get-Together and Where Are All the Minnesotans? from the Minnesota Historical Society Press. Under her pen name, K.R. Coleman, she has written nine young adult novels for Lerner’s Darby Creek Series. Her short stories have won awards and appear in Sycamore Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Water~Stone Review, Paper Darts, Revolver, and Crab Orchard Review. Her honors include a Sustainable Arts Grant, a Minnesota Emerging Writers Grant, and a Loft Literary Center Mentor Series award.

A former high school teacher and bookseller, she loves connecting people of all ages to the books they’ll love to read. She has taught all ages from children to seniors, has served on the Loft Literary Center Board of Directors, and works with aspiring writers. She believes in the power of stories.

Katy Martin is a yoga instructor at YogaFit Studios. She considers herself a free spirit. She is a student, artist, friend, and healer. She believes that it is essential to heal the mind and body together. Her discovery into her own spirit and energy has moved her to practice yoga through community healing.

She loves to gather with groups of individuals from all backgrounds to curate a warming collective of energies and healing. In her free time, you may see her hiking, paddleboarding, reading a good book, or studying.

YogaFit Studios in Minneapolis has three local studios. They offer YogaFlow 1, YogaFlow 2, Restore, Barre, Burn, and HIIT classes. Their mission is to make yoga and fitness accessible to everyone. They pride themselves on being affordable and welcoming.  Visit www.yogafitstudios.com to get a free week pass to try them out.

Lily is a 12-year-old hockey player who has learned that the game is about more than just wins and losses—it’s about courage, joy, and showing up for your team. From unforgettable moments like a surprise snowball fight before a big tournament to the nerves of trying out for new teams, she has discovered that girlhood on the ice is powerful, messy, and full of lessons that go far beyond the rink.

Her talk, “Snowballs, Skates, and Showing Up Anyway,” celebrates the rise of girls in hockey and the importance of being brave enough to take your shot—on the ice and in life.

Maitreya Reeder is an 18-year-old student activist from Minneapolis and the Executive Director, Youth Voter Project & Minnesota Youth Secretary of State. She is an advocate for overdose prevention and youth representation in politics, and received the Ann Bancroft Grant in 2025 to attend a national legislative debate conference.

At 17, Reeder led the Students Committed to Overdose Prevention and Education (SCOPE) initiative, passing HF2023, a bill addressing overdose prevention and response training in health class curriculum. She also leads statewide nonprofit the Youth Voter Project, preregistering thousands of students to vote each year through voter drives in high schools across Minnesota, and serves as the Minnesota Youth Secretary of state with the YMCA’s Youth in Government.

She is dedicated to youth civic engagement, and believes that citizens should not need to be older or more educated to be participants in democracy- they need to be informed. 

Morgan Kerfeld is a serial entrepreneur, strategist, and educator passionate about driving innovation and empowering the next generation of changemakers.

As Associate Director of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota, she designs experiential courses and co-curricular programs that inspire students to launch and grow their own ventures.

Outside the classroom, Morgan is actively building her third startup, TELO, which is transforming the landscape of mobility aids with the first major innovations in over 40 years.

In her work, Morgan aims to bridge cutting-edge entrepreneurship with tangible social impact to make meaningful change both in the classroom and the world.

Taylor Jasper is the Susan and Rob White Associate Curator, Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center. Grounded in Black Studies’ interdisciplinary rigor and civic imagination, she approaches curating as public scholarship—research-driven, hospitable, and attentive to how race, gender, sexuality, class, and place intersect.

Artist-driven and practice-based, Jasper works collaboratively across media, foregrounding process, co-authorship, and durable relationships, and mobilizes exhibitions as platforms for research, pedagogy, and civic exchange.

Since joining the Walker in 2023, her curatorial projects and exhibitions have included This Must Be the Place (2024), a reinstallation of the Walker’s permanent collection; Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon (2024); and Kandis Williams: A Surface (2025).

From 2020 to 2023, Jasper served as Curatorial Associate, Visual and Performing Arts at the Momentary (affiliated with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art), supporting exhibitions including Yvette Mayorga: What a Time to be (2022), Cauleen Smith: Space Station: Radiant Behind the Sun (2021), Diana Al-Hadid: As in the Trade Winds (2021), and Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody (2021).

Prior to the Momentary, she was a Curatorial Research Assistant at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, contributing to the exhibition and catalogue The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse.

Jasper was born and raised in Richmond, VA, and received her BA in Black Studies and Art History from the College of William & Mary in 2018.

Zia Raukar is a high school senior and founder of AEDs for Athletes, a youth-led nonprofit she launched after a teammate collapsed during a lacrosse tournament. Since then, she has helped integrate training into local health curricula and partnered with the National Federation of State High School Associations to create an educational video reaching athletes nationwide.

Beyond her nonprofit, Zia serves as a state officer for Business Professionals of America, directs youth engagement and public relations for the Rochester Community Initiative, and is the Student Body President at her school. She is also a swim team captain and a nationally ranked speech competitor. Zia believes society often conditions young women to feel they must continually prove their worth, and she is committed to reframing that narrative by fostering confidence, authenticity, and belonging.