The Executive Appeal with Alex D. Tremble

Geoff is a 30-year career Coast Guard veteran where he held two commands, led the Performance Excellence Program, chaired the Commandant’s Innovation Council, and served as the first CG/DHS Fellow at the Homeland Security Institute. As an Excellence in Government (EIG) Senior Fellow, EIG co-coach and Partnership for Public Service Leadership Alumni Board member (18 years, two as Chair), he has led several workshops on leading change “from the middle.” Geoff recently launched his first leadership book, Unauthorized Progress – Leading ‘from the Middle’: Stories and Proven Strategies for Making Meaningful Impacts on this topic which he often speaks and writes about. Unauthorized Progress was a #1 Best-Seller in two Kindle eBook categories and the #1 New Release in four Amazon/Kindle categories. He currently serves as a senior faculty member teaching leadership for a federal agency. Geoff holds a Doctorate in Business Administration (Thesis: Improving Organizational Performance Through Innovation and Empowering the Workforce) and earned two MIT engineering graduate degrees. A Professional Engineer, Geoff served as a national director of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) and is a founding director of MIT’s Military Alumni Association. Military awards include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal (4) and CG Commendation Medal (2); other honors include the EIG Senior Fellows Community Award, Analytic Services’ Platt Award for Authors, SEC’s Veterans Charity Award, and SAME’s Academy of Fellows. 

Dr. Joynicole Martinez is CEO of The Alchemist Agency, a management consulting firm serving leading executives, corporations, and organizations. Dr. Martinez has over 20 years of experience providing capacity-building services, including strategic planning and organizational design with a focus on leadership and executive training and coaching, performance and change management, fund development and impact measurement.  In addition to her extensive work in the healthcare industry in compliance, patient experience, interoperability, multidisciplinary team building, diversity & inclusion training, and board development, Joynicole has developed projects and garnered funding for initiatives that reach across the housing and education industries to strengthen population health and wellness. Her grant writing has won millions of dollars toward advancing the community serving missions of her clients.  Dr. Martinez is an award winning speaker and trainer and has presented at numerous local, state, and federal conferences. Her list of clients includes the Health Care Compliance Association, Microsoft Corporation, Wells Fargo, Women Economic Forum, Ritz Paris, North Carolina Association of Certified Professional Accountants, Ellevate, NASDAQ, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, American Veterans Association, and Women Influence Community. Joynicole has trained executives across North and South America and in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Russia, United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean. As a champion for equity and social justice, Dr. Martinez serves as the Director of Research for the World Woman Foundation and the Jordan Institute for Leadership and Social Justice. Dr. Martinez is a featured member on SheSource, an online brain trust of female experts on diverse topics designed to serve journalists, producers, and booking agents. She is an inaugural member of the Peace50 (P50) Community, an engagement group that proposes policy recommendations related to peace. As contributor to the invitation only Forbes Coaches Council, she provides expert advice on leadership, management, and business innovation. Dr. Martinez serves as the United States Chair for Housing and Development for the All Ladies League (India), is the US Ambassador for Diplomatic World Magazine and is a staff contributor to North Carolina’s oldest minority owned newspaper, The Carolinian. 

René Redwood, CEO of Redwood Enterprise LLC, directs initiatives resulting in judicial, legislative, commercial, and political wins for public and private sector organizations, and non-profit organizations. For over 25 years, she has led strategic initiatives on equity and fairness, facilitated discourse on the business advantage of diversity, promotes policies and practices that value the human resource as an asset, and applied research and experience that offer solutions to reduce risk from and in organizational cultures. Redwood Enterprise provides services that mitigate barriers to inclusion; foster cultures to enhance performance in the workplace and respectful presence in markets or community; improve workforce and customer satisfaction; and promote measures for organizational accountability and societal impact. The Redwood Enterprise proven systems and methodologies transform workspaces and communities by building and restoring trust with internal customers and external constituents. Ms. Redwood has been recognized for her expertise in cultural change; leadership development; strategic plans for racial justice, gender equity, addressing and preventing sexual harassment; and the impact of unconscious and systemic bias on individual and institutional success. She is often described as smart, strategic and energetic, and has been featured in Time Magazine, Elle, Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise, American Editor, etc. Ms. Redwood moved from chemist to thought leader through her executive leadership for a prominent polling and research firm; the Presidential Glass Ceiling Commission (Civil Rights Act of 1991, Title II); a coalition of leading legal defense organizations; congressional district offices; and political operations for a national party. She served on a court appointed Task Force to oversee a Fortune 100 corporation’s compliance with a historic discrimination settlement agreement, rang the closing bell at NASDAQ as SME on business case for gender parity, and currently chairs the Equality Task Force for a security agency. René Redwood has been honored as a Freedom’s Sister for "continuing the legacy of African American women for courageous, spirited trailblazing that has helped to shape our country" by Ford Motor Company Fund and Smithsonian Institute, and received the “Women-Owned Business, Servant Leadership Award”. She serves on the Investment Committee for Ms. Foundation for Women; Advisory Board of Women in Technology International; Board Chair Emeritus of NARAL Pro-Choice America; the Advisory Board for the WNBA Washington Mystics; and on the Congressional Black Caucus Scholarship Committee for Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Mr. Brailsford is co-founder and CEO of Brailsford & Dunlavey. He is nationally recognized for his innovation in the application of market and financial analysis to the programming and development of auxiliary facilities in higher education—such as student housing, campus unions, and recreation—as well as intercollegiate and professional sport facilities, and recreation and entertainment venues. He has provided planning and management services for hundreds of clients.Initially known for his unique quantitative approaches, over the years Mr. Brailsford shared his experiences and ideas in dozens of articles and workshops, and at national conferences and symposia including Society of College & University Planners, Harvard Graduate School of Design, National Association of College & University Business Officers, Athletic Business, National Intramural Recreational Sports Association, National Association of Collegiate Auxiliary Services, Association of College & University Housing Officers-International, and Council for Urban Economic Development.Today, Mr. Brailsford is focused on institutional strategy and operational efficiency for colleges and universities. He spends most of his time innovating, so the firm’s methodology remains fresh. Still engaged in his work, though, and always dedicated to mentoring staff throughout the firm—including B&D’s more senior advisors—Mr. Brailsford keeps his hand in about four to six projects at a time. He greatly enjoys working on the more complex, cutting-edge projects, and working with long-standing clients—including those who have been working with B&D for decades now.

Michael “Mick” Patrick Mulroy is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, a retired Paramilitary Operations Officer in the CIA, and a retired U.S. Marine. He is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, an Analyst for ABC News, on the board of directors for Grassroots Reconciliation Group, a co-founder of End Child Soldiering,  and the co-founder of the  Lobo Institute.

CHARLENE DREW JARVIS, PhDIn her long and distinguished career, CHARLENE DREW JARVIS has held positions as a neuroscientist, legislator and university president.She received a BS from Oberlin College (1962), an MS from Howard University (1964), and a PhD in Neuropsychology (1971) from the University of Maryland, all the while balancing the demands of a wife and mother of two active young boys. Dr. Jarvis’ educational background led to a career as a neuroscientist at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. (1971-1978). Her research with co-investigators appeared in scientific publications such as the Annals of Neurology; Neuroscience Abstracts; Brain Research, the Journal of Neurophysiology, and Brain, Behavior and Evolution.Responding to the need to help re-build the economy of Washington, DC after the riots following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Councilmember Jarvis ran for public office and was elected 6 times to the Council of the District of Columbia (1979-2000). Her work as Chair of the Committee on Economic Development for more than 20 years was pioneering. The Housing Production Trust Fund, The Washington Convention Center, the Verizon Center, Business Improvement Districts, Tax Increment Financing, and legislative initiatives designed to prevent red-lining by commercial banks stand as important, and collaborative, contributions.Dr. Jarvis was appointed in 1996 as president of Southeastern University, founded by the YMCA in 1879. True to the mission of the YMCA, her goal was to give students both theoretical and practical applications of knowledge. Thirteen years later, in 2009, she orchestrated a unique merger of the University with the USDA Graduate School in Washington, DC.The Honorable Charlene Drew Jarvis was named one of the most powerful women in Washington by "Washingtonian Magazine” in 1989, 1994, and 2007 and by "The Washington Business Journal" in 1985.Jarvis’ legacy as the daughter of Dr. Charles R. Drew, the blood bank pioneer, has given her a special perspective as an advocate for science and health education. In her association with the American Red Cross, Dr. Jarvis has traveled to many Red Cross and Bone Marrow sites around the nation to speak about her father’s accomplishments and to encourage the participation of minority blood and marrow donors. Among her treasured awards, on 2014 Dr. Jarvis was given an award for her service from the Washington, DC Chapter of the American Red Cross.Dr. Jarvis is the recipient of more than 100 awards for her leadership, including honorary doctorates from Amherst College, George Washington University, Oberlin College, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from Howard University. Charlene Drew Jarvis is valued for her analytical skills, intellectual rigor, probing questions, and pragmatic approach to problem solving. These traits made her advisory contributions much in demand by dozens of major organizations and commissions. Describing herself now as the “working” retired, Dr. Jarvis serves or has served during this period: on the Executive Committee of the Federal City Council, with its Executive Director, former Mayor Anthony Williams;on The Advisory Committee of the Newseum;as Senior Advisor to the Jarvis Company, LLC and Jarvis Commercial Real Estateon the Board of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohioon the Board at Edmund Burke, an Independent Schoolas a Senior Advisor to a charter school with high performing students, KIPP DC;on the Transition Committee of Mayor Muriel Bowseron the board of the University of the District of Columbia until 2024on the Cross-Sector Task Force on Charter and DC Public Schools led by Deputy Mayor for Education 2017-2019Co-chair, with American University President Sylvia Burwell, of Mayor Bowser’s Our Schools Leadership Committee to make recommendations for the selection of the next Chancellor of the District of Columbia. Public Schools. 2018on the Advisory Committee of the Institute of Policy, Politics and History (IPPH) at the University of the District of Columbia; established by UDC President Ronald Mason, former Mayor Sharon Pratt and Mayor Muriel Bowser, in 2018.Board member of the Washington Housing Conservancy of the Federal City Council 2018.Co-chair Education sub-committee Re-Open DC Advisory Committee 2020Dr. Jarvis is the mother of the late Peter David, and Ernest Drew Jarvis (Debbi Lockhart Jarvis) and grandmother to EJ and Jacob Jarvis.In 2013, her second marriage was to Dr. DeMaurice Moses, a retired pediatrician with whom the respective families shared summers in a beach community outside of Annapolis, Md.

Jason Briefel is a partner at Shaw Bransford & Roth, P.C. (SB&R), where he leads the firm’s government and public affairs department, providing legislative and organizational representation and strategic advice to nonprofits and corporations.Mr. Briefel joined SB&R in 2012 to work in the firm's government affairs department, quickly advancing through successive roles with expanding responsibility. He is a regular host of the firm’s podcast, FEDtalk on Federal News Network, and is Editor of the FEDmanager and FEDagent weekly e-report newsletters.He is the Director of Policy and Outreach for the Senior Executives Association (SEA), responsible for the association’s policy platform, strategic engagement with corporate, NGO, and government partners, and SEA member professional development programming. He served as the SEA Executive Director from September 2016 to April 2020, and served as SEA Interim President from February-September 2016.Mr. Briefel is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Public Policy Committee. He is also a Director on the Board of the Federal Employees Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), currently serving as Treasurer.Prior to joining SB&R, Mr. Briefel worked in Congress for a member of the North Carolina delegation and interned with the DC-based think tank Third Way. He also served as a research assistant and project manager for the FireChasers, a collaborative research endeavor between the U.S. Forest Service and North Carolina State University.Mr. Briefel holds a B.A. from the University of Richmond and an M.S. from North Carolina State University.

Kellie Adesina serves as Director of Government Affairs at Bayer where she is responsible for crop science issues like gene editing, biotech regulation and approvals, biostimulants, oilseeds, vegetables, and food security. Prior to joining Bayer, she served as Chief Counsel on the House Agriculture Committee for Chairman Collin C. Peterson. In this capacity, she successfully drafted several provisions that were included in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. She also provided strategic and legal counsel to the Chairman and other Democratic Members of the Committee. Before joining the House Agriculture Committee, Kellie was Senior Counselor in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In this role, she served as the chief of staff to the General Counsel and provided legal advice and services regarding the broad range of activities at USDA. Prior to USDA, Kellie was Legislative Director to Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio where she developed and implemented the Congresswoman’s legislative agenda, as well as managed the legislative staff. She also guided the Congresswoman through the 2014 Farm Bill Conference Committee negotiations. Additionally, Kellie has worked for Congresswoman Judy Chu of California as Legislative Counsel and in various roles for Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, her home state. Kellie holds a Juris Doctor from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Bethune-Cookman College. In her spare time she serves as a mentor and volunteers through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc

Dr. Linda L. SinghFormer Adjutant General of MarylandRet. Major General Linda L. Singh was appointed as The 29th Adjutant General of Maryland in January 2015. In the role she was responsible for the daily operations of the Maryland Military Department, which includes the Maryland Army National Guard, Maryland Air National Guard, Maryland Emergency Management Agency, and Maryland Defense Force. She was also a senior advisor to the governor and was responsible for the readiness, administration, and training of more than 6,700 members of the Military Department with an annual budget of more than $314 million. As The Adjutant General, she served as the official channel of communication between the governor and the National Guard Bureau and served as a member of the governor’s cabinet.Dr. Singh is currently the CEO of Kaleidoscope Affect, LLC. where she personally mentors, coaches and speaks on leadership, diversity, adversity, career transition and issues that plague women and veterans in the workplace. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Strategic Studies and a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is the author of “Moments of Choice: My path to leadership” and “What’s in Your Box” which is schedule for early 2020 release. Dr. Singh is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Gallup Strengths Coach and John Maxwell certified trainer and speaker. She has received numerous awards, among them are the 2013 Diversity MBA Top 100 under 50 Diverse Emerging Leaders, The Network Journal 25 Influential Black Women in Business Award for 2014 and recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for 2015. She was also inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in March 2015. She was also featured on the Today Show for her history making leadership team and named as one of InStyle’s Badass 50 in July 2019.  

Troy LeMaile-Stovall. As CEO and Executive Director of TEDCO—Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies—Troy leads the organization’s mission to support economic development growth through the fostering of an inclusive entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem. He leverages his expertise from over 25 years in the fields of investment management, higher education, telecommunications, information/communication technology, management consulting, and non-profit leadership/management. Prior to joining TEDCO, Troy served as Chief Operating Officer at the University of the District of Columbia. He also founded and serves as Managing Member of LeMaile Stovall LLC, a management consulting firm focused on strategy, operational performance and capital stack formation. Troy was Interim President for Zenith Education Group, a $400M+, 56-campus career education system. He was a Principal with Butler Snow Advisory Services, serving higher education clients. He has also worked at senior levels in higher education as EVP/COO at Howard University and Sr. VP/CFO at Jackson State University. He co-founded and operated as the first President/CEO of GulfSouth Capital, Ambassador John N. Palmer’s (Skytel founder) multi-million dollar family investment office; he served global technology and telecommunications clients as a Sr. Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co.; and held positions at Southwestern Bell Telephone (now AT&T), Bell Labs and Rockwell International. Troy earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University cum laude, a master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.A triathlete, Troy is married to the former Sonya L Wiggins, a marathon runner, and they are parents of two honor roll, championship-level cross-country runners and competitive swimmers, Zora Lauren and Langston Anthony.