The Way She Leads Co-Authors:
Nyla Allen is a wellness entrepreneur, leadership mentor, and CEO of two award-winning businesses in Reno, Nevada: Dolce Vita Wellness & Medical Spa and The Refuge Spa. For more than a decade, she has built multimillion-dollar companies rooted in a simple belief: sustainable leadership begins with self-awareness.Working at the intersection of integrative wellness, functional health, and nervous system regulation, Nyla helps high-achieving women reconnect with their bodies and reclaim self-trust. Her work challenges conventional views of wellness, emphasizing awareness, alignment, and internal clarity as foundations for leadership.Through speaking, mentorship, and innovation in wellness, Nyla empowers women to lead from wholeness, resilience, and purpose.
Odette Rose Cessna is the founder of The Power of One Institute™ and creator of The Somatic Sequencing Method™ and the BEST Modality™ (Breath, Energy, Sound, Touch). Her work centers on leadership through regulation, structure, and sustainable capacity. Drawing from lived experience across education, recovery, and workforce development, she develops practical frameworks that help individuals and systems stabilize under pressure and rebuild functional design. She translates invisible labor into viable leadership language, reframing leadership as what a person can hold, structure, and sustain over time rather than what is performed, assigned, or externally recognized in complex, real-world human systems today.
Chelsea Doolittle is a licensed massage therapist, Mindpower Coach™, and certified Equine Gestaltist™, who assists women in transforming survival patterns into embodied leadership. With over two decades of experience, she integrates somatic awareness, subconscious re-patterning, and experiential equine partnership to guide women back to their voice, boundaries, and inner authority.
Working alongside her horse, Avalon, Chelsea facilitates powerful experiential spaces where authenticity replaces performance and wholeness becomes power. She believes that when a woman chooses herself, she doesn’t just change her life - she shifts the emotional legacy of generations to come.
Michelle Erskine is a mom, artist, entrepreneur, author and community builder. Michelle lives a vibrant life, balancing all of the elements that make her unique. She knew from an early age that she loved both the fine and performing arts. She moved to Truckee, California, in 2003 where she raised two children, started multiple businesses, and joined community service organizations.
Michelle owns Art Truckee, an art gallery showcasing multiple artists, including Michelle’s own fine art landscape photography. She supports local musicians and entertainers in the Truckee/Tahoe/Reno area. Her love for the arts grew into a passion for supporting live performances.
Michelle runs a community of women entrepreneurs called eWomenNetwork Reno/Tahoe. She is also a Truckee Rotarian, an ambassador for the Truckee Chamber of Commerce, and she also serves on multiple non-profit boards.
Laura Granville is an ICF PCC Certified Coach, speaker, workshop facilitator, and CEO of StepIn2u, helping professionals step into their full potential and elevate how they lead. For more than 25 years, she has led change across industries, building programs, scaling teams, and guiding transformation within complex organizations. Drawing on her background in Program Development, Customer Success, and Change Leadership, Laura blends strategy with holistic coaching to help ambitious professionals gain clarity, build confidence, and take aligned action. Her work centers on the belief that self-leadership is the foundation of leadership itself and the competitive advantage behind performance, culture, and results.
Karol Hines is a business strategist, technology executive, entrepreneur, mentor, and nationally ranked competition glider pilot. She is known for her innovative approach to leadership and decision-making. Over four decades, she has guided major technology transformations, coached entrepreneurs, and led nonprofit organizations with creativity and purpose. Karol is known for helping businesses and leaders identify opportunities for growth, navigate change, and build high-performing teams. She has also been deeply involved in mentoring entrepreneurs and supporting startup ecosystems in Northern Nevada. In aviation, she has competed nationally and internationally in soaring and has held numerous leadership roles in the soaring community.
Morgan Massie is an award-winning leadership strategist, doctoral candidate, ICF Certified coach, and two-time TEDx speaker who helps leaders move from impostor to impact through connected leadership. She is the founder of Leadership & Training Concierge and an international bestselling author whose work blends research, executive coaching, and real-world leadership experience. Morgan has spoken on stages including Oxford and Columbia University, and she coaches leaders to refine their voice, presence, and influence. Her model work, The Connected CEO, explores how connection to self, others, and context transforms leadership effectiveness.
Debbie McCarthy’s leadership journey began long before she held a formal title. Adopted at six and a half and navigating childhood silence, she developed the emotional awareness that would later shape her leadership style.
Through her community platform AboutTownDeb, Debbie built a reputation for connecting people, elevating stories, and creating trusted networks across business and nonprofit communities. Her impact has earned her regional honors, including Woman of the Year and Top 100 Influential Leaders.
Today, Debbie is a business leader, speaker, and partner in MenoPalz, helping bring menopause and midlife conversations into workplaces with greater awareness, compassion, and support.
Natalie Minor is the founder of SOULganizing and Twilight Transitions in Reno. A lifetime learner and teacher, she bridges creativity, education, and embodied change through her work as a Certified Professional Organizer, Move Manager and Transformational Coach. Natalie holds an AAS in Commercial Photography, a BA in English Literature, and an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts. She previously built careers in publishing as an editor and ghostwriter, and later in event production as a logistics manager and security operations agent. Natalie is a sought-after author and speaker who weaves storytelling, strategy, and meaningful alignment into everything she creates.
Judge Amy Norton is a District Court Judge in Salina, Kansas. She was appointed to the bench by the Governor of Kansas in 2022. Prior to that, she spent 15 years working as government counsel in both local and statewide agencies in Kansas. She now presides over criminal cases, and occasionally presides over the local drug court, an alternative treatment court program.
She graduated from Trinity University in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in Speech and Communication (now called Human Communication) and graduated from Washburn University School of Law in 2008.
Annie Rafferty Stallman is a workforce development leader focused on advancing employees and the organizations they serve through practical, employer-driven training solutions. As Director of Workforce Training and Development at Butte College in Northern California, she leads initiatives connecting trusted partners across industry, government agencies, nonprofits, education, and community organizations to design job training that responds to real workforce needs. Following the 2018 Camp Fire, Annie mobilized workforce training that supported community recovery and continues to build long-term wildfire resilience. Her work advances practical upskilling of the workforce across energy, forestry, healthcare, manufacturing, public service, transportation and distribution, and utility sectors. She lives in California and enjoys spending time outdoors with her family.
Katey Roshetko is a passionate community connector, storyteller, and advocate who has redefined what local television can mean for a region. In January 2022, she created KOLO 8 Morning Break, Northern Nevada’s first, daily local lifestyle show. Within its first year, the program doubled viewership during the 9–10 a.m. hour and quickly became a trusted platform for people of all backgrounds to share their passions with the wider community.
Driven by compassion and a deep pride in her region, Katey is a trusted face and fierce advocate for the people of Northern Nevada.
Katrina Sawa is a sought-after business coach, international speaker, and book publisher. Known for her direct, humorous, and inspiring style, Katrina delivers actionable insights that equip and leave audiences equipped and motivated to take their businesses to the next level.
With 25 years of experience, she’s helped thousands of business owners level up their confidence and pricing, simplify their marketing, automate operations, and build sustainable revenue streams.
Ann Silver is an experienced executive leader with a career spanning nonprofit, business, and government sectors, where she specializes in human resources management, labor relations, and team building. She has served as CEO of The Reno+Sparks Chamber of Commerce—the largest business organization in northern Nevada—since 2016. Under her leadership, the Chamber has grown to represent more than 2,300 member businesses and organizations employing over 120,000 residents, positioning it as a vital force for economic growth, community collaboration, and civic engagement in the region.
Lana Krasnyansky Sokolinsky serves as Senior Vice President of People at Empower Aesthetics and is a seasoned Human Resources Executive with over 25 years of experience across multiple industries. She is known for building high‑performing teams and driving innovative HR initiatives that strengthen culture and support organizational growth. Her background includes extensive cross‑sector work and an 11.5‑year tenure at TriNet, where she aligned HR programs with business goals and developed scalable policies and frameworks while leading a team for 18 HR Professionals. A trusted partner to executive leadership, Lana is dedicated to creating inclusive, high‑impact workplaces where employees thrive and teams excel.
Baby Diane Toan: is the founder and CEO of BDT Virtual Solutions. As a wife and mother of three, she founded her agency with the mission to empower mothers who want to work as virtual assistants, giving them the opportunity to build a career that offers flexibility and the chance to spend more time with their families. Through BDT Virtual Solutions, she also provides businesses with a dedicated team of virtual assistants, helping them grow and streamline operations without sacrificing the time that truly matters. Baby Diane understands that the right support makes all the difference, and she’s committed to making sure her clients and team can thrive personally and professionally, without having to choose between work and family.
Kathryn Tracy is a Nevada-based financial strategist and founder of Reno-Tahoe Bookkeeping. A Battle-Born native and single mother, Kathryn transformed her own financial struggles into expertise, building a business that helps small business owners across the Reno-Tahoe region gain control of their finances. With a background spanning banking, bookkeeping, and fractional CFO advisory services, she specializes in helping entrepreneurs understand their numbers, clean up their books, and build sustainable financial systems. Kathryn brings equal parts technical skill and lived experience to every client relationship, proving that financial clarity is possible at every stage of business.
Pamela Zimmer is the Self-Care Leadership Architect. Leaving her 13-year career as an Architect for motherhood, she walked through postpartum depression and bankruptcy - experiences that ultimately set her on a self-care path to her God-given calling. Today, she is a speaker, coach, network marketing leader, and 7x bestselling author who designs leaders who last. Pamela uses self-care as the foundation for sustainable leadership, equipping high-capacity individuals to strengthen their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial well-being, so they have the capacity to fulfill what God is calling them to do. She lives in Reno, Nevada with her husband and two sons.
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