The Academy for Women and Leadership

Upon completion of the Academy you will receive a JHU Carey Certificate and badge.

Kathy Bovard

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Kathy is a professional coach and skilled facilitator who is fully committed to helping individuals reach their full potential at work and in life. She has extensive experience as a coach, counselor, educator, consultant, and leader. Kathy retired from the Johns Hopkins University in January 2020 following 22 years of service to the organization. Most recently she was the Director of Coaching and Education at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School where she led a team of seven professional coaches to design and deliver career services to a diverse population of graduate business students and alumni. In this role, Kathy coached individuals to identify their strengths and accomplish their goals, facilitated coaching groups for aspiring leaders, and designed innovative programming to enhance student success. Additionally, Kathy served for two years as the career development expert on a university-wide team of change management professionals who consulted with senior leaders to transform the student experience at Johns Hopkins. She looks forward to coaching in the Executive Education program at Carey and to using her skills and background to influence positive change in individuals and organizations.

Kathy is a certified coach through The Academies, a training program accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is also a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) in Maryland. She earned her master’s degree and advanced graduate specialist diploma in counseling from the University of Maryland, and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dickinson College. She is recognized as a leader in the career development field and has presented at regional and national conferences on the ethics of coaching, the differences between coaching, counseling and consulting, innovative models for delivering career services to diverse student populations, integrating technology into career development practice, and best practices for supporting adults in career transition.

Dr. Alexa Chilcutt

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Dr. Alexa Chilcutt delivers executive education courses on the topics of interpersonal and team communication, presentation skills, and impression management and executive presence. Alexa is the co-author of, "Engineered to Speak: Helping You Create and Deliver Engaging Technical Presentations" published by Wiley IEEE PCS Professional Engineering Communication Series. She has also published in MedEdPORTAL, Journal of American Dental Association (JADA), Association of General Dentist's Impact magazine, Public Relations Journal, and Georgia Academy of General Dentistry's Explorer magazine. Dr. Chilcutt was an Associate Professor and Director of The Public Speaking Program at The University of Alabama from 2010 - 2021 and has served as the Communication Instructor for UA's aeronautical and mechanical engineering NSF funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program since 2011.

Danielle Piccinini Black, MPH, MBA

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Danielle Piccinini Black is a trained Design Thinking professional, adjunct instructor at the Carey Business School, and Senior Program Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs. She leads the development and implementation of Design Thinking research, workshops, and co‐creation internationally to address emerging public health and business needs, and uses that experience to enhance her Design Thinking courses.

Stacey Lee, JD

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Stacey Lee, JD, joined the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in 2008. She is an Associate Professor in the practice track with expertise in business law, health law, and negotiations.  Stacey is the Academic Program Director for the flagship Full-time MBA program and the Teaching Excellence Initiative Faculty Director. She also holds a joint appointment at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Stacey’s research interests have focused on pharmaceutical manufacturers’ international and domestic influence on access to medicines and transformative healthcare negotiations. Before entering academia, Stacey practiced law for over ten years. She began as a securities litigator and later became in-house counsel for two of the country’s largest healthcare corporations. Stacey also served as the senior regulatory specialist for America’s Health Insurance Plans – the United States’ largest national healthcare trade association.

Stacey is a Fulbright Specialist for her expertise in negotiations and healthcare law and has received numerous research grants and fellowships for her teaching innovations. She has received several awards for Faculty Excellence, including the Excellence in Teaching Award, year after year, at both Bloomberg and Carey. In addition, Stacey was a featured TEDx speaker on the topic of “Patient Voices.” Her interviews, quotes, and writings have appeared in Baltimore Sun, CBS, CNN, Bloomberg Radio, USA Today, NPR, TODAY.com, among other media outlets. Stacey’s work has also featured in prominent law reviews and peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Yale Journal of Health Policy and Ethics, Annals of Health Law, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, and Health and Human Rights International Journal.

Mary Somers

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Mary Somers is a leadership and career coach in private practice. She supports adults in all stages of their careers, providing guidance on how to excel in their roles while clarifying their personal and professional goals. In addition, she provides leadership coaching services at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Department of Executive Education for both contract programs and leadership academies (Academy for Women and Leadership, Academy for Health Care Leadership and Management).                  

 Prior to opening her private practice, Mary was an Associate Director of Coaching and Education at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. There she supported students and alumni in clarifying and achieving their career and academic goals. She works with professionals with little to no professional experience to senior leaders in all industries, especially finance and health care. She also enjoys working with those transitioning from the military to other industries.

 Prior to joining Carey, Mary managed career services for the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and taught career development and coaching courses to graduate students at the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

Mary holds a Master of Science degree in Counseling from the Johns Hopkins School of Education. She is also a nationally certified counselor (1997) and a board-certified coach (2013). She is passionate about helping her clients and asks thoughtful and engaging questions so they can clarify their unique passions, skills and interests in order to achieve their goals. She is confident that through engaging conversation and reflection, her clients can create meaningful futures that benefit them not only professionally but personally as well.

 In her spare time, Mary volunteers at Gilchrist Hospice and City Springs Elementary/ Middle School in Baltimore, MD.

Dr. Kalahan Taylor-Clark

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Kalahn Taylor-Clark, PhD, MPH is Vice President and Head of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation at Myovant Sciences. In this capacity she oversees patient centered advocacy and digital innovation. Her team is responsible for driving transformative advocacy in the areas of women’s health and prostate cancer, addressing health equity, and advancing digital innovation strategies to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

Prior to this post Dr. Taylor-Clark served as the Global Head of Patient Centered Outcomes and Innovation at Sanofi. In this post, she served as the strategic patient lead to global business units in the US/EU, China and Emerging Markets, across all therapeutic areas of the company. Taylor-Clark’s work helped the company to develop, measure, amplify and adapt solutions based on key stakeholder input (e.g. patient advocacy groups, scientific societies and community-based organizations).

Dr. Taylor-Clark also served as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Health Policy, Research and Ethics and Assistant Professor in Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University, where she provided strategic guidance on the development and evaluation of patient and consumer engagement activities for a range of stakeholders, including: private and public payers, hospital and integrated health systems, business groups, and policy leaders. Previously, she served as the Director of Health Policy at the National Partnership for Women and Families, where her primary responsibilities were in providing strategic direction on a range of activities related to delivery system and payment reform, including: quality measurement, reduction of health disparities, patient and consumer engagement in patient-centered care delivery and the effective use of health information technology (HIT) to improve patient-reported outcomes measurement. From 2007-2011, Dr. Taylor-Clark led the Patient-Centeredness and Health Equity Portfolios in the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.

She holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University, an MPH from Tufts School of Medicine, and a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University. She serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees for Tufts University, and as President of the Board of Directors at Prevention Institute in Oakland, CA. Dr. Taylor-Clark is an adjunct professor at the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Taylor-Clark has also lived in Japan, Ghana and France, and is proficient in French.