The Academy for Women and Leadership

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

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.

Carly Ackley, PhD

Executive Education Faculty and Director of Client Solutions, Carey Business School

Carly is a higher education professional with over 15 years of administrative and teaching experience in business schools in the Mid-Atlantic. As both a university administrator and instructor, she has spent her career researching and teaching leadership development. Most recently her work has been focused on coaching and executive education and she holds certifications in both executive and career coaching.

In addition to her work as a practitioner, she has taught courses in leadership development and theoretical and practical ethics at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State and at Johns Hopkins University. Carly earned her PhD and MEd from the The Pennsylvania State University and has been published in peer-reviewed journals and has written book chapters on leadership in the social and environmental justice space.

Danielle Piccinini Black, MPH, MBA

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Danielle Piccinini Black is the Academic Lead for Design Thinking for Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School—Executive Education, and Design Innovation Lead at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication 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. Danielle holds an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an MBA from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger and South Africa. Click here to read her discussion on the benefits of utilizing design thinking as an empathy-centered approach to problem-solving. Email: danielle.piccinini@jhu.ed.

Demere Woolway, PhD, MA

Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence Education and Development, Johns Hopkins University

Demere Woolway (any pronoun) is the Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence Education and Development within Johns Hopkins University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. In this role, Demere provides strategy for evidence-based, comprehensive diversity education and professional development experiences for faculty, staff, and students.

From 2013-2021, Demere was the founding director of LGBTQ Life at JHU. In this role, they directed Safe Zone Training, advanced transgender inclusion through policy and practice, and facilitated numerous identity-based programs for students, faculty, and staff. Previously, they worked at Miami University of Ohio and Washington State University. Demere holds a PhD in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Miami University, and a M.A. in English from the University of Virginia. Demere has served as a co-chair of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBTQ Resource Professionals and a representative to the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education.

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 Business School at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Taylor-Clark has also lived in Japan, Ghana and France, and is proficient in French.

Kenna Kay

Executive Education Faculty, Carey Business School

Kenna Kay is a creative strategist at the intersection of visual design, communications strategy, and branding. Previously she was the V.P. Creative Director of Brand at TV Land, MTV Networks and Creative Director at Nickelodeon. She is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, Masters in Branding, has taught at Columbia University and Parsons School of Design and has been a guest critic and visiting lecturer at The Cooper Union, Izmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi in Turkey, and Shenkar College in Tel Aviv. She earned her MS in Strategic Communications from Columbia University. She believes that the most effective way to create positive change is to clearly communicate the ideas that can make a difference.

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.