Founder – Lorna Owens
Lorna Owens is an Attorney, Legal Commentator Nancy Grace Show HLN AND TRU TV IN SESSION,Gender Expert,International Speaker,Executive/ Life Coach and Author who travels the World teaching the Art and Science of Success to Women’s Groups and organizations. She has appeared on NBC, TBN and TV in Jamaica, Cayman Island and Bermuda. The Miami Herald called her a Pioneer and the Mother of Reinvention;Advance for Nurses says she wows her Audiences. Lorna Owens is a Former Registered Nurse as well as a Midwife. Her AMAZING New Book EVERYDAY GRACE EVERY MIRACLE set in Jamaica tells life changing stories from men and women around the world. Her third book a legal thriller THE LADY LAWYER will be out next year.
Executive Board – Shaloma Shawmut-Lessner
President and Founder Florida Coalition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Schools
Shaloma Shawmut-Lessner award winning play and documentary films writer, educator, prolific author, poet musical composer, pilot and flight instructor; At age 17 she worked in the underground evacuating holocaust survivors after World War II. Shaloma has been recognized by the State of Israel for service Beyond the Call of Duty.
Shawmut-Lessner has marched in the Civil Rights protests and campaigned for the ERA.
In The Company of Woman Honoree 2000, ‘Women of Impact XVII 2005.
Executive Board – Marcia Narine Esq
Marcia Narine is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City teaching and researching on corporate governance, compliance, social responsibility and legal ethics.
Prior to joining academia, she served as the Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, as well the Vice President, Global Compliance and Business Standards and Chief Privacy Officer of Ryder System, Inc., a Fortune 500 global transportation and supply chain management solutions company with over 28,000 employees worldwide for 8 years until May 1, 2011. She oversaw the Company’s global compliance, business ethics, privacy, government relations, environmental compliance, Enterprise Risk Management, corporate responsibility, and labor and employment legal programs. Prior to this role, she spent almost eighteen months as the group director of human resources for Ryder’s Supply Chain Solutions division. She began her career at Ryder in 1999 as senior counsel focusing on labor and employment.
Before joining Ryder, Ms. Narine was an associate with Morgan, Lewis and Bockius’ labor and employment practice in Miami. She has also worked as a commercial litigator with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton in New York, and as a law clerk to former Justice Marie Garibaldi of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
Ms. Narine earned her law degree, cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1992, and her bachelors degree, cum laude in three years in political science and psychology from Columbia University in 1988.
She is a member of Leadership Florida- Class XXVII, the Caribbean Bar Association, the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyer’s Association, and the Wilkie D. Ferguson Bar Association. She has served on the boards of Hands on Miami and United Home Care Services, and was a board member of a multi-industry association that focuses on promoting an environment conducive to companies conducting business and providing services in Florida.
She was a member of the editorial board of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics magazine; is a member of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association; and has been a court-appointed guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children for over twenty years. She has served on the advisory committee of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (“NAMWOLF”), on the advisory board of Teach For America (Miami region), and as a Cub Scout Pack Chairperson. She was recently named in the Profiles in Diversity Journal 7th Annual Women Worth Watching in 2009 edition. She served as Ryder’s United Way Campaign Chair in 2009.
In May 2011, she testified before the House Financial Services Committee in Congress on the unintended impact of Dodd-Frank Financial Reform on corporate compliance programs.
She researches, writes and is a frequent panelist on employment law, alternative, data privacy, global compliance, corporate governance and international human rights related to rape as a weapon of war in the Demoratic Republic of the Congo. She is also a founding board member of the Footprints Foundation, which is dedicated to improving infant and maternal health and education in the Congo.
Executive Board – Lissa Nirenberg
Dr. Nirenberg gained experience by interning over a four-year period as an Acupuncture Physician at the Southeast Institute of Oriental Medicine located in Miami, Florida. Her background includes several years of medical laboratory technology work at a local hospital. Dr. Nirenberg has worked as a Maternal Issues for the Miami-Dade County Health Department, and volunteered at a local Aids center. She currently volunteers for the American Cancer Society. She also works with patients, in conjunction with their psychologist and psychiatrist, and other western practitioners to obtain their optimal health.
