From ancient healing wisdom to boardroom strategy, this month’s Innovation Women Featured Speakers prove that expertise takes many forms. Each month, we spotlight women and other underrepresented voices from our speaker database who are ready to bring something remarkable to your next event. Meet July’s Featured Speakers!
Whitney Erwin | Founder, Practitioner at Four Seasons Harmony Holistic Health, Healing, & Ayurveda
Whitney Erwin is an international holistic health and Ayurvedic practitioner, speaker, clinical herbalist, avid yogi, world traveler, and nature lover. In 2015, she founded the women’s holistic healthcare practice Four Seasons Harmony Holistic Health, Healing, & Ayurveda, where she helps women with chronic hormonal imbalances reduce pain and restore balance and energy. Her approach is trauma-informed and compassionate, shaped by more than twenty years of yoga study and five years of collaboration with Eastern Mennonite University’s Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience program. She holds an MSc in clinical herbal medicine and an MEd in Montessori education, along with certifications from the National Ayurvedic Medical Association and other Ayurvedic and yoga institutions, and has spoken before audiences including the American Association of Birth Centers and The Center Yoga Equinox & Solstice women’s health retreats.
Erwin’s work is rooted in her own healing journey: years ago, she recovered from chronic hormonal imbalances, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and migraines, achieving long-term remission through natural methods, which inspired her to pursue clinical herbal medicine training and Ayurvedic certification. She describes herself as a spiritual woman driven by a passion for selfless service, one that has taken her to live on four continents and shaped her original holistic healthcare model in Virginia. That spirit of embracing the unknown, she says, was foreshadowed by a formative experience leading peers through fear during a skydiving trip in New Zealand, which left her a willing cliff jumper, both literally and figuratively.
View Whitney’s speaker profile.
Shari Collins | Founder and CEO, Shari Collins Consulting
Shari Collins is a consultant and international speaker specializing in creating thriving workplace cultures, with experience spanning education, training, human resources, and organizational development. She recently accepted a Top 100 Global Power Leader award at Parliament in London and was named a Top 10 Rising Voice of 2026 on LinkedIn. Collins facilitates professional development for educators nationwide through the National Education Association and is a published author in the Parent Ready! book series. Her expertise in ageism, developed through specialized training with Changing the Narrative, is paired with certifications in psychological safety, organizational happiness, and human rights, and she is a certified Chief Well-Being Officer through the World Happiness Academy.
Collins has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who and named “The Most Admired Leader to Watch in 2024” by Insights Success Magazine. She serves on the Advisory Board for Harvard Business Review, the Editorial Board for the Infonomics Society in London, and as Diversity Director for the HR-Nebraska State Council, and was recently named Director of the Centre of Ageism for the Infonomics Society. She also facilitates national conversations for Open Sesame’s Future of Work Club and is a member of the Amplify Speakers roster. Outside of work, Collins enjoys reading, caring for her plants and spending time with her husband, son, daughter, and their two rescue Yorkies.
Shanna Weber | CEO and Founder, Prima Consulting
Shanna Weber is a keynote speaker, executive coach, and former Fortune 500 executive who brings more than two decades of leadership experience to the stage, having led corporate strategy, product development, and executive talent initiatives at global financial services firms. As founder and CEO of Prima Consulting, she partners with organizations to strengthen leadership, elevate team performance, and navigate workplace dynamics, with keynotes and workshops covering cross-generational collaboration, engaging and retaining Gen Z, advancing women in the workplace, and building influence, confidence, and executive presence. She has spoken for Fortune 500 companies, industry conferences, executive leadership retreats, team offsites, major universities, and industry association and awards events, known for connecting quickly with audiences ranging from senior executives to emerging leaders.
Weber’s style is inclusive, high-energy, and interactive, blending storytelling, research-backed insights, and practical frameworks so participants leave with clear, actionable tools they can apply immediately. She’s driven by the moment a lightbulb goes on and someone realizes they’ve got what it takes, whether that’s a professional advancing their career, a leader elevating their team, or a student learning a new skill, which is why her talks pair inspiration with practical steps people can put to use right away.
View Shanna’s speaker profile.
Ambika Devi | Author, Speaker, and Wellness Educator, AmbikaDevi.com
Ambika Devi is a speaker, scholar, author, astrologer, and consultant who helps individuals and organizations transform mental noise into clarity, emotional overwhelm into resilience, and communication into conscious connection. For nearly five decades, she has taught meditation, conscious communication, emotional intelligence, and self-regulation, guiding more than 21,000 minds through her proprietary Mind-Taming methods, which draw on neuroscience, mythology, and Vedic wisdom. She holds a master’s degree in the philosophy and education of yoga and meditation, bachelor’s degrees in Western astrology and fine arts, and is completing doctoral research on the human voice as medicine. She has delivered keynotes, workshops, and retreats for organizations including TEDx AUBG, Sivananda Ashram, Lee Health, and Business Freedom, and her work has been featured on TLC and public and syndicated radio.
Ambika’s fascination with stillness began at age six, when she learned to sit quietly and observe thought rather than be carried away by it, an experience that awakened a lifelong interest in consciousness, perception, and what it means to be human. Through the Kindred Vibe Collective, she now explores resonance, authenticity, and modern human connection as what she calls a “rebel anthropologist,” guiding clients ready to move beyond autopilot and rediscover clarity, creativity, purpose, and peace.
View Ambika’s speaker profile.
Hady Méndez | Author, Speaker, and Leadership Coach, Boldly Speaking
Hady Méndez is an award-winning author, speaker, and leadership coach, and the founder and CEO of Boldly Speaking LLC. Her work focuses on transforming the professional experiences of underestimated professionals, particularly Latinas and women of color. With more than 25 years in corporate, nonprofit and employee resource group spaces, she brings deep lived experience to every stage. She is the author of “Calladita No More” and serves as director of programs for Lean In Latinas.
A first-generation college graduate, Hady often found herself the sole Latina or woman of color in the rooms she entered early in her career, and without a coach or mentor to guide her, she navigated corporate spaces largely on her own. This gap later inspired her to found Boldly Speaking to help other underestimated professionals rise and thrive.
Her passion, she says, is building spaces where women like her feel seen, celebrated, and empowered, especially in rooms not originally built with them in mind.
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