FIRESIDE CHAT SPEAKERS
RACHEL KING, KANEH CO.
Rachel King is an acclaimed pastry chef, and the founder and culinary director behind Kaneh Co. Before kicking off the company in January 2016, Rachel spent years creating desserts for several of San Diego’s most acclaimed restaurants. Rachel grew up in San Diego and is a graduate of the San Diego Culinary Institute. Rachel’s expertise and passion is apparent in each unique and decadent edible creation.
Prior to launching Kaneh Co., Rachel worked in some of San Diego’s most recognized restaurants, including Mister A’s, NINE-TEN, Searsucker and Herringbone. Rachel has received numerous accolades for her creations and was nominated for Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Pastry Chef in 2013. Most recently, Rachel was featured on ABC Nightline’s Moms in Cannabis segment to share her growing business in the cannabis industry. With her knowledge and passion for pastries and sweets, Rachel transitioned from pastry chef to founder to build an elevated cannabis edibles brand with the vision of producing only high-end desserts, made with premium ingredients. Some of her signature creations include the Cherry Pistachio Dark Chocolates, Superfood Granola Bites, and the Best of Both Worlds Brownie — a rich fudge brownie with a chocolate chip cookie center.
Rachel lives in San Diego with her husband and two young sons. When she’s not baking delicious pastries, you’re likely to find her exploring the outdoors with her family.
AMY BERGEN, THE LEADERSHIP EDGE
Amy has dedicated the last decade of her career to supporting women leaders. As Vice President of Business Development for The Leadership Edge, Amy expertly connects scientific leaders to the skill building and professional development necessary to accelerate their careers. With three decades of experience empowering over 6,000 leaders from the bench to the boardroom, The Leadership Edge has proven to be an invaluable resource to the life science community. Amy has been instrumental in creating a new program, Leadership EDGE for Women, which was designed to create a more robust pipeline of female leaders within the industry and support gender diversity at the executive and board levels.
Before joining The Leadership Edge, Amy served as the Executive Director of Athena San Diego, where she led the organization’s successful transition from UCSD to an independent nonprofit organization. During her tenure there, she connected over 500 women leaders to rich to diverse programming, mentoring and networking. Through wide-ranging relationships and partnerships, she recruited over 300 executives to lead voluntary, yet critical, roles for the organization including the Board of Directors, committee chairs and members, mentors, facilitators, and speakers. Each of these opportunities provided valuable leadership development for aspiring and established female leaders.
TIFFANY VAN SOEST, 5X MUAY THAI WORLD CHAMPION
Tiffany ‘TimeBomb’ van Soest is a 5x Muay Thai World Champion and 2x GLORY Kickboxing World Champion. She is an inspiring example of the power of resiliency and persistence. Her mission is to use her platform to share the message of how everyone can continue to push and work for their dreams every day of their professional, as well as personal lives.
As a speaker, Tiffany authentically weaves relatable, raw personal experiences with sound fundamentals in mental fortitude, personal confidence, and goal tenacity from a unique perspective that will resonate and inspire.
As a young woman in a male dominated field, Tiffany’s workplace is extreme yet the themes and life lessons surprisingly transcend from the ring to the boardroom and remind us that, at our core, we all have ambitions, challenges, and opponents, no matter the profession. A free-thinker, artist, influencer and all-around fierce female, Tiffany deeply connects with audiences to show us that, when we fully channel our inner fighter, we can harness tremendous will power and bring forward the skills to achieve.
DR. SAMAR RASHID, SCRIPPS HEALTH
Samar Rashid is a family medicine physician and health coach whose passion for medicine coincides with her love for nutrition and wellness, translating into an earnest desire to find the health before the disease. Whether she’s trying out a new recipe, powering through a challenging workout, or immersing herself in self-reflection at a yoga retreat, she wholeheartedly believes in the benefits of holistic living.
After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in Psychology and Global Health, Samar moved to New York City to work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. While working at Sloan, she realized how important nutrition and healthy life choices are to the healing process. She became certified as a health coach and moved back to Texas for medical school at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. Training in osteopathic medicine was the perfect setting to nurture her interests in integrative nutrition, culinary medicine, and mind-body healing.
DAWN BARRY, LUNA DNA
Dawn Barry is the president and co-founder of Luna DNA, the first and only genomic and medical research database owned by its community of data donors. As President, Dawn communicates and implements the company’s vision, mission, and overall direction.
Dawn is an esteemed thought leader and veteran of the genomics industry. Prior to Luna DNA, Dawn served as the vice president of Applied Genomics at Illumina, Inc. Dawn integrated market development strategies with product and business model innovation to accelerate the application of genomics in medicine and personal healthcare. Dawn joined Illumina in 2005 as their first market development specialist and held leadership roles in business units, sales, and marketing for the company.
Prior to Illumina, Dawn spent seven years at Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, one of the first genomics startups focused on individualized medicine and DNA-based diagnostic testing, with the primary responsibility of promoting clinical genetics testing services for pharmaceutical clinical trials.
Dawn was named San Diego Business Journal’s 2017 Business Woman of the Year and was a speaker at TEDxSanDiego 2016. She holds a BS in biology from the University of Vermont and a MBA from the University of Connecticut School of Business.