Spring 2026 Women in Business Conference

Saturday, February 7 | 9:00 am

About the Event

Shaping Tomorrow’s Workplace: Global Leadership, Innovation, and Well-Being

You’re invited to the 2026 Spring Women in Business Conference, a dynamic one-day event bringing together students, alumni, and industry leaders for connection, conversation, and career insight.

Join us on Saturday, February 7, 2026, at the Wood Dining Room in Iacocca Hall for networking, engaging panels, interactive workshops, and a keynote conversation with Dina DiLorenzo ’93, president of Guggenheim Investments and managing partner at Guggenheim Partners.

Event Details

When: Saturday, February 7 | 9 am-2:45 pm Eastern
Location: Wood Dining Room, Iacocca Conference Center
Address: 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015

RSVP by: Friday, February 6

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What You Can Expect

We'll explore how women are leading across borders in a rapidly changing workforce, combining technology, collaboration, sustainability, and wellness to create lasting impact.
You'll gain insights into adapting to evolving workplace demands, balancing professional success with well-being, and developing leadership skills to drive meaningful change in a global business environment.

Itinerary
9:00 a.m.-9:50 a.m.: Check in and breakfast with networking
9:50 a.m.-10:00 a.m.: Welcome for all conference attendees
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Networking session with company sponsors and attendees
11:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m.: All Q&A panels run
12:10 p.m.- 1:40 p.m.: Lunch and keynote Conversation
1:45 p.m.-2:30 p.m.: All Workshops Run
2:35 p.m.-2:45 p.m.: Closing remarks
2:45 p.m.: Conference concludes

Cost: Free to attend. Space is limited, and registration is required.

Staff Contact: Morgan Nelson M.Ed.’19

Keynote Speaker (pictured above)

Dina DiLorenzo ’93 is president of Guggenheim Investments, the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners, where she is responsible for the overall management, governance, and strategic direction of the business. She leads the firm’s global investment platform, which manages more than $300 billion in assets across fixed income, private credit, and other institutional and wealth strategies. DiLorenzo brings more than 30 years of experience in financial services, including senior client-facing and financial advisory roles at leading firms such as Smith Barney, UBS, and J.P. Morgan. Her expertise spans relationship management, strategic growth, governance, and the transformation of complex, multinational financial organizations. She has also led enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives, modernizing the firm’s operating platform, data strategy, and client experience to drive scalability, efficiency, and innovation. She is an advocate for values-based leadership and chairs Guggenheim Investments’ Sustainable Stewardship Council, which oversees the firm’s ESG and sustainability initiatives. She also serves as a principal sponsor of Guggenheim’s Veterans Transition Assistance Program.

A recognized leader in asset management, DiLorenzo was named one of Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance (2025), Pensions & Investments’ Influential Women in Institutional Investing (2024), and one of Forbes’ “50 Over 50” (2023). She was honored by American Banker (2021) as one of the Most Powerful Women in Banking, selected as a David Rockefeller Fellow (2019), and named one of Crain’s Notable Women in Finance (2018).

She serves on the Board of Trustees of Lehigh University, where she is a member of the Academic Affairs Committee and the Investment Committee, as well as the Pensions & Investments Advisory Board, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Lehigh University.

Moderators

Marina Odierno serves as the associate director of professional development for Lehigh Business Undergraduate, where she designs and leads innovative, high-impact experiences that help students navigate their journey from student to young professional.

Drawing on her background as a communication professor and her doctoral work in educational leadership, Odierno approaches her work through a humanistic framework that centers relationships, reflection, and students’ lived experiences. Known as a relational leader and thoughtful status quo disruptor, she challenges traditional models of professional preparation by integrating career readiness, personal development, and organizational communication in ways that are both data-informed and deeply student-centered.

Michelle Washington worked in the banking industry after completing her undergraduate studies at Tulane University.

She subsequently earned an MBA from the University of Michigan and then worked for several years in the automotive industry. Eventually her love for learning and passion for teaching compelled her to leave the corporate environment for academia.

To that end, she earned her Ph.D. in business administration at Temple University.

Karen Boksan MBA’93 serves as an adjunct faculty member in Lehigh University’s College of Business where she has taught business communication courses since 2022. A healthcare marketing professional with more than two decades of experience, she is director of network marketing and public relations for St. Luke’s University Health Network, a fully integrated, nationally recognized non-profit health network based in Bethlehem, comprised of 16 hospital campuses and more than 350 outpatient sites in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey.

During her career, Boksan has received a number of marketing industry awards, including a Healthcare Impact Award (presented by Modern Healthcare and Advertising Age), Healthcare Advertising Awards, The Communicator Awards, Aster Awards, and a Pennsylvania Associated Press Media Editors’ First Place Award for Best Regularly Scheduled News Program. Her professional experience encompasses planning and implementing numerous integrated marketing campaigns, including print, radio, tv and digital advertising, social media, media relations, crisis communications, community relations, and event planning.

Panelists

Erica Melendez, PNC Bank, is a seasoned financial services leader with over 20 years of experience in the banking and financial industry. She began her career with Wells Fargo in 2002 as a collections specialist and has since advanced through a wide range of leadership and client-focused roles, including licensed financial specialist, branch manager, bank at work relationship manager, financial services market manager, metro market sales manager, and regional manager.

Driven by a deep passion for service and community impact, Melendez has held several leadership and board positions throughout her career. She has served as a regional lead for Latino in Leadership and Conexion and as an executive board member for iGEN with PNC Bank in the Metro Pennsylvania market. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors for the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and as co-chair for the PNC Retail Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council.

Dana Bober ’82 is a seasoned financial services
executive with more than three decades of leadership experience in strategic transformation, financial management, and corporate governance.

As a former partner and leader of the Americas
Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) practice at EY, a $50B organization operating in
150 countries, Bober led a large-scale business unit that provides advisory services to global companies with a focus on finance optimization, corporate reporting, operational resilience, and digital transformation. She played a pivotal role in shaping
EY’s global finance advisory strategy by introducing
innovative solutions while guiding clients through
regulatory complexities and technological advancements. Her unique blend of strategic
vision, financial acumen, and deep expertise in risk
management, finance transformation, and technology innovation positions her to immediately contribute to board oversight roles. She is also
qualified to serve as a financial expert under SEC, NYSE, and NASDAQ rules.

Autumn Bayles ’92 is the EVP of Global Supply Chain and GPO’s at Aramark, a Fortune 200 company that specializes in outsourced food and facility services for clients in multiple industries and global geographies. She is responsible for all of the company’s supply chain operations and group
purchasing organizations, including hospitality specialist Avendra International. She has worked at
Aramark for 15 years, starting as the VP of strategic development, before moving into the VP of global
operational excellence and later SVP of global supply chain, before assuming her current role.

Prior to Aramark, Bayles ran operations for CPG company Flowers Foods/Tastykake and served earlier as the company’s chief information officer. She also has experience in the venture capital and startup world from working at Safeguard Scientifics consulting group aligne. Bayles started her career as a consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers where she served global clients performing strategy, M&A,
technology, and process improvement projects.

Cara O’Brien ’92 is an experienced strategic communications advisor with nearly thirty years of experience in the communications and finance industries. She has advised multinational clients on critical communications issues including corporate reputation management campaigns, crisis communication strategies, global M&A transactions, IPOs, corporate restructurings and bankruptcies, and investor and media relations programs. Client programs she has led have won various industry awards including Cross-Border Deal of the Year, Best IPO, and Best Financial Communications Program.

Most recently with Brunswick, O'Brien joined the firm as a partner to assist with financial communication efforts for the team’s many esteemed clients located in Asia and globally. Prior to joining Brunswick, she was with FTI Consulting, and during a nearly two-decade career there, she held various management and leadership roles. After serving as deputy head of the U.S. Investor Relations Practice and head of the New York City office, she moved to Hong Kong in 2011 to help enhance FTI Consulting’s Asia business serving as senior managing director and head of Strategic Communications Asia Business Operations.

O'Brien began her career as an associate at Credit Suisse where she spent several years in the bank’s Global Project Finance group as a portfolio manager focused on international power and infrastructure projects and investments.

Adam Drum ’92, JP Morgan, serves as the head of Americas XVA Trading, based in New York. His team manages all derivative exposures generated by clients throughout the Americas, encompassing a wide range of products such as credit, rates, FX, commodities, and local markets. In his role as the senior global risk manager, he oversees risk management in London, Paris, and Asia. His team of traders is tasked with executing hedges that generate P&L to offset the dynamic XVA reserve balances.

Drum has been the New York site lead, overseeing a team of derivative structurers and providing regional support for quantitative research and market risk, among others. He collaborates closely with the retained lending team in the region to holistically manage the risks associated with the firm's North American and Latin American loan and derivative
portfolios.

Prior to rejoining JP Morgan, Drum was a credit trader at BNP, where he was instrumental in
building and expanding the US and Latin America credit trading desk. He began his career at
JP Morgan, focusing on trading emerging markets debt. He enjoys recruiting and mentoring
and has been heavily involved in a variety of advocacy programs.

Alejandro Zayas ’24 is a credit risk analyst at JP Morgan's Commercial Bank (CIB), where he began full time in June 2024. He specializes in credit approvals, financial modeling, and risk rating reviews. His role encompasses detailed due diligence, collateral analysis, and client approvals, ensuring the appropriateness of credit facilities and capital structures. He will be transitioning into a new team in the fall, functioning as a banking and treasury analyst.

A Lehigh University graduate with a major in finance and a minor in entrepreneurship, Zayas is passionate about videography, startups, and entrepreneurship, bringing a dynamic perspective to his work.