TEDx Women: The New Face of Leadership: Leading with Vulnerability

Date: November 13th, 2025

Time: 7-9pm EDT

Location: The Town School, 540 E 76th St, NY, NY 10021

Event Overview:

Join us for an inspiring TEDx Women event in the heart of the Upper East Side of New York City. This exclusive gathering will take place on the stage of a prestigious private school, providing an intimate setting for a series of talks focused on vulnerability in leadership.

​We’ve long been told that leaders should be decisive, unshakable, and always in control. But what if the real power of leadership lies in something quieter—something braver?

​Vulnerability.

​This series explores the strength it takes to admit you don’t have all the answers, to ask for help, to say, “I was wrong.” In a culture that rewards polished exteriors, we’re celebrating the leaders who choose honesty over perfection, connection over control.

​Through their stories, we’ll witness how vulnerability can drive trust, fuel innovation, and transform workplaces—and lives. These talks are not about breakdowns, but breakthroughs. About the courage to be seen, even when it's uncomfortable. Especially when it matters most.

​This is not leadership as usual. This is leadership, redefined

​Event Timeline

​6:30pm Theater opens

​7:00-7:05pm Opening remarks

​7:05-7:10pm TED film

7:10-7:20pm SPEAKER 1

Patrizia Angela Casubolo is an inventor. Her divorce devastated her whole world, but put her on a path to reinvention herself.

​While pregnant with her first child, Francesca, she went seeking waistband extenders for her skirts and pants to alleviate the discomfort.

​She recalled an invention her father made back in Italy, created for extending men's collared shirts.

​She replicated the prototype for her own maternity clothing and Voila! COCHIC waistband extenders were born.

​She is on a mission to show other inventors how to bring their ideas to market successfully and become self actualized in the process.

​7:20-7:30pm SPEAKER 2

Mary Beth Green sits at the intersection of legacy and innovation. At Sheetz, she built an incubator to reinvent the future of the customer experience at convenience store locations.

​Today, she is thinking critically about how AI and technology is threatening the very sense of an employee's "belonging" in the workplace. She is building the hypothesis that BOTH can be additive and smart enough to toggle with changing daily human needs.

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7:30-7:40pm SPEAKER 3

Bridgett Strickler sits in the "adult learner space" as Vice President of Coalition Strategy at CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning).

When she got sober 14 years ago and understood for the first time, her diagnosis of ADHD, she started on a mission to rebuild her life—and help others do the same. She went back to get her MBA late in life. Today, she helps others do the same and places non traditional talent into traditional jobs in the oil and gas industry.

​Bridgett firmly believes the traditional career trajectory, where a person stays at a job for 30 years, is no longer the case. Today, re-skilling and up-skilling are key to the future of work in the US.

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​7:40-7:50pm SPEAKER 4

Janet Kim is a technology leader at Stanford University.

​With her coaching business, SaeRise Consulting, she helps other emerging tech leaders working in legacy institutions and companies be seen, heard, and valued.

​It was a core value of hers growing up as the youngest of 3 sisters in an Asian family. She had to fight for attention. Today, she is a leader, organizing digital transformation projects for success and a master at navigating multiple stakeholders.

​After years of questioning her own worth, she’s discovered her purpose. Now, she’s building the path she once searched for — and helping others--especially Asian women leaders--- to be seen, heard, and valued as well.

​7:50-8:00pm SPEAKER 5

Beth is author of the book, Promises Broken, and Founder of Almavina Strategic Partners.

From the time her younger brother was old enough to sit at a desk, she knew she was a teacher. She worked in the classroom until 2002, and then pivoted to work in higher education management. She helped set the standards for testing math skills in 48 states. Today, she leverages her 20+ years in education management to help mission-driven leaders diagnose and treat toxic culture, and to make "work" a place people are happy to come to.

​8:00-8:10pm SPEAKER 6
Dr. Sonal Bhatia is introducing mindful leadership as the norm, rather than the exception. She was a physician first. Then the first woman to serve as Chief Medical Officer in Pfizer’s Rare Disease division. She spent 20 years there bringing life-saving therapies to patients.

She observed women leaders, even in her own company, desperately needing ways to recharge as menopause set in. In 2024, she returned for her Master’s in Science, Integrative Health, and Ayurveda. Today, Sonal is on a mission to find a non-pill prescription to better health. She helps those with a Western mindset to embrace the tenets of Eastern medicine.

​8:15-8:30pm Q&A

​8:30pm Closing remarks and Wrap

​Why Attend?

• ​Be inspired by senior women leaders who dared to be vulnerable in their work life and shared leadership lessons from it
• ​Engage in a discussion on what's okay and what's not when being vulnerable during the Q&A
• ​Network with like-minded individuals and professionals after the talks
  
  

​Who Should Attend?

• ​Professionals interested in being more vulnerable in their own leadership
• ​Individuals looking to gain new perspectives on what brand of vulnerability is okay in the workplace
• ​You believe in the collective power in elevating women's voices
  

​Join us for an evening of powerful talks, networking, and inspiration.

​Tickets: https://lu.ma/jh24bit9

​Contact: For more information, please contact info@tedxyorkville.com

​We look forward to welcoming you to TEDx Women: The New Face of Leadership: Leading with Vulnerability