"What you do makes a difference. And you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

Lucinda Trew is an award-winning speechwriter, speech coach, and communications strategist who partners with individuals from the boardroom to the classroom to turn strategy into stories, ideas into outcomes, and audiences into advocates.

As principal of Trew Words, an executive communications consultancy, she serves a range of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, venture capital entrepreneurs, R&D entities and non-profits.

Prior to launching her own business, Lucinda enjoyed a 30-year corporate career helping CEOs, directors and C-suite executives advance business and reputational goals through strong narrative, compelling content and insightful coaching. She managed executive communications for Duke Energy, Spectra Energy, Duke Power and Duke Engineering & Services.

Her speeches have been featured in Vital Speeches of the Day, Executive Speaker, Executive Speeches and local, state and trade publications, and recognized with numerous awards, including Cicero Speechwriting Awards from Vital Speeches of the Day and Gold and Silver Crown Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators. She has also won various communications honors for annual reports, corporate identity campaigns, branding, advertising initiatives, marketing collateral and employee communications.

Lucinda lectures and writes about communications. She serves as an adjunct professor at Wingate University and teaches executive communications annually at Georgetown University as a member of the Professional Speechwriters’ Association Speechwriting School faculty.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and began her writing career as a newspaper feature writer. She recently served as managing editor of MOD Society, a lifestyle magazine focused on art, design, entertainment and culture.

When she’s not writing for others, Lucinda writes under her own byline. Her essays and

creative work have been published widely in literary journals, magazines and blogs.

Blanca Gonzalez is passionate about empowering women, uplifting communities and embracing one’s personal best through service to others. 

Blanca is a certified life coach, Reiki practitioner and retreat leader for women. She is a founding member of a 501c3 group called United Women for Change, dedicated to empowering and supporting individuals, families and organizations within the region through service initiatives that promote inclusiveness and strengthen diversity. 

Blanca earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in International Business from the prestigious Tecnológico de Monterrey. She enjoyed a successful career in manufacturing and held leadership roles in finance and R&D in Mexico before she immigrated to the US in 2001. She was recognized and promoted for her demonstrated ability to serve as an effective liaison between Mexican and American leadership teams, and as a champion of workforce diversity. 

Blanca owns two businesses in the City of Charlotte, International Truck of Tacos (ITOT) a famous food truck that serves Artisan Tacos. Based on a business model that supports a ‘Food is Love’ ideology, ITOT gives work to minority women and promotes equity, inclusion and vibrant, connected communities. 

Her most recent venture is called Charlotte Imports. A business dedicated to bring high quality building supplies to the US and position more Latino owned brands on the shelves of Charlotte distribution centers. 

Luisa is a seasoned professional in tax accounting across industries, working in senior positions at large international manufacturing companies, and Big 4 firms, including KPMG and PwC. 

She has lived and worked internationally, in Bogota, Colombia and Bangalore,  India – and is well-versed in international business, corporate culture, and client-firm relationships.

Luisa earned an MBA from Winthrop University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Benedict College, a historically black college in South Carolina, where she graduated summa cum laude. She is a licensed CPA in North Carolina and South Carolina and has grown her firm primarily from first-generation clients and business owners from this geographic area.

After many years of providing consulting, support, and expertise to clients in the S&P 500, Luisa opened her own firm to assist individuals and small-to-mid size businesses, who in most cases, did not have access to the kind of advisory and consulting services that big corporations utilize for their day-to-day business activities. Many of her clients are small businesses owned by immigrants, women, and entrepreneurs from under-represented groups. 

Luisa not only contributes her perspective and knowledge in the business field but also has a passion for serving the community and putting effort into initiatives to inspire and uplift children from one of the most impoverished regions in her home country of Colombia. She is a member Color Colombia Foundation and chairwoman and founder of the Angeles y Niñas (Angels and Little Girls) Foundation, an organization committed to uplifting the youth in Afro-Colombian communities.

Outside of work and her philanthropic activities, Luisa is a dedicated wife and mother of four children. She is also an active member of her church and in her local community of Waxhaw, NC

Leigh Coulter is a Charlotte area culinarian and local foods advocate. With many years of experience in hospitality, food service, and food retail she brings a wealth of personal experience and a broad perspective to United Women for Change. 

Starting out innocently enough in the cafeteria of Albemarle Road Middle School, she soon discovered a talent and ease in connecting with people through food.

Her experience includes volume baking, prepared foods retail, and off-site catering for two area businesses. She has also helped to open and launch a popular area restaurant and managed a wine bar.

Believing in the importance of sourcing quality ingredients seasonally and locally, Leigh took an interest in helping area growers get their products to market. She brought her marketplace knowledge, food merchandising experience, and passion to a management position at two area Farmers’ Markets in North Carolina’s Cabarrus and Union counties.

She is currently employed in a private hospitality venue where she nightly represents the masterful creations of the chef and kitchen staff to an eager and appreciative membership. A former teacher, she also mentors new staff in culinary arts, food merchandising, and sales.

Leigh is a dedicated community advocate, volunteer, and voice for positive, uplifting change. She earned her non-profit management certificate from Duke University in 2015 and stands ready to help launch Charlotte’s next new wave of entrepreneurs.

Dr. Christine Somma is an applied neuroscientist who has devoted her career developing and implementing programs for economically-challenged children and families, and providing diagnostic and therapy services for individuals with complex speech, language, learning and cognitive disorders. She is widely recognized and respected for her accomplishments in program development and implementation, research, speech-language pathology, education and community outreach.  

Early in her career, Dr. Somma created a comprehensive special needs program for families in impoverished neighborhoods in New York City for the federal Head Start program. She conceptualized and administered the disability service plan for the city- a substantial undertaking that provided community-centered medical, educational, mental health and nutritional services for thousands of families. She became an integral member of the minority community in Brooklyn and the Bronx ensuring the community members received quality services as she established relationships with community agencies. During these years in the inner city, Dr. Somma was the director of Rehabilitation Medicine at a city hospital in Brooklyn, where she organized, supervised and implemented services for individuals with severe medical issues who required speech-language, physical and occupational therapy services. As an adjunct to the inpatient services at the hospital, Dr. Somma received a grant to develop outreach programs in the drug ridden neighborhoods of Brooklyn serving families during the early days of the HIV epidemic. 

Dr. Somma is a lifelong learner and has earned three master’s degrees and a Ph.D. with an eclectic background in speech-language pathology, neuroscience and special education. During her doctoral studies at Columbia University, she worked on the standardization of the pediatric neuropsychology instrument, the NEPSY, which is a renowned pediatric neuropsychology test that continues to be the gold standard in the field of neuropsychology. 

Dr. Somma is a published qualitative researcher whose doctoral work focused on the implementation process of a reading program delivered by volunteer tutors. Her insightful modifications to an existing theory of program implementation proposed by a leading researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resulted in a noteworthy scientific contribution to the field. Her qualitative research documented the importance of the ecological and contextual factors in the implementation process, and the importance in developing trust to establish program viability. 

Dr. Somma has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University’s Behavioral Sciences department, lead parent workshops in the community and supervised and mentored students in professional development. training. She has received a multitude of awards from school districts, community agencies, not-for-profit corporations and the medical community.  

Currently, Dr. Somma is the owner and director of Waxhaw Speech, Language and Learning where she runs a successful practice and continues to earn accolades from physicians, teachers, mental health professionals and her colleagues in speech-language pathology.