Board Members

Leslie Stiles is currently Board President of the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, an event she initiated to broaden the outreach to women across the Commonwealth. From January 2003 until February 2011, Stiles served as Executive Director for the Pennsylvania Commission for Women. Appointed by the Governor, she acted as state government’s advocate for all issues as they impacted women and girls. She is a vigorous and outspoken advocate for women in government and women’s healthcare, economic stability and education. Prior to her appointment as Executive Director, Stiles served as Director of Marketing for the National Constitution Center, Vice President Marketing at First Union Bank and Corestates Bank, and President of Stiles and Co.

Throughout her career, Stiles has been active in the realm of public outreach. Her non-profit board affiliations include: Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Marion Anderson Award, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure-Philadelphia Affiliate (2005 to 2011), the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, Kimmel Cancer Center Advisory Board and the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy which she Chairs. Stiles is also a member of the Forum of Executive Women. A breast cancer survivor, she has received significant recognition as an honoree for her work with the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Buddy Program, the 2006 PA Breast Cancer Coalition’s Pink Tie Award, and Komen’s 2010 Woman of Power Award. She is also the recipient of the Professional Women’s Roundtable Power Award , the KYW 2011 Women’s Achievement Award, as well as the Women’s Law Project Myra Bradwell award, the 2012 Pathways PA award and the Women’s eNews award.

Susan L. Anderson has been a board member and the treasurer of the Pennsylvania Conference for Women since its inception. After completing 20 years of government service, Anderson retired from the Commonwealth. Her last position was as special assistant to Gov. Edward G. Rendell for health care reform. Prior to serving in Gov. Rendell’s administration, Anderson practiced law in Philadelphia. For more than 60 years, Anderson has been active in Girl Scouts, having served for nine years as chair of her local council and for six years as a board member of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Anderson served for nine years as a member of the board of the Philadelphia Zoo and served as chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee. She is currently a member of the board of the Women’s Humane Society of PA, serving as its Vice President, and a member of the board of the Philadelphia Dog Training Club, serving as its Treasurer.

Karen Farmer White is an education consultant. Previously, she was a managing director for the Pittsburgh office of Mesirow Financial. She attended the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earlier earned a Master of Public Administration degree and a B.A. Prior to joining Mesirow Financial, White was vice president of education at WQED Multimedia, and served as executive director of the Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise. She is a graduate of The Leadership Pittsburgh Program and has received many awards for her service to the community. White serves on numerous boards, including: the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, the August Wilson Center, Seton Hill University, Point Park University, the Regional Advisory Board for Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the FISA Foundation Board. She also serves as a role model and mentor for many in the community.

Ehrika C. Gladden is Vice President, Market Strategy, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Group (EISG) for Cisco Systems. She leads a global organization for a $19 billion business unit, which oversees go-to-market performance, requirements and competitive intelligence for enterprise networking core routing, software, WAN/LAN, wireless and security products and solutions. During Gladden’s tenure at Cisco she has also served as director in Services sales, a $500 million sales organization, and most recently, led Cisco’s cloud consumption models start up to a $3.2 billion value creating a new revenue stream. Prior to Cisco, Gladden was VP of Eastern MidMarket sales at Avaya responsible for sales, operations, engineering and administration. Gladden’s career began in B2B sales and VP/GM roles with startup telecom system integrators. She is committed to inclusive leadership development and works tirelessly toward that goal through organizations with similar commitment. She is a Director for the PA Conference for Women board and the Cisco Systems Foundation board of trustees. She is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council. Gladden has received numerous honors, including The Network Journal’s 2013 Top 25 Women, Savoy’s 2012 and 2016 100 Most Influential Women and 2014 Uptown Professional Top 100 Professionals in America. She earned a B.S. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Lorina Marshall-Blake serves as the president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, where she leads the Foundation’s strategic, programmatic, and operational efforts to fulfill its mission of leading sustainable solutions to improving the health and wellness of our neighborhoods that can be replicated on a national scale. This includes overseeing grantmaking work for the $65 million Foundation.

Outside of work, Marshall-Blake is devoted to her church and community. She serves as an associate minister at the Vine Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia. In addition, she is affiliated with more than 30 professional and civic organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the United Negro College Fund, and is the past president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

She also serves on 25 non-profit boards and committees of local, state, and national organizations including Albright College, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association — Corporate Responsibility Committee, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, the Urban Affairs Coalition, and the Urban League of Philadelphia.

In 2016, Marshall-Blake was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing as an honorary fellow and received an appointment to the National Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Marshall-Blake graduated from Antioch College with a B.A. in Human Services and holds an M.A. in Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. She also received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Albright College. She is pursuing her master of divinity degree from Palmer Theological Seminary.

Elizabeth (Liz) A. Murphy is senior vice president, regulatory and external affairs for PECO. Through leadership of regulatory strategy and policy, government affairs, economic development, energy purchasing, corporate philanthropy and employee volunteerism, Murphy drives PECO’s commitment to provide its customers with safe, reliable, clean and affordable energy and energy services. Her team also manages PECO’s suite of award-winning energy efficiency programs and oversees the company’s largest customer accounts. She also is the chair of PECO’s Political Action Committee (PAC).

Based in Philadelphia, PECO is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility. The company employs about 2,400 people, owns $9 billion in assets and generates approximately $5.6 billion in annual revenues. A subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, the nation’s largest competitive energy provider, PECO serves 1.6 million electric and more than 511,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Exelon is headquartered in Chicago and trades on the NYSE under the ticker EXC.

Prior to coming to PECO, Murphy was chief operating officer of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) where she managed operations of the bridges, cruise terminal, passenger ferry, rail yard and public safety. Before joining the DRPA, Murphy served as the director of Government and Regulatory Affairs with Roadway Services, one of the nation’s largest trucking companies. She began her career as the transportation director for the Speaker of the New York Assembly.

Murphy serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Kimmel Center, Beltline Railroad and the United Way Regional Board.

For her commitment to the community, she has been recognized by the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania (Take the Lead Award), PathWays Pennsylvania (Trailblazer Award) and the March of Dimes (Service to Humanity Award). The Pennsylvania Diversity Council honored her as a 2015 Most Powerful & Influential Woman. Murphy also was named one of the Main Line’s Most Influential Women by Main Line Today.

Murphy received her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany. She and her husband live in Wynnewood, Pa. They have three daughters.

Suzanne Quigley has over 20 years’ experience in corporate philanthropy, community involvement and project management. In her current position as Director of Community Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at QVC, she is responsible for advancing both the community involvement and CSR strategy and initiatives appropriate to QVC’s business, mission and heritage, and manages the expectations of key stakeholders concerning responsible corporate citizenship by a global company. Quigley joined QVC in July of 2010 and led an effort to define a cause strategy that leverages the company’s core strengths and aligns with the corporate brand related to real relationships.

Her previous role was as vice president and community initiatives director at Capmark Finance Inc. based in Horsham, Pa. In this role, Quigley managed all domestic and international corporate giving and employee volunteer programs. Prior to this position, Quigley was the manager of housing and community initiatives for the Fannie Mae Foundation’s Northern Regional Office in Philadelphia, Pa. In this role, Quigley oversaw affordable housing grant and loan investments covering 10 states in the northern region. In February of 2004, Quigley returned to the Philadelphia area after spending nine years in a variety of human service and philanthropy-related positions in Arizona.

Quigley graduated from Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research with a master’s in social service and a master’s in law and social policy in 1996, and from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1993. She also received a certificate in nonprofit management from the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute at Bryn Mawr College in 2006. 

Quigley currently is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Philanthropy Network and Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship.

As Chief Administration Officer, Joanne Ryder plays an instrumental role in the execution of Beneficial’s strategic vision. She oversees functional areas including deposit and lending operations, information technology, brand, marketing and communications, education and development, human resources, community relations, and the customer contact center.

In her ten years with Beneficial, Joanne has been a key architect of the bank’s growth and brand evolution. She played a key role in the bank successful transition to a fully public company in 2015. Additionally, she was responsible for the successful mergers and integration of Conestoga Bank and St. Edmond’s Bank. Under Joanne’s leadership, Beneficial became known as the bank that always does what is right, focusing on financial education via customer conversations and the campus banking model. She led digital initiatives, launching the bank’s mobile banking, tablet banking and remote deposit capture platforms, as well as most recently launching a new responsive design website for Beneficial. Joanne is passionate about fostering a strong corporate culture and employee satisfaction, culminating in progressively higher employee satisfaction and engagement ratings, and Top Workplaces 2015, 2016, 2017 recognition by Philly.com.

Joanne has over twenty years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Beneficial, Joanne held Marketing roles of increasing responsibility at Commerce Bank and Firstrust Bank.

She is passionate about community involvement, formalizing Beneficial’s employee volunteer program during her tenure. Beneficial’s Blue-Gooders dedicate more than 5,000 service hours annually. Joanne is a member of the Pennsylvania Conference for Women’s board, Speak Up! board, as well as works closely with Beneficial’s Risk, Compensation, Governance and CRA/Foundation Board Committees.

Joanne earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the Pennsylvania State University, and her MBA at Villanova University. She resides in Cherry Hill, NJ with her husband and son.