Board Members

LESLIE STILES is currently board president of the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, an event she helped initiate 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 health care, economic stability and education.

Prior to her appointment as executive director, Stiles served as director of marketing for the National Constitution Center, vice president of 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 nonprofit 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 chaired through 2016.

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. She was recognized by Governor Wolf as a 2019 Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.

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, six years as a Board member of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., and now as a Board member of the World Foundation for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

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 recently formed and now heads the Board Alumni Association for the Zoo.

She is currently a member of the board of the Women’s Humane Society of PA, serving as its Vice President, a member of the board of the Philadelphia Dog Training Club, serving as its Treasurer, a Member of the Executive Committee of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia, and as a member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

KAREN FARMER WHITE is an education consultant and is the current Chair of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education. Previously, she was the managing director at the Pittsburgh office of Mesirow Financial. Prior to Mesirow, White was the Vice President of Education at WQED Multimedia where she won three Mid-Atlantic Emmys for her work on educational programming.

White is the current Chair-elect at Seton Hill University and serves on the regional advisory board for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. She serves on numerous boards including the FISA Foundation and Point Park University.

White has received numerous awards for community service and serves as a mentor and role model for women in her community. White worked on a doctorate in education at the University of Pittsburgh where she previously earned a Master of Public Administration from GSPIA and is a graduate of the Executive Management program at the Katz Graduate School of Business. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh class XII.

REV. DR. LORINA MARSHALL-BLAKE is president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation (Foundation), leading strategic, programmatic, and operational efforts to fulfill the Foundation’s mission to lead sustainable solutions that improve the health and wellness of the community. While overseeing grant-making work for the $73 million Foundation, Marshall-Blake steered the Foundation to be a collaborator, innovator, convener of diverse organizations, and thought leader in addressing emerging health needs in southeastern Pennsylvania. 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 and the United Negro College Fund, and is the 28th President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Omega Omega Chapter.

She has been recognized for her leadership and community service by diverse organizations such as the NAACP, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Tribune, and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. She has also been recognized with numerous awards—including the 2018 Philadelphia Region’s Leaders Award from The Philadelphia Tribune, the Health Care Innovator Award from the Philadelphia Business Journal and a Community College of Philadelphia’s Pathways magazine cover story feature.

Marshall-Blake serves on 25 non-profit boards and committees of local, state, and national organizations including Blue Cross Blue Shield Association — Corporate Responsibility Committee, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, the Urban Affairs Coalition, and the Urban League of Philadelphia. Marshall-Blake holds a bachelor’s degree in human services from Antioch College, a master’s in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania and an honorary doctorate of Humanities from Albright College. She is an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SUZANNE QUIGLEY has over twenty-five years of experience in corporate responsibility and project management. Quigley joined QVC in July of 2010 to lead the community affairs team, which continues to be part of her current role as director of corporate responsibility for Qurate Retail Group (QRG). QRG is comprised of the leading retail brands QVC, HSN, Zulily, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, and Grandin Road.

Her previous role was VP of community initiatives at Capmark Finance Inc. Before that, she was the manager of housing and community initiatives for the Fannie Mae Foundation’s northern regional office in Philadelphia.

Quigley graduated from Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research with an MS in social service and an MS in law and social policy, and from Villanova University with a BA in political science. 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, Retail Industry Leaders Association’s sustainability committee, Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship Executive Forum, and the Sustainability Leadership Forum.

JOANNE RYDER is the Head of Operations for Compass RE, the real estate technology company headquartered in NYC. In her role as Head of Operations, Ryder leads all regional efforts related to scaling the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and DE markets including employee engagement, customer experience, office expansion and workplace operations, transactions operations and compliance.

Prior to her role at Compass, Ryder spent time as the Vice President, People and Culture for Philadelphia’s fastest growing technology company, goPuff. Ryder was responsible for building a people and culture team and foundations from inception and successfully recruited over 350+ new roles to the organization.

In Ryder’s most significant role, she served as Chief Administration Officer of Beneficial Bank until the WSFS acquisition of the firm in 2019. In this role, she played an instrumental role in the execution of Beneficial’s strategic vision. Ryder oversaw the 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 twelve years with Beneficial, Ryder was the 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. She was responsible for the successful mergers and integration of Conestoga Bank and St. Edmond’s Bank. She also led digital initiatives, launching the bank’s mobile banking app, tablet banking and remote deposit capture platforms. Ryder has over twenty-five years of experience in the financial services industry.

Prior to joining Beneficial, she held marketing roles of increasing responsibility at Commerce Bank (now TD). While at Commerce, Ryder strengthened the brand positioning of America’s Most Convenient Bank and played a key role in the brand launches for New York and Washington D.C. markets. Ryder is passionate about advancing women in the workplace and serves on as a Board Member of the Pennsylvania Conference for Women and The Forum of Executive Women.

Ryder is also a member of the Advisory Council for the Penn State University Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications as well as a member of the Union League of Philadelphia. Ryder earned a BA in communications from the Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA at Villanova University. She resides in Cherry Hill, NJ with her husband and son.

FUNMI WILLIAMSON is responsible for all aspects of the company’s customer-focused strategy, initiatives, and operations, including PECO’s Customer Care Center and Advanced Metering Infrastructure organization. Based in Philadelphia, PECO is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility.

The company employs roughly 2,700 people and generates approximately $2.8 billion in local economic impact. A subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, the nation’s largest competitive energy provider, PECO serves 1.6 million electric and more than 525,000 natural gas customers in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Exelon is headquartered in Chicago and is listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “EXC.” Previously, Williamson was senior vice president and chief commercial risk officer for Exelon Corporation. In that role, she was responsible for the identification, assessment, and monitoring of strategic, financial and operational risks for all the commercial businesses, and the communication of those risks to the Finance and Risk Management Committee of the Board of Directors. She also held several roles in Constellation’s commercial risk organization and on the company’s proprietary trading team. Prior to joining Exelon Corporation, Williamson was a member of the Assurance and Business Advisory team at Arthur Andersen.

Williamson is on the boards of Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, an organization dedicated to building girls of courage, confidence, and character, and Code in the Schools, which is expanding access to quality computer science education programs in Baltimore City. She is also a member of Executive Leadership Council (The ELC), the preeminent member organization for the development of global black leaders.

Williamson is also an active member of the African American Leadership Council in Exelon. In 2019, Williamson was nationally recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Corporate America”. Williamson holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

HON. ALISON YOUNG is a regular on-air commentator for 6ABC’s Inside Story (Philadelphia) and Fox Television Station’s Chasing News (New York/New Jersey). Ms. Young is Managing Partner of Red, White and Blue Strategies (RWB), founding RWB’s executive coaching and leadership training practice group; and serving on the firm’s executive team.

She previously served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Strategic Leadership in Drexel’s LeBow College of Business. In 2017, she was named an Eisenhower Fellow. As part of her fellowship she spent a month in China studying the underrepresentation of women in the governments of G20 countries.

Before joining LeBow College in August 2013, Ms. Young served as vice president for external affairs at the National Constitution Center. Prior to that, she served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and as acting director of USA Freedom Corps.

Ms. Young earned her B.A. from Grove City College and her M.A. from George Washington University. She serves as a Board Member for multiple organizations including the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, on the executive leadership team of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women and is a member of the Forum of Executive Women and the Pennsylvania Society. She is also an ordained elder of Old Pine Presbyterian Church and a regular volunteer with Old Pine Community Center’s Saturday for Seniors program. Ms. Young lives in Philadelphia with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog.