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International Women’s Day 2021

Thank you for joining us to honor immigrant leaders

Honorees

Roxann Cooke

Regional Director of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management, JP Morgan Chase

 

Kathrin Knauf

Vice President of Project Management, Moderna

 

Kanika Soni

Chief Commercial Officer, Tripadvisor

Host

Tiziana Dearing

Host of Radio Boston on WBUR

About The Event

On March 8, 2021, the International Institute hosted a virtual International Women’s Day celebration to honor the achievements of women leaders.

International Women’s Day is a global phenomenon, and every year, we celebrate in a festive, supportive atmosphere that honors immigrant women and daughters of immigrants who have made a profound difference in New England and the world.

The annual event highlights the impact refugee and immigrant women have on our economy and our communities, and it celebrates the achievements of women everywhere. Our speaking program features a conversation with our honorees about their life experiences. International Women’s Day (IWD) has been observed around the world since the early 1900s It is a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity.

The International Institute of New England has been celebrating IWD since the early 2000s as a way to showcase immigrant women and their advocates. Past honorees include: Rep. Nikki Tsongas, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Dr. Charlotte Yeh, Colette Phillips, Christina Qi, and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

Why International Women’s Day?

Fifty percent of IINE program participants are women enrolled in refugee resettlement, job training and placement, English language classes, and legal services. 

The women we meet in IINE programs protected their families as they fled war and violence in Somalia, Congo, Iraq,  El Salvador, Bhutan, and other countries. Since 2016, more than 150 families served by IINE list a woman as their head-of-household. IINE programs are designed to be responsive to and respectful of the unique lived experiences of women who have faced and fled persecution and distress.

We proudly honored three outstanding immigrant women in 2021.

Roxann Cooke

Roxann Cooke

Regional Director of
Consumer Banking and Wealth Management, JP Morgan Chase

During the COVID-19 economic crash, JP Morgan Chase was the number 1 lender of Paycheck Protection loans that helped save thousands of jobs, and has continued to expand storefronts in communities of color throughout the shutdowns. As Managing Director of Consumer Banking in New England, Roxann Cooke has been on the frontlines of Chase’s outreach to low income neighborhoods. A native of Jamaica, Roxann moved to Dorchester when she was young.

“I have a few formal and informal mentors, but the one who influenced me the most personally is my late grandmother, Ina Smith,” Roxann said in an interview with the Boston Business Journal. “She was an entrepreneur who owned a grocery store and a seamstress business in Jamaica and taught me some valuable lessons that I remember vividly. She would have customers come in who didn’t have the ability to pay and they would give her an IOU and she would never bat an eye. I learned so much about customer service and managing and building relationships and caring for customers and community. She taught me how to be compassionate.”

Kathrin Knauf

Kathrin Knauf

Vice President of Project Management, Moderna

As VP of Project Management for Moderna, Kathrin Knauf led the team responsible for manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine. Before coming to the United States at 28, Kathrin lived in her native country of Germany, and worked for Novartis and Chiron. 

At Moderna, Kathrin saw hundreds of foreign-born scientists participate in the vaccine development, but became bothered by rising nationalism and political hostility to foreigners. Nervous about securing her U.S. citizenship, she accelerated her application and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in December, the same month the Moderna vaccine was approved by the FDA. 

“I’m so driven by my overall curiosity that I tend to ignore my gender identification as it relates to my actions and leadership,” she said in an interview for Women’s Day in 2020. “That doesn’t mean I’m blind to the fact that our industry has more work to do towards equality across gender and other factors… For me, the bigger question is ‘How can we generate interest in areas like manufacturing and show that it is highly creative and heart-based work?’ This way, we can reach a broad range of people overall.”

Kanika Soni

Kanika Soni

Chief Commercial Officer, Tripadvisor

A longtime executive in technology and media, Kanika Soni exemplifies the ingenuity that women from immigrant families bring to their fields. Before serving as Chief Commercial Officer at TripAdvisor, Ms. Soni was head of Global Digital Marketing at Tesla and then SVP of Global Ecommerce at Disney, before moving to Massachusetts in 2019. 

The COVID-19 shutdowns have highlighted immigrants’ roles in the hospitality industry at all levels. Raised in a refugee family herself, Ms. Soni has a unique perspective on how foreign-born people and refugees participate at all levels to respond to the crisis. A passionate advocate for refugees and immigrants, she was influenced at a young age by her grandparents, who escaped from the riots in Pakistan during the Partition of India. 

“They left behind the only community they had ever known,” she says, “And everything they had built through years of hard work. If only they had more support or a more structured way to help cope with their new reality and integrate into the community, they could have avoided a lifelong struggle building their identity from scratch again.”

2021 Corporate Citizen Award

State Street

The Corporate Citizen Award is awarded in recognition of State Street’s progressive policies, community partnerships, and ongoing investment in their employees. The award is given annually to an organization that advances women institutionally and in the world; to implement structures that build women’s advancement into the institutional framework.
2022 International Women’s Day Celebration Host

Tiziana Dearing

Host of Radio Boston on WBUR

Tiziana is the host of Radio Boston on WBUR. She’s been a commentator and contributor to WBUR for more than a decade, and has contributed to a number of other regional and national news outlets. 

2021 International Women’s Day Committee

Committee Co-Chairs

Colette Phillips, CEO, CPC Communications

Cathy Schmidt, CEO, McLane Middleton

Committee Members

Paul Ayoub, Partner, Nutter and Chair Emeritus, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce

Pam Chang, SVP, Welch & Forbes

Michael Douvadjian, Senior Vice President, UBS
Beth Grous, Chief People Officer, Tripadvisor
Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D, General Partner, Flagship Pioneering

Theo Melas-Kyriazi, Executive Partner, Flagship Pioneering

Charlotte McKee, VP, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Bob Rivers, CEO, Eastern Bank
Raj Sharma, The Sharma Group at Merrill Lynch

Jane Steinmetz, Managing Principal, EY Boston
Kat Tzouganatos, Principal, Deloitte

Women's Day Committee

Advocate Sponsors

Promoter Sponsors

Ally Sponsors

AE Events
Agios Pharmaceuticals
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
American Tower Corporation
Biogen
Zoltan and Cristina Csimma
Deborah Dunsire and Michael Hall
EY
Flagship Pioneering
Jean Marie Hynes and Mark Joseph Condon
JPMorgan Chase
Leader Bank
McLane Middleton
Taeiss Mojazza
Lisa and Theo Melas-Kyriazi
The Sharma Group at Merill Lynch
South Shore Health
Stoke Therapeutics
Thuy and Tuan Ha-Ngoc
Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Friend Sponsors

Casma Therapeutics
Tara and Gray Chynoweth
Deloitte
Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation
KSQ Therapeutics
William O’Reilly and Elizabeth Ross
Pappas & Pappas
Rubius Therapeutics
Skanska USA, Inc.
The TJX Companies, Inc.
Welch & Forbes, LLC

Supporter Sponsors

Beate Becker
Benson Executive Search
Christina Bai and Shaw Chen
Charlotte McKee
Colette Phillips Communications
Ernest Mudarri Haddad
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy
Kathy and Bill Gillett
Ginger Gregory and Nicholas Cochrane
HR Knowledge
Loren Moran
Michael Douvadjian
Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP
Lisa and Jim Valone
Vista Higher Learner
Mary Ann Williams
Joan Wood and Jim Geraghty

Guests

AAFCPAs
Jessica Bethoney
Brown and Grill Household
Fairlane Properties, Inc.
Barbara Lemperly Grant and Fred Grant
Priti Patel
Procter & Gamble

International Women’s Day Past Honorees

Marina Hatsopoulos Bornhorst, Founding CEO, Z Corporation
Jackie Glenn, Founder and CEO, Glenn Diversity and HR Solutions
Dr. Nergis Mavalvala, Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and the Associate Head of the Department of Physics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Colette Phillips, Founder & CEO, Colette Phillips Communications
Razia Jan, Founder & President, Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation
Eveline Buchatskiy, Founder, One Way Venture
Dr. Nawal Nour, Founder, African Women’s Health Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Founder & Chair, Women Waging Peace
Malalai “The bravest woman in Afghanistan” Joya, refugee, activist and politician
Marie St Fleur, Vice Chair, House Committee on Ways and Means
Victoria Reggie Kennedy, attorney, and advocate for issues affecting lives of women, children, and families
Jeanne Shaheen, Former NH Governor, and current US Senate Member
Rya Weickert Zobel, Federal Judge of the US District Court, District of MA
Dr. Charlotte Yeh, CMO, AARP
Geeta Ayer, President and Founder, Commonwealth Management Asset
Rupa Shenoy, Host and Reporter, NPR, and Founder, Otherhood Podcast