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Keynote Speaker:
Andrea Lawful-Sanders
Board Director, Secretary
Community College of Philadelphia Foundation
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Panel Moderator:
Sue Daugherty '95
CEO MANNA
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Panelists
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Reem Ahmed
Vice President, Large Agency Sales
Effectv/Comcast
Reem Ahmed is Vice President of Large Agency Sales for Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable. In this role, she leads the company’s large national agency sales initiatives to integrate the team’s strategy with audience-based advertising sales that drive growth in Effectv’s portfolio of unique TV solutions.
With nearly 20 years of experience, Reem’s career spans across many facets of media sales, including e-commerce, print, digital, and TV, and in various functional areas from client services and strategic partnerships to local and national sales. She is a driven leader that encourages new ideas and is a champion of diversity and change management.
In 2019, Reem joined Effectv as Director of National Sales and shortly rose to Executive Director of National Sales before being appointed to her current role. Prior to Effectv, she spent more than 15 years at Valassis, an omni-channel marketing solutions company, where she held several leadership roles and launched an agency sales business development team.
Reem holds a Master of Business Administration from Western New England University and a Bachelor of Science in business management from Rutgers University. She resides in New York City.
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Chef Jennifer Carroll
Founder/Chef - Carroll Couture Cuisine
Co-Founder & Chair - Sisterly Love Collective
Chef Jen Carroll is a highly accomplished leader in the culinary industry, with a diverse range of experiences & achievements. She has gained widespread recognition for her multiple appearances on Bravo's Top Chef. Her exceptional cooking skills & creativity landed her in the finals in her first season, Las Vegas & then was invited back to compete multiple times as an all star, judge & mentor. Making memorable culinary moments in kitchens & on screens is her power.
In addition to her television work, Chef Carroll helms a culinary experience company, Carroll Couture Cuisine, which offers many services including intimate dinners, cooking classes, demos, team building, food journeys, online culinary subscriptions & brand partnerships. Along with CCC, she is a co-founder of the Sisterly Love Collective, a Philadelphia based non-profit organization that aims to support, mentor & empower women in the food, beverage & hospitality industries.
Chef Carroll's passion for cooking & dedication to her craft have earned her numerous
accolades, including Philadelphia Magazine's Best New Chef, Eater's Best New Restaurant,
Eater’s Chef of the Year, RAMMY nominations for Best New Restaurant & Best New Chef &
recognition as the protege of renowned chef Eric Ripert by the James Beard Foundation.
To stay up-to-date with Chef Carroll's latest projects & culinary creations, you can visit her
website, eatccc.com; follow her on social media @ChefJenCarroll & @CarrollCoutureCuisine; and subscribe to her Patreon channel for exclusive access to her cooking community, spice club, recipes, culinary tips, & more.
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Rue Landau
Councilmember-at-large
City of Philadelphia
Rue Landau is a civil rights and housing attorney, a public school parent and the first openly LGBTQ+ member of Philadelphia City Council. She has spent her entire career fighting for social justice and equity for Philadelphia’s most vulnerable communities. She has a vision for Philadelphia that lifts up every neighborhood and ensures that every person has the opportunity to thrive.
She started her career as an activist and housing organizer. She was on the frontlines in the fight for economic justice, demanding access to affordable housing and health care during the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as an active member of ACT UP, Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) and Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!).
Then, for more than a decade, Councilmember Landau worked as an attorney at Community Legal Services helping low-income renters in Philadelphia avoid illegal eviction from their affordable housing. She fought and won lawsuits that kept thousands of the city’s most vulnerable and high-risk families together by successfully challenging government bureaucracies.
Later, Councilmember Landau served as the director of both the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) and the Fair Housing Commission (FHC), the city’s civil rights and housing enforcement agencies. During her 12-year tenure, Councilmember Landau transformed the agencies into national models for government and community engagement, social justice, and equitable opportunity.
Working with City Council, she led initiatives to strengthen and expand the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance and Fair Housing Ordinance, adding civil rights protections including wage equity, fair chance hiring for people with criminal records, reasonable accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and good cause eviction safeguards, among others. She also oversaw community relations initiatives to combat hate and bias and to bring communities together to prevent conflict and promote understanding.
After leaving the commissions in 2020, Councilmember Landau taught housing law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law as a Beck Fellow and served as the director of law and policy at the Philadelphia Bar Association.
Now, after winning the November 2023 general election, she plans to use her years of knowledge, skills, and relationships to serve all Philadelphians as an at-large member of Philadelphia City Council.
Councilmember Landau’s roots in Philadelphia expand beyond her proven work history. She is an active member of her synagogue Kol Tzedek in West Philadelphia. A proud graduate of Temple Law School, Councilmember Landau has served on numerous boards of non-profit and community organizations and currently is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Philadelphia LGBTQ Bar Association, as well as a committeeperson in the 2nd Ward. Councilmember Landau is married to her wife, Kerry, and together they received the first same-sex marriage license in Pennsylvania, when it became legal on May 20, 2014. They live with their son, a public school student, in Bella Vista – right around the corner from Councilmember Landau’s identical twin sister. She grew up just outside the city, in Cheltenham, and she’s been proud to call Philadelphia her home for more than 30 years.
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Colleen L. Stanford '10
Director of Public Safety and Security
Community College of Philadephia
Colleen started her career in law enforcement as a correctional officer with the Philadelphia Prison System in 2001. In 2004, Colleen transitioned to the Philadelphia Police Department as a police officer, where she patrolled in the 25th Police District. Four years later, she was elevated to work for the Deputy Commissioner of Patrol Operations, with the task of managing computer statistics for tracking criminal incidents.
In 2014, Colleen was promoted to police Corporal and assigned as a supervisor in the Recruitment Unit. In 2015, Colleen became a police Sergeant assigned to the Center City District, where she strategically led the Bicycle Detail/Unit. She was later transferred to the Northwest Detective Division to supervise and oversee criminal investigations. In 2018, Colleen was promoted to police Lieutenant at the 17th Police District. In 2019, she was transferred to the Training and Education Services Bureau to oversee the Emergency Vehicle Operation training unit. In 2020, she was selected to be Administrative Supervisor for The Chief Strategy Office, where she was responsible for managing numerous department initiatives and strategic plans. In December 2021, Colleen was promoted to police Captain for the 9th Police District and subsequently became the police Captain for the Early Intervention Unit in 2022.
Director Stanford is an alumna of Community College of Philadelphia, where she earned an associate degree in Criminal Justice in 2010. Her education also includes a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Chestnut Hill College and a master's degree in Public Safety Management from Saint Joseph's University.
In 2020, Colleen successfully completed the School of Police Staff and Command through Northwestern University.
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Pat Ciarrocchi
Emmy Winning Broadcaster
Pat Ciarrocchi is a 10-time Emmy Award winning and Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame TV News journalist. She made her broadcast home at CBS 3 in Philadelphia as a news anchor and reporter for more than 33 years. Some of her most memorable work involved six overseas assignments at the Vatican. Pat capped off her career coverage of the Catholic Church with more than 16 hours, broadcasting live during Pope Francis’ historic visit to Philadelphia in September 2015.
Pat's storytelling has been celebrated for finding and sharing the human spirit in each assignment. From the steps of the Art Museum on Mother's Day, telling the stories of women facing breast cancers, to the bedside of pediatric cancer patients and their families finding hope in the medical research funded by Alex's Lemonade Foundation. Pat's reassuring voice has brought awareness to challenges that have needed the spirit of working together to find resolution.
Since leaving CBS 3 Philadelphia, Pat's regional public speaking engagements have focused on women’s empowerment in the workplace and the role of women in the Catholic Church, even offering to regional diocesan priests a greater insight into the contemporary Catholic woman.
Pat has devoted her "Beyond the News" time to work that she finds important in the community. In 2016, Pat was asked to join the Board of Directors of Gaudenzia,Inc. It's a leading regional agency that provides recovery treatment services for individuals with substance use disorders, struggling with addictions and the health challenges that often accompany them.
She first became aware of Gaudenzia when she began researching a TV story on substance use disorders — including heroin addiction among women. Soon, Ms. Ciarrocchi was asked to tell more of the Gaudenzia story as a master of ceremonies at its fundraising events. Seeing that the right treatment can take struggle and transform it to healthfulness moved Pat to stay connected to Gaudenzia.
In 2022, Pat was elected to serve in a leadership position as Board Secretary. Her professional background makes her uniquely qualified to Chair the Communications Committee to the Board. Pat's other community outreach includes serving as a founding board member of Mission Kids — the Montgomery County child advocacy agency, providing advocacy in response to allegations of child sexual abuse. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of St. Hubert’s Catholic High School for Girls.
Ms. Ciarrocchi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Rosemont in 1974. In light of her professional and community accomplishments and contributions, she's been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Neumann University in Aston, Cabrini College in Radnor and her alma mater, Rosemont College.
Still being recognized professionally, in November 2024, Pat was named Person of the Year, the pinnacle award presented by the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia at its Hall of Fame Gala. Pat said the greatest compliment she ever received was from a Philadelphia newspaper columnist who described her as a news anchor who was a humanitarian. It wasn't by design. It's just who she is.
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