Philly Tech Week 2019

As the Atlantic Outreach Liaison for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Elizabeth Dougherty carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the USPTO's east coast stakeholder engagement. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Dougherty ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the regions unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

A 27 year veteran of the USPTO, Ms. Dougherty previously served as the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. In this role, she worked closely across the Agency's leadership to implement the policies and priorities for the USPTO. She began her career at the USPTO as a patent examiner after graduating from The Catholic University of America with a bachelor's degree in physics. While a patent examiner, Ms. Dougherty went on to obtain her J.D. from The Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America and served as a Senior Legal Advisor in the Office of Patent Legal Administration for a significant part of her career. Over the years, she has also served in the USPTO’s Office of Petitions, the Office of Innovation Development, and the Office of Government Affairs. Ms. Dougherty has dedicated much of her career to the USPTO's outreach and education programs focusing on small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs. In this effort she has developed, implemented, and supervised programs that support the independent inventor community, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the intellectual property interests of colleges and universities. Similarly Ms. Dougherty has spearheaded a number of special projects with federal, state and local governments, and private organizations to promote and support invention and innovation in the United States.

Ms. Dougherty is a member of the Virginia Bar, the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court, the Pauline Newman American Inn of Court, the American Bar Association, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Patent and Trademark Office Society, the Supervisory Patent Examiners and Classifiers Organization, Women in Science and Engineering, Federally Employed Women, and the Network of Executive Women.

As a Solutions Architect Evangelist, Todd spends his time working directly with his customers and partners on a global basis, while listening to understand their goals and working backwards from there. He defines requirements, provides architectural guidance around specific use cases, and assists in designing applications and services that are scalable, reliable, and performant. Outside of speaking at public events and hosting hackathons, Todd’s interests spread across various technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and serverless event driven architectures.

Ryan leads the sales department at DirectLync. He has over 10 years of experience helping small businesses achieve their goals by optimizing various technology platforms. In his previous roles, Ryan oversaw a variety of marketing activities and was responsible for vetting and implementing different marketing tools and services. Ryan loves the outdoors, spending time with his wife and 3 children, and is an avid sports fan and dog lover

Since co-founding Flocabulary in 2004, Alex has been responsible for defining the company's strategic vision and building the business from the ground up. A musician by training, Alex has bootstrapped Flocabulary into a mission-driven edtech company that now reaches millions of students.

Named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business in 2018, Alex is a regular author and speaker on education, entrepreneurship and social enterprise. He is a member of the Nationswell Council and has served as a mentor for 4.0 Schools and the StartEd Accelerator. Alex is also the creator of Big Idea Week, a community-supported entrepreneurship program for elementary and middle schools. A Philadelphia native, Alex now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Annalicia is a Manager of the Digital and Strategic Design practice with Navigate and has 5+ years of consulting and industry experience leading software implementations and design thinking projects to enable business initiatives and driving enterprise transformation. She is a conceptual thinker who helps clients identify and apply solutions to improve business efficiency and effectiveness through process improvement and strategic design thinking.

Along with her work at Navigate, she is an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson University, where she teaches Innovation Essentials. Through this class, undergraduates learn the Integrated Design Process, which trains them in design thinking, identifying opportunities for innovation, prototype development, and business modeling.

Annalicia has spoken at numerous events advocating strategic design and social impact, with upcoming engagements this May at TEDxPhiladelphia 2019. She has an M.B.A in Strategic Design at Thomas Jefferson University and has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Widener University.

Conrad Benner is a photographer, podcaster, curator, and founder of StreetsDept.com, a photo-blog that discovers art on the streets of Philadelphia. Conrad’s blog has been named one of the ‘Best Blogs for Travellers’ by The Guardian, and his photography highlighted by Mashable and Instagram, as well as printed in Time Magazine and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Winner of the 2011 Philadelphia Geek Award for ‘Geek Culture Journalism,’ Conrad was named ‘Best Art Curator’ in 2014 by Philadelphia Magazine, ‘Rad Guy of the Year’ at the 3rd Annual Rad Awards in 2017, and one of ‘The 100 Most Influential People in Philadelphia’ by Philadelphia Magazine in 2017.

Conrad has used his growing influence not only to celebrate Philly’s burgeoning arts scene, but also to affect change. Most notably with his successful #SEPTA247 campaign, in 2014, which pushed the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to reintroduce overnight weekend service to Philadelphia’s elevated and subway trains. As well as with his work on Next Stop: Democracy, a Knight Cities Challenge winning project, which aims to increase voter turnout in Philly with the help of local artists. And his work in 2016 with Covenant House Pennsylvania to create #AmICutOut, a pop-up art installation to help raise awareness and money to end youth homelessness in Philadelphia. And in the Trump-era, with his work co-organizing Signs of Solidarity, an inauguration day public art protest in opposition to hate and in protest of any and all that embolden divisiveness; co-organizing Collective Action, a silent art auction which raised over $23k for 10 local and national social justice organizations; and curator and organizer of Revolutionary: A Pop-Up Street Art Exhibition, a six-week exhibition, commissioned by Visit Philadelphia, which featured the work of 13 contemporary Philly-based artists who are challenging the current political and social status quo installed at 13 locations across Philadelphia’s Historic District.

Born and raised in the heart of the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Conrad has indeed eaten a WAWA hoagie for breakfast before, and on many occasions, and he’s not mad about it.

Founder and CEO of The Ladipo Group, Tonya Ladipo, LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker), is the visionary behind the region’s only counseling and consulting practice specializing in serving Black and African-American communities. Tonya has a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Widener University (2004). She is also a graduate of the Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program (2016).

Using her unique perspective as a clinician, Tonya understands what motivates people and organizations to change. She is driven to help individuals and organizations develop healthy and sustainable relationships that fosters growth and opportunities for all. With a commitment to making workplaces more inclusive so people of all backgrounds can succeed, Tonya applies her clinical knowledge and expertise to the consulting and training services The Ladipo Group conducts with organizations.

Our motto of Knowledge is Good, Behavior is Better underscores the approach to creating and maintaining an inclusive and welcoming workplace that is free of bullying with opportunities for advancement for all.

As an engaging speaker on inclusive workplace cultures, emotional intelligence, and women’s wellness Tonya speaks to large audiences (500+) as well more intimate gatherings.

Recent speaking events include Black Enterprise’s Women of Power Summit (Feb. 2019), Philadelphia SHRM Conference (March 2019) and PHL’s Diversity and Inclusion Conference (March 2019).

Tonya was the keynote speaker at the Philadelphia Works’ Workforce Development Conference in 2017, as well as the keynote speaker for Villanova University’s Women of Color luncheon in May 2015. She was a speaker at the Black Women Talk Tech conference in 2018. In 2015 she was also awarded the Advena World Most Outstanding Speaker award.

Alex Cohen is the founder of TwentyTables, a mobile platform that empowers marginalized consumers to rediscover the convenience of professionally prepared food, while also helping to feed communities’ neighbors in need. TwentyTables won SXSW Pitch 2019’s ‘Best Bootstrap’ award for cost-effectively creating a socially conscious marketplace that reduces food waste and benefits the hungry. Prior to founding TwentyTables, Alex was a lawyer, carpenter, humanitarian and teacher.