Here We Grow Again!

Please give a warm welcome to our newest members! An organization is only as good as its members, and we are proud to have exceptional women in our ranks. On behalf of The Women’s Collective, we are excited about their input and contributions to our group.

Kari Downing, Managing Director, Savills
Kari is an Experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the real estate industry. She has over 20 years of experience with Atlanta area real estate firms. She has been named to the Million Dollar Clubs of the Georgia Chapter of NAIOP and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. She is a founding member of the NAIOP Future Leaders program.

 

Kelley Elliott, Vice President, Total Rewards, Delta Air Lines
Kelley leads a team of HR professionals responsible for worldwide compensation, financial wellness, family care and mobility programs at Delta Air Lines. She is energized by this purpose driven role that supports Delta’s employee-first mission. Prior to joining Delta, Kelley held a similar total rewards leadership position at UPS and consulted with Willis Towers Watson for 15+ years with a focus on employer benefits. Kelley is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics. She is an Atlanta native and lives in Dunwoody, GA, with her husband, Mark, and their 14-year-old twin boys. Kelley is on the board of directors of the YMCA of Greater Atlanta and previously held a chair position with the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women (Atlanta) Campaign.

Ann Hanlon, Executive Director, Perimeter Community Improvement Districts
Ann runs the largest business District in Metro Atlanta in the Perimeter market, which is a special funding district that helps finance large infrastructure projects with the State of Georgia, including the 285 / 400 interchange project. She’s been in her current role for 7 years and spent 13 years as Executive Director for a similar organization in Alpharetta, the North Fulton CID. Originally from South Georgia, her family all still lives there, and she misses it every day! Ann got her undergrad degree in Government and Computer Science from the University of Notre Dame and her Masters in Finance and Public Administration from Georgia State University. She lives in Dunwoody with her husband, Michael, and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Catherine. Ann is actively involved in charitable work, including serving on the Board of Directors for the Decide DeKalb Development Authority, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, the Council for Quality Growth to name a few. She is also a member of All Saints Catholic Church, a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America and a sustainer with the Junior League of Atlanta.

Sara Higgins, Chief Accounting Officer, Zelis
Sara joined Zelis in 2021 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. In this role, she is responsible for accounting, tax, financial ERP architecture and other related functions. Prior to joining Zelis, Sara served in a number of leadership roles at NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), a global leader in consumer transaction technology, and held successive leadership roles in the audit practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers serving customers in commercial and industrial products. She is a licensed CPA and graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Accounting, with distinction.

Krista Johnston, Vice President, The Grant Partners
Krista serves as Vice President of The Grant Partners. With a decade of executive search experience working with search firms and in internal talent acquisition, she values the relationship portion of search, consulting with both clients and candidates to find the right fit. Krista graduated from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, earning a BBA in International Business. She lives in Johns Creek with her husband, Brannon, and their two daughters, Sadie and Addison.

Meredith Kelley, VP of Finance, Voya Financial
Meredith began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the audit practice and now with over 20 years of experience in finance, she specializes in financial planning and analysis (FP&A) and management reporting. Currently, she is the VP Finance at Voya Financial, where she oversees the FP&A function for the Wealth Solutions segment, which has over $500 billion in assets under management and administration. In this role, she partners with business leaders and key stakeholders to drive top line and bottom line growth, strategic project execution, and target setting, planning and forecasting. Previously, she led FP&A financial systems transformation, implementing Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud. Additionally, she is a change agent and a continuous improvement champion, fostering cultural change and transformation across the organization.

Dina Khismatulina, Partner and Managing Attorney, The Manely Firm, P.C.
Dina was born and raised in Siberia, Russia. She graduated from law school in 1999 and started practicing law in Russia. Upon moving to the US in 2003, she worked in the legal field and subsequently got her LLM at Emory Law in 2014. She passed the Bar in 2014 and has been practicing Family Law and International Family Law ever since, including in federal courts.

Heidi LaMarca, CEO, Windham Brannon
Heidi is the president and CEO of Windham Brannon, responsible for steering the firm’s strategic growth and new service offerings. She was named a 2022 Mid-sized Business Leader by the Atlanta Journal- Constitution, 2020 Most Admired CEO by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and was also named a 2019 Managing Partner Elite by Accounting Today. She’s one of ten Managing Partners nationwide to receive the MP Elite award.

With more than 30 years of experience, Heidi has expertise in the areas of financial statement audits and reviews for real estate, manufacturing, retail/wholesale, and service industries as well as not-for-profit organizations, such as private schools, HUD-financed apartment buildings, membership organizations, and charitable organizations. Additionally, she has expertise in internal control reviews in connection with SOC 1 engagements for 401(k) record keepers and claims administrators, compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, due diligence, and several CPA firm peer reviews.

Shawn Meredith, CFO, MechanAir
Shawn has over twenty years of experience in corporate financial leadership positions in large and small companies, including the last ten years serving as CFO in middle market high-growth companies. She works collaboratively with business leaders to build teams, processes, and execute on aggressive expansion strategies, including M&A and the related financing efforts.

Shawn earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Florida, and Masters of Accounting from Florida International University. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Kathleen Murphy, Regional Vice President, Southeast at Starr Insurance Companies
Kathleen is the SE Regional Vice President for a global commercial property & casualty insurer. Four 4+ years, she has successfully led a diverse team of 250+ teammates and is responsible for setting strategy and delivering results regionally with respect to top line growth, building and maintaining customer relationships, and talent recruitment and development.

Rosalyn Putnam, Executive Director, Leadership Perimeter
With a passion for vibrant communities and 20 years of senior-level experience, strong leadership has always been an investment that Rosalyn has taken seriously for herself and those around her.

Her earliest career days were shaped in her hometown of Las Vegas. After experiencing several career milestones within the hotel industry that took her to various cities in the U.S., her dreams to live abroad came true in 2017, when she moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then on to Doha, Qatar in 2019.

After making the decision to transition back to the U.S., her mindset for serving others took on a different shape, which is why she chose to embark on a new journey in the non-profit space with Leadership Perimeter.

Guanming Ray, Deputy General Counsel, Priority Technology Holdings
Guanming is a business lawyer with over 25 years of experience, working in regional and national law firms and corporate legal departments. She is currently the Deputy General Counsel at a leading payment services company. Prior to joining corporate legal departments, she was a partner at Womble Carlyle (now, Womble Bond Dickinson), advising clients in their mergers and acquisitions, private financing, technology licensing, and other transactions. She also led the firm’s China practice. She active in the community and has served on many non-profit boards.

Janet Scott, Of Counsel, Townsend & Lockett, LLC
Janet is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. She is a graduate of Spelman College, Cum Laude, and she holds a Master of Arts degree in Education from Mercer University. A graduate of Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, presently she is Of Counsel with Townsend & Lockett. Janet has practiced law in several areas, including criminal, education, employment, entertainment, insurance defense, nursing home abuse, personal injury, premises liability, wrongful death, and contract disputes. Janet is passionate about the community and enjoys volunteering with various organizations throughout Atlanta.

Carol Terry, General Counsel and VP, Legal, Chicken Salad Chick
Carol hails from a charming small town in South Georgia well-known for its famous fruitcakes! Upon graduation from the University of Georgia with a degree in Theatre, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in theatre. While pursuing her passion for acting, she began working at a law firm (to pay the rent!), which inspired her to return to the south for law school, where she graduated in the top of her class from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of law. After several years in private practice in Atlanta, she joined the in-house team of lawyers at the General Electric Company, where she was fortunate to have the opportunity travel the world and live in Milan, Italy for a short-term assignment, while helping the company build and develop its legal team supporting Europe. After almost 20 years with GE in a variety of roles, including General Counsel for various business divisions in the GE Energy segment, the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself. She joined Chicken Salad Chick in her current role as “Chief Legal Chick”, headquartered here in Atlanta, where she has been delighted to spend the last 1.5 years working alongside an outstanding team of leaders building a brand devoted to “Spreading Joy, Enriching Lives and Serving Others.”

Carol is excited for the opportunity to become a part of this group of exceptional women who are The Women’s Collective!

Wendy Tillery, Office Managing Partner, CohnReznick LLP
Wendy has 20 years of public accounting experience and a long list of clients that require a diverse range of tax services and structuring. These include real estate developers (residential and commercial), renewable energy companies, real estate syndicators, construction companies, and not-for-profit organizations.

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