For over 20 years, Gayle Carney’s leadership has transformed workplaces and communities, creating bridges between strategic planning, productive operations, culture and authentic branding in mission-driven organizations.

She founded the Center for Community Technology Services, an organization that provided strategic technology and website development services for over 10 years. Previously, as Sr. Director of Training at PowerUP, an initiative of the Steve and Jean Case Foundation, she designed and directed professional development for nonprofit staff at community technology centers around the country. Gayle’s focus on nonprofits began 15 years ago as Chief Technology Officer for The Enterprise Foundation headquarters and its 21 national offices, now Enterprise Community Partners.

A graduate of Boston University’s School of Education, Gayle made a career shift from education to technology after teaching for several years. As a lifelong learner, she is completing a professional certificate from New York University in Leadership and Organizational Development. Gayle is an certified exeutive coach. She believes strongly in positive social change. Because of this belief, she volunteers with various nonprofit boards and schools in the Baltimore area.

Kate Purcell is a visual and interactive designer who specializes in weaving storytelling into unique visual experiences. She stems from a family of artists and credits her architect father for instilling creative values early on that continue to influence her approach to design today.

As the Co-Founder and Creative Director at Pulse Forward for the last five years, Kate finds a happy balance of inspiring and meaningful work. Her design process is informed by data and infused with intuition. Some call her ability to transmute goals and objectives into visual design — magical.

Her expansive base of knowledge across design fields and focus on the client connection combine to deliver a powerful end result for the target audience. Having extensive experience in designing for activism, she understands audiences have unique needs to ensure they feel invested in a cause and that design should connect on an emotional level while meeting a pragmatic goal.

Kate studied visual arts and literature at Marlboro College in Vermont while teaching herself coding, which would prove useful while working for nonprofits overseas. She would go on to design and lead projects for mission-based organizations —from the Sierra Club and the National Council of Churches to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and more. When not designing, Kate enjoys camping and flexes her other creative muscles with quilting, drawing, painting, cooking, interior design, and photography.

Lennette Abad’s creative energy in communications pulls the steadfast underdogs out of the shadows and catapults them into the sun. For the last half-a-decade, Lennette has worked with businesses who are great at what they do and who seek the nuanced flair required to dance on the main stage. She coaches clients through the content creation process, creates editorial calendars, implements communications strategy, and more. Her goal is always to guide her clients to share their truest self - proudly, cohesively, and with no typos, naturally. Her work is motivated by creating feelings in others.

Lennette is Principal and Strategist at Abad & Company and has a BS in Economics from The University of Delaware.