Dr. Ashley Smith is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders. She spends her time providing therapy and training other professionals. Her first book, Childhood Anxiety Disorders, is coming out in April. After working at a nationally recognized specialty center for years, she is branching out on her own by starting a private practice. She helps individuals learn to embrace uncertainty, face their fears, and lead a life that is not ruled by anxiety.

Ashley is also legally blind. With a rare untreatable retinal disease, Ashley knows what it's like to face uncertainty. Despite doctors predicting the contrary, her vision has worsened significantly in recent years making daily activities she used to take for granted--like driving, reading books, and recognizing people across the room--impossible. As her vision has declined, she has had to learn to adapt. She will readily admit that living with a disability is a scary struggle, but she strives to keep it from defining her or holding her back. Those professional skills definitely come in handy after hours! Keep an eye out (pun intended) for her blog A Blind Quest for Happiness, which she hopes to launch later this year.

Ashley grew up in Arkansas, went to graduate school in Nebraska, and now lives in Kansas City. She enjoys ballroom and swing dancing (and has a few amateur comps under belt), reading (thank you adaptive technology!), and traveling. She thrives on new experiences and believes that boredom is the antithesis of happiness.

If you want to stay up-to-date on future episodes or you want access to our Spotify Power Playlist, sign up at www.aprilseifert.com 

Meredith is an alternative investment consultant, one of Inc.com’s 17 inspiring women to watch in 2017, and author of Women of The Street: Why Female Money Managers Generate Higher Returns (And How You Can Too), which won an Axiom Award Gold Medal in 2016. She began her alternative investment career as the Director of Research at Van Hedge Fund Advisors International where she was responsible for manager selection, due diligence, index construction and aggregate industry research for the $500 million fund of funds.

Meredith was then recruited by hedge fund analytics provider PerTrac Financial Solutions. Her research on emerging managers, initiated in 2006, and women and minority-owned funds created new investment categories. It has changed the way investors and money managers behave - both in the way investors allocate and how money managers market to and seek investors.

Meredith served as Director of the Rothstein Kass Institute, an Alternative Investment Think Tank at the professional services firm Rothstein Kass (RKCO). There she created the first Women in Alternative Investments Hedge Fund Index to measure performance of female hedge fund and private equity managers.

Meredith is a foodie and wine lover and maintains a love of charcoal and open flames when it comes to her own cooking. She is a figure skater and skates weekly, relying on an inexplicable addiction to decaffeinated coffee for her early morning ice times.

If you want to stay up-to-date on future episodes or you want access to our Spotify Power Playlist, sign up at www.aprilseifert.com 

Claudia Perlich is a professional in the growing field of data science. With more than 50 published scientific articles, she is a widely acclaimed expert on big data and machine learning applications.

Claudia is the past winner of the Advertising Research Foundation’s (ARF) Grand Innovation Award and has been selected for Crain’s New York’s 40 Under 40 list, Wired Magazine’s Smart List, and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People.

Claudia holds multiple patents in machine learning.  And has worked at IBM’s Watson Research Center, focusing on data analytics and machine learning.  She is currently the Chief Scientist at a startup company called Dstillary. She holds a PhD in Information Systems from New York University (where she continues to teach at the Stern School of Business), and an MA in Computer Science from the University of Colorado.

If you want to stay up-to-date on future episodes or you want access to our Spotify Power Playlist, sign up at www.aprilseifert.com