About IWF Washington State

Nicole Grogan

Nicole Grogan is the chief people officer at Intellectual Ventures (IV), and serves as a Board Director for early stage companies Echodyne, Ventrk and Cintilight. Prior to joining IV, Nicole led human resources in Europe, Middle East and Africa for Cisco Systems and held a variety of generalist and specialist assignments at Cisco, Honeywell, AlliedSignal and Prudential Financial.

Nicole is passionate about and committed to her local community. She is a Techbridge Girls board member and served as board president for the Susan G. Komen Puget Sound.

Nicole earned a BA in international relations from the College of William and Mary, MBA from Pepperdine University’s George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management and was a 2017 – 2018 IWF Fellow.

Mary Knell

Robin Shapiro

A pioneer in the Health Advocacy Movement, Robin Shapiro has spent her 30 year career helping people find their voice to improve their care. She has founded award-winning healthcare engagement companies (including Reverba/formerly HPG LLC) and co-founded HealthAdvocateX, a non-profit whose mission is to help people transform from patient to active participant in their own care. She is the bestselling author of The Secret Language of Healthcare: How to Ask for the Care You Deserve.

Emily Parkhurst

Emily Parkhurst is the founder and CEO of Formidable Inc., a media and membership company for high-level women executives. She was previously vice president of content for 6AM City, the fastest-growing local newsletter company in the U.S. In this role, she oversaw editorial and paid content across a network of two-dozen publications in cities across the country. Prior to her time at 6AM City, she was the publisher and market president of the Puget Sound Business Journal, a national award-winning business newspaper in Seattle. Before being named publisher, Emily was the editor in chief of the publication. Under Emily's leadership, the PSBJ was awarded the 2018 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for public service journalism and the 2018 Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best Real Estate Reporting. The publication is part of the American City Business Journals media family, which is owned by Advance Publications. Before joining the PSBJ, Emily was an education and government reporter in her home state of Maine. Her series, "Children held down," about the "therapeutic restraint" of Maine's public school children was awarded the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting.

Sue Sherbrooke

Sue Sherbrooke served as Chief Executive Officer for YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish, one of the region’s leading nonprofits, for 13 years before retiring in 2016.  Prior to taking this position, Sue served as YWCA Deputy Director and Finance Director.  Before joining YWCA in 1984, she worked in commercial banking and Massachusetts state government.  A double Husky, Sue earned BA and Master of Public Administration degrees from the University of Washington.  She co-chaired the Interagency Council of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County and served on several nonprofit boards. She currently serves as Immediate Past Co-President of the International Women’s Forum – Washington State.

Gretchen Broderson

Kate Joncas

Kate is the Director of Urban Strategy and Development for MIG. She was appointed to this newly created position in February 2019 to lead efforts in providing innovative strategies for complex urban projects in downtowns, neighborhoods and urbanizing places. Since it was founded in 1982, MIG has focused on creative problem solving that supports human development through multidisciplinary teams of designers, planners, engineers, scientists and storytellers. MIG achieves this through embracing inclusivity and stakeholder interaction.

As Seattle Deputy Mayor, Kate managed City operations, led complex intergovernmental projects including waterfront redevelopment and Convention Center expansion, and developed a nationally recognized government performance initiative. Before that she was Downtown Seattle Association CEO where she led one of the most successful revitalization projects in the country, creating a vibrant Downtown with great retail, transportation and jobs, thousands of residents, and a growing, diverse economy.

Kathi Lentzsch

Kathi Lentzsch has a successful track record in board and company leadership with experience in high-growth, high-risk, innovative retail and wholesale companies. With a passion for business and cultural transformation, she has led public and private organizations through each stage of growth. Kathi sits on the Board of Directors for Skagit Valley Malting and several non-profit organizations, including Transforming Age, Refugee Artisan Initiative, and the Washington Chapter of the International Women’s Forum. She is Co-Chair of the Washington Chapter of the Women Corporate Directors Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center of Leadership and Strategic Thinking for the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Throughout her career, Kathi held distinguished leadership roles, including CEO positions at Bartell Drugs, Gump’s San Francisco, Elephant Pharmacy, and President/CMO at Enesco Gift. She also led significant brand and merchandising transformations at well-known and beloved retailers Cost Plus World Market, Pottery Barn/Williams Sonoma, and Pier 1 Imports.

Denise Merle

Denise is the Senior Vice President, Chief Administration Officer and CHRO of Weyerhaeuser, a Fortune 500 global timber REIT and wood products manufacturing company with over $10B in sales. Denise is responsible for all aspects of human resources, information technology, cyber security, sustainability & safety, communications and government affairs. In her role she has also been involved in executing multiple acquisitions and divestitures and led an $8B acquisition integration, delivering $160MM in synergy cost saving.

Her career reflects a history of leading global transformation initiatives, CEO and Executive team transitions, optimizing best in class cost structures and developing leading digital transformation. She also brings deep corporate governance experience through her work on the Weyerhaeuser board and several private boards, including audit and compensation committees.

Denise earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Pacific Lutheran University, an MBA from Seattle University and is a licensed CPA in the state of Washington.

Lynne Varner

Lynne is an East Coast transplant living a life of leadership and service in the Pacific Northwest. She is the former vice chancellor of Washington State University Everett campus and is now leading the STEM education nonprofit, Washington STEM. 

Terry Axelrod

Terry Axelrod is an internationally recognized nonprofit business leader, with more than forty years’ experience in the nonprofit field, including founding three nonprofit organizations in healthcare and affordable housing and serving on numerous nonprofit boards and committees.

For the past 27 years, she has served as founder and CEO of Benevon, a for-profit company which has trained over 6,000 nonprofits globally in the Benevon Model for Sustainable Funding and deep engagement of individual donors.

Terry is a proud founding member of the International Women's Forum--Washington State chapter and served as its president from 2017-2021. She currently serves on the board of directors of the global organization of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) as well as the local chapter of IWF-Washington.  She is a Life Trustee of Swedish Medical Center and has been honored as a Woman of Influence by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Adriane Brown

Ms. Brown serves on the Board of Directors of American Airlines Group, Axon Enterprise, eBay Inc., and KKR and Company. She is a global board member of the International Women’s Forum.

Brown is a Managing Partner at Flying Fish Partners, a VC firm that invests in start-ups based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

From 2010 through 2017, Brown served as President and COO at Intellectual Ventures. Prior, she was President and CEO of Honeywell Transportation Systems after leading two aerospace businesses.  Brown spent 19 years at Corning, beginning as a shift supervisor, ultimately appointed Vice President and General Manager of Corning’s Environmental Products Division.