Michelle Willard has always been a hard worker. From a young age, she saw the effort put in by her mother, an executive in New York City, and her father, an international salesman, to succeed in the corporate world.

Born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, to parents from Durango, Mexico, she says the military was the first place she felt like “your background, what you look like, what neighborhood you lived in” didn’t matter. 

When Thompson attended college at Notre Dame of Maryland University, she chose to pursue her interest in psychology, hoping to “help people with their problems.” But, as fate would have it, she ended up doing that through policy rather than therapy.

One chat with Katrina Salazar, and the word “dynamo” comes to mind. Along with her day gig as CFO of a major nonprofit, she leads numerous boards and committees, goes skiing and off-roading, runs marathons and scuba dives.

Carmen Marsh can say something with confidence that many can’t: She always enjoys her jobs. Twenty-five years ago, she found her passion for technology and has stuck with the profession ever since. 

Ask Marcie Kahbody about the most important lesson she has learned in her successful three-decade career in IT, and she’ll answer emphatically: “Embracing change.”

“I did not get here by myself,” says Dr. Dawnté Early about her journey to her two primary leadership positions in the Sacramento area: West Sacramento City Council member and president and CEO of United Way California Capital Region. “It’s full circle.”