The She Built It Podcast with Melanie & Dr. Michele Dr. Michele Cooley-Strickland and Melanie Barr

“I want parents to feel empowered. I want them to feel appreciated and know that they're not alone. I learned that from my dad at a very young age. So helping people and being of service, it's quite natural and it feels good to me,” says Pamela K. Daves, Esq. She is a special education lawyer who focuses on improving the lives of children with disabilities. Over the years, Pamela has successfully represented several hundred families. Her record on cases heard before an Administrative Law Judge is undefeated. 
Pamela has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley and graduated cum laude from the Howard University School of Law where she earned her Juris Doctorate Degree. She’s been practicing law for more than 25 years. In 2004, Pamela joined ADAMS ESQ, a special education law firm that represents children with learning challenges. Pamela was the Managing Attorney for the LA office, then 15 years ago started her own law practice and continued representing parents of children with exceptional needs in an effort to provide high quality legal representation to underserved communities. Before leaping into special education law, Pamela was a Litigation Associate with two distinguished law firms: Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP in New York City, and Arnold & Porter, Kaye, Scholer in Los Angeles. Then she took a much needed break. Pamela shares her journey to an extremely fulfilling career, beginning in childhood and the motivations that guided her choices. Join us for this inspirational and personal episode.

“I ended up specializing in insurance law because I met a mentor who was doing insurance work, took an interest in my career, and helped me not just learn insurance, but share a passion about insurance law. I started to really enjoy it. And the more I got into it, the more I realized that it's a niche that a lot of people don't know about.” 
Angela Elbert is Partner & Chair of the Insurance Policyholder Practice Group at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP. She counsels corporate policyholders on complex risk management and insurance issues and develops custom strategies to maximize recovery when claims arise. She has helped clients recover hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance through negotiation, mediation and, when necessary, litigation. Angela has considerable experience managing commercial litigation before state and federal courts and arbitration panels.

“As I've gotten older, I've gotten better at figuring out what I know and what I don't know. I hired a business coach. That was a stroke of genius -- if I do say so myself -- because I don't know how to run a business,” says Allison Kawa, PsyD. Dr. Kawa is a licensed clinical psychologist -- turned mompreneur -- who founded her first private practice in 2010. She opened the Los Angeles Center for Integrated Assessment in 2018, and -- in response to the changing field, will be launching a new practice...soon!

Dr. Kawa shares a lot about being a working single mother, how she took career chances, and how she learned to become a very successful business owner... especially coming from a discipline where how to launch and operate a business was not taught in school. In the second half of our interview, listen to Dr. Kawa to learn the “can do’s” for professionals who want to run a business too.

“I've been running a business for ten years and ...they don't teach you how to run a business in psychology school,” says Allison Kawa, PsyD, yet she’s successfully founded and owned more than one. In this episode, Dr. Kawa shares how she’s become a businesswoman and psychologist.
Dr. Allison Kawa is a licensed clinical psychologist who is the Founder, Owner, and Clinical Director of the Los Angeles Center for Integrated Assessment. The LA-CIA is a boutique psychology practice that comprehensively conducts developmental, neurobiological, educational, and psychological evaluations of children, teens, and emerging adults. Their approach sets them apart from traditional neuropsychological and psychoeducational assessment practices, providing an individual road map to help their clients have fulfilling academic and vocational success.
Dr. Kawa founded her first private practice in 2010, opened the LA-CIA in 2018, and -- in response to the changing field, will be launching a new practice...soon!  Dr. Kawa shares a lot about being a working single mother, how she took career chances, and how she learned to become a very successful business owner... especially coming from a discipline where how to launch and operate a business was not taught in school. Listen to Dr. Kawa’s episode to learn the “can do’s” for you too.

Jes Wolfe is the CEO of Rebel Girls, a girl-driven edutainment company on a mission to inspire and instill confidence in 50 million girls over the next 5 years. Rebel Girls has sold 5.5 million books, translated into 49 languages in 85 countries, and has 8+ million downloads of its award-winning podcast. Under her leadership, the Company is expanding its offerings to television, live theater, merchandise and digital.
Jes is an entrepreneur, an operator, an investor and an advisor. Prior to joining the Rebel Girls team, she was the Chief Operating Officer at Hoodline, a hyper-local media tech company, which grew to 30 employees before selling to NextDoor. Before her segue into the startup world, she worked for over a decade in a variety of strategy and finance roles at Morgan Stanley, the Boston Consulting Group, the International Finance Corporation, and private equity portfolio companies. She has done project work in 25+ countries and 5 continents, and has worked with a range of companies from startups to Fortune 500. Her experience spans M&A, Corporate Development, Business Development, Strategy, Sales Leadership, and Technology Development. While she has focused on the intersection of Media and Technology for the past 5 years, previously, she worked in the Healthcare, Financial Institution, and Industrial Goods industries.
Listen and be inspired to make change and support our next generation. 

We’re saying goodbye to 2020 -- the year that will go down in infamy. It pushed the “pause” button on Life as we knew it, but also prompted us to discover new ways to adapt and become resilient. This brief episode helps you take the best of what was 2020 and use it to leap into a fulfilling, successful 2021. Melanie and Dr. Michele have new tips and guidance for you and are joined by former amazing guests -- Cabbane Howard, Erin Germain, Dr. Jacqueline Schaffer, Amy Lloyd, Dr. Deborah Beidel, Thomasenia Duncan, Dr. Shahrzad Fattahi, and Renata Simril -- who will inspire you to begin your best year yet.