About

Sarah is a co-founder and Founding President of Impact100 Atlanta. She is a Corporate Restructuring Senior Associate at Alvarez & Marsal, where she enjoys providing financial consulting for distressed companies to help them overcome difficult times. Sarah is excited about investing in the future of Atlanta through Impact100. She is especially passionate about empowering women to make a collective impact on the Atlanta community. 

Raised in Washington, DC, Sherrhonda relocated to Georgia in 2000 and now lives East of Atlanta with  her wife (Beckey) and the cutest miniature Yorkshire Terrier you’ve ever seen, Bishop. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her smart, talented, beautiful and amazing grandchildren Emi, KoKo and Princeton, traveling, creating blessing boxes for people needing encouragement and making a difference in her community with her time and talents.

During the day, Sherrhonda serves as the Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management and Legal Services for the American Cancer Society, the nation’s largest community-based voluntary health organization.  In this role, she is responsible for the business of legal, contract administration, insurance risk management and governance services. Prior to joining the American Cancer Society, Sherrhonda spent 11 years with the Department of Justice, where she enjoyed upward mobility in various agencies such as the United States Marshall Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the United States Attorney’s Office and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys.

Michelle Kale Gilfillan is a founding member of Impact100 Atlanta and is excited to serve as Treasurer.  She has a BS from Penn State University in Business Logistics and International Business and an MBA from Wayne State University.  Michelle served in the United States Army for 5 years as an Ordnance Captain and is a proud veteran with a large military family.  After leaving the military, she worked for 10 years in operational roles with Schneider Logistics and Amazon before deciding to change career paths and start her own business as a Fitness Professional/Personal Trainer.  She works out of her home studio in Decatur, Georgia.  Michelle and her husband, Scott, share their home with their two rescue pups (fur-babies), Penny Freckles and Ellie Kale.  She loves to travel, read, exercise and attend any live sporting event.  Michelle is thrilled to be part of such an amazing group of women and looks forward to seeing the positive impact this organization will have on her community.

Sarah is a Kentucky native who’s happy to have made her home in Atlanta for the last 10 years. She works as a brand strategy consultant for Prophet, helping companies transform across digital, marketing, culture, and customer experience. As a founding member of Impact100 Atlanta, she is passionate about supporting and promoting women in the workplace and her community.

Laurie first made Atlanta home almost 30 years ago, working with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. She then turned her to focus to law and practiced as a corporate/M&A attorney at Troutman Sanders for several years before moving inhouse with the American Cancer Society. She spent almost 15 years as legal counsel to the Society at their global headquarters in Atlanta, focusing primarily on mission programs and grant-making. Laurie left her position as Assistant General Counsel in 2017 but continues to assist the Society and other local nonprofits with their legal needs.

It has been a longtime dream of Laurie’s to bring Impact100 to Atlanta after witnessing the transformative effect of the program in her hometown of Pensacola, where her mother was a founding member almost 20 years ago. She passionately believes Impact100 Atlanta will be game changing for nonprofits in the area and life changing for its members.

Laurie, her husband and their 3 teenagers live in Virginia Highland with their golden retriever, Hobbes.

Emily is Senior Director of Development for Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. In her role she is focused on internal operations of the organization as well as individual, institutional and foundation giving to further Rally’s mission to find better treatments and, ultimately, cures for childhood cancer. Emily is passionate about giving back to the community and providing the financial support that non-profits need to continue their critical work. Being a member of Impact100- Atlanta provides Emily the opportunity to give back to her community in a volunteer role as well as in her professional role.

Yujin Chon Jones (she/her/hers) is the Director of Sales for Avaline Wines, a premium “better for you” clean wine company. Having spent over 20 years in sales and marketing for wine and spirits, Jones is a respected leader in the industry. Jones received her BA in Communication from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Growing up in the area, Jones is committed to helping address the needs of her community and leaving it a better place for her children. She believes women have the power to create a lasting impact in the world and can only do so by supporting each other. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing yoga, reading, and baking with her family.

Lisa grew up in Savannah and decided to make Atlanta home after graduating from the University of Georgia School of Law.  She practiced as a labor and employment attorney at Jackson Lewis and Troutman Sanders for several years before joining a women-owned business focusing on legal recruiting in Atlanta.  Lisa is passionate about helping attorneys find satisfying and sophisticated legal work while enabling them to work flexibly.  Today, Lisa serves as Executive Director of Consilio, a leading legal solutions and recruiting company, where she leads client development efforts and works with a large number of Fortune 500 legal departments, publicly and privately held companies, and law firms to provide highly qualified attorneys, individually or in managed teams, on an as-needed basis across the legal enterprise.

During the pandemic, Lisa was profoundly affected by the number of children experiencing mental health issues and wanted to more for struggling families and children in her community.  She is delighted to join the board and accelerate the impact she could achieve individually on the funding and provision of these services through her affiliation with Impact 100.

Lisa, her husband and their 2 teenagers, Charlotte and Grant, live in Buckhead with their delightful and spoiled rotten Cavapoo, Buck.

Meg is Vice President of Commercial Transformation at Inspire Brands, happily eating and drinking through their portfolio of brands, while also responsible for integration, strategy and ways of working within the organization. She has been an Atlanta resident for five years, and is excited to be part of Impact100 to help drive meaningfully, transformational impact in the community with other ATL women.

Calandra is an experienced Finance professional and currently serves as the Vice President Internal Audit Services at American Cancer Society. She and her team evaluate the American Cancer Society’s systems of internal controls including operational efficiency and effectiveness considering the organization’s risks, goals, policies, and processes. Prior to joining ACS, she served in financial roles within the Coca-Cola Company and Ernst & Young. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida A&M University and is a Certified Internal Auditor.

Coming soon!

Allison has spent over twenty years working in higher education and is passionate about helping students achieve their academic and professional dreams.  After graduating with a BBA at Butler University and an MBA at American University, she never left the business school environment and is now working in graduate admissions at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.  As a founding member of the Impact 100 Sarasota chapter, she has been awed by the impact woman working  together can have in transforming a community and is very excited to help to launch the Atlanta chapter. 

Jill and her husband relocated to Atlanta in 2021 after raising their two daughters in Cincinnati. She retired after more than three decades of success as an executive in the corporate technology and academic arenas. Impact100 Atlanta provides her the perfect opportunity to pay forward as part of a passionate group of women collectively seeking to make a difference in the community.

Megan is an experienced legal and human resources professional who currently serves as Senior Vice President for Human Resources at Georgia-Pacific. Since joining Impact100 Atlanta as a founding member, she has been involved with the grant application review process, first as a member of the Education Grant Focus Area Committee and now as its chair. Born in Washington, D.C., Megan has called Atlanta home for more than twenty years.  She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

For years, Mindy Boggs has served as an educator, advocate, and organizer to promote sustainable practices and stewardship of Planet Earth. Over decades she has worked tirelessly with a network of colleagues in political, government, business, and civic spaces to solve problems we face now, and in the future.

In 2017 she relocated to Atlanta, Georgia with her husband to continue the mission of Boggs and Associates, LLC, dba American Retirement Solutions of GA. She has continued her lifelong service to nonprofits via the Junior League of Atlanta, and independently, such as an advisory board member of CARE Women’s Network.

Ms. Boggs has years of experience in leadership positions helping to accomplish things that have never been done before. A few of these achievements include organizing the first public workshop on Race in Mississippi, organizing the first free outdoor pops concert performed by the full Alabama Symphony Orchestra in Hoover, AL, and as co-curator of an art exhibit in conjunction with Atlanta’s inaugural “Day of Religious Pluralism”. She is a graduate of Leadership Metro Jackson (MS), and Leadership Shelby County (AL). Currently in her fourth year serving as a member of Livable Buckhead’s Sustainability Committee, Ms. Boggs and fellow sustainability leaders developed a plan for Buckhead stakeholders to implement a hyperlocal course of action to integrate city, state, national, and even global efforts to improve sustainability. This plan was released soon after United Nations climate scientists issued a report warning that significant greenhouse gas emissions reduction is required within the next decade to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

In addition to her duties with ARSGA, Ms. Boggs currently serves as Corporate & Institutional Relations Manager for Eco-Addendum, a non-profit committed to preserve Atlanta’s Old Growth Forest and tree canopy by recruiting and training volunteer groups to hand select and remove invasive plant species to restore parks and urban forests throughout metro Atlanta.

Ms. Boggs earned her BFA in journalism from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Prior to her mother’s illness she began work toward a master’s degree in environmental science.

Over decades, Ms. Boggs has planned and implemented successful projects and events with complex logistics to meet advocacy and fundraising goals. She is thrilled and honored to help advance the mission of Impact100 Atlanta.

Lauren Dike (she/her/hers) is the Director and Senior Consultant for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Hummingbird Humanity, a humanized workplace consulting firm.  She has been in the DEI space for a little over 3 years, with more than 13 years’ experience in finance and accounting.  Her lived as experiences as often the ‘only’ in the room while in corporate America, along for her passion for equity (one of her actual Strengthsfinder!) allows her to lead various clients in building knowledge and skill sets to operationalize DEI.  Lauren joined Impact100 because she believes their mission and vision is twofold: Impact100 empowers historically marginalized genders through leadership opportunities, networking, and support and uses their magic to provide transformational opportunities to organizations and people that otherwise may not have access.

Dr. Alpa V. Patel earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and her Doctoral degree in Preventive Medicine with a concentration in Epidemiology from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She has been with the American Cancer Society for 25 years and is the Senior Vice President of Population Science at the American Cancer Society where she oversees a team of approximately 50 research and study operations staff. She serves as the principal investigator of the Cancer Prevention Studies (CPS) II and 3 that are long-term, large-scale, epidemiologic cohort studies established by the American Cancer Society. Combined, these two cohorts include over 1.5 million participants with a variety of over 400,000 biologic samples (such as blood, buccal cells, saliva, stool, and tumor tissue). Using these studies and their research expertise in epidemiology and behavioral science, Dr. Patel and her team are focused on better understanding cancer risk as well as improving outcomes and quality of life after a cancer diagnosis.

Dr. Patel is a recognized leader as a cancer epidemiologist. She serves on the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors along with several other national and international scientific advisory committees, and is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. She has published approximately 250 scientific articles and book chapters, and her research has contributed significantly to national and international cancer prevention guidelines, such as the US Physical Activity Guidelines for Health and the American Cancer Society’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for both cancer prevention and cancer survivorship.

A resident of Atlanta for over 20 years, Kirstin has been actively involved in her community through multiple organizations. Working as a global Strategic Consultant, and most recently as Interim Director of Development for ASHRAE, much of her work has been focused on serving the non-profit community. Honored to be a Founding Member of Impact100 Atlanta, she is excited to participate in the growth of Impact100 and witness the influential work happening around our community by local 501c3 organizations. Kirstin lives in Morningside with her 3 teenage children.

Courtney is a Georgia native, born and raised. Graduate of Georgia Tech, Go Jackets! She currently works as a graphic designer for Newmark Multifamily Investment Sales where she enhances understanding through visual storytelling. She believes that investing in your community is the best way to provide a better future and strives to assist women in being their best self. Courtney resides in Marietta with her husband and their dog, Dakota.

BIO COMING SOON!

BIO COMING SOON

Loulia (Julia) Benz, B.A., MBA, PHD Research, is a former Fortune 100 executive (Coca-Cola, Ford, Honeywell), speaks 4 languages. She has traveled/worked in 30 different countries. Julia enjoys working on a Doctorate Research on Leadership and Innovation, as well as teaching workshops on Leadership, Longevity and the Economics of Happiness. Julia loves teaching and she is always looking to add new innovative topics to her classes.

​She is Six Sigma Black Belt certified. Julia has degrees/certifications from:  Georgia Institute of Technology, (USA), Muenster University (Germany) and Harvard University (USA).