July 20, 2026
Leadership Realities and Resilience
Session 2 of the 2026 Advance program centered on breaking down leadership fallacies, embracing hardship, and moving through ambiguity with grace.
The Advance program is hosted at the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business, and we’re extremely grateful to our partners, National University and the Port of San Diego, for their support of women leaders and the Advance program.
LEAD’s Executive Director Veronica Perondi welcomed back the cohort, setting the stage for our first speaker, Kerry Forde, RN, COO & Interim Senior Vice President of Kaiser Permanente of San Diego County. Kerry framed the day with a HerStory presentation, reflecting on the drastic life changes she experienced through moving to a new country, starting over in her career, and facing unfamiliar challenges as a leader. She spoke in depth about the realities of leadership, the ups and downs of career transitions, and how to prepare for the unknown.
Next, we were joined by Founder & Principal of the Direforza Group, Darrah DiGiorgio Johnson, who taught us about adaptive leadership, speaking to the grit and determination it takes to be a woman leader in the workforce, the unique ways to handle adversity, and how to face unwanted perceptions as they arise. She introduced the BANI framework and how to take a negative connotation and turn it positive by reframing, rethinking, and continuing to push through. She also covered the seven dimensions of leading in complexity, giving the cohort time to reflect on themselves as leaders and ask questions such as, “How am I showing up under pressure?” and “What allows me and my team to keep going?”
Our final presentation of the day was with Dana Toppel (22), CEO of the Jewish Family Service of San Diego. Dana shared the story of how she became an “accidental CEO,” and how navigating a new role taught her the importance of a strong sense of leadership, transparency, firm decision-making, and confidence.
The cohort wrapped up the day with paired reflections and worksheet activities designed to help participants first get to know themselves, then get to know one another. These sessions drew intentionally on the diversity in the room, treating different cultures, organizations, backgrounds, and experiences not as variables to navigate, but as sources of shared strength.
Seminar 2 showed the cohort that everyone, regardless of role, experiences hardship and difficult decisions, and that staying grounded, remaining transparent, and leaning on your unique perspective and experience can guide you toward becoming the best version of yourself as a leader.
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