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Center for Women and Business

Center for Women and Business Team Bios

Yaro Fong-Olivares Headshot
Yaro Fong-Olivares (she/her)
Executive Director

As Executive Director, Yaro leads the CWB's mission-driven work to leverage industry expertise and academia to advance women's leadership in business from the classroom to the boardroom. She partners with the staff and CWB's stakeholder community to develop and deliver programs informed by research and best practices. She serves as a subject matter expert on leadership development for women and gender-variant folks and brings an intersectional feminist lens to the content the CWB produces. Yaro works with the program management and facilitation teams to optimize sales, corporate partner engagement, and content delivery. In addition, Yaro works within the Bentley community of students, faculty, administrators, and university centers to maintain and foster collaborative university-wide relationships that achieve Bentley's commitment to community partnerships, its mission, and core values.

A sought-after speaker and facilitator, Yaro has extensive experience in organizational development and management, including facilitating racial equity initiatives, diversity, and inclusion, strategy development, leadership coaching, and change management. Yaro leads Bentley Executive Education’s DEI Champions Certificate and will be launching a new program in Spring 2024, Strategies for Emerging Leaders.
 
Yaro is currently pursuing a doctorate in Organizational Leadership Psychology at William James, holds an M.S. in Organizational Change Management from The New School, a B.A. in Sociology from Barnard College, and Clark Wilson’s 360 feedback Task Cycle Survey Certification. Yaro serves as Past-President of the Executive Committee of the New York Center for the Study of Groups, Organizations and Social Systems, and is a certified consultant and member of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems.

Laura Jackson Young stands smiling in a white blazer and navy blouse.
Laura Jackson Young (she/her)
Faculty Research Director

As Faculty Research Director, Laura Jackson Young works to integrate academic research by Bentley faculty members with the CWB mission related to gender equity in business. She finds ways to support and amplify faculty research to bring scholars and practitioners together. Laura is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics. Her research and teaching interests focus on applied macroeconomics and monetary policy. She is the founder and co-advisor to WEB: Women in Economics at Bentley, a network of faculty, current students, and alumni with an interest in supporting women in the discipline of economics and expanding professional opportunities in the field.

Laura earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014 after completing her BS in Managerial Economics at Bentley in 2010.

Becky McDougal
Becky McDougal (she/her)
Director of Programs and Engagement

As Director of Programs & Engagement for the CWB, Becky McDougal builds community with corporate partners, DEI leaders, and associations. She leads the development of new and innovative programs that support the mission of advancing intersectional gender equity. Through process consultation, Becky engages partners in developing programs that address their challenges of fostering more inclusive and equitable cultures that support intersectional gender equity. Becky facilitates the CWB’s workshops and leadership development programs, with areas of expertise including but not limited to: Unconscious Bias for Inclusive Leaders; Networks, Mentors, and Sponsors to Drive Career Advancement; Bentley Brave DialoguesTM; Active Allyship: Justice and Equity at Work; Creating Anti-Racist Cultures; DEI Champions Certificate, and Building Employee Resource Groups.  

Becky’s professional experience began in the event management industry. Prior to Bentley, Becky was an Event Manager at Combined Jewish Philanthropies, leading initiatives to make events more inclusive and accessible while fostering a vibrant Jewish community in Boston and beyond. During these years she was an active member of MPI New England, a professional meeting and event planners' association, where she was awarded Meeting Planner of the Year for leading new programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion tailored to industry professionals. She then became Director of Education for the association to further infuse chapter education with DEI principles, and this appointment led to the creation of a DEI committee, which she led in 2020-2021. 

Becky holds an Executive Certificate in Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Management from Georgetown University. Becky earned her BS in Marketing from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, with a minor in Sociology, and holds a Master’s in Organizational Psychology from William James College, with a concentration in Talent Management.  

Dominique Headshot
Dominique Wilburn (she/her)
Director of Programs and Communications

As the Director of Programs and Communications, Dominique leads all university initiatives on behalf of the CWB – including formulating and executing comprehensive change strategies across campus to make Bentley the preferred business school for women and gender-diverse individuals. In service of the CWB's role as an idea incubator, Dominique manages institutional partnership relationships and strategic internal collaborations focused on advancing intersectional gender equity and driving the dialogue around leadership on campus. She serves as the primary liaison to students where she develops and delivers campus-wide programs, workshops, and training sessions focused on leadership, DEIJ, intersectionality, and other key skills needed to navigate the changing dynamics of today’s workplace. Dominique is also the architect of the CWB's communication efforts. In this capacity, she manages internal and external communications, ensuring the CWB's message resonates throughout the Bentley community and beyond. Her responsibilities include overseeing the CWB website, directing content creation, and orchestrating a vibrant presence on social media.

Prior to Bentley, Dominique worked for a nonprofit study abroad provider where she developed and oversaw the implementation of a global diversity training program that educated international staff, faculty, and homestay families on matters of diversity, inclusion, discrimination, and mental health. She has a background in digital marketing and has worked in politics. She has been mentioned in a number of publications, including the New York Times and the Better Business Bureau’s Magazine’s spotlight on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Dominique earned her BA from Drew University where she majored in Political Science. She is currently enrolled in the MBA program with a concentration in Leadership at Bentley University. Outside of work, Dominique is a founding board member for Loretta’s Helping Hands, a non-profit dedicated to providing emergency shelter for women and children in crisis.

Razan Headshot
Razan Haddad (she/her)
Program Manager

As a Program Manager, Razan Haddad drives the success of the Gearing Up Conference; our flagship annual event hosted by the Center for Women and Business (CWB) here at Bentley University. In her role, she oversees all elements of the Gearing Up project and client-relationship management for our corporate and community partnerships. She also collaborates with internal stakeholders to oversee the conference's marketing and public relations strategies, emphasizing the implementation of streamlined procedures for enhanced operational efficiency.

Before her tenure at Bentley, Razan held the position of Vice President at Women Accelerators, an organization dedicated to advancing women. In this capacity, she contributed to strategic planning, program execution, stakeholder engagement, and the initiation of various projects. Throughout her professional journey, Razan has spearheaded global initiatives for professional mentoring and coaching, fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion within organizations. Razan brings with her over seven years of global professional experience spanning the healthcare, biotech, and nonprofit sectors.

Razan earned her BS in Biology at University of Kentucky, and her MBA in management at German Jordan University. Razan holds an executive and professional education certificate in DEI and in Women’s Executive Leadership from Bentley University.