Women in Business

Featured Speaker: Cassandra Worthy

Early on in my career, when my company was in the aftermath of a $5B acquisition, I almost quit. Fueled by frustration and stress, I found myself on the precipice of walking out of the office and never coming back. Had I done so, I would have become another statistic. Yet another Africa-American female departed from a STEM-driven industry. Top talent voluntarily resigning during a time of significant organizational shift. Another change victim.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I woke up one day and decided to view those feelings as a signal that I was sitting in a moment of opportunity.

An opportunity to transform that chemistry, that feeling into something better. To choose every day to do something, say something, behave in some way that would move the needle of my work experience towards a better feeling. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was cultivating a teachable strategy to inspire anyone to become enthusiastic about change, to find their unique power of resilience during turbulent times.

Today, I help organizations disrupt ‘change as usual’. Through a practical and repeatable framework, I show them how they can transform their culture from surviving change to growing through change.

Learn more about Cassandra here. 

Change and Resilience Panel - 

Betsy Grindlay serves as Vice President of People, Purchasing & Marketing at Speedway Motors, a specialty automotive parts retailer and manufacturer that's been a part of Lincoln's community for over 75 years. Grindlay holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her background includes a role at First National Bank of Omaha as a Management Trainee, then working for FNBO Direct as an Online Marketing Advisor. In her time at Speedway Motors, she has advanced through the company from Ecommerce/Web Content Manager to Brand Marketing Manager, and Director of Marketing & People Operations. Betsy has led the company through a massive rebranding effort and positive culture shift that sets the stage for Speedway Motors' next 75 years. When she’s away from her desk, you can find her at home with her husband, Jarrett, and their daughter—likely experiencing and supporting one of the great local businesses in town. Her dream car is a white ’53 Corvette, red interior. (But with only 200 left in existence, she’ll have to settle for drooling over one at the Museum of American Speed.)

Katie Weichman Zulkoski is an attorney specializing in lobbying and government affairs. Katie delivers with hard work, integrity, and policy expertise. Katie has crafted successful legislative strategies for health care clients, national non-profits, and associations of all sizes—but her favorite issue is yours. Outside of the firm, Katie dedicates much of her time to public service on state-wide non-profit boards and continues to be connected to her family’s ag business in North Central Nebraska. Katie is the proud Founder of Rise Lincoln, a solutions-oriented speaker series for Lincoln women in business. Katie graduated first in her class from Creighton University School of Law with a certificate of concentration in Business Law.

Marquita Armstead was hired as Nebraska’s Executive Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator on Dec. 16, 2021, and officially began her duties on Feb. 1, 2022. At Nebraska, Armstead has sport supervision for men’s basketball and volleyball. She is a member of the Big Ten Sport Management Council, and has oversight of athletic medicine, sports psychology, the athletic performance lab (NAPL), strength and conditioning, performance nutrition, Title IX and gender equity.

Armstead came to Nebraska from the University of South Florida, where she served in a similar role. Armstead was a member of the South Florida athletics administration from March of 2016 to January of 2022. She originally joined USF as Associate Athletic Director for Compliance, before being elevated to Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Senior Woman Administrator in August of 2017.

In her role with the Bulls, Armstead served as the sport administrator for men’s and women’s basketball, and had previous sport oversight of softball, men’s soccer, women’s tennis and as the secondary sport
administrator for football. Armstead also oversaw several USF student-athlete support departments, including academic services, student-athlete enhancement, sports medicine, nutrition, sport psychology, student rights and responsibilities and Title IX.

Armstead is married to Demetric Armstead and the couple has a son, Braylon.

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