How Women Rise: Break the Habits Holding You Back

Women’s distinctive strengths and behaviors provide them with many advantages.  And, not surprisingly, women tend to cling to habits that have made them successful.  Yet those same habits that helped earlier in their careers can keep them stuck as they seek to rise to a higher level.  The habits include:

• Reluctance to Claim Your Achievements
• Building Rather Than Leveraging Relationships
• Overvaluing Expertise
• The Disease to Please
• Minimizing

The good news is that habits are not intrinsic to your character, they are your default comfort zone.  It’s not too late to change and break free!  Drawing on independent research as well as content from the international best-selling book, How Women Rise, this highly interactive session mixes real-life examples with practical tips and tools.  Participants are provided the opportunity to design a personal Plan to Rise and leverage their peer advisors to achieve their goals.

About Elizabeth De La Peña Veeser, ACC:

Elizabeth has a passion for partnering with leaders to improve their impact and achieve their full potential. She is a leadership coach, consultant and keynote speaker with over 30 years of experience developing leaders, building high performing teams and driving results. Her clients span industries including energy, pharmaceuticals, technology, academia, manufacturing and non-profit.

As a leadership coach, Elizabeth has supported hundreds of clients across levels from high performing individual contributors to C-Suite leaders. She leverages her unique combination of business experience and leader development expertise to help her clients achieve transformative shifts that facilitate their career success and organizational impact. Her pragmatic and results driven approach to coaching creates the space and confidence her clients need to leverage existing strengths, assess gaps, build awareness and create accountability for action.

In addition to executive coaching, Elizabeth is a skilled instructional designer and facilitator and has led workshops on topics including Conflict Management, Effective Feedback, Situational Leadership, and Resilience. She is proud to be the only certified North American facilitator for the How Women Rise Leadership Program and has worked with hundreds of women, across the globe, to build self-awareness and identify tangible strategies to achieve their career goals.

As a sought-after keynoter and breakout leader, Elizabeth has shared her expertise on high potential development, women in leadership and building resilience in the workplace. She was also a featured speaker on KUHF, Houston’s public radio station, discussing career transitions.

Prior to launching dlpCOACHING in 1999, Elizabeth held Human Resources leadership roles for a variety of companies and industries including: Southwestern Energy, Shell, The Home Depot, and Nestlé. During this time Elizabeth played a major role in the identification and development of high potential talent. She led activities focused on executive succession and development, executive competencies and assessments and leadership coaching. She has, literally, been in the boardroom when talent discussions were taking place and uses that keen insight to support her clients.

Elizabeth is passionate about giving back to the community. She is a founding member and has served on the Board of Directors for Impact100 Houston. Elizabeth was a Regional Advisory Board member for Comp-U-Dopt Houston. She has partnered with Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) as a facilitator for their leadership development programs. She has also been a leader for her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop and an active volunteer with the National Charity League Laurels Chapter.

Elizabeth earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She earned ACC-level designation from the esteemed International Coaching Federation and has participated in various continuing education programs. She holds numerous certifications, including Myers-Briggs, Birkman, EQ/EQ-i 360 and DiSC.

Elizabeth lives in Houston, Texas with her husband, daughter, mother and pup.

Membership Kickoff Happy Hour

Monday, February 10th

4:00 - 7:00 PM

To be held at:
Kirby Ice House - Upper Kirby
3333 Eastside St
Houston, Texas 77098

Come out and join us for drinks and learn more about becoming a member of WFE!  Learn about our events that are scheduled for 2025 and the available committees that you could join.  Do not forget to bring a friend, colleague, or prospect!

Jesse Thompson, Senior Business Economist at the Dallas Fed, Houston Branch will present on macroeconomic trends across regional industries and discuss what local economic data tell us about prospects for 2025.

About Jesse Thompson:

Jesse Thompson serves as senior business economist at the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Thompson, who joined the Bank in 2010, performs research and analysis on issues affecting the Houston and Gulf Coast economy. In particular, he studies issues surrounding area hydrocarbon industries. He also collects information for the Dallas Fed’s Beige Book summary of current economic conditions. He is author of the monthly Energy Indicators, the Houston Economic Indicators, and contributes to the quarterly publication Southwest Economy. Thompson earned an MA in economics, with emphasis on empirical microeconomics, and BA in philosophy and economics from the University of Houston.

Double Elimination Co-Ed Pickleball Tournament

Team Registration (Either Ladies' Doubles Team or Mixed Doubles) $140.00

Potluck Player $75.00

Clinic Only: $50.00

Prizes will be awarded for:

Tournament Winner

Best Team Theme

PKL Social

October 29th

4:00 - 7:00

Thomas Horton, Market Executive for Private Wealth at the Bank of Texas

About Thomas Horton: 

Thomas is the Market Executive for Private Wealth in Houston at Bank of Texas.  Thomas leads a team of 21 individual, and he is responsible for all Private Wealth offerings, including banking, investment and trust services throughout the Houston and surrounding region.  Thomas also serves on the Houston Leadership Team.

Before to joining the Bank, Thomas worked at a boutique Estate and Trust Litigation firm in Houston, Texas and maintains his law license at the Bank.  Thomas completed his J.D. at South Texas College of Law in Houston, where he served as the Associate Editor of the Texas Business Law Journal.  Prior to law school, Thomas graduated from Baylor University with a degree in Economics.  Thomas also serves as Treasurer of the Disability and Elder Law Attorney Association.  Personally, Thomas is married to Jamie Horton, and they have three children, Scarlett, and twin boys, Luke and Andrew.

Ashley Van Osdel, Partner at Melton & Melton, LLP

About Ashley Van Osdel:

Ashley has 14 years of experience working with a variety of individual, partnership and corporate tax clients. Her tax experience is within various industries that include real estate, construction, automobile, manufacturing, wholesale/retail, trade and others, including those with family offices. Ashley graduated from Grand Valley State University in December 2007 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and in 2008 with a Master of Science in Taxation. She joined Melton & Melton in January 2009 and was promoted to partner in July 2018. Ashley serves as a member of Melton & Melton’s DE&I and Recruiting Committees. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Houston Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Marcia Mazingo, Senior Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch

About Marcia M Mazingo:

Since 1993, Marcia has provided her clients with unique financial strategies and guidance, focusing on retirement and legacy planning services, tax efficient strategies for asset allocation, and families with special needs. She has extensive and personal experience in dealing with challenges and opportunities faced by these families and are passionate about working alongside them to successfully plan for their unique financial futures. Within the realm of personal wealth management, Marcia focuses on retirement and estate planning services. She holds designations as a Retirement Accredited Financial Advisor, RAFA, Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor, and Certified Divorce Financial Analysis. On a personal note, Marcia is deeply involved in the Houston community, as exemplified by her leadership, membership, and support of local programs like the Houston Chemical Association, Conroe Noon Lion's Club, the Women's Energy Network, and St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church among others. In her spare time, Marcia enjoys jazzercise, volunteering with the National Charity League, and traveling with her husband, Tommy, and their two children, Madeleine and Thomas.

Elevate 

Put your best foot forward with easy-to-implement techniques for elevating your style, presence, and networking abilities.

Speaker Bio

Natalie Weakly, Speaker, Image Consultant, and Founder of Signature Style, empowers business professionals to be people of influence through the mastery of personal brand, presentation, body language, communication, and executive presence.

Combining her diverse background in image consulting, business, training, and personal development, Natalie has appeared in over 30 TV segments and regularly shares her expertise with universities and Fortune 500 companies both here in Houston and in national markets.

Guided by the philosophy that our personal image profoundly shapes our influence, Natalie shares practical techniques to navigate each day with intention, presence, and confidence.

While she enjoys traveling for both work and leisure, Natalie calls Houston home, where she resides with her husband and two not-so-tiny interns.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Title Sponsors

Please join us for a day at the ballpark. Ticket includes a $20 voucher!

Thank you to our sponsors!

Carrie Colbert, Founding and General Partner of Curate Capital

About Carrie Colbert:

Where color and capital gains intersect, you can find Carrie Colbert. The founder of Curate Capital has let her intuition, penchant for risk, and zest for life lead her to personal and professional successes beyond her wildest imagination.

From a small town in the Texas panhandle, Carrie was the first in her family to graduate from college when she received her degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She then earned her MBA as a Longhorn as well while pursuing a successful career in the oil and gas industry for nearly two decades. While rising in the ranks at Hilcorp, the largest privately owned oil and natural gas producer in the U.S., having equity and ownership during a time of great company growth was life-changing for Carrie. So life-changing, in fact, that in 2016 Carrie was able to “retire” from that industry at age 38.

The small-town girl who had found success following all the rules was now free to choose her own next steps. Carrie quickly tapped into her creative side, amassing a following of over 85,000 via her @carriec Instagram account and thousands of monthly visitors on her carriecolbert.com website. After discovering a plethora of women-owned businesses in her online endeavors, she began investing her own money into female-founded companies like Packed Party and more. In just five short years, that generated a 10x ROI.

With an overflowing pipeline of great deals, Carrie officially launched Curate Capital in 2021. Curate Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in businesses by women for women. With their first fund closing in the summer of 2022, Carrie and team exceeded their goal by over 50% with a $15million dollar raise. The fund was primarily supported by individual, female investors, further solidifying Carrie’s purpose of helping more women invest in the dreams of other women.

In addition to her work at Curate Capital, Carrie mentors and advises a large community of women in business. Additionally, she proudly serves as an officer for The University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering executive advisory board. In 2013, she received the Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate Award, a distinguished alumni award reserved for one rising star each year. She is also a sought-after speaker at conferences and events for female entrepreneurs.

She is most proud to be known as mommy to her five-year-old daughter Elle and her two-year-old son, Luke. As they say in their family, “teamwork makes the dream work!” – and she is truly grateful for the partnership she and Mark have in raising their family and building this business.