We are honored to be joined by an outstanding array of keynote and featured speakers. Check back often, as new speakers are continually being added to the 2024 ICGS Conference roster.
Annie Jean-Baptiste, Author of Building for Everyone – June 24, 2024, 1 p.m.
Annie Jean-Baptiste is a business disrupting tech executive and the author of Building for Everyone, the first book about building inclusive products across the intersections of 12 dimensions of diversity.
She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in International Relations & Political Science with distinction.
She formerly served as an intrapreneur in residence at the University Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, a facilitator for Penn’s Chief Learning Officer Business Acumen program and a member of both the CTA Health Equity and Access Leadership (HEAL) Coalition and sits on the IEEE’s Executive committee, Ethically Aligned Design committee and co-chairs the DEI committee. She’s been inducted into the Haitian Roundtable’s 1804 society as “One to Watch” and inducted as one of the 30 Black Stars for Face to Face Africa in 2019. Annie is a former American Heart Association spokesperson and a One Young World ambassador, focused on healthy lifestyles in underserved communities. She is also a former Hack the Hood mentor.
Annie is also the Director of Product Inclusion & Equity at Google. She leads Product Inclusion & Equity strategy across the company and consults with various Alphabet companies, including consultation, communications, scale and research and created the movement as a way to ensure historically marginalized users felt validated throughout the product design process.
She formerly led & created programs related to diversity talent management and career development within several technical product areas within Google.
She’s been covered in Vogue, Essence Magazine, TechCrunch, Forbes, Business Insider, Teen Vogue, InStyle, MSNBC, CNBC, ABC, Cheddar, Business Insider, the Huffington Post, the Root, the Council of Fashion Designers of America Annual Report, The Miami Times, Bustle, Boston Globe and Fortune Magazine and was voted into Ebony Magazine’s power 100 list for 2022 and ADCOLOR in tech award, and currently serves as a Webby’s Executive Judge.
Her book, Building for Everyone, is available now. Connect with her on social media: @its_me_ajb.
Marin Alsop, Conductor – June 25, 2024, 8:45 a.m.
One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. Convinced that music has the power to change lives, she is internationally recognized for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, deep commitment to education, and championing of music’s importance in the world. The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria and Britain, she is, as the New York Times put it, not only “a formidable musician and a powerful communicator” but also “a conductor with a vision.”
The 2023-24 season marks Alsop’s fifth as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which she leads at Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, as well as on recordings, broadcasts and international tours; her first as Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony; and her first as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. She also holds positions as Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, where she curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual summer residency, and as the first Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F) at the University of Maryland, where she launched a new academy for young conductors and leads the NOI+F Philharmonic each June.
A full decade after becoming the first female conductor of London’s Last Night of the Proms, Alsop makes history again in September 2023, as both the first woman and the first American to guest conduct three Last Nights in the festival’s 128-year history. In spring 2024, she makes her company debut at the Metropolitan Opera, leading John Adams’s oratorio El Niño in a fully staged new production starring Julia Bullock and Davóne Tines. Other 2023-24 highlights include a new production of Bernstein’s Candide with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, an all-American program to inaugurate her four-season Philharmonia appointment, Penderecki’s seldom-heard opera The Black Mask with the Polish National Radio Symphony, and returns to the podiums of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
In 2021, Alsop assumed the title of Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which she continues to conduct each season. During her outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director, she led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years, released multiple award-winning recordings, and conducted more than two dozen world premieres, as well as founding OrchKids, its groundbreaking music education program for Baltimore’s most disadvantaged youth. In 2019, after seven years as Music Director, Alsop became Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), with which she continues to undertake major projects each season. Deeply committed to new music, she was Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years, leading 174 premieres. You can read more about Marin Alsop here.
in conversation with
Chevonne Hall-Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women
Chevonne Hall Smith joined the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women as its principal in July 2015. In July 2018, Chevonne was named the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foundation for the Baltimore Leadership for Young Women. The Baltimore Leadership School is a sixth through twelfth-grade public school in Baltimore City. As principal and CEO, 100% of all graduates (Classes of 2016-2024) were accepted to college. As the CEO, Chevonne implemented a multi-year strategic plan to improve the school’s academic, social-emotional, and whole-girl wellness initiatives while completing a $10 million campaign to support the goals outlined in the strategic plan and start the school’s first endowment.
Before being appointed Principal, Chevonne was a Program Evaluator for School Performance and Effectiveness in the Office of Achievement and Accountability with Baltimore City Public Schools. In this role, Chevonne has evaluated more than 50% of the district’s schools and implemented a prioritization plan for school leadership teams. Additionally, Chevonne served in various founding capacities with a charter school management organization in New York. As a founding staff member, Chevonne secured over $500,000 in scholarships for middle school students to attend highly selective independent day and boarding schools throughout the northeastern United States. Chevonne began her career in education as a middle school Social Studies and Science teacher in Brooklyn, New York.
She is a graduate of Spelman College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, a Master of Arts in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Social Studies from Brooklyn College, a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Columbia University’s School of Business and completed post-graduate studies in educational leadership and administration at the College of Saint Rose.
As a native New Yorker, Chevonne enjoys cooking and salsa dancing. Chevonne is a board member of the International Coalition of Girls Schools and the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools.
Mary Pope Maybank Hutson, President, Sweet Briar College – June 26, 2024, 11:40 a.m.
Mary Pope Maybank Hutson is the 14th President of Sweet Briar College and a member of the Class of 1983; she is the first alumna to hold the position.
Hutson served as Sweet Briar’s senior vice president for alumnae relations and development for the previous eight years, dramatically increasing alumnae engagement and financial support for the College, having brought extensive experience to the job from her long career in both the public and private sectors. Under her guidance, the College raised more than $140 million from 2015 through 2023.
In 2015, when Sweet Briar College was threatened with closure, Hutson joined thousands of volunteers along with the Saving Sweet Briar Board, leading the efforts to raise funds from major donors to meet the terms of the settlement agreement. She served on the Board of Directors immediately following the successful efforts to save Sweet Briar. She joined the College’s staff in January of 2016 as vice president, leading the alumnae relations and development team.
Prior to her position at Sweet Briar, Hutson served as the executive vice president of the Land Trust Alliance (2002-2015), a national conservation organization that works to save and strengthen land conservation across America. The Land Trust Alliance (LTA) represents more than 1,100-member land trusts, including 25 national conservation groups, and is supported by more than 5 million members nationwide. Hutson made an immense impact on the American landscape and conservation leadership through her work with the LTA and its members, leading the coalition’s efforts to pass permanent tax incentives for land conservation, raising significant philanthropy, and inspiring conservation leaders.
With extensive experience in historic preservation and land conservation, Hutson’s passions are imbued with protecting and conserving the built and natural environment. Prior to her tenure at Land Trust Alliance, she was executive director of the Lowcountry Open Land Trust in South Carolina (1998-2002). She also served as the director of educational programs for the Historic Charleston Foundation, managing the oldest heritage tourism program in the United States (1993-1998).
Hutson also has a background in public service and policymaking, having worked in the office of a U.S. Senator, and for the Department of the Interior as a liaison for the Office of Territorial and International Affairs to St. Thomas, as Guam Desk Officer, and in the Office of the Assistant Secretary (1985-1989). In 1990, Hutson was appointed by the White House as special assistant to the Ambassador of Kenya.
Throughout her career, she has served in numerous volunteer leadership roles, including as the Chairwoman of the National Park Service System Advisory Board for the last four years, appointed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. She also served four Secretaries of Interior on the North American Wetlands Council, was appointed by Governor David Beasley as the first woman to serve on the Board of Natural Resources in South Carolina, and most recently, was appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Board of Historic Resources. She also currently serves on the board of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya.
We are honored to be joined by an outstanding array of keynote and featured speakers. Check back often, as new speakers are continually being added to the 2024 ICGS Conference roster. 
Annie Jean-Baptiste is a business disrupting tech executive and the author of 
One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. Convinced that music has the power to change lives, she is internationally recognized for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, deep commitment to education, and championing of music’s importance in the world. The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria and Britain, she is, as the New York Times put it, not only “a formidable musician and a powerful communicator” but also “a conductor with a vision.”
Chevonne Hall Smith joined the 
Mary Pope Maybank Hutson is the 14th President of