Past Featured Members
Barbara Irias
Partner, Placemaking Group
If you are a business, organization, or individual seeking new leads and to increase customer engagement, the custom websites built by Barbara Irias and her Placemaking Group team of designers, writers, ecommerce, and programming experts will help you to achieve those goals. From exceptional graphics and smart technology solutions, to surprising yet solid marketing strategies, your experience with Placemaking Group will be a positive, rewarding one. The websites and marketing programs they create generate interest, establish credibility, engage target audiences, and increase revenue and profits. Barbara and her team treat each business they work with as though it is their own, so they are well-vested in the end results.
Placemaking Group serves clients primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and works with a variety of industries including business-to-business, construction and real estate, governments, including city economic development departments, manufacturing and distribution, nonprofit organizations, and professional services.
Almost any business or individual is a potential referral for Barbara. Companies that have been a good referral source for Placemaking Group include IT professionals and other businesses such as CPAs, consultants, and sales trainers. Other great referral relationships have resulted from creative and multimedia professionals - videographers, photographers, and designers.
Barbara recently joined Mt. Diablo Business Women (MDBW), and has found that it has helped her to expand her network. She enjoys the fact that MDBW members have diverse backgrounds and experiences which helps to fuel new ideas.
As part of her work, Barbara has helped other women understand the need to wear many hats in the web/marketing agency world. She has offered internships to college students, and helped along young new hires to hopefully inspire success in their own future enterprises. She also actively gives back to the community and has volunteered at the Alameda Food Bank, Open Space Groups, and contributed to arts programs
When not working, Barbara enjoys photography, painting, travel, and hiking with friends and family along with her Yorkie, Sophie.
Learn more about Barbara and the Placemaking Group by visiting the company’s website, and its Facebook, and LinkedIn pages.
Maria Kopf
Loan Officer, Envoy Mortgage
Maria Kopf is a loan officer with Envoy Mortgage which provides residential financing for primary, second, and investment properties up to four units, offering some of the most competitive rates in the mortgage industry. The company offers an array of products that include: conventional, FHA, VA, jumbo, down payment assistance, and many more.
As a dedicated mortgage professional whose purpose is to fulfill dreams of homeownership, Maria provides impeccable service from start to close, delivering each borrower a hassle-free mortgage experience by providing breakthrough technology, transparent communication, unparalleled turn-times, and around-the-clock attention to their loan.
Maria understands that the home-buying process can seem challenging and stressful, and she strives to make the process as smooth as possible, providing clients with loan options and personalized service. She believes having the right people and resources by your side can make all the difference and that there is nothing better than helping someone become a homeowner, especially if it’s their first home. Maria says she truly cares about her clients adding that it’s a privilege to serve them, and many have gone on to become friends.
For the past year Maria has been a member of MDBW. She says that she’s “met some wonderful women and looks forward to forging lasting relationships.” A good referral for Maria is someone who is looking to purchase or refinance a home, or thinking about it. .
Volunteering takes up some of Maria’s time including yearly participation in Adopt-a-Family, as well as volunteering for B Walker Ranch, and reading to classes during Read Across America week.
In her free time, Maria enjoys spending time with friends and family, as well as her furbabies. She likes to entertain and cook for those she loves. She also enjoys reading, traveling, and exploring all that the Bay Area has to offer.
To find out more about Maria, visit her website, follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Senya Borrelli
Consultant, Health is Wealth
Senya specializes in nutrigenomics for wellness. She is passionate about helping people feel better and do more through supplementation and activation by turning back the clock at a cellular level to age in reverse. Senya says she feels better in her 50s than she did in her 40s and she wants to help others to do the same.
Clients who work with Senya benefit by flipping the switch on anti-aging pathways in the areas of memory, metabolism, energy, hormonal balance, joint health, bone health, as well as skin and scalp, all by reducing oxidative stress.
Senya finds her work rewarding because she is able to offer people solutions that they didn’t know existed, and as a result are able to transform their lives rather than suffer in silence. She also enjoys inspiring others through her wellness column “Activate with Senya” with Contra Costa News.
A good referral for Senya is anyone who wants to be healthy, stay healthy, or get healthy.
Senya joined MDBW last year and is active in the group. She says she feels elated and empowered after leaving the group’s events. “It has given me a renewed sense of hope, that there are so many women out there uplifting each other.” She also adds that she enjoys meeting 1:1. for coffee with the women in the group. This allows her to gain a better understanding of other businesses and in some cases she has found new friends. In addition, she appreciates the referrals and customers that she has gained through MDBW.
Outside of MDBW, Senya has created “The CLUB,” which stands for Community Leaders Uplift Balance. It is a friendly alliance in the spirit of mind, body, and harmony. She is also dedicated to the “Helping One Woman” organization, which honors one woman in need each month, and changes lives one woman at a time.
When not involved in work, Senya loves to try new things and travel. She also enjoys reading and taking walks.
Visit Senya’s website to learn more about her. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Judith Feuer
Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
As a financial advisor with Edward Jones, Judith works with both individuals as well as businesses. She works to actively understand and anticipate clients’ needs, building trusting relationships, and solving complex financial challenges. The advice she provides for individuals centers around the following areas: estate considerations and retirement planning; investment strategies; tax smart strategies; insurance and planning for the unexpected; charitable giving; business succession; and retirement plans. She also helps businesses to improve cash flow, employee retention, and business succession. Her work helps people to live the life they want, and to secure a brighter future for those they love.
Judith is also the diversity, equity, and inclusion co-leader in her region, working with women both inside and outside of Edward Jones. She focuses on supporting women in the community through financial literacy and equity education. She believes in the importance of emboldening women executives, business-owners, women on their own, and women in transition by empowering them to make a difference, have a voice, and enable them to be as financially successful as possible.
MDBW member, Diane Kaplowitz, introduced Judith to MDBW. Judith says she knew when she first attended a meeting that it was a good fit for her. “There are so many progressive, supportive, and entrepreneurial women looking to not only move their business forward, but to help others do the same. This is an incredibly dynamic group seeking to understand, build trust, and foster a positive, partnership-led relationship.”
Some good referral sources and partnerships for Judith are tax professionals, estate planning attorneys, business attorneys, HR/payroll professionals, insurance, those in real estate, and mortgage brokers.
When not working, Judith enjoys spending time with her spouse and children as well as cooking, hiking, yoga, travel, and wine tasting.
To learn more about Judith, visit her website or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Belma Mirvic
Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
Belma has always been incredibly passionate about helping others. She grew up in Bosnia during the war in the 1990s and learned so much about life’s unpredictability and appreciating the little things. That’s why as a young adult, she pursued social work, working with women and children who were often fleeing domestic violence.
Now, as a financial advisor, Belma has the same opportunity to help women and other investors – helping them as they gain financial confidence and provide for the people and the things that they love most, while empowering them to take control of their own financial futures. Belma does this by putting herself in her clients’ shoes, learning their fears and what’s important to them well before she starts creating a financial strategy. Once they’ve established a relationship, Belma becomes their lifelong partner, reviewing their plans, making adjustments, and being there for them in times of turmoil and uncertainty.
Just as her clients are all different, Belma believes that no two portfolios should be the same, and she prides herself on the individual attention each of her clients receive. Whether they are men or women, business owners or families, veterans, or civilians, she loves having the opportunity to prove her dedication to her investors and being invited to share in their lives is her greatest reward.
Outside of the office, Belma and her husband stay busy with their two children. They love traveling together, going to the beach and going for walks. As a new mom, she's been having a great time cooking, staying active, and being outdoors. Belma is an active member of the Mt. Diablo Mothers Club and is membership co-chair on Mt Diablo Business Women’s board of directors. She also volunteers whenever she can, especially with groups helping the homeless and serving women and children.
Belma’s Pleasant Hill office serves investors throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as out of state. Whether you’re just starting out or a financial pro, you can reach her at 925-293-6531 or send her an email to learn how she can help.
Carolyne Charvoz
Financial Planner, MassMutual Northern California
As a financial advisor with Edward Jones, Judith works with both individuals as well as businesses. She works to actively understand and anticipate clients’ needs, building trusting relationships, and solving complex financial challenges. The advice she provides for individuals centers around the following areas: estate considerations and retirement planning; investment strategies; tax smart strategies; insurance and planning for the unexpected; charitable giving; business succession; and retirement plans. She also helps businesses to improve cash flow, employee retention, and business succession. Her work helps people to live the life they want, and to secure a brighter future for those they love.
Judith is also the diversity, equity, and inclusion co-leader in her region, working with women both inside and outside of Edward Jones. She focuses on supporting women in the community through financial literacy and equity education. She believes in the importance of emboldening women executives, business-owners, women on their own, and women in transition by empowering them to make a difference, have a voice, and enable them to be as financially successful as possible.
MDBW member, Diane Kaplowitz, introduced Judith to MDBW. Judith says she knew when she first attended a meeting that it was a good fit for her. “There are so many progressive, supportive, and entrepreneurial women looking to not only move their business forward, but to help others do the same. This is an incredibly dynamic group seeking to understand, build trust, and foster a positive, partnership-led relationship.”
Some good referral sources and partnerships for Judith are tax professionals, estate planning attorneys, business attorneys, HR/payroll professionals, insurance, those in real estate, and mortgage brokers.
When not working, Judith enjoys spending time with her spouse and children as well as cooking, hiking, yoga, travel, and wine tasting.
To learn more about Judith, visit her website or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Cindy Thompson
Owner, Payroll Vault
Cindy Thompson is the owner of Payroll Vault in Danville, a boutique-style local payroll service provider that designs customized payroll services and HR solutions for small businesses. Payroll Vault provides cutting-edge technology solutions to ensure that your payroll processing is simple, secure, and compliant.
For those businesses with anywhere between five and 30 employees, Payroll Vault is a perfect solution because it provides white-glove customer service and support that the big box payroll providers are not set up to offer. Payroll Vault provides complete outsourcing of back office functions so business owners can focus on growing their business.
Cindy says she enjoys supporting local small business and helping owners focus on their core competency and growth. She finds it rewarding to put to use her many years of sales, management, and business experience, (she previously worked for such well-known companies as Cisco, Microsoft, and Salesforce), in a way that helps the local economy. Another way she supports area businesses is by shopping locally when possible, and often sponsors, attends, or donates to events in the community.
Good referral sources for Cindy are accountants, CPAs, bankers, attorneys, financial advisors, HR professionals, and insurance brokers.
Cindy joined MDBW this year, and says she looks forward to the events, and finds everyone to be upbeat, supportive, and enjoys having a women's only group. She adds, “There is a kindred spirit and camaraderie.”
In her leisure time, Cindy enjoys cooking, gardening, entertaining, good wines, the outdoors, exercising, including walking (where she helps the environment by picking up garbage), as well as spending time with her seven grandchildren and her miniature schnauzer, Schatzi.
Visit Cindy’s website to learn more about her company, Payroll Vault.
Sarah Bradford
Recruitment & Outreach Coordinator, CASA Of Contra Costa County
Sarah is the Recruitment and Outreach Coordinator for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Contra Costa County, the nonprofit organization that Mt. Diablo Business Women (MDBW) proudly supports. CASA recruits, trains, and supports volunteers to work with local children and youth in foster care to make sure they do not get lost in the over-burdened legal system or languish in an inappropriate placement.
Volunteers are the voice of the youth in court, speaking up for their best interests during the dependency process. Volunteers help reduce delays and continuances and stay with each case until it is closed, and the child or youth is placed in a safe, stable, and permanent home.
CASA’s mission is what drew Sarah to the organization first as a volunteer, and now as a staff member. Her prior career was in education where she constantly observed the difference that a caring, stable adult can make in the life of a child, which is something CASA volunteers do every day and that Sarah says she feels incredibly privileged to be a part of.
Sarah says a good referral source for her are people interested in volunteering for CASA. She looks for volunteers who are emotionally strong, collaborative, responsible, flexible, and culturally sensitive. Volunteer Advocates (of which Sarah is one, in addition to being a CASA staff member) spend approximately 15-20 hours a month on their case, and volunteer tutors spend approximately 6-12 hours a month in their role. All volunteers are asked to commit to a minimum of one year, though many volunteers choose to stay much longer.
As a new member of MDBW, Sarah says she has been impressed by how welcoming and supportive everyone is, and that she is incredibly grateful for the support the group shows to CASA.
In her free time Sarah enjoys hiking and exploring local trails with her rescue pup, Boone, kayaking at Lake Chabot, and visiting the coast or Tahoe with her family.
For more info on CASA visit its Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter pages.
Lily Dong
Lily Dong Photography
Lily Dong, of Lily Dong Photography, is able to bring out the inner model in everyone she photographs. Her understanding of people on an intuitive level results in photos that capture a person’s essence and energy. Her skill at creating headshots and portraits results in her clients feeling confident about themselves and their business and puts them on the path to attracting new customers.
Lily has an innate sense of how her clients want to be portrayed. It is her keen observation of little mannerisms, attitudes, and body language that gives her a sense of how they want to be portrayed and results in all her clients looking like experienced models. During photo sessions, all objections are addressed and overcome with Lily's soft knowledge in posing as well as her technical knowledge about lighting and equipment, in the end, turning complaints into assets and self acceptance for even the most self critical person. “Prepare to fall in love with your image!” is something Lily tells her clients.
Lily has been a professional photographer for over 10 years. She was previously a designer of couture wedding gowns and was known as the “local Vera Wang.”
A good referral source for Lily are men and women entrepreneurs that have a high need to be seen, such as a realtor, or need an update on their headshot older than three years.
Lily recently joined Mt. Diablo Business Women, and is already doing a great job serving on the Board as secretary. She says she enjoys the group because she loves “how each woman she’s met is powerful in what they do, open to connect with others and help each other.”
In addition to being involved with MDBW, Lily is also active in the community. She is soon to be a board member with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and has previously volunteered with CASA and Assistance League.
To learn more about Lily, visit her website, and check out her Facebook, and Instagram.
Diane Salmon
Diane Salmon Writing & Consulting
Do you have a business plan, Request for Proposal (RFP) submission, email newsletter, donation letter, or web content that you need to write? Has it been lingering on your to-do list, either because you don’t have the time, or you simply don’t like to write? If this sounds familiar, then no worries! Delegate your writing projects to Diane Salmon, owner of Diane Salmon Writing & Consulting.
Diane can help you clearly communicate your ideas and information to your customers, business partners, a grantor, or other decision-makers to influence them to respond to a call to action to move your business forward. The content Diane produces will steer your audience to make a donation, purchase a product, award a grant, or click a link for a free trial.
Delivering results is what motivates Diane. She enjoys using words to organize, craft, and deliver projects, and feels especially rewarded when her work delivers top results for clients. She also enjoys each project’s discovery process — meeting new people, understanding how the project supports their goals, and learning about their business and areas of expertise.
A good referral for Diane is someone who has a specific writing need, whether a one-time project or routine needs such as an email newsletter, an annual business plan, or using a company’s business results to create RFP proposals. She is currently writing grant applications and RFPs for B-Corporations, and various non-profits, including Yours Humanly, a global education nonprofit.
Diane also writes Mt. Diablo Business Women’s email newsletter as part of her role as Publicity Chair on our Board of Directors. Being a MDBW member for several years, Diane says it’s the friendships, encouragement, and creative ideas she gains from the members that she most appreciates. She values the inner personal benefits of a support group combined with the outer business benefits of networking and education.
When she’s not working, Diane can be found outdoors walking, running, hiking and backpacking. She also loves reading and doing “just for fun” writing, which she sometimes pairs with her husband’s great photos.
To learn more about Diane, visit her LinkedIn page.
JoAnn Adams
IT Maverick Solutions Representative
JoAnn Adams represents Erick Martinez of IT Maverick Solutions. Erick is expert at helping with and/or solving problems with the technological devices and systems that we cannot manage without these days: computers, tablets, mobile phones, and other technical systems/devices, including irrigation systems so critical in these days of drought.
His 20-plus years of IT experience and five years of experience with landscaping/maintenance issues give him the knowledge and skills to help with solving many of our problems. Erick will come to you to provide support and critical advice for keeping your technical universe manageable and running smoothly.
Erick provides training for you so that you are comfortable with your digital systems and devices; he can communicate with you in English, Spanish, or Tagalog to help make you much more knowledgeable about your devices and systems.
Services Erick provides include help with making your internet connections) stable and dependable, consolidating many devices into a system, recovering data and security, training visually impaired people, dealing with video and audio-visual issues, setting up and troubleshooting camera and security systems, integrating high tech into water conservation, preventing future tech problems.
JoAnn is happy to represent IT Maverick Solutions; she is pleased to connect people who need help with their technical systems with Erick. You will find him realistic, helpful, and providing easy-to-understand explanations.
As an active member of Mt Diablo Business Women since the late 1990’s, JoAnn looks to MDBW for information and assistance. She spends much time spreading the good word about the organization.
When taking time for herself, JoAnn enjoys reading from the many books in her personal library, especially nonfiction.
For more information about Erick Martinez and IT Maverick Solutions, contact JoAnn (you can find her contact information on our member directory) and when you work with Erick, be sure to mention that JoAnn referred you.
Amy Golan
Owner & Founder, Planet Renu
Amy Golan’s inspiration and vision for starting Planet Renu began when she started to look at her carbon footprint and realized that she could make many improvements related to her buying decisions and reliance on plastic. She began researching plastic alternatives and found great eco-friendly products that she not only started using, but also wanted to offer to other consumers. The brainstorm for Planet Renu happened while Amy was traveling (and had free time), and she officially launched her online store in 2018. Today, Amy has physical stores in Walnut Creek and on the UC Berkeley campus.
Planet Renu offers a myriad of plastic alternatives as well as high quality organic refills. The products help consumers reduce their reliance and purchases of single-use plastics or products housed in plastics. These changes in buying behavior have a positive exponential effect on our environment and eco-systems.
In addition to the stores, Planet Renu offers its private label products wholesale, has an online store and works with schools and businesses providing education on how to live more sustainably. Some of its efforts include working with schools on zero-waste lunch programs, providing farmer’s markets with reusable produce bags, and offering eco-friendly promotional products to corporations. Amy says she “loves educating people and watching them make changes that are geared more towards a sustainable, less-wasteful lifestyle.”
As a member of Mt. Diablo Business Women, Amy says that she has enjoyed learning more about fellow female entrepreneurs and looks forward to getting to know everyone better now that the group is meeting in person.
A good referral for Amy is any business interested in sustainability or individuals wanting to purchase better, more sustainable products.
When not in one of her stores or managing Planet Renu’s online presence, Amy enjoys volunteering at homeless shelters and food kitchens as well as at the Walnut Creek schools her children attend. She also enjoys yoga, spending time hiking, dancing, traveling and spending time with family and friends.
To learn more about Amy, visit Planet Renu’s website , or follow Amy on LinkedIn, or @planetrenu on Instagram.