2009 Women's Leadership Summit

Shannon Miller
7-Time Olympic Medalist, Shannon Miller, is the most decorated American gymnast, male or female, in history, having won more Olympic and World Championship Medals than any other American Gymnast. She has earned 7 Olympic Medals and 9 World Championship Medals since her Elite International debut in 1990. Her tally of five medals (2 Silver, 3 Bronze) at the 1992 Olympics was the most medals won by any US athlete!

During her career, Shannon has won an astounding 59 International and 49 National competition medals and over half have been Gold, culminating with two Gold Medals at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta as the leader of the "Magnificent Seven". At the '96 Games, she won Team Gold and, for the first time for any American gymnast, Gold on the balance beam.

Inspiring, motivational, insightful and humble, Shannon weaves in lessons learned through over two decades of gymnastics training, competition and life lessons. She brings audiences into the Olympic arena with her, while arming them with specific ways to find success in their own personal and professional lives.

Through her personal stories of trial and triumph Shannon shares with her audience how we can all achieve our own personal success in life through goal setting, overcoming obstacles and, above all, never setting limits on our potential. Shannon’s unique view of success and what it takes to get to the top has helped people of all ages, in all walks of life; understand the secret to making their dreams come true.

In addition, Shannon has become a sought after speaker in the area of Health and Fitness, for all ages, with emphasis on the topics of Healthy Lifestyle, Childhood Obesity and Women’s Health. She began the Shannon Miller Foundation which is dedicated to fighting childhood obesity and was appointed Co-Chair of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness (2007) and the board of the Florida Sports Foundation (2008) by Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

Kathryn Miree
Kathryn W. Miree is the president and primary consultant for Kathryn W. Miree & Associates, Inc., now in its 11th year of operation. Ms. Miree provides a full range of planned giving, endowment, and foundation management services designed to help charities build long-term financial stability through planned gifts and endowment. Ms. Miree received a B.A. from Emory University and a J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. She spent 15 years in various positions in the Trust Division of a large southeastern bank rising to the position of Senior Vice President and manager of the Personal Trust Department. She then joined a regional brokerage firm to establish its trust company and serve as its initial President and CEO. In these positions she worked extensively with not-for-profit organizations and their donors in the management of private foundations, community foundations, charitable trusts, pooled income funds, gift annuities and endowments. Ms. Miree is a past president of the national Committee on Planned Giving, past president of the Alabama Planned Giving council, past president of the Estate Planning Council of Birmingham, and past president of the Alabama Bankers Association Trust Division. She is a member of the Alabama Bar Association and Birmingham Bar Association. Ms. Miree is also an active member of her community serving as a volunteer on a number of community boards. She is a past chair of United Way of Central Alabama, a past chair of The Altamont School and past president of the Independent Presbyterian Church Foundation.

Michele Norris
Michele Norris, an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience, hosts NPR's newsmagazine All Things Considered, public radio's longest-running national program, with Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Norris began hosting on December 9, 2002.

Before coming to NPR, Norris was a correspondent for ABC News, a post she held from 1993 - 2002. As a contributing correspondent for the Closer Look segments on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Norris reported extensively on education, inner city issues, the nation's drug problem, and poverty. Norris has also reported for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times. Her Washington Post series about a six-year-old who lived in a crack house was reprinted in the book Ourselves Among Others, along with essays by Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, Annie Dillard and Gabriel García Márquez.

A four-time Pulitzer Prize entrant, Norris has received numerous awards for her work, including the National Association of Black Journalists' 2006 Salute to Excellence Award, for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina; the University of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement Award; and the 1990 Livingston Award. In 2007, she was honored with Ebony Magazine's eighth Annual Outstanding Women in Marketing & Communications Award. Norris also earned both an Emmy Award and Peabody Award for her contribution to ABC News' coverage of 9/11. She is on the judging committee for both the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Livingston Awards. Norris is also a frequent guest on The Chris Matthews Show on NBC News.

Norris attended the University of Wisconsin, where she majored in electrical engineering, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she studied journalism. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is married to Broderick Johnson. She has two young children and a step son who attends college in California.