Associate Director
Katie School of Insurance
Campus Box 5490
Normal, IL 61790

Debbie Babcock administers special projects for the Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State University including Lloyd's of London programs, Insurance Executive Forum, Katie School Golf Classic, Katie School Scholarship Program, international internships and Katie School alumni events. She is advisor to the Alpha Kappa Chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma. 

Ms. Babcock received a B.S. from the University of Illinois and is a current board member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF)-Midwest Division and the Association of Professional Insurance Women; past board member of the Spencer Educational Foundation, American Risk and Insurance Association(ARIA) and the Mid-IL Chapter of RIMS; and a current member of the Association of Lloyd’s Brokers,  the Insurance Supper Club, Dive-In, the Chicago RIMS Chapter, PLUS and ARIA. She was honored as the 2018 IICF Trailblazer of the Year and with the ARIA President’s Award.

Barbara Bufkin, Senior Advisor, AmWINS Access

Barbara's four decades in the insurance and reinsurance industry have spanned leadership roles encompassing operational and strategic responsibilities, including business origination and product development, underwriting, claims, risk management/corporate governance and ceded and assumed reinsurance, while fostering a culture of innovation, mentorship, and diverse talent. 

Throughout the past six years, Barbara has focused her career at the intersection of distribution, underwriting, technology and capital in specialty businesses. Barbara currently serves as a Senior Advisor at AmWINS Access. She previously held leadership roles at Hamilton USA, Guy Carpenter, Argo Group and Swiss Re.

As current Chair of the International Board of Governors of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) and President of the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW), Barbara has been directly engaged in the global and national Women in Insurance Conference series. Concurrently, she advocates for the value of the insurance industry as a career of choice in her role as Co-President and Board of Trustee of Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS) and as a keynote speaker on The Power of Purpose in various insurance industry forums. In these initiatives, Barbara has been driving the Big Tent of culture, inclusion, innovation, sponsorship, mentoring talent and the power of networks.  

In 2019, Barbara was inducted into Insurance Business America’s Hall of Fame.

Sompo International
1001 Franklin Avenue
Garden City, NY 11530

Rose M.J. Charles, Esq., Senior Vice President - Client Engagement Executive.  Ms. Charles is the Casualty Product Leader supervising the Claims Adjusting Unit(s) handling: Auto, Environmental, General Liability and Umbrella matters within in the GRS portfolio at Sompo International.  Rose joined Sompo supervising the Excess Casualty Claims Teams in Bermuda and the U.S., as well as a variety of property and casualty matters, and overseeing the management of external TPAs. Prior to joining Sompo, Rose was a Litigation Partner with the nationwide law firm of Wilson, Elser, LLP where she defended and tried cases for public housing authorities, municipalities, and private entities where she obtained settlements, defense verdicts, summary judgments and dismissals of often sensitive, high exposure, and complex liability matters including: §1983 Claims, Premises Security/Rape, Construction/Labor Law, Medical Malpractice, Lead paint and Toxic mold matters in Federal and State Court.  Of note, she defended entities in the Atlanta Day Trading Massacre Cases, the Columbine Colorado Shooting Cases, the Rhode Island Fire Case, and personally supervised a team who conducted more than 1200 municipal hearings for claims arising from the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash and from law enforcement interactions with citizens at the 2004 Republican National Convention.  She has presented seminars to universities and campus organizations, banks, hospitals, property owners, and insurance trade groups in addition to police officers and peace officers on the issue of premises security and risk management.  She has written articles relating insurance, legal, risk management, and has been published in the New York Law Journal and the Jury Verdict Reporter.  Rose is a graduate of St. John’s University School of Law and is admitted to the New York State Bar and Federal Courts.  She has been an Adjunct professor at East Stroudsburg University.  She is also a member of CLM, a board member at APIW, and a member of IACP.

Vanessa Contreras is Senior Vice President and US Casualty Team Leader at SCOR Reinsurance in Chicago, Illinois.  In her current role she is responsible for managing the strategic direction, profitability, and client relationships for Scor’s US Casualty portfolio.  Vanessa held the role of Senior Vice President and Deputy Team Leader for Professional Lines prior to being promoted to her current role in January of 2022.  She began her career as a Risk Analyst at Munich Re, later becoming an Underwriter in Princeton, NJ. Prior to Munich Re, she worked for State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, IL.

Vanessa holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Risk Management and Insurance from The Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State University. She holds a CPCU and ARe, and is working towards her RPLU. Vanessa served on The Reinsurance Under 40s Board for six years and is also an active member of the APIW, PLUS, and the ISC Group. She has successfully completed the LAMP program though PLUS and the ASPIRE Leadership Program through SCOR. In 2015, Vanessa was included in Intelligent Insurer's list of 40 Rising Stars Under 35.  In 2020, Vanessa was selected by Insurance Business America as a Rising Star in Insurance.  Most recently, Vanessa was honored as the 2022 Young Leader of the Year by The Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State.

Janet Jordan-Foster- Executive Vice President and Head of Primary Casualty at Axis Insurance.

Janet has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry and is currently the Head of Axis’ Primary Casualty Unit in the United States. Janet has extensive underwriting and management experience and joined Axis in 2007 after having held underwriting management positions at Zurich Financial Services and Home Insurance Companies. She is a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council at Axis.

Her management leadership roles at Zurich Financial Services included responsibility for its Primary Casualty, Railroad and Healthcare businesses within its Specialty Division. She began her underwriting career at American International Group.

Ms. Jordan-Foster is currently Chair of the Board of The National African American Insurance Association or NAAIA. She is also a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Foundation of WSIA, and a member of The Association of Professional Insurance Women or APIW.

Nancy M. Mellard is Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the Benefits & Insurance Services Division of CBIZ, Inc.  CBIZ is a national provider of integrated business services including Employee Benefits and Property & Casualty Insurance Services; Payroll Services; Human Capital Advisory; Retirement Plan; Accounting, Tax & Advisory; Business Valuation and other professional services to small and medium sized companies and individuals.  CBIZ is a public company, listed on the NYSE as CBZ.  

As General Counsel for this Division, Ms. Mellard has responsibility for all legal matters including transactional legal matters; negotiating contracts with merger and acquisition candidates, key customers, insurance carriers and employment related agreements; and managing litigation and E&O issues for this Division.  She also has oversight of all regulatory, licensing and compliance. 

Ms. Mellard is a member of the Senior Management Team for the Benefits & Insurance Services Division, providing comprehensive strategic-level business counseling to this Division and serves as the liaison to the parent company’s General Counsel.  With thirty-five years of legal, regulatory and compliance experience in the insurance industry, Ms. Mellard built this Division’s Licensing Department and managed the legal consolidation of more than twenty corporations into a single Division for CBIZ.  

In addition to her role as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Ms. Mellard was chosen by CBIZ’s Chairman of the Board and CEO to build and lead CBIZ Women’s Advantage.  This Program supports CBIZ’s female employee base of more than 2,000 employed in multiple professional roles across all Divisions of CBIZ.  The goals of this Program are to recruit, retain and develop female talent within CBIZ and recognize the power of women both internally and externally.  Professional development, talent management, networking, revenue generation, national community outreach and, most importantly, the celebration of successes of CBIZ woman talent are just some of the important goals Ms. Mellard focuses on as National Leader for this Program.  CBIZ Women’s Advantage was responsible for generating and influencing more than $9.3 million in new business revenue over the last six years and was the 2009 recipient of the Dress for Success Worldwide Model of Excellence Award for its continuing support of Dress for Success.  Ms. Mellard received three 2012 Stevie® Awards for her leadership of CBIZ Women’s Advantage:  Gold Award, Maverick of the Year; Silver Award, Mentor or Coach of the Year – Business and Silver Award, Women Helping Women – Business. 

Ms. Mellard received Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s 2017 Women in Justice – Enterprise Award, and the 2016 Stevie® Bronze Lifetime Achievement Award.  Ms. Mellard was named a 2016 Baron of the Boardroom by the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and one of the Elite Women in Insurance by Insurance Business America Magazine.  In 2013, Ms. Mellard was named one of Kansas City’s 50 Most Inspiring Women by 435 South Magazine and one of the Top Women in Insurance by American Agent & Broker Magazine.  Ms. Mellard was a member of Ingram’s Magazine’s 2012 class of weKC (Women Executives – Kansas City) which honors the most influential and accomplished women executives in the Kansas City area and received the Women Who Mean Business Award in 2010 from the Kansas City Business Journal, Influential Women Award in 2010 from the Kansas City Business Magazine, Legal Leader of the Year Award in 2008 from the Midwest In-House Lawyers Weekly and was named a Woman to Watch in 2006 by Business Insurance. 

Everest Reinsurance Company
Westgate Corporate Center
477 Martinsville Road, P.O. Box 830
Liberty Corner, NJ 07938-0830

Sharry has recently been promoted to Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer for the Reinsurance division. Sharry has held numerous roles at Everest over the past nine years, including Senior Vice President of Property and Specialty and Vice President of Treaty Underwriting.

Since joining Everest from Munich Re in 2011, Sharry has been instrumental in building out our profitable Treaty Property book and  was pivotal in the strategy and execution transitioning Everest from our old manual underwriting workflow process to the new EZ Flow and UWS platforms – both have been game changers for the Group.

Sharry has headed our Weather Reinsurance Trading Division, since 2011 and she has been responsible for US Property Facultative business since July 2018.  She has been, and remains, committed to continuous improvement of Everest and she drives toward that by always leading by example.

Outside of her day-to-day responsibilities, Sharry dedicated three years to create  an impactful mentorship program at Everest Re.  In addition, Sharry has mentored students at  St. John’s University with other members of the APIW. She has also contributed to Everest Re’s Women’s Networking Group where she sat on a panel to discuss being a female executive.

Sharry is a graduate of University of Delaware. She also has two daughters and lives in Somerset, NJ.

President
The Beaumont Group, Inc.
990 Cedar Bridge Avenue, Suite B7, PMB 210
Brick, NJ 08723-4147

Michelle Yoshida is the NY Casualty Facultative Branch Manager at Gen Re.  

Michelle began her career in the insurance industry in 2013 as a member of the NY Casualty E&S Division of General Star Insurance Co (a subsidiary of Gen Re).  Interested in Reinsurance, she joined Gen Re in 2018 and was promoted to Branch Manager in 2022.  In her role as manager, Michelle is responsible for profitable underwriting results within the NY branch.  In addition, her focus includes fostering a cohesive team dynamic that enables both strategic growth of the business and strong underwriting acumen in her team.  She mentors women within Gen Re and is a member of Gen Re’s Women and Allies Group and Professionals of Color and Allies Group.  Michelle is an active participant in the New York insurance marketplace and regularly attends events held by various organizations in addition to APIW.  A student of the business, she has earned the designations of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Associate in Surplus Lines Insurance (ASLI).

Michelle earned her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and minor in biology from Fairfield University.  She was born and raised in Hawaii and is a co-chair of the Punahou Alumni Association of New York, for which she coordinates social and networking events and helps mentor Punahou graduates in the Tri-State area as they navigate their college and career paths.