Meet Women Who Have Successfully Relaunched Their Careers

Join us for a wine tasting and to listen to a panel of women who have successfully relaunched their careers after a period of time out of the work force.

We are excited about the participants in the panel as they have such a wide range of experiences to share with you - their bios are summarized below.

Jeannie Herrick:

Jeannine Herrick joined the North Carolina Institute for Public Health in the role of Workforce Development Associate May 1st. Jeannine will be working on multiple projects for the Institute including the John Rex Endowment efforts to explore including the social determinants of health into their future plans, providing support to the National Center for MCH Workforce Development related to the new Evidence Based Decision Making Core, and assisting with the National Program Office for Emerging Leaders In Public Health.

Jeannine was most recently a Senior Advisor at Ipas coordinating and developing large proposals to serve girls and women in developing countries. Prior to that she was a consultant for the March of Dimes and the NC Preconception Health Campaign, NC Division of Public Health Women’s Health Branch, Duke’s National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and additional global work. Jeannine served as the Statewide Coordinator for the Folic Acid Campaign and was a Technical Associate for the Training and Service Delivery Improvement Unit at Ipas. Jeannine has a background in program design, strategic planning, training, curricula development, technical assistance, and grant-writing.

Jeannine earned her MPH at UNC-CH in the Maternal Child Health Department. She and her husband have three active school age sons and just adopted a lab rescue puppy. Jeannine enjoys traveling with her family on frequent trips to the mountains and beach and attending her sons’ many activities and sport events.

Larissa Muchnick:

Larissa Muchnick is a high energy and effective problem solver and entrepreneur. She is a dynamic sales and marketing professional with over fifteen years of experience in large global corporations, small entrepreneurial enterprises, and nonprofit sectors with success in business development, marketing, management, event planning, public relations, and coaching.

Business accomplishments are noted for significant returns, steady advancement and increased responsibility with nationally prominent corporations. Marketing and public-relations efforts noted for use of social media as well as traditional method.

Believes in overall health and well-being by balancing work and play. Founded own non-profit organization, consults for The V Foundation for Cancer Research and leads Patient and Family Centered - Care at the NC Children's Hospital. Life is a journey. Her goal is to help others achieve their business and life goals.

Petra Sargent:

Petra Sargent has over 17 years experience in proprietary software development where she served in many different roles. Her favorite role was leading projects and loves the satisfaction of seeing software shipped out the door to the customer. After a 6 year career break, Petra became involved in the OpenStack community through Outreachy internship. She has attended 2 OpenStack summits and co-chaired the Getting Started track for the summit in Barcelona. Today , she is a technical writer for the Developers Tools group at Red Hat and is passionate about creating quality technical documentation.

Marla Wolf:

While working my way up the corporate ladder in my mid 20's, an amazing opportunity to live and travel abroad came my way, so I went, thinking I would pick back up where I left off with hard work and perseverance. I returned to the U.S. four and a half years later with a 10 month old daughter. Had another daughter 3 years later. I continued to work part time doing a wide range of jobs: Project Coordinator for an Architect Firm, pursuing my passion in Fitness as an Instructor and Personal Trainer, and retail. When I felt it was a good time to step back into a career, full time, I had no idea that the game had completely changed.

For about a year I spent time trying to figure out what exactly to put on my resume and how exactly to go about looking for job. The old ways just didn't work, there were too many people out there, too many levels of applying before you were actually able to connect with a person, and, our area had grown tremendously so the market was unbelievably competitive. My Husband saw the Back to Business Conference advertised in the New and Observer site and told me about it. After the conference, that next year, I was able to take the steps that led me to my current position and am Back to Business!!

Through information interviews, LinkedIn, meeting other Women who were currently/previously in my position, and some serious soul searching, I was able to figure out where my talents lie and how to position myself. You have to put yourself out there, ask for what you want, and ask for the opportunity to prove yourself. In the end, it was a 13 year old reference that gave me the opportunity at my current job.

“Finding a job is a job. Treat it as one and make it happen."