April 15, 2026 | Member Luncheon

April 15, 2026 | Member Luncheon

Ravenna, OH

Join us on Wednesday, April 15, 2026 for our Member Luncheon!

About The Event: This is part of our Member Meeting Networking and Learning Series. The purpose of the meeting is to welcome new and returning members, provide updates on SHRM Portage County activities, and listen to a speaker present on an HR topic of interest to our membership.

Agenda:

• 11:15am - Registration Opens
• 11:30am - Networking & Lunch
• 11:50am - Announcements
• 12:00pm - Presentation Begins

Session Title: Hidden in Plain Sight: Unlocking the Potential of Mid-Career Women

Session Description: Mid-career women are often the quiet engine of an organization: they stabilize teams, solve complex problems, and carry the invisible work that keeps everything moving. Yet their potential is frequently under-recognized, not because they lack capability, but because they’re leading inside unspoken rules, subtle dynamics, and systems that weren’t built with them in mind.

In this session, leadership coach and former banking/fintech executive Elizabeth Coluby will pull back the curtain on what’s really happening beneath the surface for mid-career women, especially those in people-leader roles. We’ll look at how invisible work, unclear expectations, and biased perceptions shape performance reviews, promotion decisions, and succession planning.

HR professionals will leave with a sharper lens for recognizing “hidden in plain sight” talent in their own organizations and practical strategies they can use immediately to better support, retain, and advance mid-career women without adding to already full plates.

Join us for an insightful session with Tooling U-SME Workforce Development Specialist, Denise Cowburn, as she explores practical, proven strategies to strengthen your workforce from the ground up.

What You'll Learn

• Identify the invisible work, unspoken expectations, and leadership behaviors that keep mid-career women over-functioning and under-recognized inside their organizations.
• Decode how organizational dynamics, informal power structures, and bias shape which women are seen as “strategic leaders” versus “reliable doers” in performance and promotion conversations.
• Apply practical strategies to rebalance workloads, clarify expectations, and increase strategic visibility for mid-career women in ways that support both well-being and business outcomes.
• Design at least one concrete change (a “clean move”) they can implement in their own HR practice or organization to better support, retain, and advance mid-career women with high leadership potential.

Speaker Bio: Elizabeth Coluby is the founder of Coluby Coaching & Consulting and the creator of a clarity-centered leadership approach that helps mid-career women move from over-functioning and invisible labor to visible, strategic influence.

Before launching her own practice, Elizabeth spent more than 25 years in senior roles across banking, fintech, product strategy, marketing, and digital transformation. She led multi-million-dollar growth initiatives, simplified complex product portfolios, and turned around declining businesses, all while noticing a consistent pattern: brilliant women doing work far above their titles and being recognized far below their contribution.

Thank you to our sponsors!