26 Oct October 27, 2025 – Retirement Marianne Caswell, Butterfly Creativity M Teresa Lawrence and Afterschool Alliance Jodi Grant & Heather Nesle
Marianne Caswell – President of Park Avenue Securities
There’s easy steps that you can do to avoid those mistakes. One is thinking
about, what do you want your life to look like in retirement and defining that
in advance of retiring.
Marianne Caswell
Marianne Caswell has more than 20 years of experience in financial services and wealth management. She is currently Head of Wealth Management at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) and President of Park Avenue Securities, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guardian and its broker-dealer and corporate Registered Investment Advisor. As President, Marianne is focused on business growth, building a competitive platform, ensuring ease of doing business, leading with accountability, and communicating with purpose. Under her leadership, the firm has expanded to include 2,400 financial professionals and oversee $50B in AUM. Marianne obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with a concentration in Business and Communication from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
M Teresa Lawrence – Butterfly Event Coordinator, International Speaker, Leadership Coach and Award-Winning Author of
If you find that you wake up each day and you’re doing something so
joyous, you’re going to succeed at it, and people are going to see that,
and you’re going to thrive. And that’s what you want. That’s what you
want in your team. You absolutely want people who are amazing at
what they do, and you want to let them shine.
M Teresa Lawrence
M Teresa Lawrence is an award-winning author, international speaker, and leadership coach. She is the founder and president of the Trueness Project, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering children and adults to cherish their imagination and own their power to write their narratives. As part of her mission, Teresa is donating her award-winning transformational children’s book, GLORIOUSNESS, to disadvantaged children throughout the world. She is also the co-author of The Power of Leadership, where she discusses the power of the “Leadership of Play,” a philosophy that uplifts everyone. Currently, Teresa is working on The Grand Butterfly Gathering scheduled for June 29, 2024, where her nonprofit, the Trueness Project, will host the highest number of people dressed as butterflies in history, both in person and virtually. We will set a world record, and a joyous community of changemakers will make a statement dressed as butterflies, standing for a world filled with community, creativity, and love. Teresa’s work has been featured in various publications, including the San Francisco Post, the California Observer, World Reporter, and Scholar Media Africa. As a Creative Visionary at Covered Wagon Nation, I help people realize and attain their full potential enjoyably. I apply my Leadership of Play philosophy, which is based on thinking and living outside the box, finding joy in simple acts of kindness, and believing in the power of imagination and adventure. I also leverage my skills and experience as an author, publisher, educator, and attorney to create and deliver transformational content and programs. I hold a JD from Columbia Law School and a BA from Amherst College, and I have been working with a diverse client base to start and grow thriving businesses for over 20 years. I am passionate about serving my community through volunteering and non-profit fundraising. As a Cuban immigrant, I founded The Trueness Project, a purpose-driven project that helps children own their stories and know that they are the masters of their destiny. I travel the world giving out books and speaking about the importance of teaching leadership in schools. I believe that inside each one of us is a true and genuine leader, waiting for awakening by playful adventure. On December 14, 2023, I was honored with a Doctorate in Humane Letters in Leadership Development, Justice, and Advocacy by the Open Christian University USA, in collaboration with Angaza Bible College, Kenya.
Jodi Grant – Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance & Heather Nesle – President of New York Life Insurance Company
We want to be very careful not to make after school more school, because
for many kids, after school is one of the reasons they come to school. It’s a
place where the learning is not graded, it’s not judged… they can get out of
their comfort zone a little bit, try new things, experiment with, you know,
areas that may become passions that they didn’t even know existed before.
Jodi Grant
Jodi Grant, Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance, has spent more than two decades making afterschool access a national priority. Under her leadership, the Alliance has secured billions in federal and state investments, mobilized a network of nearly 30,000 partners, and helped position afterschool and summer learning programs as essential supports for children, working families, and local communities.
Heather Nesle
She is joined by Heather Nesle, President of the New York Life Foundation and Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at New York Life. Through her work, the Foundation has become one of the nation’s largest private funders of afterschool and youth development initiatives, helping expand learning opportunities and emotional support services for students nationwide, especially those facing grief, adversity, or opportunity gaps. Together, Grant and Nesle bring a powerful combination of advocacy, research, and philanthropy to the national debate over afterschool access, at a time when tens of millions of students remain without the programs their parents want for them.