Members of the media are invited to cover the 12th Annual New Jersey Women Business Leaders Forum, powered by Citizens, which will be held at Bally’s Atlantic City on Sept. 23-24.

The two-day event, the premier statewide conference of its kind in New Jersey, will kick off with opening remarks from New Jersey Chief Operating Officer Kellie Doucette on Sept. 23 at 5 p.m., and feature inspiring executive TED-style talks with leading executives, dynamic breakout sessions featuring more than 70 speakers and panelists to help attendees succeed professionally, and extensive networking opportunities.

The event brings large corporations, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits, and students together to inspire and empower them, form an agenda that will increase diversity in corporate leadership, and build successful businesses.

Kim Guadagno, a trailblazer who served as New Jersey's first Lieutenant Governor and later continued her public service in nonprofit leadership, will be honored with the annual Caren Franzini Leadership Award.

Other awardees include for 2026:

• NJBIA Women for Change Award: Chrissy Buteas, President & CEO HealthCare Institute of NJ 

• Community Impact Award: Christina Renna, President & CEO, Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey 

• Women in Advocacy Award: Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO, Moms First, Founder of Girls Who Code 

• NJBIA EmpowerHER Award: Rick Thigpen, Senior VP Corporate Citizenship, Public Service Enterprise Group 

• Women In Media Award: Briana Vannozzi, News Anchor, NJ Spotlight News 

To read the full conference agenda and the bios of the more than 100 prominent women who will be speaking at the conference, go to NJBIA’s WBLF page here.

Members of the media who are interested in covering the 12th annual Women Business Leaders Forum should contact Bob Considine prior to the start of the event.

Sponsors helping to make this event possible include: 

AMT
Advocates for Children of New Jersey
Arnold Ventures
AT&T
Axiom Communications
Carpenter Contractor Trust
Citizens
Connell Foley
CSG Law
Dailypay
Delta Dental
Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters
Forvis Mazars
Girl Scouts of New Jersey
HINJ
Horizon
Johnson & Johnson
Marotta
Moms First
New Jersey Council of County Colleges
New Jersey Natural Gas
NJM
PNC Bank
PragerMetis
Primepoint
PSEG
RWJBarnabas Health
SJI
United