PINAYISTA FULL SUMMIT SCHEDULE
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8
CIEL CREATIVE SPACE – 2611 EIGHTH ST, BERKELEY, CA, 94710
AGENDA
10AM: welcome
10:15AM: GROUNDING & ALTAR
10:30AM: LIGHTNING TALKS
Fast, inspiring stories from Pinay changemakers shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders.
Featuring: Cecilia Apelin (CEO, CIEL Creative Space), Adelina Tancioco (CEO, Surrendered Healing), Charleen Caabay (Chef and COO, The People’s Ecosystem), Lisa Angulo Reid (CEO, Dear Flor).
Cecilia Caparas Apelin is an entrepreneur, creative visionary, and brand strategist with a passion for design, fashion, and art. She is the CEO and Co-founder of Ciel Creative Space, a 55,000-square-foot artistic sanctuary in Berkeley, CA, where creatives come together to explore, collaborate, and produce across interconnected studios and event spaces. Driven by a mission to disrupt the creative industry, Cecilia is dedicated to creating pathways and opening doors for BIPOC women creatives, producers, and entrepreneurs, championing inclusion and innovation at every step.
Adelina Tancioco, MSW, is a proud Bay Area born and raised Pinay, speaker, and founder of Surrendered Healing. She helps Filipina entrepreneurs align with Divine guidance, honoring their ancestors while building businesses rooted in faith, purpose, and flow.
Charleen Caabay is an entrepreneur, chef, and business leader with over 15 years of experience across technology, hospitality, and cannabis. A former IT professional turned self-taught chef, she made history as the first Filipino American to win Food Network’s Chopped and later co-founded The People’s Dispensary and The People’s Holdings. With expertise in product development, branding, and multi-site operations, Charleen continues to champion equity, innovation, and community impact in every venture she leads.
Lisa Angulo Reid is the co-founder and CEO of Dear Flor, the first Filipina-owned company crafting infused gummies inspired by Filipino flavors like ube, calamansi, and buko pandan. A former advertising executive with over two decades of experience building global consumer brands, she now channels that expertise into reclaiming space for Filipino culture in wellness and consumer goods. She also hosts 100 Ways to Filipino, a podcast and storytelling platform reframing what it means to be Filipino through the voices of artists, entrepreneurs, and changemakers worldwide.
10:30AM: COMMUNITY PANEL - ROOTS & WINGS
Theme: Intergenerational Healing In Heritage, Hustle & Money
Rooted in our 2025 Summit theme of Homecoming, Roots & Wings opens with an intimate conversation between Pinay entrepreneurs and the women who raised or inspired them. Together, they’ll reflect on heritage, hustle, and the unspoken stories around money, risk, and survival that shape our families. This dialogue invites us to confront inherited fears, unpack financial narratives, and reimagine what wealth and success can mean for our community.
Featuring: Dr. Jean-Aurellia Tolentino, Gina Mariko Rosales, Lillian Rosales, Adrienne Reyes, Hannah Pioquinto, and Joyce Reyes.
Joyce Ayo Reyes is a retired executive from the health insurance industry who has dedicated her post-corporate life to the healing arts. Guided by a deep spiritual calling, Joyce embraced the practice of Pranic Healing and now serves as the Executive Director of the American Pranic Healing Association. She is also the co-owner of Sacred House LA, a healing space committed to holistic well-being and energetic transformation.
Joyce’s philanthropic spirit led her to found New Hope New Life, a nonprofit organization providing Pranic Healing services to cancer patients in need of energetic and emotional support. With decades of leadership experience and a profound commitment to service, Joyce now focuses on expanding access to energy healing and empowering others on their path to wellness.
Lillian Rosales was an I.T. leader with over 40 years experience in controls design & sustainment, compliance, business analysis, and application development, Lillian Alinea Rosales retired in 2023 as Senior Director for Controls and Compliance with Kaiser Permanente.
Her focus has now shifted to being “Lola Ling” to Aki, travel, learning to be a gardener and better cook, and most importantly enjoying family and making memories.
Adrienne Reyes is a multidisciplinary entrepreneur working at the intersection of healing, creativity, and community impact. As a life force chef, sound healer, and energy practitioner, she crafts transformative experiences that nourish both body and soul. Through her work both in nonprofit leadership and creative direction, she brings visionary ideas to life with purpose and heart. Her mission is to elevate consciousness, foster connection, and design spaces – both physical and energetic – that heal and inspire.
Gina Mariko Rosales is a powerhouse Event Producer, social impact entrepreneur, and cultural strategist based in San Francisco. She is the Founder & CEO of Make It Mariko, an award-winning events agency led by women of color as well as Executive Director of Brave New Spaces. Gina co-founded several cultural initiatives including UNDISCOVERED SF Filipino Night Market, Pinayista, Balay Kreative, Weddings In Color, and the POC Food & Wine Festival – each designed to amplify the voices of creatives of color through events.
12:10PM: LUNCH
1:00PM-3:45PM: SPEAKER WORKSHOPS
Practical, guided sessions to help you grow your craft, business, and vision. Led by: Audrey Bansil, Vicki Abadesco, Karen Retardo, Gail Beltran Nott, Michelle Florendo, JL Umipig-Candelario, and Alex Cabal.
Reclaiming Power: Releasing Limiting Beliefs & Building Boldly with audrey bansil
Audrey Bansil is passionate about helping professionals release self-doubt and step into their power. She serves as president of FilExcellence, a global Filipino empowerment community, and leads talent development at a major media company. Drawing on both lived experience and corporate expertise, Audrey creates spaces for healing, growth, and bold leadership rooted in cultural pride.
Rooted & Rising: Sustaining Your Legacy as a Pinay Entrepreneur with vicki abadesco
Vicki Abadesco is a visionary entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, speaker, coach, and mentor renowned for her unwavering commitment to growth and transformation. Through her organization, Soul Shoppe, she and her team have touched the hearts and minds of over one million elementary school students with their conflict resolution and peacemaking curriculum.
Pera Na, Pera Pa: Transforming Your Money Mindset with karen retardo
Karen Retardo is a nurse, coach and speaker who helps Filipno nurses step into leadersrhip or entrepreneurship with confidence. She empowered them to speak up, claim their dreams and succeed with losing their cultural values.
Your Voice Matters: How to Share What You Know and Attract Your Aligned Clients with gail beltran nott
As a Thought Leadership & Messaging Coach, Gail Beltran Nott helps values-driven entrepreneurs turn lived experience into magnetic messaging that attracts aligned clients. Her work is shaped by her own nonlinear journey from web programmer to massage therapist to 2019 Oakland Small Business of the Year, plus deep exploration of decolonization, ancestral healing, and neurodivergence. Through her signature frameworks and Impact Messaging Lab, Gail helps changemakers stop second-guessing their brilliance and start speaking from their truth.
Decision Mapping for Pinay Entrepreneurs: Tools for Moving Forward with Clarity with michelle florendo
Michelle Florendo is a Stanford-trained decision engineer and executive coach who teaches people how to make decisions with less stress and more clarity. Over the past decade, she has spoken to audiences around the globe and has coached hundreds of leaders across tech, healthcare, and financial services, from pre-IPO startups to Fortune 500 companies. She’s been an adjunct lecturer at Stanford, is a faculty coach for Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, and hosts the podcast, Ask A Decision Engineer.
Re-membering with JL Umipig-Candelario and Alex Cabal
JL Umipig is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural worker whose practice centers on collective healing, ancestral remembering, and creative justice. Through works like The Re-memberings of a Colonized Child and Creative Justice, JL cultivates spaces for embodied reflection and liberation—inviting communities to reconnect with their bodies, stories, and creative power as pathways toward wholeness and freedom.
Alex Cabal is an artist and community practitioner who weaves creativity, movement, and cultural storytelling to support others in reconnecting to their Pilipin@/x roots. Through art and embodied practice, Alex helps communities reclaim self-expression as a tool for healing and empowerment. Their collaboration with JL explores how art and somatics can nurture the child within us and remind us of our shared humanity.
3:45PM: BREAK
4:00PM: CLOSING PANEL - Turn Up the Volume: Pinays in Music & Media
A conversation on storytelling, representation, and building our own stages. Featuring:, Lady Ray, Former Radio Personality & Community Engagement Director (Facilitator and Panelist); Anne Marie Ceralvo, One Vo1ce; Freska Griarte, KOIT; and Erin Lim and Angela Tabora, Bitch Talk Podcast.
Freska Griarte is a Bay Area native and veteran radio personality who co-hosts Freska and Rudy in the Mornings on 102.9 KBLX and middays on 96.5 KOIT in San Francisco. A breast cancer survivor, single mother, and 2nd-degree black belt in Taekwondo, she’s spent much of her career in the Bay Area with stops in Honolulu and Sacramento connecting with listeners through her warm, relatable storytelling. The 2020 recipient of the Ocampo-Henry Memorial Award in Radio from the Philippine American Press Club USA, Freska has built a loyal following through her community work and infectious zest for life. She believes in living life to the fullest: “Don’t carry hate, fear, or past hurt in your heart because that only takes up room for the goodness you could be receiving.”
3:45PM: BREAK
4:00PM: CLOSING PANEL - Turn Up the Volume: Pinays in Music & Media
A conversation on storytelling, representation, and building our own stages.
Featuring:, Lady Ray, Former Radio Personality & Community Engagement Director (Facilitator and Panelist); Anne Marie Ceralvo, One Vo1ce; Freska Griarte, KOIT; and Erin Lim and Angela Tabora, Bitch Talk Podcast.
Anne Marie Ceralvo is an Oakland-based singer-songwriter and vocal producer who’s been bringing soulful harmonies to collaborations since 1998. Between 1998 and 2005, she performed regularly with her singing group One Vo1ce. The pandemic reignited her creative path when they reconnected to release their 4th LP, “ISO,” in July 2021. A member of One Vo1ce and Bless The Titas, Anne Marie provides session vocals for clients across genres and collaborates remotely with songwriters, producers, and lyricists. Her mission is simple: “Produce music with creatives of the highest caliber—music that inspires others—music that brings meaning to people’s lives.”
Freska Griarte is a Bay Area native and veteran radio personality who co-hosts Freska and Rudy in the Mornings on 102.9 KBLX and middays on 96.5 KOIT in San Francisco. A breast cancer survivor, single mother, and 2nd-degree black belt in Taekwondo, she’s spent much of her career in the Bay Area with stops in Honolulu and Sacramento connecting with listeners through her warm, relatable storytelling. The 2020 recipient of the Ocampo-Henry Memorial Award in Radio from the Philippine American Press Club USA, Freska has built a loyal following through her community work and infectious zest for life. She believes in living life to the fullest: “Don’t carry hate, fear, or past hurt in your heart because that only takes up room for the goodness you could be receiving.”
Born on the Peninsula and raised in the East Bay, Erin Lim has made San Francisco her home and has worked in the film, sports, hospitality, television, arts, and radio industries her entire working life. Erin is still thinking about working on writing her first “tight five” stand-up comedy, loves watching Chopped in her free time (to her husband’s dismay), and is looking forward to finally finishing her first documentary she and her podcast partner, Ange, started in 2013 – The Nomadic Family Project.
Angela Tabora is the co-host of the Bitch Talk Podcast. Ange has worked in post-production for several production companies in the Bay Area. Most recently, she managed political campaigns in Oakland and San Francisco. She is a documentary filmmaker and a world traveler. When not working on her personal projects (and sometimes during), she enjoys a glass of whiskey and a game of pool.
LadyRAY is 106 KMEL On-Air Personality! Catch her Monday to Friday 6am-10am on the Sana G Morning Show and talking everything for your Bay Area Weekend, Saturday 6am-10am – she is also a national voice for iHeartRadio and can be heard on iHeartRadio’s Throwbacks nightly in 12 other markets from the East to the West Coast. Her podcast ‘This Mama Got Drama’ gives moms a space to celebrate the adventures of being a full-time career driven parent because the juggle is real and so is the drama! She is equally as passionate about her role as the Community Engagement Director for iHeartMedia San Francisco, where she gets to work with non-profits helping them spotlight the ways they uplift and support the communities most in need!
4:45PM: CLOSING
5:00PM: PULUTAN PARTY!
7:00PM: AFTERPARTY!
BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
SANZO | UBE AREA | WICKED PHOTOBOOTH | KOLLECTIVE HUSTLE
| YOJU
We would love to stay connected!