Women & Business: Event Information

Celebrate Women’s Achievements in Business

Pittsburgh Magazine proudly honors inspiring business leaders in our region through the Women & Business Awards. Join us for our next celebration on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, from 5:30–8:00 p.m. at The Distillery Complex, presented by S&T Bank.

This vibrant evening features honoree spotlights, a keynote presentation, meaningful networking opportunities, and support for an incredible local nonprofit partner.

Event Agenda

Networking Kickoff

Connect with fellow professionals over drinks and appetizers in an energizing, welcoming space.

Spotlight on Giving Back

Learn more about our nonprofit beneficiary, Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, and the vital support they provide to survivors of domestic violence and their families.

Remarks from Our Presenting Sponsor

Hear from S&T Bank on their continued commitment to supporting women in business and the greater Pittsburgh community.

Honoree Presentations

Celebrate four outstanding women making an impact in their industries:

Justine Russo – PITT OHIO
Khamil Bailey – The Greenwood Plan
Gabrielle Morella – Morella & Associates Attorneys at Law
Sarah Mayer – Shift Collaborative

Keynote Presentation + Q&A

Closing Remarks + Open Networking

Continue the conversation and make new connections as the evening wraps up.

Ticket Information

Individual tickets: $40
50% of proceeds benefit Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh

Keynote Speaker: Nayli Russo, Founder of Russo Leadership

Topic: Nobody Leads in Perfect Conditions: Three Moves Under Pressure

About Nayli: Nayli Russo Long is the founder of Russo Leadership, a consultancy that builds leaders who can perform under pressure without losing themselves or their teams. Her focus is the pressure moment, the point where expectation rises and most leaders begin to react rather than lead, and her work gives them a way to stay grounded and whole when it matters most.

She comes to this work from inside the rooms where the pressure runs highest. She served as Chief of Staff at Highmark Health and as Vice President of People and Strategy for the Pittsburgh Pirates, environments where decisions carry weight in real time and no one waits for ideal conditions. Born in Venezuela and arriving in the United States at twenty-three, she built her path from pharmacy into corporate strategy and then professional sports before founding her own firm.

Her method is Identity-Centered Leadership™, the framework she developed for the part of leadership that most development work skips. It addresses the moment before the hard choice, where a leader is still operating on inherited scripts and borrowed performance and cannot yet tell which instincts are truly their own. Her work clears that obstruction so that judgment can operate from a place of real choice rather than reaction, giving leaders a way to build a gap between the pressure and the response, to tell what belongs to the room from what belongs to them, and to move forward without losing the people they lead. She holds a Doctor of Pharmacy and an Executive MBA, and has spent twenty years proving that neither degree was the point.

Named 2023 Woman of the Year by the Pennsylvania Diversity Council and 2026 Woman of Distinction in Entrepreneurship by Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania, she speaks from a single conviction: that no one should have to trade who they are for the leadership they are capable of.