Defining Moments: The Life & Leadership of Frances Hesselbein

Liz (Pohl) Simasek is a Director and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst at UBS Financial Services, Inc. (J2 Wealth Management) and is registered in multiple states, including New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. She began her career as a financial advisor in 2005 in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to earning her position at UBS, Liz worked as a Broker at MBSC Securities Corporation and as an Investment Advisor at PNC Wealth Management, bringing years of experience and knowledge in various areas of finance to her current role. Over the years, Liz has provided essential financial guidance to many high-net-worth families, individuals, corporate pension plans and foundations. In addition, she has accumulated a wealth of experience leading discussions on critical financial decisions such as investment goals, legacy planning, and appropriate asset allocation and cash flow strategies. Liz graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in politics and also worked for both the
PGA Tour and the PGA of America before earning an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Liz and her husband Anthony divide their time between Mamaroneck, NY and Charleston, SC. She has been involved in several alumni leadership activities for her alma maters and is currently on the Board of Directors of Astor Services for Children and Families (which provides children’s mental health, child welfare, and early childhood development services in the Bronx and Hudson Valley) and holds a seat on the Board of Trustees of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, NY.

Heather Trotta, Executive Vice President, America Media, has more than 20 years of experience in development, communications, strategic planning, and public relations. She has led teams on a broad range of projects including board development, foundation proposals, special events, annual fundraising initiatives, donor stewardship, capital campaigns, and strategic initiatives.

Throughout her career, Heather has worked with dozens of nonprofits including Cristo Rey New York High School, Horizons at Sacred Heart University, Hour Children, Endeavor Therapeutic Horsemanship, and the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. In March 2025, she was profiled by the Jesuit Conference as a woman leader who serves the church and the world through her leadership in Jesuit and Ignatian ministries.

Heather holds a B.S. in public relations from Syracuse University, and completed an accelerated Management Course at Yale’s School of Management Executive Education program. A native of southern California, Heather currently lives in Bedford, New York with her husband and two young sons.

In her spare time, she enjoys tennis, skiing and CrossFit. She is also an active member of Bedford Village Chowder & Marching Club, serves as a lector at St. Patrick’s Church (Bedford), volunteers on the local elementary school Parent Board Association and is a Board member at Boys Team Charity (Westchester) and Westchester Christmas.

Gloria Garafulich-Grabois is a native of Chile and a citizen of the United States and Croatia.

In January 2018, the Government of Chile awarded her the grade of Dame of the Order of Merit Gabriela Mistral.

In October 2021, she was created Dame of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

She is a graduate of the University of Chile, she also studied at New York University. For a number of years worked at the Chilean Copper Company in New York. Thereafter she was Vice President at a Management Consulting firm serving the Financial Services Industry on Wall Street. Currently, Ms. Garafulich-Grabois works in the Center for Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., where she is the Director of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and the Managing Editor of two highly acclaimed academic journals, The Chesterton Review in its English version and The Lonergan Review, and Editor of the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian editions of The Chesterton Review. The Institute promotes the life, work and thought of the English writer G. K. Chesterton. In 2013, she designed and presented the exhibit “Chesterton and Freedom” at the 2013 New York Encounter organized by Crossroads Cultural Center in New York and was curator of the Chesterton Exhibit, and consultant to the stage production of Manalive at the 2013 Rimini Meeting in Italy. In 2011 she was co-Producer of the Rimini Meeting’s stage production of “The Ballad of the White Horse,” and literary advisor for the stage production of “Liberi Tutti!” –based on Chesterton’s play “The Surprise,” presented at the 2022 Rimini Meeting. She also produced and directed the “A Chestertonian Conversation with Father Ian Boyd.” She has also served in the Organizing Committee of the Annual Women’s Conference at Seton Hall University.

As President of the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, US, Ms. Garafulich-Grabois wrote, produced and directed the documentary “Gabriela Mistral: Her Life, Her Legacy” which was launched at a special event at The New York Times in October 2009. In 2013 the documentary was released in its Spanish version; and has since been released with German, Polish, Hebrew and Italian subtitles. Ms. Garafulich-Grabois is co-editor of the foundation’s special bilingual publication From Chile to the World—70 years of Gabriela Mistral’s Nobel Prize in Literature; Editor of the foundation’s annual journal The Mistral Review, co-editor of the recently released facsimile centenary edition of Gabriela Mistral’s second collection Ternura. She is a co-leader of “Chilean Women in Leadership-N.A.”—a project of the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, Inc. in alliance with We are Mef (We are Mujeres en Finanzas).
Areas of personal interest include a life-long commitment to international relations, women's and children’s issues, literature, the arts, classical and world music and writing, particularly in relation to Gabriela Mistral, Chilean and Latin American culture and volunteer work. In 2010 she established the Estelita Adult Literacy Project in rural and semi-rural areas in Chile.  Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois is the Founder and International Director of the Chapter in Chile of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (WDC), the first chapter in Latin America which was launched in June 2013. The Chapter’s mission is to promote women in all the disciplines of the arts. 

Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois is a member of the Executive Board of the Croatian Academy of America, a nonprofit organization that promotes the rich literary and intellectual production of Croatia.  In May 2014, Mrs. Garafulich-Grabois curated the US art exhibit “Lily Garafulic: Centenary Celebration” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile which was presented in Washington DC and New York; and she completed the documentary about the Chilean sculptress entitled: “Lily Garafulic—in her own words” which was presented at a special event celebrating the centenary of her birth at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile in May 2014, at the Embassy of Chile in WDC; the Organization of American States & the Art Museum of the Americas in WDC. The NY presentation was held as part of the Lily Garafulic Centennial Celebration at the Cervantes Institute in New York. The full-version of the documentary entitled “Lily Garafulic—a life” was presented in Chile in May 2017 and in 2025 will have its US premiere in Washington DC.
In 2019, she co-founded of Mamalluca Chilean Cinema Series USA—an annual event that promotes and highlights Chilean cinematographic production.  
As of 2021, she is Vice President of the US Chapter of the World Association of Women Journalists and Writers) In November 2016, she participated in the World Congress of the Association that was held in Chile.

For over 30 years she has been a member of the Junior League, where in the past, co-chaired the Leadership Committee of the Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills.

She is member of the International Jury of Mondial Art Academia in France.

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