Time Zone: EST
Women have spent decades forcing open doors that were never designed for us, and in 2026, we still find ourselves standing alone in rooms dominated by male discourse and decisions. If the glass ceiling was shattered long ago, why does it feel like the walls are closing back in, asking us once again to contort ourselves to fit spaces that refuse to evolve? If you’ve ever felt disillusioned, powerless, lonely, or frustrated by a workplace still built primarily for men, you’re not alone, and you’re not crazy. This book hands you the guidance you’ve been missing.
A tech leader across government, academia, and corporate industries, Lisa Davis shares the battle-tested lessons she learned the hard way so you don’t have to. Navigating the frustratingly persistent challenges of building a career and a family at the same time, her story offers a fresh look at female leadership at the highest levels and the pressure to perform without a roadmap.
We’re living inside a system that won’t transform overnight, no matter how badly we want it to. The Only Woman in the Room is a power playbook for winning anyway, learning how to navigate the rules as they exist while steadily applying pressure where it counts. System change takes time, and pretending otherwise only costs women ground. This book shows you how to claim influence, momentum, and leverage now, while helping push the tide in the direction it needs to go.
Drawing on four decades of breaking barriers in male-dominated industries, this Authors of Influence session will draw on four decades of breaking barriers in male-dominated industries and teach you how to:
Navigate power dynamics and bias with confidence
Build influence without apology
Advocate for the promotions you deserve
Lead with strength while staying true to who you are
FEATURED Author
Lisa Davis
Amazon Bestselling Author · Fortune 500 Executive · Keynote Speaker on Leadership, AI, and Conviction
Lisa Davis is an Amazon bestselling author, Fortune 500 executive, and keynote speaker who has spent four decades leading in rooms where she was often the only woman at the table — from Guantánamo Bay to Fortune 500 boardrooms. Her career spans government, academia, healthcare, and technology, including senior executive roles at Intel Corporation and as CIO of Blue Shield of California. She is the author of The Only Woman in the Room: How to Win in a Workplace (Still!) Built for Men (2026), an Amazon bestseller that distills four decades of leading through complexity into 9 human leadership principles that no technology can replace and no disruption can unravel. The book has been praised by leaders including Shelley Zalis, Founder &; CEO of The Female Quotient; Sandra Rivera, Chairwoman and Former CEO of Altera; and Jeff Amann, EVP & GM of Salesforce Industries. Lisa’s four keynotes — spanning AI-era leadership, women’s leadership, C-suite and board audiences, and male-dominated industries—are anchored in the same framework: that disruption changes the game, and conviction determines who wins it. She has spoken at Dreamforce 2024, the Nashville Health Care Council, Forbes CIO Next, Gartner/Evanta, and the Healthcare IT Institute, among others. She holds active board positions at Movius (Independent Board Director), Pager Health (Board of Advisors), Saltgrass Capital (Board of Advisors), Progress Partners (Executive in Residence), and 3 Strands Global Foundation (Board of Directors). She previously served on the boards of TriWest Health Alliance and the Blue Shield of California Foundation. Lisa holds a Master of Science in Human Resources Management from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.
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