Candace Freedenberg is the Founder of Untapped Potential, a talent and training organization built to create the flexibility women need when returning to the workforce while balancing career and family. With a mission to engineer social change, she advances gender equity and work-life balance through a return-to-work style that supports both professionals and employers. Untapped Potential provides companies low-risk access to high-value talent often overlooked in traditional hiring systems. Candace built her career as a technologist and leader at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, IBM, Eastman Kodak, and Orafol. She progressed from optical engineer to program manager, launching new technologies and business initiatives that earned her multiple U.S. and international patents. Her work has been recognized through the Woman of Innovation Award, the Entrepreneur Award for Social Good, the reSET Accelerator Award, the SBA Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year Award, the Impact Inclusion for Workplace Award, the HR Tech Insights Inclusive Supplier Award and the Girl Scouts Breakfast Badge Award. Candace holds a BS from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Boston University.  She lives in Connecticut with her husband and is the mother of 3.