We are founder-managed and member-led.

Our founder, Kate Westlund Tovsen, is actively invested in and involved in the group, setting the stage for the connection, education, and unabashed support that are the hallmarks of this special community.

But Kate also has a career that she loves, so she relies on members to help shape the community, which they do through things like participating in our oft-employed emoji polls (🦙🍑💞🤠), dropping a feature rec in our digital “suggestion box,” presenting workshops to the community, or volunteering on our advisory board, a.k.a. “the Glue Crew.”

This is a space that is engaged and active and always changing to reflect the group as it grows.

COME GROW WITH US

Our Team

Kate Westlund Tovsen
Founder & Convener in Chief

Person with long blonde hair and glasses wearing a gray sweater and smiling.

The Society of Working Moms was born shortly after the birth of Kate’s second child. Though on paper Kate knew she was quite well supported, she still felt like she needed more. And she figured she wasn’t the only one.

Taking advantage of a seasonal downturn in her consulting work, she set to work creating the group she wished she had, studying at length how best to build and manage a community, and having virtual coffees with potential partners that also felt strongly about meeting the needs of working moms.

She adores this community of supportive, smart, engaged, powerhouse women and is eager to meet even more!

Carisa Deegan
Head of Member Experience

Carisa has helped shape Society of Working Moms, first as a founding mother of the community and then as the interim community manager and now as Head of Member Experience.

She is the founder of Carisa Deegan Consultin g, where she helps purpose-driven women entrepreneurs and wellness business owners grow with clarity, structure, and ease. She is also a Level II reiki practitioner, an avid journaler, and a hammock aficionado. She lives outside of Chicago with her family.