Women To Watch Awards 2026 honors Samanta Mahon

Samanta Mahon is a Chief People Officer, organizational strategist, entrepreneur, and advocate for people-centered workplaces. With more than 25 years of experience in human resources, talent, organizational development, and executive leadership, she helps mission-driven organizations build the systems, cultures, and leadership capacity needed to deliver lasting impact.

As Chief People Officer and a member of the executive leadership team at Living Cities, a national nonprofit advancing racial and economic equity, Samanta partners with the CEO, executive leaders, and Board to align people strategy, organizational effectiveness, culture, and institutional priorities. Her work centers the employee experience as a driver of motivation, belonging, accountability, and organizational performance.

Throughout her career, Samanta has established and advanced Inclusion and Belonging initiatives that strengthen culture, deepen trust, and help organizations translate values into everyday practice. She believes culture is a shared responsibility, not the work of a single team or leader. Her approach calls on leaders and colleagues alike to create workplaces where expectations are clear, accountability is collective, and people can contribute, lead, and thrive.

Samanta is also the Founder and Principal of Mahon Goff Enterprise, a woman-owned consulting firm that advises organizations on executive strategy, people operations, culture, and sustainable workplace practices. Through her work, she champions the belief that high performance and humanity are not competing priorities. Her leadership framework, High Performance Without Harm™, calls on organizations to pair clarity, accountability, and results with dignity, care, and shared responsibility.

A proud Afro-Caribbean woman, Samanta brings an equity-centered lens to every room she enters. She serves on the Boards of Trustees of The Theater Project and the Institute for Economic Empowerment, and is a 2026 GEO CLIPF Fellow.