February Virtual: Bringing Substance to Inclusion and Belonging

Singleton Beato is the Global EVP, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at McCann Worldgroup,
where she is responsible for designing and leading strategic initiatives that increase organizational capacity,
innovation and growth. With over 25 years of experience as an accomplished executive, Singleton is recognized for her
success driving large scale people and organizational change initiatives across a wide range of industries, having held talent leadership roles at J. Walter Thompson, Crunch Fitness International, and Bloomberg L.P.

Previously, Singleton was EVP, Diversity Strategy and Talent Development at the 4A’s where she provided leadership
and advice to senior advertising and media agency executives working to create and activate a strategic approach to D&I. Singleton was the visionary and architect of high-profile initiatives including The Face Of Talent symposium and the Ad industry’s only Talent Leadership Conference, Talent@2030. She also led the transformation of the renowned Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) and the 4A’s Foundation. And, after assuming P&L responsibility for Talent Development and Diversity related revenue streams, Singleton consistently delivered on revenue and margin growth targets for the organization.

Singleton received a MS from Fairleigh Dickinson University and serves on several non-profit boards including the Brand Erwin Center for Brand Communications, AdWeek’s D&I Council, the AAF’s Mosaic Council, NYWICI, Own The Room and Figure Skating in Harlem as well as the Advisory Board of the Brand + Integrated Communications program. She has received numerous awards and accolades from the AAF, the 4A’s, the ADCOLOR Coalition, the National Diversity Council, the World Diversity Leadership Summit. Additionally, Singleton was named one of 2019’s Most Influential Women In Corporate America by Savoy Magazine, one of AdWeek’s 2020 Women Trailblazers and one of New York’s Most Outstanding Corporate Citizens.

Tanya M. Odom, Ed.M., is director of the Equity & Inclusion Program at the Walton Family Foundation.

She is a global consultant, writer, coach, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, and civil rights thought leader. She has worked globally for over 20 years, in over 40 countries, as a consultant, coach, storyteller and facilitator focusing on areas including: Diversity and Inclusion, Inclusive Leadership, Race/Racism, Challenging Conversations, Mindfulness, Coaching, Wellbeing, Innovation and Creativity, and Educational Equity.

Tanya’s unique portfolio career has allowed her to work in the education, private sector/corporate, not-for-profit/NGO, law enforcement, and in university/college arenas. She is the co-author of "Evaluation in the Field of Education for Democracy, Human Rights and Tolerance.”

Tanya has been a contributor to the Huffington Post, where she has written about diversity, leadership, self-compassion, and mindfulness. Tanya has also written for cnn.com. Tanya’s work and commentary has also appeared in several publications including the Grio, Diversity Woman Magazine, Bloomberg News, Fortune, among others.

Tanya was named by Diversity Best Practices as “A Diversity Thought Leader to Follow on Twitter.” Entrepreneur Magazine featured Tanya as one of the "3 Women Entrepreneurs Who Unleash Their Energy for the Greater Good."

As a mindfulness practitioner, Tanya weaves in mindfulness research and practice in her work with individuals and groups and connects it to leadership, teams, intentional inclusion, and the mitigating of unconscious bias. Beginning in 2021, she began serving as  guest faculty at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.

Often called an innovator and disrupter, Tanya is featured in a chapter in Dr. Patti Fletcher’s book “Disrupters.”

Tanya was recently named one of the " 2022 Tp 15 Coaches in NYC" by Influence Digest.

Tanya is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She was also on the faculty of the Human Resources Management program at Georgetown University, where she taught courses in the area of innovation and creativity. She has also taught at Princeton University, in the Junior Summer Institute, and has been an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College, where she taught graduate courses in the areas of Diversity, Leadership, and Team Development.

For the last several years she has been working as a consulting and coaching partner with the United Nations as part of their gender parity by strategy. Tanya has worked with 15 UN entities in 9 different countries focusing on inclusive leadership, unconscious bias, and women in leadership. Over the last several months she has been working with several U.N. entities in their efforts to address racism and create anti-racist action plans and programs.

Over the last four years, Tanya has spent a great deal of time globally facilitating sessions, and moderating panels focused on "Challenging Conversations," where she has been creating spaces for honest and courageous dialogues focused on sharing, learning and connection.

Tanya is a board member of the Institute for Mindful Leadership and the National Society of High School Scholars Foundation. She is also a national volunteer with the American Heart Association and a committee member of the Presidential Advisory on Structural Racism.

Courtney Connley is the Senior Editor at Chief.

Joy Dettorre, EdD, is IBM’s global head of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In that role, she drives workplace engagement activities across more than 14 diverse community groups providing IBMers a place to share ideas in support of talent acquisition, career development, employee retention, and engagement. Leveraging data to drive human-centered decisions and prioritize work outcomes, Joy has created and implemented innovative solutions that scale globally and create business impact while partnering with external organizations and representing IBM as a subject matter expert speaker. Her mission is to transform the inclusive global culture of a $74 billion organization, leading diversity talent programs across 250 employee resource groups (ERGs) spanning 59 countries, and reaching more than 50,000 employees.

In her 17 years at IBM, she has also served as global talent manager and senior HR partner. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University and earned a master’s degree in international HR management from Florida International University and a doctorate in education from Vanderbilt University.

Idit serves as the Head of Corporate Responsibility, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Amdocs [NASDAQ: DOX] – a global telecommunications software & services company with over 25,000 employees worldwide.

In this role Idit manages the over-arching impact umbrella, with focus on improving the lives of people in the communities, progressing diversity & inclusion, promoting sustainability with technologies and driving change with leaders in our industry.

Through her work, she is responsible to ensure that the company’s global CSR & ESG strategies create lasting value by enhancing business performance, valuing social impact and supporting engagement of employees. In addition, Idit overseas the design of cross sector partnerships and the creation of stakeholder engagement. She serves as an industry expert and thought leader on the topic of CSR, ESG, diversity & inclusion and an evangelist for the CSR work of Amdocs in particular.

Idit is a certified lawyer, with 20 years of experience, working in the public, private and non for profit sectors, mainly in the fields of communication, international law, strategic partnerships, and social impact.

Tawana Thomas-Johnson is the Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer at the American Cancer Society.

For over the past 20 years Nick Ferraiolo made his way from an entry-level manufacturing position to Senior Leader in Supply Chain and Manufacturing which gave him the unique quality of connecting with all levels of an organization.

He found his passion for coaching when he was asked to help an employee whose anger was interfering with the functioning of the workplace. The company brought Nick in as their last effort to help this employee keep his job. Nick coached him to find the root of his insecurities and this employee went from a performance improvement plan to a promotion.

Nick started his gender transition in 2008, he struggled with his desire to be true to himself in an environment where colleagues made assumptions about him based on his gender identity. This experience of bias, insensitive colleagues and the fear that came from knowing he could lose his job, was a painful time. However, it inspired Nick to want to help create workplaces where people can be seen for who they are, rather than the way other people assume them to be.

He has presented his story “Transitioning in the Workplace” to Proctor and Gamble, HR.com and SHRM. Nick shares his story to help people understand the challenges a transgender employee faces in the workplace and to inspire others to live true to who they are.

In 2020 Nick founded Elm City Coaching and began training on diversity and Inclusion to help guide corporations to create an inclusive environment for all employees.   Nick’s light-hearted storytelling style creates an environment that allows his audience to feel comfortable to ask questions.  Nick strongly feels that knowledge is the first step to silence bias around the LGBTQ+ community

Khalil Smith is the VP of Inclusion, Diversity, and Engagement at Akamai Technologies, a content-delivery network, cybersecurity, and cloud service company, providing web and internet security services.

Before joining Akamai, Khalil worked with NeuroLeadership Institute, a cognitive science consultancy, during which time he oversaw Consulting, Practices, and Research.  Prior to that, Khalil spent over 14 years in senior leader roles with Apple Inc., including leading a global Retail Training team of over 40 learning professionals, focused on expanding and strengthening the Apple culture across hundreds of retail stores in dozens of countries and languages. Khalil and his team were responsible for critical training elements for Apple, such as employee onboarding, technical skills, and product launches. 

Khalil holds an MBA with dual concentrations in Leadership and Strategy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Khalil resides in Chapel Hill, N.C., with his wife and high-school sweetheart, Sandra, and two incredible sons, Kevyn, a recent graduate of Duke University, and Connor, his 6th grader.

Master Certified Coach, Fellow of Institute of Coaching/Harvard Medical School, Founder, HR Executive, Equity Ambassador. Alexa Teare has a passion for translating business vision to reality through global strategy, business acumen, behavioural science and unlocking the potential of all people.

Alexa is driven, action-oriented, deeply curious and grounded by her value system and growth-mindset. Rooted in her education in adult learning principles, organizational psychology and coaching pedagogy, Alexa is a leader in the realm of leadership development.  She has developed and executed upon strategies related to talent acquisition and development, fostered learning cultures, and built systems to support career growth and Equity & Inclusion at organizations ranging from startups to a trillion dollar finance company to a multinational tech giant. She believes that human connection is the nucleus from which all else forms and strives to embody that daily as a partner, parent and in her role as Chief People & Coaching Officer at Lingo Live.

Sheryl Battles is the Vice President, Global Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement at Pitney Bowes.

Felicia joined Bright Horizons in 2021 in a new role as Chief People and Inclusion Officer where she oversees our HR functions and leads our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts to ensure a diverse workplace and maintain a culture of inclusion and caring. Felicia has a strong track record as an HR leader with expertise across the full breadth of human resources functions.

Felicia has held HR leadership roles at Dollar Tree/Family Dollar and Belk department stores. She has also led HR efforts for The Coca-Cola Company and served as an HR Consultant for PwC. While Felicia currently lives in Charlotte with her husband, they are both originally from Atlanta and together have raised three children.  Felicia is passionate about fostering a culture of inclusion where diversity is valued, and every team member is inspired and empowered to reach their full potential.

Emtrain founder and CEO Janine Yancey is a passionate advocate for healthy workplace cultures. Janine’s unique approach blends technology, behavioral science, data analytics, and social media-inspired interactions to help inform and improve workplace behavior. Janine presides over a team of experts and an extensive library of content including courses, video, resource guides, checklists and analytic reports that define the modern workplace.

Janine is a proponent of neutral, third-party guidance and problem-solving. By orchestrating a publicly-accessible community interface for employee questions and concerns, Janine stays at the forefront of real-world, real-time harassment, bias, discrimination, and ethics issues.

A tireless visionary, Janine writes extensively, has provided expert testimony and advice to state legislatures, and helps leading companies implement harassment prevention, diversity, ethics, and compliance programs. Janine is a sought-after speaker and has been published and interviewed in the mainstream media including The Washington Post, Fast Company, USA Today, Bloomberg Business, TechCrunch, and Startup Grind. She’s presented at Society of Ethics and Compliance; Techstars FounderCon; Founders Network, and The Club.

Prior to founding Emtrain, Janine was a partner at Employment Law Partners where she specialized in solving labor and employment problems for high tech firms including Google, Intuit and a variety of start-ups. Janine also worked as counsel at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, served as Board Member of the Northern California Human Resources Association, and authored The HR Handbook, designed to help young tech companies navigate workplace laws.

Janine earned her JD at the University of California Hastings School of Law and a BA in English and Political Science at the University of California Berkeley.

Odessa Jenkins is the Founder of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC), and sought after executive leader. She most recently served as the Head of Business Develop for Parity, and VP of Support/Ops at YourCause. An in demand national speaker, Jenkins is also the founder of multiple nonprofits. She is a recognized market leader in CSR, DE&I, Team Dynamics, and SAAS technology with multiple years of leadership experience in private funded start-ups, joint ventures and fortune 100 public companies. Jenkins served for several years as an executive leader at YourCause, a start-up which helped to revolutionize the CSR industry.

As a disrupter in sports, Jenkins is paving the way to create inclusion and equity in sports for women and girls. She was an inaugural participant in the NFL’s first Women’s Career in Football Forum and is one of the first women to obtain the coveted NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Internship in an on-field position (Running Backs Coach – Atlanta Falcons). Featured on Fox, Sport Illustrated, CBS, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, The Undefeated and more, Jenkins was recently recognized as one of the most influential and powerful women in sports by Sports Illustrated (Unrelenting).

Jenkins has 22 years of coaching and leadership experience, is a Hall of Fame, a 5X National Champion, 2X USA National Team captain, 2X Gold Medalist, and heralded as one of the top leadership experts in the country.

Annie Rosencrans is the new Director of People & Culture, US at Hibob. She's led People Operations for several high growth organizations including NY-based startups, Namely and Knotel. She brings a breadth of experience across the HR field with a specific focus on HR transformation and change management.

Daniela Porr is the HCM and ED&I Specialist at Workday.

Kristy has 15 years of experience as a Strategic Human Resource Leader, Change Manager and Organizational Development Expert. She has served in senior leadership positions throughout her career – most notably with Pearson Education and Constant Contact. Kristy brings a big picture perspective and a hands-on, tactical approach to her leadership that she is now bringing to life with SkillCycle (where she is the CEO & Co- Founder). Kristy’s goal is to help and educate companies to meet their ultimate goals by empowering their employees to take ownership of their career.

Based out of Houston, TX, Zach Nunn is a photographer, public speaker, ex “Big 4” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant and thought leader with over 10 years of experience leading go to market DEI digital product strategy and organizational transformation in a variety of industries. Today, Zach is the Director of DEI and Social Impact at Momentive, a global technology company that helps organizations shape what’s next.

As the CEO and founder of Living Corporate, Zach amplifies and centers marginalized voices at work by interviewing Black and brown executives, activists, educators, elected officials and influencers which provides practical insight and that reaches thousands majority Black and brown Millennial and Generation-X listeners a week. Despite all this work, his biggest passions are his wife Candis and daughter, Emory.

Spencer Whitney is currently a Digital Editor for KQED News. Prior to joining KQED News, Spencer worked as the Multimedia Editor at the Oakland Post and an Assistant Editor in the Editorial department at the San Francisco Chronicle. In those positions, he was responsible for organizing and producing web-based content on a daily basis while also writing columns and reporting on local politics, community news and education around the Bay Area. He attended Howard University as an undergraduate and interned with SiriusXM. He holds a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and wrote for the hyperlocal news sites Richmond Confidential and Oakland North. He has volunteered at San Quentin Prison to help produce content for the monthly news publication San Quentin News.

Erica Licht has been engaged in racial equity and organizational change research and training for over 15 years. She is currently Director of Research Projects at the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project (IARA) at Harvard University where she leads and co-designs IARA’s projects and partnerships. Erica is a Fulbright Scholar, and holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Masters in Justice Policy from the London School of Economics where she was a Maguire Fellow. 

Prior to IARA, Erica served as Assistant Director at the Center on Culture, Race, and Equity at Bank Street College in New York City, and as a Fellow with Race Forward and the Government Alliance for Racial Equity. Her career has focused on collaborative community and institutional change programs globally, including consulting with the Center for Creative Leadership in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Lemann Foundation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Lagos State University and Alternatives to Violence International in Lagos, Nigeria. 

Erica is an expert facilitator, and has taught course work on justice reform at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and on adaptive leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NYAEYC). She currently co-hosts the podcast Untying Knots.

Mercedes supports parents and children to communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. She has worked with adoptive families, foster families, teen parents, parents navigating the child protective services system, and children living with mental illness. Mercedes is working to advocate for the mental/emotional health of parents of children with disabilities, and she seeks to empower parents to believe that they are already great guides for raising healthy and happy children.

Andre leads Accolade’s Talent Experience & Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy. He has more than 20 years of human resources experience spanning many industries. Whether leading organizational transformation, building the HR function from the ground up, or championing employee equity, Andre is passionately centered on people and their success.
Prior to Accolade, Andre served as the Vice President of People for Yesler, a marketing agency focused on the technology industry, acquired by Accenture. Yesler served clients from Microsoft to Google and was the premier agency in B2B marketing services.

Andre’s true purpose and passion is building high-performance organizations and cultures that align directly with business goals, create cultural greatness, and allow employees to bring their full selves to work. Andre’s passion for people and their success drives him to be bold, courageous, practical and authentic
Andre holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and master’s degree in human resources management. He also holds a PHR (Professional Human Resource) and a SHRM-CP (Society of Human Resources Management) professional certificates.

Britt Provost plays a key role in shaping the employee experience across Accolade to ensure they attract, develop, retain and engage their talent. She has over 20 years of experience leading People, Culture and Talent teams in global and growth organizations. Prior to joining Accolade, Britt was Chief HR Officer at Promethean, a global educational technology company. Britt also lead the People function at Apptio through many transitions during her tenure (as a private VC-funded company, through their initial public offering, to a publicly traded company, and finally, through a private equity acquisition).

Britt is an accomplished speaker and facilitator on topics including: enabling and growing great people managers; building organizational culture; developing high performing and engaged teams; and career empowerment.

Britt has a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of Washington and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from University of Colorado.

David Thigpen, academic coordinator of the undergraduate journalism program at the University of California, Berkeley, is a former Time magazine reporter who covered Wall Street, popular music, and Chicago politics. His work has also been published in Rolling Stone and the New York Times. At  Berkeley, David designed and directed the new undergraduate journalism curriculum. He has also done public-policy research as a fellow at Institute for the Future in Palo Alto.