Leah is the SVP of Strategy at Appcast and has over 20 years of experience in recruitment technology industries. Prior to joining Appcast, Leah held a number of roles in the recruiting technology industry, including the Director of Product Strategy at Monster and Director of Global Alliances and Business Development at Bullhorn. Earlier in her career, Leah spent 10 years at ZoomInfo leading sales operations, product management, national account, business development, and data services. She currently resides in MA with her son, dogs, and husband.

Yvonne Soto, Executive Director of the Office of Organizational Development & Effectiveness at the NYC Department of Education, leads the design and implementation of programs and strategies that prioritize and support the recruitment, development, and retention of the best people to serve NYC's 1.1 million students and their families. To achieve this vision, six years ago, Yvonne created and continues to lead the Employee Engagement and Development initiative (EE&D), a human capital and talent management strategy––the first of its kind at the NYCDOE––that serves over 7,000 central, district and borough office employees across the school system.

In school year 2018-19, Yvonne’s impact expanded to include a large-scale anti-bias training initiative for over 6,000 central administrative employees. The Implicit Bias and Culturally Responsive Environments (IBCRE) initiative will ensure the sustainability and seamless integration of equity, diversity, and inclusion into the NYCDOE’s organizational culture. This approach in-turn supports culturally responsive education as practice throughout the organization. With this expansion, Yvonne sees her work as the intersection of two key Chancellor’s priorities – develop people and advance equity now – to continue driving high-quality support for schools.

Born and raised in Philadelphia and a product of its public school system, Yvonne is passionate about education and people. Yvonne brings over 18 years of experience in large urban school districts and education-focused non-profits working in the areas of positive youth development, parent, community and employee engagement, and various culture transformation initiatives.

Brittany joined AT&T in 2013 and had held a variety of roles across the business supporting multiple leaders under the National Business umbrella as a Chief of Staff, including Fiber Solutions & Sales, and the Mid-Markets sales space. She also held a Lead Communications Consultant role, where she partnered with leaders in fulfilling their strategic and tactical goals of increasing the quality of internal and external communications supporting the Chief Learning Office.

As AT&T evolves to meet the growing and changing needs of the business and with an increasing focus on diverse talent pipelines and community engagement, Brittany has stepped in as the Lead Talent Acquisition Manager for Community Program Engagement programing with the goal to align talent to the AT&T brand. Her goal is to ensure that the underserved communities she serves can think bigger, live true, make a difference, feel equality is embraced while inspiring creativity and imagination.

Brittany holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University-Commerce, both MBA and MA in Communications from Dallas Baptist University. She is active member of Girl Scouts Northeast Texas, Toastmasters’ International, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and the Ability ERG (allies for Disabilities) National Board.

Lydia Dishman is Fast Company’s senior editor for growth and engagement. She has also written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others.

Chad Nico Hiu [@chadnico] is Senior Vice President for Strategy, Equity and Impact for the YMCA of San Francisco, which operates 14 branches in the Bay Area. He is a Hawaii-born New Yorker and student of the world, having previously served with the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) Diversity, Inclusion & Global (DIG) team since 2011, including as Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion. In that role, Chad helped to build local, state-wide, national and global capacity to engage diverse, vulnerable, underserved and marginalized communities, co-led Y-USA’s DIG strategy and network, and led integration of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, practices and programs towards community bridge-building and social cohesion for all in the 10,000 communities the Y serves across the U.S.

Previously, Chad served as Director of International Operations & Youth Exchanges for the YMCA of Greater New York, where he was part of an era of dynamic growth in cultural exchanges, collaborations, and global education/inclusion programming. A strategic, effective and passionate NGO professional for more than 20 years, Chad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services Administration & Youth Development and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management and Leadership from Springfield College in Massachusetts and a Global Studies Certificate from the University of Pittsburgh.

Chad serves on the Board of Directors for Howard Brown, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ health care networks, the Board of Trustees for the Tyler Clementi Foundation, dedicated to ending bullying in all forms, the Chicago Fair Trade Board of Directors supporting workers rights and global social responsibility, has traveled to 40 countries on almost every continent of the world, participated in the globally recognized Semester at Sea study abroad program, volunteered with the CASA YMCA youth shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, represented Y-USA in global settings and the World YMCA at the United Nations, keynoted at numerous national events. He is known as an effective, inclusive and compassionate facilitator of ‘brave space’ conversations on topics of racial equity, LGBTQ+ inclusion, community-police relations and inclusive faith among others, lived in Hong Kong for two years, provided policy and voter engagement support to political campaigns, and served as Youth Director with the YMCA of Honolulu.