July Virtual: How Mentors, Sponsors and Allies Each Play a Part in Inclusion

Michael Lopez is the Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Ellen McGirt is a senior editor at Fortune, where she established the race and leadership beat. In addition to long-form magazine features, she writes RaceAhead, a daily column on race and inclusion in corporate life and beyond. The column has received a New York Press Club Award for commentary, a National Headliner Award, and the Steven Heller Prize for Commentary from the AIGA. She is the co-chair of FORTUNE’s CEO Initiative and FORTUNE’S Most Powerful Women Summit. She is also the co-host of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast. In her past lives, she’s written for Money, Time, and Fast Company, where she wrote or contributed to more than twenty cover stories and created the digital series The 30 Second MBA. Her reporting has taken her inside the C-Suites of Facebook, Nike, Twitter, Intel, Xerox and Cisco; on the campaign trail with Barack Obama and across Africa with Bono to study breakthrough philanthropy. McGirt was the editor for Your First Leadership Job, a book published by Wiley in 2016. She attended Brown University.

Nichelle Grant is Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Siemens USA, where she guides the company’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a catalyst for growth and innovation. In her role, Grant is helping to shape a company culture in which all employees are empowered to achieve their full potential.

Grant has 31 years of industry experience, with 21+ years at Siemens, and first got involved with DEI on a volunteer basis, leading the company’s employee resource groups and diversity councils. Her experience developing go-to-market strategies, focusing on the customer experience, and driving operational excellence, combined with her passion and commitment to the mission of DEI, positions the company exceptionally well with stakeholders across the country. She has played an integral role working with Siemens’ supply chain and procurement teams to increase supplier diversity efforts and represents the company before many customers for whom this is core to doing business with Siemens.

Grant’s leadership of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion extends far beyond Human Resources and has a much broader reach into topics that drive change and make impact to our workforce, our workplace and the marketplace. Grant drives a holistic approach to building and leveraging a workforce that mirrors the diversity of our customer base, suppliers, partners and society. She strives to help Siemens continue to drive an inclusive work environment to actively involve every employee’s ideas, knowledge, perspectives, approaches, and styles to maximize business success. She systemically applies data and analytics to meet customer diversity requirements that are now prerequisites and conditions for both routine and complex contracts.

Under Grant’s leadership, Siemens USA has received numerous accolades that speak to our workplace culture and commitment to diversity. Siemens has appeared on Forbes’ America’s Best Employers for Diversity list. The corporate academic alliance Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering (AMIE) has also named Siemens a Top Supporter for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In addition, Siemens has earned a 100-percent rating for multiple years on the Corporate Equality Index, supporting the Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ community and the Disability Equality Index, which is a national benchmarking of businesses to gauge their level of disability workplace inclusion.

Grant is a graduate of Michigan State University with a B.S. degree in Zoology and a Master’s degree from Roosevelt University. Nichelle is a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE).  She resides in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, with her husband Ulyses.

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.

Sam Levine is a Hone facilitator, successful entrepreneur and business coach with a focus on wellness and leadership development. He holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University, and has 10+ years of experience in product and business development. His last startup, Breathe For Change, is a leader in mindfulness and leadership development for educators, and is the largest yoga school in the US.

Neela serves as Head of External Engagement Strategy, Diversity & Inclusion at Goldman Sachs, where she manages key partnerships and builds initiatives at the intersection of equity and the firm’s talent. Previously, she served as Head of Strategy and Management for the Office of Corporate Engagement. In this role, she secured the firm’s inaugural $25M commitment to HBCUs, oversaw the Fund for Racial Equity, and served as a key liaison between nonprofit organizations and Goldman Sachs.

Prior to Goldman, Neela was a senior consultant with boutique advisory firm BDO-FMA, where she coached nonprofit executive directors, facilitated interactive workshops and led project teams.

Neela started her career working for mission-based organizations—ranging from the Aspen Institute to an educational nonprofit in Calcutta.

She is a Facilitator for Interpersonal Dynamics, a leadership course at the Yale School of Management (Yale SOM), and serves on the Advisory Board of the annual Yale Philanthropy Conference. Neela received her BA in English Literature and African American Studies from the University of Virginia and her MBA from Yale SOM.

Neela grew up bilingual, always has a notebook on her, and learned how to ride a bike three years ago—she now rides it everywhere.

Dr. Lauren Wadsworth is a clinical psychologist passionate about furthering diversity and inclusion efforts. She serves as a senior advisor on the Anti-Racist, Justice, and Health Equity team at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She is the founder and director of the Genesee Valley Psychology (GVP), a clinic providing evidence-based treatment to the Rochester, NY, area and specializing in OCD, trauma, DBT, and a newly launched Racial Trauma and Healing center. She is also the cofounder of Twin Stars Diversity Trainers, a consultation company offering diversity and identity-related trainings for organizations and leadership. Finally, she is a clinical senior instructor in psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker is a clinical psychologist and Harvard Medical School professor committed to achieving multicultural excellence in organizations. As founding director of McLean Hospital’s College Mental Health Program, she has consulted with numerous institutions on diversity and inclusion. She is also the cofounder of Twin Stars Diversity Trainers, a consultation company offering diversity and identity-related trainings for organizations. Dr. Pinder-Amaker currently serves as the McLean Hospital-Harvard Medical School’s chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer.

Tonya Hempstead is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at American Express Global Business Travel.

Willie (he/him) is a keynote speaker, consultant, and facilitator who helps organizations advance vital conversations that unlock connections across differences. His belief in the transformative power of media to change narratives led him to found Abernathy, a magazine for black men backed by companies like Mailchimp, Atlassian, and WeWork. In its four-year run, Abernathy published 400+ articles and produced a series of curated events for diverse professionals across the nation.

Willie served as Founding Technical Lead of Seth Godin’s altMBA program for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead, and CTO of The Domino Project, an award-winning publishing company founded by business luminary Seth Godin and powered by Amazon.com. He's been featured in documentaries (I’m Fine, Thanks), on HGTV (House Hunters International), and in print (Icarus Deception). Willie is an avid houseplant aficionado and loves to spread the gospel of self-watering planters whenever possible.

Jeff Walker is senior vice president and chief administrative and diversity officer for Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), a Sempra Energy regulated California utility. He is responsible for supply chain and support services, diversity and inclusion, organizational performance efforts, and special projects. He also oversees information technology in partnership with the company’s chief information and digital officer, with an emphasis on enhancing enterprise tools, technologies and performance metrics. Previously, Walker was vice president of customer solutions.

Prior to that, he held several positions of increasing responsibility in information technology, Major Projects and Customer Services. Walker holds a bachelor’s degree in computer and information systems from California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, and a master’s degree in business administration from Azusa Pacific University. He also holds a certificate in leadership from the University of Southern California.

With a love for coherence and efficacy, Dion works as a strategist and coach to help organizations operate in alignment with their values. Currently, Dion serves as Bravely’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Strategy Lead, helping to integrate those lenses within the employee experience, the customer success, and social impact functions.

Prior to joining Bravely, Dion has spearheaded DEIB, strategic planning, learning and development, and operations within New York City government. Throughout his career, Dion has led with a passion for enhancing the power of people and communities to drive systemic change. Dion holds his BA in Human Development and Social Relations from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, MI.

Emily Nordquist is the senior program manager for the Baumhart Center, an interdisciplinary center at Loyola University Chicago that equips leaders with the business tools to accelerate social impact. The center is home to a highly selective MBA program, called Baumhart Scholars, that prepares working professionals to marry profit and purpose in their careers.

Before joining Baumhart, Emily worked for LISC’s New Markets Support Co. (NMSC), a Chicago-based social enterprise, and a subsidiary of one of the largest community-development financial institutions in the country. NMSC delivers creative financing solutions to expand economic opportunity and has created over 7,000 jobs in low-income communities across U.S. cities and in rural America. In her role, Emily led the impact management process for NMSC’s portfolio of $1 billion of investments in health-care centers, schools, community centers, industrial facilities and more. Emily also developed and supported internal fund management, impact compliance, and asset management processes.

Emily is a 2018 inaugural Obama Foundation Community Leadership Corps (CLC) Member and a current Alumni Ambassador for the CLC program. She is also known for her efforts in helping young women in Chicago achieve financial wellness through her community-based organization, Penny. She was given the opportunity to speak about her work in reimagining financial well-being for women at the 2018 Obama Summit.

Emily has a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA from Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago. She currently serves on the Impact Investing Advisory Council of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago and volunteers her time with the Illinois Diversity Council.

Karen Rodriguez La Paz currently serves as the Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Purple Innovation, managing the global cross departmental DE&I efforts in the business amongst all global locations. She is a diversity and outreach professional with 10+ years of experience working on community outreach, workplace development and legislative policy.

Following her extensive work lobbying both in state and nationwide on anti-poverty, healthcare and immigration policies, Rodriguez started a strategic DEI consulting business helping organizations like The Red Cross, L3Harris, Podium, HealthEquity, and others improve their company policies and create more equitable opportunities for diverse employees via employee affinity groups.

Her work has extended the opportunity to be highlighted as a speaker during various conferences including: Women Tech Summit, Silicon Slopes Tech Summit, LatinX Fest, Encircle Summit, United Nations' Sustainable Cities Conference and others.

Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Code In Color, an organization focused on building pathways for black and brown young adults to access front end tech education and job opportunities. She also serves on multiple nationally recognized boards such as the Utah Black Chamber, Latinas in Tech, Ken Garff Foundation and Silicon Slopes. A recap of her life story can be watched on Amazon's The Kindness Diaries.

Sage Krombolz is a diversity, equity, and inclusion product manager at DDI, where she spends her days building virtual reality and DEI offerings that aim to revolutionize the way we develop leaders. She also chairs DDI’s internal Inclusion and Diversity Council, which endeavors to build and execute a strong I&D strategy for our global workforce. As a used-to-be-philosophy major, Sage is driven to create more introspective, intentional, and authentic workplaces. If she’s not alone in her living room talking to a VR headset, she’s probably thrifting treasures at a secondhand shop or color coding her bookshelf.

Curtis Brooks is responsible for Talent, Employee Experience, and Culture at DXC.

Curtis is also a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas’ Executive and Professional Development Coaching Graduate program and is Principal owner of The Blueprint Executive & Professional Development Coaching firm.

The Blueprint firm partners with professionals -through coaching relationships- in identifying necessary confidence, skills, and strategies- to overcome internal and external obstacles; navigate career challenges and opportunities; and, achieve success in every field of endeavor.

He has 20 years of experience designing Talent Strategies and shaping Learning organizations. Prior to his current role, Curtis led DE&I Education, Career Development, and Content Curation for U.S. Bank’s Corporate division and served as head of Learning and Development for U.S. Bank's Mortgage Servicing and Lending Services Division. Before joining U.S. Bank in 2017, he served in a number of leadership roles including Assistant Vice President of Leadership and Organizational Development for Mr. Cooper, Assistant Vice President-Director of Servicing Training for Homeward Residential, and Vice President of Training and Development for Bank of America Home Loans.

Curtis holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Business Management from Stephen F. Austin State University, is currently completing a Master’s degree in Leadership & Organizational Development from the University of Texas at Dallas; and, is certified in many disciplines including Meyer’s Briggs MBTI, FIRO-B, PDI 360 Coaching, and Prosci Change Management. He resides in Texas with his wife and three children.

Vince is responsible for Intel’s factory sites in Arizona (Chandler & Ocotillo) and New Mexico and include all aspects of CS operations including workplace services, site planning, environmental health and safety, facilities operations, quality and reliability, and non-factory construction across these large factory sites.

His previous role was the Costa Rica Site General Manager leading a site of 2000 people and is the Volume Labs and Engineering Director for Manufacturing Performance Engineering, leading a global team of 300 people. Prior to this role, he was a TMG Manufacturing Manager and also served as the Factory Manager of the Assembly Test Operations in Costa Rica. He joined Intel in New Mexico, back in 2000, as a site finance controller. Before joining Intel, he also spent 10 years in the automotive industry.

Vince takes pride in creating an inclusive environment and was recognized as Intel Inclusive Leader of the Year in 2017.  Inclusive Leadership and his passion for developing others to achieve more than they believe possible is what motivates him. He is a strong believer that when you combine technical excellence with leading people in a positive way, you can do anything. He has an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Oakland University in Michigan and a MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan.   Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family. He and his wife Nathalie are parents to two amazing kids: Madeleine and Vince.

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.

In 2001 Sandra Borders left the private Financial Services Industry to turn her attention to public service as the Assistant Director of Work/Life and Diversity. In April 2003, she was promoted to the role of Director of the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity and began overseeing the development and implementation of programs to support the Governor's mandates of non-discrimination, affirmative action, equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion.

As Chief Diversity Officer, Sandra sets strategy for the Diversity and Inclusion efforts across the Commonwealth's Executive Departments. She builds partnerships with the public sector, private sector, and non-profit organizations to share best practices. She guides Executive Departments, Secretaries, Agency Heads, HR Directors, and Diversity Directors and Officers on Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, and Diversity. Also, Sandra provides oversight for compliance with State and Federal Laws regarding equal employment opportunities and affirmative action.

Sandra has lectured and conducted seminars on diversity and civil rights enforcement for various public and private sector organizations. She has had the opportunity to lead committees focused on access and inclusion; she chaired the Veterans Interagency Taskforce on Employment and served as co-chair of the Commonwealth's Model Employer Initiative for People with Disabilities.

Sandra holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Northeastern University and a Master of Science in Management from Eastern Nazarene College.

A few notable achievements include receiving the Commonwealth's highest honor, the Eugene Rooney Jr. Public Service Award. She also received the Equity in Governance Award. Most recently, she was honored as the Northeast Human Resource Association's Individual Diversity Champion award.

Sandra is a consummate professional with years of dedicated service in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Elizabeth is a committed nonprofit leader serving as Executive Director of PDXWIT (PDX Women in Tech). Her work is centered on disrupting problematic systems in the technology industry to shape an equitable future for humanity. Through advocacy, mentorship, and scholarships, PDXWIT is advancing the careers of BIPOC, women, non-binary folks, and those traditionally underrepresented in tech.

Prior to her work at PDXWIT, Elizabeth produced and managed several large scale art installations with Diversa edu, a company that uses digital and physical art to tell stories of individuals and communities often left out of history books. Elizabeth also worked for nearly a decade in child welfare at Boys & Girls Aid across many departments including direct service, advancement and community outreach. She continues to have a strong passion for supporting children in the foster care system, a population too often overlooked.

She has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Oregon and a Master's degree in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University. She is passionate about Restorative Justice and applies restorative principles to all of her work. She lives in Portland Oregon and is a mom to two young boys.