Cultivating a truly inclusive workplace requires long-term commitment and dedication from all members of an organization. While DEI initiatives for 2024 may be well underway, it’s important to continually evaluate your current efforts, adapt your approach, and plan for future investments.
From discussing GenAI’s impact on DEI, redefining recruitment and retention strategies, providing mental health and wellness support, & much more - this discussion will equip you with lessons learned from the past year and actionable steps to navigate DEI and ensure it becomes an integral part of your organization's DNA.
Mia Ellis is a forward-thinking adult educator with over fourteen years of experience in the fields of higher education, healthcare, retail, and tech. As a doctoral student, Mia’s research interests focus on the intersection of leadership, diversity, and transformative learning, further solidifying her commitment to positive change within organizations. Known for her skills in relational intelligence, Mia excels in identifying growth opportunities within an organization and establishing meaningful connections with cross-functional teams. Her professional expertise in the areas of leadership development, adult learning theory, human behavior, organization development and change management, DEI, and community engagement has allowed her to navigate diverse industries, meeting the specific needs of adult learners and the rapidly changing global market.
Shana Sumers is an engaging, inspiring force of empowerment and advocacy for safe spaces and intentional inclusion. As HubSpot’s Senior Manager, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Communities, Sumers has grown the Black@INBOUND community to new heights and aspires to launch other groups in the future. Outside of her work at HubSpot, Shana continues to drive intentional inclusion through her podcast, Bad Queers, and regular speaking engagements around building safe spaces, intersectionality and representation
Glenn currently leads Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Employee Experience at Strava. In this role, he is responsible for setting the overall DEI strategy and partnering with the business to further embed Strava's commitment to antiracism and DEI in our culture, product, and community (of users). Glenn is also responsible for thoughtfully developing the Employee Experience Strategy to support our deliberately distributed workforce. This involves curating the celebrations, events and experiences that make our Strava culture unique and rewarding, and staying connected with our global team so we can create one, unified inclusive, company culture.
Glenn has 10+ years of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Talent, and Communication & Change Management experience. He has held leadership roles at several tech and professional services companies including UserTesting, VMware, Boston Consulting Group, and Accenture.
Glenn has completed Master's level coursework in I-O Psychology from the University of Georgia and received his Bachelor of Business Administration with an Economics double major from Emory University.
Outside of work Glenn is trying to get more cardio in and eat less carbs (which is hard because he loves to bake). He also enjoys cooking, traveling and watching HGTV.
Lindiwe is a multi-talented, passionate business creative, speaker, storyteller, and culture change maker. She is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader, advisor, and her daytime job in tech allows her to lead business strategy and programming meant to educate and build awareness currently within the DEI space. She also happens to mentor women of color every chance she gets and has a history of turning chaos into order.
She is the co-creator and co-host of a recently launched storytelling (focused on NY roommates) podcast called A Stranger Down The Hall. Her knack for sharing stories and providing space for others to do so is one of her defining gifts. She's a speaker and media host and has the ability to capture the silent corners of a guest's story that may not always be visible to others. When she's not working on her podcast, the daytime job in tech, or building vision boards, she's spinning, kickboxing and is coming back to being a traveler.
Lindiwe has been a featured speaker, panelist, and or host for Google Talks, Bloomberg Radio, SAG-Aftra, The Female Quotient, Women Tech Makers, and WIN Summit.
Caroline has nine years of expertise in specialized technical recruiting across many different technology and geographic markets including Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Boston. As a market expert in leveraging one’s strengths to maximize a successful job search, interview process and salary negotiation, Caroline is passionate about advising and aiding candidates to find and land the roles that they’ll value most and align with both their career and life goals.
