Podcast

Today I am talking with Sadiki Etienne, who has spent the last ten years partnering with leaders at some of the world’s most influential organizations to address global development challenges and enhance economic inclusion. Throughout his career, he has applied his experience in operational strategy, program implementation, and public policy reform in over 25 countries! I am particularly excited to talk with him from the perspective of us both doing the work of social entrepreneurship, and how we use these skills to help facilitate change in small and big ways in a consistent effort to make the world a better place.

Today we have empathy warrior Corey Ponder with us. He has over 10 years of professional experience as a policy analyst in the public and private sectors and is a huge believer in the power of human connection and how that can drive impact. In our conversation, we really dig into the exploration of the idea that we all have some level of privilege, and how we can use that to leverage the voices of those around us to uplift them. He also shares the two lenses through which he approaches DEI work, and how to address the idea that we all have to be experts in order to do work in this space. I truly enjoyed this conversation, and I know you will too.

I am so glad that you’re here joining us today for such a wonderful conversation I had with Isioma Nwabuzor, an attorney in the Milwaukee area. Currently, she works with Robert W. Baird, an employee-owned financial services firm, supporting the firm’s US and UK transactions in its private equity business. Isioma is a DREAMer, and in this episode, she shares some of the unseen and unknown hardships of what it is like to be an immigrant in the US, how companies can do a better job of being inclusive, and she also shares information about her organization, The Dreamer Next Door Incorporated and the work they are doing to lift others as we rise.

Ashley Ladd is the Manager of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Hubspot, a global tech company, and I am so excited to have her own the show today. Hubspot is vital to the work we do here at Uplifting Impact, and after our conversation, it reinforces that I am so happy to use their platform. Ashley’s work is proof that this organization is a leader for D and I work in the tech space, and in our conversation, she shares the role of employee resource groups as part of a larger D and I strategy, and the importance of intersection and ally-ship within these groups.

I am so excited to be here with my friend Paolo Gaudiano. He’s the CEO of Aleria, President of Aleria research, and the Executive Director of Quantitative Studies of Diversity and Inclusion at the City College of New York. He has decades of experience in business, technology, and academia to transform how people think about diversity and what to do about it, with the ultimate goal to make our society more inclusive and equitable.

He’s a public speaker and contributor to Forbes, and today we have the great joy of having him on Uplifting Impact. In our conversation, he shares his journey to DEI work as a white male, the research he does, how he shows up in spaces as someone committed to doing DEI work, and how other white people can start doing it on an individual level.