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.

Angela Russell is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at CUNA Mutual Group. Angela is responsible for leading the development, direction, and implementation of short and long-term strategies and programs that support diversity, equity and inclusion. She shares her journey and how she began doing public health work, her transition to the financial services industry, and how interconnected those are. In our conversation, Angela details the why and how of making lasting change for both the individual-level and the systems-level within an organization and she provides helpful insight on how others can take up this work as well.

Welcome back to Uplifting Impact, and I’m so excited because we have Kevin Clark with us today. Kevin is a professor of learning technologies and the Founding Director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity at George Mason University. His research focuses on diversity in children’s media and technology and includes a national study that’s really looking at the digital lives of African American tweens, teens, and parents. In addition to his academic career, Kevin has extensive experience as a children’s media advisor and consultant. He’s provided diversity and inclusion expertise on scripts, character design, storylines, animations, games, and helped clients move into a space where they can be more inclusive with the young people they are hoping to share their content with. In our conversation, we discuss the importance of including diverse voices throughout the decision-making process when creating content, getting feedback for children, and what it’s like to be inclusive and create content for children.

Minda Harts is someone I’ve been dying to have a conversation with, so I’m excited to have her on and talk with her, and to share this with you. Minda is the CEO of The Memo LLC, a career-development platform for women of color. She’s the bestselling author of The Memo; What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table. She frequently speaks on topics such as leadership, managing diverse teams, and self-advocacy. She also hosts a weekly podcast called Secure the Seat. In our conversation she shares some important insights about how to make the most of it once you get to the table, creating a legacy, and some of the important things allies can do to be helpful in the workplace, and beyond.