I am so happy to have Becky Kekula on this episode. She serves as the disability equality index director for Disability:IN. She’s responsible for managing the overall DEI program. She’s very passionate about making sure disability and inclusion conversations are happening in schools and in the workplace. She’s worked in a number of industries, and she’s also a prolific public speaker. In our conversation, she shares the importance of being intentional with disability inclusion as an organization, how to create open communication with candidates for a position that may need accommodation, and overcoming the assumption that accommodation costs too much money for an organization.

I am talking with one of my favorite people, Sundeep Morrison, a queer, nonbinary, Punjabi, Sikh writer, actor, director, author, and activist. Her work focuses on social justice, cultural friction, inter-ethnic family dynamics, and feminism. She’s also the writer and star of Rag Head, an amazing production that explores Sikhs in America. She’s also the host of Deep Talks radio show, a platform to dialogue with socially conscious artists and innovators, where art and activism intersect. In our conversation, she shares the process she goes through in order to create an impact with her art and storytelling. She discusses the importance of humanity really being able to see each other, and some of the work she has done with corporate teams to facilitate connection.

Keesha Gill has over 17 years of experience, serving youth and families. She joined Good Shepherd Services back in 2015 as the program director at a community in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and she’s currently the co-chair of the Equity Council. She has a passion for helping to create change in communities in need, and I am glad to share our conversation with you. In this episode, we discuss the need to not only make sure that all voices at all tables are recognized, but to go the extra step and to request a seat at someone else’s table to really build relationships and to hear from these communities what they need, and then how we can come together to help provide that.

I am so glad I get to spend this afternoon talking to my friend, Meralis Hood. If you want to talk about education and showing up in a way that really supports an inclusive environment, she is the person to talk to. She is a thought leader with the mission to change the way we invest in professionals who work with our young citizens every day. Meralis is the Vice President and Executive Director of City Year Milwaukee, which helps young people develop into leaders, problem solvers, and more active citizens. In our conversation, she shares the importance of creating a culture of transparency, naming the values that you want to implement within an organization, and best practices for supporting young people to see their own potential. I know that there’s no way you can walk away from this without being inspired and I’m honored to share this with you today.

Today we have Michelle Kedem on with us. The minute I thought about doing this podcast I knew that I wanted to have her own the show because of the incredible work does. She is the founding partner at On-Ramps, an executive search and research organization that incorporates diversity, equity, and inclusion into every step of their process. She is responsible for supporting the firm’s strategy, development, external relations, and finance of the organization. In our conversation, we discuss the aspects of recruiting that need to be assessed by an organization to ensure they are prioritizing DEI and why an internal audit is a great first step an organization can take.

Warren Scherer is the Assistant Dean of Students, and the Director of Gender and Sexuality Campus Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison. He leads an array of campus-wide services that focus on the ideas of equity and intercultural campus initiatives for minoritized students. In our conversation today, he shares the perspective of what it means to do diversity, equity, and inclusion work at the university level. We talk about some of the various student populations that should be considered when creating policy, questions one should ask themselves when thinking about policy implementation, and why this work is so important in higher education.

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.