Getting Your DEI Strategy Off Paper and In Person: Lessons in Innovation From Companies That Are Reaping the Benefits Of Action
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In this interactive session, learn not only actionable DEI strategies and why they're crucial to your company's bottom line, reputation and resilience, but also how peer companies are tapping innovation strategies to lead from the front...possibly leaving you behind.
Susanne Tedrick, author of "Women of Color in Tech: A Blueprint for Inspiring and Mentoring the Next Generation of Technology Innovators" (Wiley, 2020) and Bertina Ceccarelli, Susanne's co-author of the upcoming title "Innovating for Diversity: Lessons from Top Companies That Are Disrupting Old Practices to Achieve Inclusivity, Equity and Business Success" (Wiley, 2023), will delve into why traditional approaches to DEI programs have not led to meaningful changes and explore how innovation principles—courage, risk-taking, trust, collaboration, and leadership—can cut fresh paths toward results.
Learning Objectives:
- Discover how proven principles of innovation can power you DEI programs to new results.
- Learn how other leading companies have implemented and leveraged innovation principles to improve their DEI.
- Identify areas within your own DEI programs and initiatives in which to apply innovation.
Susanne Tedrick
Susanne Tedrick is a technical trainer at a Fortune 500 technology company, and is fiercely committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the tech industry. Susanne is the author of the critically acclaimed Women of Color in Tech: A Blueprint for Inspiring and Mentoring the Next Generation of Technology Innovators (Wiley, 2020) and co-author of the upcoming book Innovating for Diversity: Lessons from Top Companies that are Disrupting Old Practices to Achieve Inclusivity, Equity and Business Success (Wiley, 2023).
Susanne performs community service work for several non-profits, including serving as Chair of the Advancing Tech Talent and Diversity Executive Council for CompTIA and as a coalition member for NPower's Command Shift initiative.
Bertina Ceccarelli
Bertina Ceccarelli is the Chief Executive Officer of NPower, a national tech training and job placement nonprofit, rooted in community, and on a mission to advance equity in the tech industry. She joined NPower in 2016 with a passion to disrupt the status quo and build a more inclusive workplace. Under her visionary leadership, NPower has grown from $6 million to a $24 million organization, tripling their staff and expanding their proven program to four new cities.
Bertina’s commitment to helping young adults and military-connected individuals launch tech careers and break social and economic mobility barriers has led to her involvement in strategic alliance organizations including: Founding member of TechPact; member, CEO Action; steering committee member, American’s Promise; Wall Street Journal CEO Council; as well as membership on Forbes Council and Concordia communities. She was named as one of the Tech Industry's Brightest Superstars by the US Black Engineer & IT magazine.
An engineer by training, Bertina has worked as a technology leader at Procter & Gamble and NBC before pivoting to the nonprofit sector. Growing up in a working-class family and the first to graduate from high school, she was drawn to a community that once supported her own educational endeavors. After a successful career in the corporate sector, Bertina chose to transition her skills to the nonprofit sector. Bertina held senior leadership roles at United Way of New York City and the Wildlife Conservation Society where she was responsible for generating over $85 million annually in programmatic and unrestricted funds. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
She is an engaged storyteller, who leads with heart, committed to moving the mission of NPower to new heights. She is the co-author, together with Susanne Tedrick, of the upcoming book, “Innovating for Diversity: Lessons from Top Companies that are Disrupting Old Practices to Achieve Inclusivity, Equity and Business Success” to be published by Wiley March 2023.
A native Californian, Bertina is now a proud resident of Brooklyn where she lives with her husband and teenage son.