Member Conference: Learning & Development - The Foundation for DEI

January 26, 2022

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

9:00 AM – 1:00 PM PST

Virtual

The future of work is at a crossroads and organizations are sparing no effort to recruit and maintain diverse talent. However, the journey to cultivate equitable workplaces does not end with the hiring process. Our ability to stay ahead hinges on our capacity to provide equitable access to inclusive learning and development opportunities. As we invest in L&D resources, we must also challenge the validity and accessibility of these programs to ensure they advance the workplace cultures we wish to achieve. These truths move us into uncharted territory and force us to reexamine how L&D is designed, delivered, and measured.

In this virtual event, explore multiple aspects of DEI learning and development and dive deep into best practice conversations applicable to a multitude of workplace environments. Together we will examine equitable access to L&D for both in-office and remote workers, stretch our understanding of inclusivity with regards to L&D content, and discover how to tangibly track and measure L&D success. Throughout the program we will engage with industry leaders from diverse enterprises and backgrounds, highlighting innovative, proven solutions that will move us from thought to action along the way.

- DEI Practitioners

- Learning and Development leaders, managers, and implementors

- HR Managers / Business Partners

- ERG Leaders

- D&I Council Members/Leaders

- Anyone with roles in L&D or DEI in their organizations

Please sign in to access the event archives. If you are not yet a Seramount member, please email us at [email protected].

Agenda

12:00 – 12:10 Welcome Remarks

Katie Mooney / Managing Director / Seramount

12:10 – 12:55 Opening Keynote – Equitable Learning and Development in a Hybrid World

Drawing from his 20 years’ experience as a learning and performance consultant and training director, David Kelly shares insights into how technology can bolster equitable access to learning and development opportunities in a hybrid work environment. As organizations and businesses continue to navigate hybrid work models, these technologies and strategies are critical to ensure that all employees, whether working from home or in office, can participate and are supported in their learning and development goals. David will reframe our thinking of L&D through a DEI lens, push our understanding of L&D “success,” and share strategies/trends to lift our collective work to a higher plane.

David Kelly / EVP and Executive Director / The Learning Guild

In conversation with Deborah Munster / Vice President of People, Culture and Operations / Seramount

12:55 – 1:10 Break

1:10 – 2:00 DEI Learning and Development Next Practices

DEI practitioners and champions will share their L&D DEI next practices, which will be followed by an in-depth question and answer session.

Facilitator:

Bridgette Scales / Senior Director / Seramount

Starbucks

In order to attract and retain top talent and mitigate the rising cost of employee debt Starbucks entered into a partnership with Arizona State University to provide free online degrees across the enterprise. Starbucks will share a case study of success, focused on benefits to underrepresented employee populations including first-generation college attendees. Starbucks will also share outcomes of the program that will stretch our understanding of accountability and investment in the workforce including employee retention rates and program penetration across its stores.

Mary Dixon / Director, Starbucks College Achievement Plan / Starbucks Coffee Company

Asurion

When Asurion recognized a need to diversify its product organization, it found a solution through development and apprenticeship programs like its internal software engineering internship and the Eight Stay Ready Workshops. Program leads will share how Asurion has focused on up-skilling frontline team members for future roles and how the programs have expanded to consider multiple dimensions of diversity, including employees’ background in education and formal training. This includes a discussion of the intersectionality between this L&D opportunity and Asurion’s DEI advancement goals, which are supporting pillars of each other.

Chasity Green / Senior Manager, Leadership Development / Asurion

Verizon

Verizon’s Learning Portal has become a center of advancement for employee members and saw increased participation during the pandemic. In addition to providing numerous L&D opportunities, the option to draw from various learning communities (LinkedIn, YouTube, internal content) has provided space to input culturally specific content for distinct employee populations including women and Black employees. In this discussion we will explore outcomes driven from the unique ability to customize content based on employee interest and identity, and how this ability has accelerated the Learning Portal’s success for ERG members and allies.

Kaevonda (Kay) Smith / Senior Analyst – Program and Project Management, Service Go-To-Channel Readiness / Verizon Consumer Group

2:00 – 2:10 Break

2:10 – 3:10 DEI Learning and Development Deep Dive Breakout Group Discussions

In these small and interactive breakout group discussions, engage with Seramount advisors and next practice session presenters in an in-depth question and answer session for deeper insight into their work to come away with actionable insights for your own work.

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in two rounds of the following sessions:

Q&A with The Learning Guild: L&D in a Hybrid World

- David Kelly / EVP and Executive Director / The Learning Guild

Q&A with Starbucks: Online Tuition Programs for Employees

- Mary Dixon / Director, Starbucks College Achievement Plan / Starbucks Coffee Company
- Nicole Johnson / Senior Director / Seramount

Q&A with Asurion: Apprenticeships/Internship as Critical Development Practices

- Chasity Green / Senior Manager, Leadership Development / Asurion
- Melinda Noblitt / Senior Manager of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) / Asurion
- Marcelo Vasquez / Senior Director / Seramount

Q&A with Verizon: Custom Content Offerings through the Learning Portal

Kaevonda (Kay) Smith / Senior Analyst – Program and Project Management, Service Go-To-Channel Readiness / Verizon Consumer Group
Megan Pierouchakos / Senior Director / Seramount

3:10 – 3:50 Fireside Chat

LinkedIn Diversity Inclusion and Belonging + Learning and Development leads share how the two departments worked together to build a global mechanism for DEI training. This session will explore the various ways business functions “own” education responsibilities and the importance of partnership between DEI and L&D teams. Moreover, we will discover how LinkedIn deployed this initiative in the middle of a global pandemic using existing resources on its virtual platforms.

Moderator:

Katie Mooney / Managing Director / Seramount

Presenters:

Nuhamin Woldemariam / Senior Manager, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIBs) / LinkedIn

Alex Brown / Senior Manager, Talent Development / LinkedIn

3:50 – 3:55 Closing Remarks

Katie Mooney / Managing Director / Seramount

4:00 – 4:45 Optional: Introduction to the CDO Collaborative

Chief Diversity Officers and their teams oversee a myriad of DEI programs and initiatives, but often report slow progress. To help CDOs do their jobs effectively, drive accountability, and be a true agent of change, they need more support and community than ever before. This session will explore how Seramount’s newly launched CDO Collaborative is using rigorous research and change management expertise to support CDOs committed to leading the change needed to foster truly inclusive and diverse workplaces.

Presenters:

Joan Sheridan LaBarge / Managing Director / Seramount

Scott Fassbach / Chief Research Officer / EAB

Alex Brown

Senior Manager, Talent Development

Mary Dixon

Director, Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP)

Starbucks Coffee Company

Scott Fassbach

Chief Research Officer

EAB

Chasity Green

Senior Manager, Leadership Development

Asurion

Nicole Johnson

Senior Director, Advisory

Seramount

Nicole Johnson is a Senior Director on the Advisory team at Seramount. She is a seasoned executive who brings over 30 years of a unique blend of corporate and nonprofit experience in finance, multicultural marketing, and DEI. Her strategic, customer-centered, mission-driven, and bottom-line-focused approach allows her to develop and implement strategies that help companies reach untapped markets, deliver culturally appropriate messages, increase inclusive behaviors in their leaders, and positively impact the company’s revenue stream.

Her most recent role was as the Senior Director of DEI at the American Red Cross, where she supported efforts related to Employee Resource Groups, Leadership Development, and Community Engagement. Nicole has built diversity departments for both ARAMARK and Wyndham Worldwide and is proud to see that both are thriving and award-winning. As a result, she has acquired critical knowledge and experience on how to build a diversity department from the ground up. Nicole has also led multicultural marketing efforts for Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T and the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Feeling compelled to share her lessons learned with her fellow DEI practitioners, she launched a boutique consulting firm and was soon dubbed “The Newbie Navigator” as she guided new leaders on their journey to establishing this critical function in their organizations as well as avoiding the pitfalls.

Nicole has a passion for giving and has served on various boards and advisory committees, including the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance, Dress for Success, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Barnes Foundation, the American Red Cross, and others. She has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences, including Odyssey Network Business Retreat, Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference, The Pennsylvania Diversity Council, and The Forum on Workplace Diversity, to name a few. She’s also shared her knowledge as a visiting professor at Temple University and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Nicole has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Rutgers University. She is an avid furniture up-cycler, will gladly loom knit you a hat in your favorite color, and is an advocate for everyone to grow their own food. Her first real job and real love is her role as a proud mother and life coach to her two children, Social Justice Advocate Sierra and Lacrosse All-American Bryce.

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David Kelly

Executive Director

The Learning Guild

Joan Sheridan LaBarge

Managing Director, Relationships

Seramount

Katie Oertli Mooney

Managing Director

Seramount

Katie Oertil Mooney is Managing Director of Diversity Best Practices at Seramount. She is an accomplished DEI leader and thought partner with expertise in driving strategy and growth of diversity and inclusion change management, planning and programs.

Katie Oertli Mooney is a Managing Director at Seramount. She is an accomplished DEI leader and thought partner with expertise in driving strategy and growth of diversity and inclusion change management, planning and programs. Prior to joining Seramount, she was responsible for overseeing the client delivery, staffing, operations and growth as Vice President of Jennifer Brown Consulting. She was accountable for the firm’s successful consulting project delivery to clients from the Fortune 1000, government agencies, startups, to nonprofits.

Prior to that, she managed the DEI enterprise learning and development strategy at Capital One specializing in differential investment programming to support historically underrepresented talent and communities of color. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the GSBA; the largest LGBTQ and allied chamber of commerce in North America and is supporting the organization in 2020, by advancing diversity, equity and inclusion for the Board of Directors, for the benefit of GSBA staff, members, partners and the LGBTQ+ and allied community of Washington State. Katie has a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management with a concentration on Diversity and Inclusion Management from Georgetown University. She is based in Seattle, WA.

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Melinda Hudgins Noblitt

Senior Manager of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Asurion

Megan Pierouchakos

Senior Director, Advisory

Seramount

Megan Pierouchakos is a senior director and membership relationship advisor at Seramount. Most recently, Megan was Vice President of Human Resources at the American Bankers Association (ABA) where she set the strategic direction for learning and development, talent management, and succession planning.

Megan Pierouchakos is a senior director and membership relationship advisor at Seramount. In her role at Seramount, Megan advises Fortune 100 & 500 companies on their talent and DEI initiatives. Prior to Seramount, Megan spent 15 years in corporate roles as a Talent & DEI practitioner spanning the entire talent lifecycle. Most recently, she was Vice President of Human Resources at the American Bankers Association (ABA) where she set the strategic direction for learning and development, talent management, and succession planning. Prior to that, Megan was the Workforce Diversity Manager in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Freddie Mac.

She was recently a part-time adjunct faculty member with the Georgetown HRM program, served a two-year term on the Georgetown HRM Advisory Board, and was a strategic plan task force member with the Centre for Global Inclusion. Megan holds a SPHR certification from HRCI and a Prosci ADKAR Change Management Certification.

Megan received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College with a dual major in International Relations and Spanish and has a graduate degree from Georgetown University in HR Management. She resides in Northern Virginia with her family and actively volunteers with the Girl Scouts of America and other youth organizations her children participate in.

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Kay Smith

Verizon BOLD ERG Global Communications Chair; Sr Analyst-Program & Project Management

Verizon

Nuhamin Woldemariam

Senior Manager, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIBs)

Member Conference: Learning & Development – The Foundation for DEI

Speakers