Member Webinar: Black History Month 2024

Shakura Brewer leads the digital platforms strategy for the Kohler Energy business units at Kohler Company within IT. She is a technology leader who enjoys leveraging technology to create seamless beautiful experiences. Alongside blazing a trail in the underrepresented technology industry, she drives the footprint of community within corporate spaces. She co-founded and developed the BLK Catalyst, a business resource group at Kohler. Business Resource Groups (BRG) are a critical component of creating the culture of inclusion in corporate work environments. While inherently diverse, each BRG at Kohler is united under a common purpose: to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace. The BLK Catalyst BRG pillars are rooted in [1] Recruit, Retain, and Immerse the African diaspora community of Kohler [2] Community Outreach, and [3] Impact product innovation through diverse perspectives and talent. Through the community built through BLK Catalyst, Shakura co-founded the Kohler Women’s Leadership Summit, an internal summit aimed at providing all Kohler associates with the resources, network, and tools to aid in developing skills for high-achieving leadership roles in the organization.

Glory Edim is an author, activist, and the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a nationwide book club-turned-literacy non-profit that celebrates the life changing power of literature. Well-Read Black Girl’s mission is to use storytelling as a tool for advocacy and collective empowerment. Glory has won numerous awards for her work supporting writers of color, including the 2017 Innovator’s Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and the Madam C.J. Walker Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. She also serves on the board of Baldwin for the Arts. Her best-selling anthology, Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, was published by Penguin Random House in 2018. She is currently working on a memoir that explores the intimate relationship between reading and self-healing. She resides in Washington D.C. with her son, Zikomo.

René leads Prudential’s global employee community engagement strategy and a portfolio of grants and programs that strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organizations. This includes volunteer activities under the PruCARES brand, a board service program to place Prudential leaders on boards of nonprofit organizations, pro-bono consulting projects and the company’s disaster relief and recovery efforts. He is also leading an evaluation and learning process to measure the social and business impact of Prudential’s philanthropic endeavors. Rene also manages a portfolio of grants to promote inclusive communities and improve pathways to quality jobs for individuals facing multiple barriers. Rene developed and launched a unique nonprofit board service program focusing on emerging leaders of diverse background as part of Prudential’s diversity & inclusion and talent management strategies.  Prior to this role, René was a Relationship Manager working with business units and corporate functions to develop strategies that bring the full power of Prudential to address social needs and meet business objectives.  René started his career at Prudential almost 21 years ago as a program officer with The Prudential Foundation where he managed the youth development, civic leadership, capacity building and business alignment portfolios. During this time, he developed the company’s first international philanthropic strategy, developed a disaster relief framework and co-created and implemented a board service program targeting leaders of diverse background.  

Before joining Prudential, René worked in his native Puerto Rico in a community development initiative working in public housing projects. He was also the executive director of a multi-service nonprofit organization in Newark.  René has served in a number of nonprofit boards and advisory councils, and currently represents Prudential on the Council of NJ Grantmakers board. 

Rene holds a BA and MPA from Rutgers University in Newark and is currently a Part Time Lecturer at Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration. 

Nichelle Wash is an Associate Director on the Advisory team at Seramount. She is a results-focused DEI leader who specializes in supporting key areas of DEI strategy. She has been the chair of DEI councils and quasi-government boards, building support for the senior leadership team to integrate DEI throughout their lines of business. This work resulted in culture and change management for employees across the enterprise that was focused on sustainability and scale. She has also overseen diversity recruitment and outreach efforts for organizations, providing real solutions to attract and retain employees with a focus on diverse hiring strategies. Nichelle is a sought-after facilitator who has delivered workshops around DEI for over a decade. She was recently recognized as Woman of the Year for her role in designing and delivering DEI education; hosting a precollege camp to increase the number of girls interested in coding and entrepreneurship; and she sourced projects to address homelessness and support pathways to housing security across her home state of Indiana.

Nichelle is an alumna of Indiana University Bloomington, where she started her career in health care and biomedical research before pivoting to a career in higher education. In her self-healing time, Nichelle enjoys listening to audiobooks, playing basketball, dancing to live music, and traveling.