Member Webinar: National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2023

Lori Frisher is an exceptional leader, advocate, and entrepreneur, with a remarkable journey that embodies resilience and determination. As a #1 Amazon best-selling author, Emmy nominee, cancer survivor and public speaker, Lori’s accomplishments reflect her ability to surpass challenges and embrace new opportunities. Navigating severe hearing loss since birth, she now relies on two cochlear implants and lip-reading to communicate effectively.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Lori faced a transformative experience, losing her voice only to find a new voice of advocacy. This pivotal moment led her to discover her true calling and become a disruptive force for change. With unparalleled empathy, personal storytelling, and a spirit of innovation, Lori empowers companies and organizations to foster a culture of success.

As the founder of Ready or Not! Media, Lori is committed to dismantling negative stereotypes and advocating for the inclusion of people of ALL abilities in the workforce and communities. She urges executives and management teams to exemplify inclusive leadership, creating workplaces where every employee feels a sense of belonging.

Having collaborated with diverse entities, from national nonprofits to Fortune 100 and 500 companies, Lori possesses a comprehensive understanding of various workplace environments. Her expertise enables her to view missions through the lens of those facing life challenges, ensuring the support of inclusive learning cultures and fostering creativity and originality. Lori Frisher is an inspiring force, driving transformative change and championing a future of inclusivity and belonging.

Haley Kalmbach is a Senior Software Engineer at Liberty Mutual Insurance. She has been an employee at Liberty Mutual for over 4 years, where she has worked on different internally facing applications. Most recently, she has worked on the creation of the Digital Accessibility Center as part of the DEI initiative.

As the work becomes increasingly more digital, this application was created to provide technical support for ALL employees to ensure they can be successful in their roles. The application was built to be completely accessible, so everyone would be able to use the site.

Haley has a passion for designing and developing applications with an “accessible first” mindset. She believes inclusive design is something that all engineers can incorporate into their development process. It is important to spread awareness around this issue and make sure other engineers know what tools exist to improve the digital accessibility for all.

In his role at Rangam, Dave identifies viable opportunities to connect and align mutual interests to further Rangam’s mission of accelerating meaningful employment for all. He seeks to bring together job seekers with disabilities, their support providers, schools and state agencies to help meet the hiring needs of our client companies.

Prior to Rangam, Dave worked for 12 years at Autism Speaks where he developed resources and tools for autistic adults and their caregivers. These included the Workplace Inclusion Now (WIN) employment training initiative; the Autism & Disability Visual Integration Company Experience (ADVICE) corporate consultancy initiative; TheSpectrumCareers.com jobs portal for job seekers with autism (in partnership with Rangam); the Autism Empowerment Kit (in partnership with Microsoft and the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition).

Dave is a member of several nonprofit boards and committees, including at College Steps, Bobby Dodd Institute Bridge Academy, and Level Up: Employment Skills Simulation Lab at the University of Michigan.

Deanna Keenan is an Associate Director on the Qualitative Team at Seramount. She is the team specialist on employee resource groups and inclusive language practices in the workplace and has led team projects such as the Return to Office series, Awareness Month best practices, and the production of a variety of guides centered on tackling difficult conversations in the workplace.

Deanna is passionate about elevating employees from historically excluded communities, such as women of color, employees with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ employees. She is especially interested in creating best practices for employee resource groups in order to generate meaningful impact on business metrics and goals.

Deanna holds an MSW concentrated in children, youth, and family and global policy from the University of Southern California and a dual BA in psychology and Africana studies from Binghamton University.

Outside of work, Deanna is a mom of two young children, loves hiking with her family and dogs, and can be found baking breads and knitting intricate blankets for fun.

Jess Kramer is Associate Director, Event Programming at Seramount, developing impactful live experiences that shift mindsets and accelerate inclusion. At Seramount, she leads the content curation and manages programming for Seramount’s annual member and non-member marquee events advocating for diversity, equity & inclusion in the workplace. She determines program themes, designs and develops agendas, and identifies, secures, and preps 100+ speakers annually for Seramount’s virtual and in-person conferences that reach audiences of up to 2,000 people each across a wide variety of industries.

Jess is also a writer and public speaker on the topics of neurodiversity and disability inclusion in the workplace. Prior to working in events and management consulting, she worked as a writer, researcher, and editor.

Based in Brooklyn, NY, Jess enjoys live music, theater, and dancing; walking dogs at her local animal shelter; escaping the city to hike, kayak, and swim; and traveling around the world.

As a Software Engineer with Liberty Mutual, Jamie has just completed two years with the company. She considers herself fortunate to have begun her career working on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) technology, as it allowed her to develop meaningful work from the get go, and learn early on how impactful to ALL users it is to develop with accessibility as a top priority. Earlier this year Jamie worked as a Product Owner, partnering with stakeholders on DEI initiatives. She and her team have recently inherited several large internally facing applications, impacting over 40,000 users, which has enabled them to apply their accessibility knowledge in a large scale way – shifting these applications to better align with the core values of Liberty Mutual.

I’ve been with Pfizer for twenty years working at the Andover, Massachusetts site. For most of my career I worked in Program Management and Site Master Planning, until recently when I proposed and accepted a new position as the Disability Program Development Lead.

My passion has always been creating employment opportunities for those with disabilities. In the past, I created the Learn to Work program, and now I am working full‑time to develop an enterprise hiring program designed to deliver sustainable solutions for attracting, hiring, and retaining qualified talent with disabilities, including individuals who are neurodivergent and autistic. After eighteen months, the program is fully operational in seven U.S. locations, with additional expansions underway,

Marcelo is a seasoned DEI executive with 20 years of experience. He has developed successful programs that increase diversity in multinational corporations. Prior to Liberty Mutual, he worked at Seramount as a Senior Director providing advisory services to clients. 

Marcelo oversaw Diversity and Inclusion strategies for Sodexo in six Latin American countries and impacted 35,000 employees. He also spent two years working in Sodexo’s education business in North America. 

He has worked as a consultant for catalyst.org, helping to implement DEI awareness programs in Latin America through partnerships with local non-governmental organizations. 

Marcelo is a renowned DEI speaker, panelist, and expert. He’s skilled in creating inclusive cultures and workforces globally. 

Marcelo is an organizational coach fluent in 3 languages. Originally from Santiago, Chile.