Renowned comedian, actress, writer, and disability advocate Maysoon Zayid jokes that if there were an ‘Oppression Olympics,’ she would win the gold medal: “I’m Arab, I’m Muslim, I’m a woman of color, I’m divorced, I’m disabled, and I live in New Jersey.” Known for her famed TED Talk “I got 99 problems…palsy is just one,” which has over 11M views, Zayid is a highly sought-after speaker for events with groups like the Ralph Lauren Foundation, Fidelity, Veeam, the Asia Society, Salesforce, and many more. Zayid has performed around the world, headlining the Arabs Gone Wild Comedy Tour and The Muslims Are Coming Tour, in which comedians toured the U.S. in an effort to counter Islamophobia. She is the co-founder and co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and The Muslim Funny Fest. In her New York Times bestselling memoir Find Another Dream, Zayid shares her hilarious and poignant journey of failures, successes, and insights about what it takes to make your dream a reality.
Zayid served as a full-time on-air contributor for Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and has been featured on The Nick Cannon Show’s Cannon’s Comedy Club, Let’s Kiki with Miz Cracker, CNN, The Wall Street Journal’s Secrets of Wealthy Women podcast, in The New York Times, and Glamour, which nailed her as “the most fearless comic alive.” Her writing has been featured in Refinery29 and The Daily Beast, among many others. Her second book, a middle-grade graphic novel titled Shiny Misfits, is set to be published by Scholastic in 2024, with an audiobook distributed by Audible. A current Princeton University Arts Fellow, she teaches in-demand courses on comedy, brand messaging, and collaboration. Hilarious, disarming, and sharing a message of inclusion that matters, Zayid’s comedy and commentary resonate with audiences of all kinds.
Annie Colson (pronouns: she, her, hers) serves as Senior Manager of Global Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Kellanova (formerly Kellogg Company). Currently, she sets the global strategy for ED&I learning activations and works closely with regional partners to ensure continuity across the world.
Prior to Kellanova, she worked at Allstate Insurance Company’s global headquarters for a decade, serving in multiple leadership, HR and Learning & Development roles, where she led leadership development initiatives and mentorship programs.
Annie earned her bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from Ohio University and is a strong believer of intrinsic motivation and perpetual learning. She is dedicated to creating a place at Kellanova’s table for all, where everyone feels like they can bring their authentic selves to work.
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.
Catherine Ewell is the Senior Vice President at Seramount, part of EAB. In this role, she leads Seramount’s Research and Insights division, overseeing the dedicated and talented team of researchers, advisors, and relationship directors who help over 500 partners navigate the rapidly evolving DEI and talent landscape.
Prior to joining the Seramount executive team in November 2022, Catherine served as Senior Vice President of Partner Success at EAB. There, she was responsible for ensuring that every partner maximized the value received from their EAB technology and research partnerships. Throughout her more than 20-year career with EAB and the Advisory Board Company, Catherine has worked with leaders in the higher education and health care sectors leading research, consulting, product, and customer success teams to turn ideas and technology into real-world, measurable impact.
Catherine is proud to serve as Executive Sponsor for the firm’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group. She is passionate about leadership development and facilitates trainings for firm leaders on topics ranging from accountability to maximizing energy. Catherine holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. She is based in Washington, DC, and is an avid traveler and scuba diver.
Drawing on her extensive experience in government service, she provides valuable advice to clients on a diverse range of public policy issues, government regulatory enforcement trends, election and political law matters, congressional investigations, and civil and criminal white-collar and investigations matters. Her expertise spans various industries, including technology, financial services, FinTech, energy, and consumer goods.
She joined Covington after serving as Assistant to the President and White House Counsel for President Biden. In this role, she led the administration’s efforts to confirm Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African-American woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She also provided counsel on a wide array of matters and policy initiatives, such as the administration’s covid strategy, voting rights, high-profile congressional investigations (including the January 6th Committee), and immigration reform.
Before her role as White House Counsel, she led the legal team for the Biden-Harris campaign as General Counsel. During the Obama administration, she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel for ethics. Following the administration, she held key legal positions as General Counsel of the Obama Foundation and General Counsel of the personal office of President and Mrs. Obama.
Prior to her government service, she was a Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, specializing in legal and judicial ethics and the regulation of the legal profession. She also taught at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and served as an inaugural faculty member at the Drexel University College of Law.
Hannah Goodfriend is a Diversity, Equity & Culture Specialist and Employee Network Lead at Nasdaq, she provides daily support to our twelve employee networks, many of which serve historically marginalized communities. Her role touches on event planning, communications, driving strategy, and spearheading initiatives for these networks. In addition to her internal work, she assists in completing external campaigns and surveys to report on Nasdaq’s progress related to diversity, inclusion and belonging. In her free time Hannah loves to paint, craft and watch Ru Paul’s drag race. She lives in New York City and is a graduate of New York University
Susan Haseley leads enterprise ESG and DEI global strategy and programming for Robert Half and its subsidiary, Protiviti. She has been with Protiviti since its inception in 2002. In addition to her ESG and DEI responsibilities, Haseley serves as an advisor to key clients and draws on over 30 years of experience providing internal audit, technology and risk consulting services. She previously served as Protiviti’s Global Industry Leader for the Healthcare and Life Sciences practice and as the Market Leader for the Dallas office. Under her leadership, Protiviti’s Dallas office has been recognized multiple times as one of the best places to work in Texas.
Prior to joining Protiviti, Haseley spent seven years with Arthur Andersen as a partner in its Risk Consulting practice, responsible for directing technology risk consulting and outsourced internal audit services. Earlier in her career, she held industry positions as vice president of IT Audit for a large insurance organization and a system analyst implementing financial systems for a large aerospace company.
Haseley earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Dallas and a bachelor’s degree in information systems from Ohio University.
Michael Ehret is the Head of Global Talent Management for Johnson & Johnson, responsible for the attraction and development of a global and diverse talent across the enterprise. Michael oversees succession management, talent development, talent acquisition, people analytics, talent mobility, performance management, and assessment.
Most recently, Michael was Head of Succession Management and Assessment in Global Talent Management, where he advanced and increased the depth and diversity of the enterprise leadership pipeline, focusing on the next generation of talent and the identification and advancement of emerging leaders.
Previously, Michael served as Head of Human Resources for the $20B Commercial Franchises within Medical Devices, Vice President of Human Resources for the nonmanufacturing parts of Supply Chain (20,000 employees in 80 countries), and Vice President of Talent Development, with responsibility for global Leadership Development and Learning,
as well as Talent Mobility.
Prior to his time with Johnson & Johnson, Michael worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb and CIGNA, where he held several HR business partner and talent management positions, beginning his career as a member of the CIGNA HR Leadership Development Program.
Michael received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Global Leadership and Change Management from Pepperdine University, and his Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership also from Pepperdine. He has a Master of Science degree in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance and Marketing from the University of Richmond.