Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. Lydia is an adjunct lecturer in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Disability Studies Program at Georgetown University, as well as Self-Advocacy Discipline Coordinator for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Fellowship program. They are also an adjunct professorial lecturer in American Studies in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University. Lydia is currently founding executive director of the Autistic People of Color Fund, a project of collective care, redistributive justice, and mutual aid. They are co-president of the Disability Rights Bar Association and Disability Justice Committee representative on the National Lawyers Guild board. Lydia is currently creating Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot.
Lydia was formerly Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focused on algorithmic discrimination and disability; and Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. They are a former member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, visiting faculty at Tufts University, and chairperson of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council. Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.
Joaquin Ross is a Senior Associate for the DEI Strategy terrain on the Advisory team at Seramount. In his role, he supports the DEI Strategy Terrain through his knowledge and experience of social justice work, history, and culture. His responsibilities include supporting DBP advisor presentations and creating client resources.
Driven by community organizing and social advocacy, Joaquin has a strong commitment to uplifting marginalized and underserved communities. Prior to joining the Seramount/EAB team, Joaquin served as the Civic Engagement Campaign Director for the Virginia NAACP. While in this role, he managed a campaign that had a budget of almost 3 million dollars, created programs for voter registration, voter protection, early voting, and voter engagement. He also participated and created events dealing with educational disparities, Diversity in the workplace, intergenerational issues, and much more!
Prior to that, Joaquin served in many positions that fight for social justice and equity such as a Community Organizer for New Virginia Majority and a Senior Program Director for the YMCA.
Joaquin holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary and a Bachelor’s Degree from Presbyterian College. He claims Covington, GA as his hometown but he is currently residing in Richmond, VA. In his free time, Joaquin enjoys reading, traveling, grilling, and baking for family and friends.
Tandra Cheatham is the Head of Pricing for The Americas and Under Armour and the Co- Chair for the W.I.L.L. (Women Inspiring Leading and Living) Employee Resource Group. She is responsible for the initial pricing strategy in the US, CA, and LATAM. Tandra sets the promotional strategy in the Direct-to-Consumer Channel for UA across the US, CA and Mexico and that meet the company’s profit goals.
Tandra has been in the Retail Industry spanning 3 decades working for several high-profile brands in both Merchandising and Planning. She is a results-oriented, highly focused executive with a proven track record of leadership, effective communication and motivating teams.
Tandra is a proud Alumni of Hampton University and former Board Member and currently is an Advisor for RAISE Fashion.
Matt Deegan is Constellation’s Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer, reporting to Robert Hanson, Executive Vice President and President, Wine + Spirits.
In this role, Matt is responsible for overseeing the wine and spirits sales organization, inclusive of the U.S., the Americas, sales strategy and commercial planning.
Matt joined Constellation Brands in 2016 as senior vice president, sales for the company’s wine and spirits division, where he was responsible for managing 19 states.
Before joining Constellation Brands, Matt held a number of senior leadership roles in sales and marketing with increasing responsibility at Campari, Beam Suntory, and Southern Wine and Spirits.
Matt and his wife Jori reside in Elmhurst Illinois with their three daughters. Matt is an avid runner who enjoys playing golf, reading and spending time with his family.
Kerri Joy joined Constellation Brands over 5 years ago as the Director, Learning & Development. She has over 15 years of people development experience. In her current role Kerri is responsible for the onboarding, continued education, and marketing enablement to the beer sales organization. As a Director, she partners with business leaders to create engaging learning courses that meet the needs of leadership priorities.
Prior to joining Constellation Brands, Kerri created learning and coaching programs as the Director, Learning & Development at Tribune Publishing for 10 years. She worked to build out new business process and partnered with senior stakeholders to advise on career development, performance management, and people strategy.
Kerri is passionate about the development of people and creating space for individuals to meet their career goals. She is dedicated to increasing diversity both professionally and personally. She is driven by the belief that diverse teams and environments are contributing factors for success of any kind. Kerri is one of the founding members and current global co-lead of AASCEND (African Americans Strengthening Constellation’s Engagement, Networking and Development) business resource group at Constellation Brands.
Responsibilities
As a Sr. Project Manager within Global PMO at Alight Solutions, Chris is responsible for leading and directing both internal and external client team’s high priority and complete projects. She specializes in projects with payroll, timekeeping, year-end/begin, application enhancement, Mergers and Acquisitions and inter-domain connectivity managing all aspects of the project life cycle (initiate, plan, execute, control and close).
About Me
Chris has been with Alight Solutions for 19 years and started out on implementing 2 large financial institutions and managing their BAU Operations teams as the WFA/HCM Manager for 10 years prior to moving to Global PMO.
Chris has a passion for mentoring and is a mentor with the Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia. She’s also currently leading the BPN mentoring pilot for Alight.
Chris is a graduate of Northeaster Illinois University with a degree in Human Resource Development and holds an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Chris has a Six Sigma Green Belt, a Professional Human Resources and Diversity Equity and Inclusion in the workplace certifications.
Ask Me About
Ask me about mentoring, M&A, Operations and Process Improvements and the work we are doing within our Colleague Led Communities.
Favorite Quote
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you. (Zig Ziglar)