Enhancing awareness of intersectionality within Diversity & Inclusion.

We brought in an outside speaker, Doug Melville, to discuss what Intersectionality is, and to walk the attendees through understanding their “Diversity IQ.” Doug also challenged everyone on the call to do one action and learn three things.

We then had four sessions, led by our Employee Networks, to discuss relevant intersectional topics.

These panel topics included:

1. Colorism; led by REACH, our Black/African-American Employee Network and Unidos, our Hispanic Employee Network.
2. Transgender and Women Rights; led by our LGBTQ+ Employee Network, Pride and our Women Employee Network.
3. Navigating an Ableist and Civilian Environment; led by Accessibility, our Employee Network for those with visible and invisible disabilities, and Valor, our Employee Network for our Veteran and Military Spouses Employee Network.
4. and The Parent Trap; being a working parent and cultural differences in parenting, led by our Asian Employee Network and Parent Employee Network.

These courageous conversations, led by our eight Employee Networks, helped our greater workforce see how intersectionality is critical in an inclusive environment.

By leaning on our eight Employee Networks to find a topic that would be relevant to their pair, it proves how encompassing intersectionality is across several groups. Each panel left us all with action steps that we can take as allies or members of the community, addressed the tough, controversial points, and truly encouraged us to feel empathy and compassion.

Our CEO noted, "If there's one true superhero quality people can have, it's empathy."

Dianne Greene