Diversity Cafe
Powered By ThisWay® Global
Hosted by Angela Hood, Founder & CEO at ThisWay Global, Diversity Cafe is a podcast focused on the challenges and opportunities that diversity brings to any organization. Diversity Cafe hosts industry experts in the field of recruiting, diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the globe!
Hosted By:
Angela Hood is the Founder/CEO of ThisWay® Global, a VC-backed, automated intelligence company, built upon her research and development at University of Cambridge in England. Her groundbreaking work in automated intelligence and de-biasing is often referenced in international research and is featured in a Simon & Schuster book that was released in 2019. Hood is an accomplished keynote speaker and recognized expert on the topics of removing bias in technology and the ROI of diversity in teams. ThisWay’s acclaimed technology was named Innovation of the Year for the HR tech industry experts and Hood has been named one of the Most Influential Women in Tech, Entrepreneur of the Year, and was recently selected as outstanding entrepreneur and featured by the University of Cambridge, England. In 2020 Angela was nominated for Outstanding Alumni by her undergraduate alma mater, College of Architecture and Department of Construction Sciences at Texas A&M University.
Hosted By:
Angela Hood is the Founder/CEO of ThisWay® Global, a VC-backed, automated intelligence company, built upon her research and development at University of Cambridge in England. Her groundbreaking work in automated intelligence and de-biasing is often referenced in international research and is featured in a Simon & Schuster book that was released in 2019. Hood is an accomplished keynote speaker and recognized expert on the topics of removing bias in technology and the ROI of diversity in teams. ThisWay’s acclaimed technology was named Innovation of the Year for the HR tech industry experts and Hood has been named one of the Most Influential Women in Tech, Entrepreneur of the Year, and was recently selected as outstanding entrepreneur and featured by the University of Cambridge, England. In 2020 Angela was nominated for Outstanding Alumni by her undergraduate alma mater, College of Architecture and Department of Construction Sciences at Texas A&M University.
Interested in joining Angela Hood on Diversity Cafe?
Episodes
Episode 1: Torin Ellis, Diversity Strategist
Join us as we launch the first episode of our new podcast, Diversity Cafe! Our first guest is an expert in the field of strategic diversity, Torin! Torin leads a progressive boutique with a laser like focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) strategy and risk mitigation. He embraces a collaborative approach built on transparency, actionable strategy, and rigorous performance monitoring. It’s the reason some of the world’s most forward thinking companies have trusted him to make DEIB promising and not punitive. A trusted Practitioner and former Executive Producer and Host of Career Mix, a weekly show on SiriusXM. His voice has also become requested and trusted by some of the biggest conference organizers in the US and abroad. As said by Jamie Leonard, CEO & Founder, The Recruitment Events Co.: “This year (2019) you did something fantastic. When the tents dropped on RecFest, you stood alone. Our industry was awoke by one name and one voice. Torin Ellis.” A proponent of “activist like efforts” he authored his first book Rip The Resume (September 2016). And lastly, it’s fun to note Torin being listed by Technical.ly as one of “10 Baltimore tech and entrepreneurship leaders who should run for mayor,” signaling a lighter side of this focused artist. Torin sees nothing but opportunity and runway with regards to DEIB efforts in 2022.
Episode 2: Jessica Willis, pocketnest
Jessica Willlis, Pocketnest CEO and founder, created the fintech to coach millennials to financial wellness. Her white-label financial wellness platform coaches people through all 10 facets of a comprehensive financial plan. In the meantime, it brings financial institutions rich data and insights to identify cross-sell opportunities, and helps employee wellness programs boost recruitment, retention and productivity. Pocketnest knows what makes millennials tick, what banking innovation they crave, and the personal finance gaps they have. Together with its enterprise clients, Pocketnest is forging its way to bring financial wellness to the masses, not just millennials.
Episode 3: Natalie Egan, Translator
Natalie Egan is an openly transgender, B2B software entrepreneur and a recognized thought leader living her life at the intersection of technology and Diversity & Inclusion. Natalie has over 20 years of experience driving digital change, developing high performing teams, building complex products, and selling enterprise solutions.
Today, she is the CEO & Founder of Translator, Inc., where she and her team are on a mission to scale empathy and equality through technology. Prior to founding Translator in 2016––and prior to her transition––Natalie was CEO & Founder of PeopleLinx, a venture capital backed sales technology solution that was acquired in 2015. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, Natalie has also worked in sales leadership positions at large public companies like LinkedIn, Autonomy, and Ecolab.
Episode 4: Dr. Keith Dunbar, FedLearn
Dr. Dunbar has created award-winning human capital and leadership initiatives and programs that have had a measurable impact on organizational success. His success has been achieved by acting as a trusted advisor to clients in both the public and private sectors to provide a unique set of capabilities in talent development, leadership assessment/alignment, and other areas that can drive successful and impactful human capital and talent acquisition strategies.
FedLearn (fedlearn.com) is transforming learning for the federal government and government contractor market space. FedLearn offers the first artificial intelligence-enabled, online learning platform with specialized and contextualized content directly supporting government mission areas. The solution combines the best of traditional classroom and elearning settings to offer a rich, dynamic and personalized learning experience with quantifiable outcomes.
Episode 5: Jessica Willis, pocketnest
Back again, joining Angela for Episode 5 is Jessica Willis. Jessica Willlis, pocketnest CEO and founder, created the fintech to coach millennials to financial wellness. Her white-label financial wellness platform coaches people through all 10 facets of a comprehensive financial plan. In the meantime, it brings financial institutions rich data and insights to identify cross-sell opportunities, and helps employee wellness programs boost recruitment, retention and productivity. pocketnest knows what makes millennials tick, what banking innovation they crave, and the personal finance gaps they have. Together with its enterprise clients, pocketnest is forging its way to bring financial wellness to the masses, not just millennials.
Episode 6: Rachel Hailey, DEI Outdoors
Cindy Jordan is a brilliant and boundless leader. Her eclectic professional experience has aligned her work life with her deep care for the well-being of others, culminating in the launch of Pyx Health in 2018, the first loneliness solution solely focused on helping the most vulnerable.
After witnessing a family member’s mental health crisis, Cindy co-founded Pyx Health with Anne Jordan in 2018. As the CEO, Cindy continues to fuel innovation and growth. Finding a near perfect balance of technology and compassionate human intervention, she leads the company on its mission to effectively address the health crisis of loneliness and social isolation.
Episode 8: Torin Ellis, Diversity Strategist
Episode 9: Patrick Sheahan, Circa
As CEO, Patrick Sheahan is focused on one thing: positioning Circa as the catalyst for companies to build high-performing diverse teams. To execute this vision, he has pivoted the company from a legacy job board to an innovative sales and marketing led SaaS-based technology company that will provide tools for organizations to radically approach their talent acquisition and compliance management.Circa believes diverse teams have the power to transform business. More than simply a mandate, workforce diversity is a proprietary advantage. Circa provides OFCCP compliance management and recruiting technology solutions to deliver qualified candidates for organizations to build high-performing, diverse teams.
Episode 10: Cary Sparrow - Greenwich.HR
How accurate are the salary and labor market reports that surface each month? Is your leadership team making business decisions based on monthly BLS numbers? Join Angela and Cary Sparrow from Greenwich.HR as they go beyond the ‘high-level’ overview and do a deep dive on U.S. labor trends. Cary Sparrow is a business leader and engineer who has thrived throughout his career with his entrepreneurial approach and keen eye for innovation opportunities. He founded Greenwich.HR in 2015 with a vision of bringing transparency to the labor market. Prior to founding Greenwich.HR, Cary served as a Vice President at Cargill, the largest privately-held company in the US, with over 65 businesses across nearly 70 countries. At Cargill, Cary was responsible for upgrading the global workforce management infrastructure, including all related technology, processes, data, and organization structures.
Episode 11: Torin Ellis, Diversity Strategist
Great Resignation, Big Quit, Great Reshuffle. Yeah yeah, we know, now what? Now with its own official Wiki page, The Great Resignation continues to wreak havoc on the talent acquisition industry, and COVID continues to be a factor as we near the end of 2022. But what are companies actually doing to counter employee attrition? Joining Angela and Torin Ellis for a third discussion. Torin leads a progressive boutique with a laser like focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) strategy and risk mitigation. He embraces a collaborative approach built on transparency, actionable strategy, and rigorous performance monitoring.
Episode 12: Priya Srinivasan, Vice President at IBM Expert Labs.
Priya and Angela will discuss how women can identify and capitalize on growth opportunities in business environments, and how mentorship can help women continuously level up their relationships, both personally and professionally. Priya Srinivasan is Vice President of IBM Expert Labs Customer Excellence and Subscription working across IBM Data and AI, Automation and Sustainability Software products. She leads a WW team responsible for IBM Client Success with IBM Software products. Prior to that she has lead several roles across IBM Data and AI Engineering & Support.
Episode 13: Shelly Douglas, Senior Director of Corporate Engagement for CHC
Episode 14: Michelle Turner is the Vice President of Clinical Talent and Delivery for Hazel Health
Michelle Turner is the Vice President of Clinical Talent and Delivery for Hazel Health, a healthcare company providing in-school and in-home virtual healthcare. Michelle has spent the last 15 years developing scalable solutions to bring healthcare where it is needed most. Prior to Hazel, she was the Executive Director of The Addis Clinic, an organization that connects physician volunteers with frontline health workers through telemedicine technology. She was previously the Development Director of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and a Development consultant for multiple nonprofits. She holds an M.S. in Health Science and a B.S. in Child Psychology.
Episode 15: Pay Equity, ESG, DEI Analytics w/ Norma Marquez from SpeakTU
Norma brings more than 20 years of experience in DE&I. as a thought leader, Professional Speaker, and Entrepreneur. She is the Co-Founder of SpeakTu, a Workforce Insights Analytics tool that supports Social scoring for ESG and Fair Pay Transparency compliance across the globe. In her most recent roles at Softpath System and its subsidiaries OPTEVUS and WYDUR. Norma has supported internal and external company initiatives as a DE&I subject matter expert. Her other responsibilities during her tenure included managing corporate social responsibility activities, team member engagement tactics, and diversity learning initiatives including supplier diversity programs. In other roles at Year Up and DeVry University, Norma spearheaded the new business expansion and re-engineered corporate engagement efforts with Fortune 500 companies. Norma serves as a board member of HoPe (Hispanic Organization Promoting Education). She has also served in leadership roles for the American Staffing Association, Association of Latino Professionals for America, Prospanica, SafeAmerica, YWCA, and the Military Support Ministry in Marietta, Georgia. Norma is an alumna of Leadership Cobb, Cobb County Honorary Commanders, and Cultivating Hispanic Leadership Institute for the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Council. Norma earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management from Robert Morris University in her hometown of Chicago. She also holds a Master of Business Administration degree in International Business from Keller Graduate School of Management. Norma is married to Rudy and has two children, Rudy, and Isabel. Norma’s preferred pronouns are she, her, and hers.
Episode 16: Employee Resource Groups: A Critical DEI&B Initiative for Businesses
ERGs offer employers a competitive edge by serving as a tool for attracting, recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and cultivating leaders. ERGs can also aid employees in developing skills and knowledge critical to an employer’s business, which can enhance the company’s products and services. More broadly, ERGs are a proactive method of promoting diversity and an inclusive work environment while positively contributing to a company’s internal and public reputations. Join Angela Hood as she welcomes Bryan Darby and Rasheed Mustakeem from QTS Data Centers, a Blackstone (BX) portfolio company, as they discuss how QTS has fostered DE&I through ERG and Affinity Group initiatives.
About The Speakers: Rasheed Mustakeem is the Director of Implementation Services for QTS Data Centers—a Blackstone (BX) portfolio company—responsible for the project management of all customer data center deployments as well as internal IT infrastructure deployments. He also serves as President of Community in Action (CIA) at QTS, the employee resource group (ERG) devoted to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at all levels of the company. Before joining QTS in 2014, Rasheed spent 15 years working in renewable energy as a business unit leader. He got his start in Management Consulting as an analyst performing oil and gas M&A due diligence. Bryan Darby is the Vice President of Strategic Technology Initiatives at QTS Realty Trust based in Overland Park, Kansas. As a transformational executive, he has more than 25 years of proven success developing and propelling near- and long-term business impacting and expense optimizing transformational strategies to ensure the continued growth of the business.
Episode 17: Ken Norman: From Overlooked To Hired In a Week's Time
Like many so many other unfortunate people in 2020, Ken Norman was laid off in April 2020 at the the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Even with his rich work history, including over 20 years in logistics management, Ken spent over 2 years unemployed and searching for gainful employment. Even after working with professional career consultants to re-write his resume and re-do his online professional profiles, his efforts fell short to captivate recruiters and hiring managers for roles he was clearly qualified for. It wasn’t until Ken sought help from Angela and went through ThisWay’s candidate profile enhancement process (Work ThisWay) was he able to go from “overlooked” to having 4 job offers in his inbox in a week’s time.
Episode 18: Compliance to Opportunity: Workplace Mastery for Lasting Equality
Join us for this captivating interview as we delve into the world of equal employment opportunity, compliance, and diversity in the workplace. Our esteemed host, Angela Hood, Founder & CEO at ThisWay Global, teams up with Craig Leen, former Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), to provide invaluable insights and expertise on navigating the intricate landscape of regulatory compliance at both federal and local levels. In this thought-provoking conversation, Angela and Craig explore the challenges faced by organizations in meeting their affirmative action and nondiscrimination obligations. They shed light on the critical importance of fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the workplace and discuss strategies for developing comprehensive DEIA programs and conducting pay equity self-audits. Drawing from his extensive leadership experience at OFCCP and the U.S. Department of Labor, Craig shares insider perspectives on enforcement efforts, compliance assistance, and the regulatory process. He offers valuable advice to businesses engaged in federal contracts, unveiling practical approaches to ensure compliance and successfully navigate equal employment opportunity regulations. Whether you’re an HR professional, business leader, or simply interested in understanding the intricacies of workplace equality, this podcast will leave you empowered with actionable insights and a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of compliance and diversity in the modern workplace. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from two industry leaders who are shaping the future of equal employment opportunity.
Episode 19: Empowering Diversity: A Global Approach to Inclusive Hiring with Roy Baladi
Join us in this engaging interview as, Angela Hood, Founder and CEO of ThisWay Global, introduces Roy Baladi, the executive director at Jobs for Humanity. Jobs for Humanity is dedicated to empowering diverse communities, including single parents, individuals with disabilities, justice-impacted individuals, LGBTQIA+ members, and military veterans, by connecting them with job opportunities. Tune in to this livestream to learn how Jobs for Humanity is paving the global movement towards inclusive hiring practices.
