The two-day affair at the University of Toledo’s Nitschke
Hall and Auditorium also offered attendees an opportunity to
glean information about politics at work, transitioning from
a manager to an executive position, building and leveraging
workplace and community influence, bold leadership,
effective partnerships at work and allyship.
The opening session – “Best and Next Practices in Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion” – introduced the attendees to a panel
consisting of Jennifer McCary, chief diversity and belonging
officer at Bowling Green State University; Jaime de la Cruz,
director of Organizational Capability, Marathon Petroleum
Company; Matthew Boaz, director of Diversity and Inclusion,
City of Toledo; Robert Braylock, Pharm.D, director,
Intercultural Student Services, University of Findlay.
The Daniels’ question for the panel that really jumpstarted
the discussion, and the two-day conference for that matter,
was: “How do people go back to their organizations and begin
to implement what we are talking about with diversity,
equity and inclusion if it’s not happening there or if it’s
not happening and the organization insists that it is
happening – but it really isn’t?”
The second session of the first morning was a discussion
about “allyship” titled “It’s Going to Take All of Us:
Parked at the Intersection of Allyship.” This topic brought
together a panel of Angel Harris, executive director, Dress
for Success, Columbus, OH; Marc Folk, executive director,
The Arts Commission; Jane Rosser, director of Service
Learning, BGSU.
“Allyship” has been defined by Forbes as “a lifelong process
of building relationships based on trust, consistency and
accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups
of people …” Allyship is, according to a recent Forbes
article – “the key to unlocking the power of diversity.”
In the afternoon, Rev. April Carsperson, director of
Diversity and Inclusion for the West Ohio Conference of the
United Methodist Church spoke as did Lawrence James, Jr.,
partner, RHR International LLLC, Chicago, on “Developing
African American Executives and Building a Diverse Talent
Pipeline.
“My favorite session at L.I.F.T. was given by Rev. April
Carsperon,” said Rhonda Sewell, Toledo Lucas Public Library
manager of External and Governmental Affairs. “Not only did
she blow me away with her presentation and knowledge of her
subject matter, but she provided succinct information on how
professionals can impact work culture on difficult subjects
such as implicit bias, diversity and inclusion, and matters
of race, gender, sexual orientation and physician and mental
challenges … what I really loved about her was her
methodology of being unapologetic about impacting and even
influencing the thumbprint of the culture on everyone’s
brain – she was on fire with her words.”
The day’s formal sessions ended with a Leadership Café – a
facilitated conversation among speakers and conference
participants to promote leadership, influence, focus, talent
and allies.
Day Two – Wednesday, October 30 – opened with a panel
discussion entitled “L.I.F.T.ing Your Career: How to Grow
Your Professionalism Through Leadership, Influence, Focus
and Talent.” The panelists were: Dawn Tyler Lee, deputy
chief of staff, City of Columbus; Micah Lamb, senior HR
Client Relations Consultant, DTE Energy, Detroit, MI;
Valerie Simmons Walston, associate VP for Student Affairs
and director of Residence Life, UT.
The opening panel was followed by Lolita Davis, Outreach and
Training Coordinator, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission who spoke on “Professional and Respectful
Behavior in the Workplace.
Also in the morning, Zach Reed, Statewide Minority Affairs
Coordinator in the Office of Secretary of State Frank LaRose,
addressed determination with his talk: “The Focused Leader:
Pursuing Career Goals with Perseverance and Purpose” and
Eugenio Mollo, Jr. managing attorney with Advocates for a
Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) spoke on “Managing an
Immigration Law Practice in Current Times.”
During the second day’s afternoon, Darlene Slaughter, Chief
People Officer with March of Dimes in Washington, DC, told
her audience how to “Develop Your Executive Presence – A
Leadership Fundamental.
The L.I.F.T. co-founders and hosts Jason and Kelli Daniels
closed out the afternoon with an “allyship” call to action
“Since Kelli and Jason Daniels started their L.I.F.T.
conference three years ago I’ve not missed it! Every year
attendees walk away with so much knowledge, new partnerships
and friends and the tools to become better leaders and
allies. But, this year, they dialed it up several notches
and I got to bear witness to real and meaningful
breakthroughs happen.” said Sewell. “This year’s conference
provided the spark that people needed to take that next
step, to become more intentional along their journey, to do
the right thing even when it’s unpopular, and to walk into
their grace boldly! If you missed it, well, you missed a
lot. Plan never to miss this conference in the future. “
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