Joseph E. Aoun, a leader in higher education policy and a renowned scholar in linguistics, is the seventh President of Northeastern University.
President Aoun has strategically aligned the University’s research enterprise with three global imperatives—health, security, and sustainability. Northeastern’s faculty focus on interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, and transforming academic research into commercial solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. During President Aoun’s tenure, the University has realized a 189 percent growth in external research funding, along with approximately 1,500 patent applications filed by faculty and students.
We live in highly divisive times, where ideological differences often collide, and in an era where cancelling is common practice. How can we possibly advance justice, equity and inclusion when we are confined within such a volatile climate – where relations are strained, and people are fearful to take action or engage in conversations? This session will offer an alternative approach for driving growth and change. We will deconstruct the practice of cancel culture and offer real-life examples for using compassion and curiosity - not shame - to drive understanding, connection and accountability. A panel of executives will offer insights to help you create a culture of compassion within your workplace, community and home. We will explore: the importance of being willing to ask questions, how to listen to understand, and ways you can effectively coexist with those who believe differently, live differently and speak differently than us.
BETTY HART is a theatre artist and woman of faith whose mission is to help create space for necessary conversations. Through acting, directing, facilitating, and speaking, she strives to be a change agent and a force for positivity, creativity, and collaboration. Hart is a professional director and actor, who is a member of the Actor's Equity Association, the union for professional actors. She has worked in facilitation for over twenty years. Subject areas include, stress management, laughter as wellness, care equity, which includes how poverty, bias, and race affect health outcomes and employee productivity, cultural sensitivity, conversations about race, conflict resolution, suicide prevention, theatre talkbacks, etc. In November 2020, Hart gave a Tedx Talk in Denver, Colorado about using compassion as a tool to disrupt cancel culture. In 2021, this talk was elevated to Ted.com where it has received over one million views. In 2020, Hart was elected as the president of the board of the Colorado Theatre Guild (CTG), and elected onto the community board of the CU Center for Bioethics and Humanities. She is also a proud member of the Urban Leadership Foundation of Colorado (ULFC) alumni association. She serves actively with the Prayer ministry in her church. Hart is a graduate of the 2016 Urban Leadership Foundation of Colorado (ULFC) Cohort, and was honored to be awarded the Distinguished Graduate designation from her class. In 2018, she was awarded the True West Award for exemplary artistic contributions to the Colorado Theatre community.
THALIA MINGO is the American Global lead with the Bristol Myers Squibb Network of Women. A strategic, inspiring leader, she is passionate about helping others to fully realize their potential, agility, and ability to thrive during times of change, uncertainty, and disruption. Mingo is a gender champion and advocate, using her authentic leadership style to energize others through periods of change and transformation. In her more than 20 year career with Bristol Myers Squibb, she has progressed to levels of increasing responsibility that include sales, marketing, and commercialization. She has the current privilege to serve as Global lead for the Bristol Myers Squibb
Network of Women. In this role, she is responsible for championing gender equity and parity for all women to be supported, developed, and receive the opportunity to advance to the executive and C-suite levels within Bristol Myers Squibb Company.
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JOCELYN WILLIAMS is a business diversity and inclusion leader for Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S), a business of Raytheon Technologies. In this role, Williams is responsible for developing RI&S action plans, programs and initiatives that align with and advance Raytheon Technologies’ strategic DE&I objectives and goals. Her work focuses on fostering a greater understanding, transparency and accountability of the DE&I business imperative and driving an inclusive company culture. Her responsibilities include a focus improving representation of women and people of color through external hiring, promotion and retention practices; delivering DE&I-focused training; coaching
leaders; mitigating biases; and supporting community outreach initiatives. Williams formerly served
as a senior human resources manager for the Systems Engineering product line at Raytheon Company’s Space and Airborne Systems business, prior to Raytheon Company’s merger with United Technologies in 2020. Prior to joining Raytheon, Williams was the HR senior site manager, serving the military aircraft systems division of Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems. Williams is a certified diversity trainer and facilitator, and has led anti-organizing union campaigns, provided
executive development training, and has supported globally dispersed teams. Williams was an adjunct faculty member at Claremont University. She taught employee and labor relations, HR
development, international HR and diversity, and performance management courses. She has been a guest speaker and panelist at leadership conferences and diversity councils. Williams received a bachelor’s in public administration from San Diego State University, San Diego; and a master’s in human resource design from Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California.
DAMON DEANER is an Employee Experience leader, responsible for the crafting of employee journeys and moments that matter for IBM and our client’s diverse, global workforces through employee-driven, engaging, and integrated experiences that help reduce workplace complexity and improve productivity. His mission is to help clients envision and design impactful employee experiences, by leveraging creative problem solving and human-centered practices, to transform the way their organization supports their employees. Damon is best known for being a leader in Enterprise Design Thinking, an advocate for Agile practices, and a motivator for implementing innovative, people-centric strategies, programs, and experiences that drive business performance.
YVONNE GARCIA serves as chief of staff to State Street’s chairman and CEO, Ron O’Hanley, and as global head of communications and executive engagement program. Prior to State Street, she served as director in marketing and distribution strategy for Liberty Mutual, and as vice president for Bank of America’s China Construction Bank Strategic Assistance Program. Garcia is a fully certified Six Sigma
Black Belt, and is an active leader of local and national communities. She served as the chairwoman for the largest Latino professional organization in the country, ALPFA, and is the co-founding chair of Milagros para Niños, a board at Children’s Hospital in Boston, which has raised more than $14 million in funds for Hispanic children who can’t afford medical care. She was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve on the state’s Latino advisory commission board, and was also appointed as the chairwoman for the Greater Boston Chamber’s Women’s Network. Garcia has been featured in Fortune magazine in partnership with ALPFA as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Latinas in the United States four years in a row, and just last year was named Boston Business Journal’s Power 50. This year she was recognized by the Boston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business and by Yahoo Finance
on their top 10 HERoes list. She was awarded an honorary degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Cambridge College in Boston, Massachusetts, and most recently an honorary degree in Doctor of Commerce from New England School of Business.
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