The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America
The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate AmericaDEEPA PURUSHOTHAMAN is the co-founder of nFormation which provides brave, safe, new space for professional women of color. She is also a Women and Public Policy Program Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to this, Deepa spent more than twenty years at Deloitte and was the first Indian American woman to make partner in the company’s history.
Deepa is the author of The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America. She writes about how the structure of corporate America was not built for Women of Color. Hear her discuss how we can begin to reframe the “fit in” and “lean in” mentalities that have left women feeling burnt out or isolated in the workplace.
KALLIE MARIE is a recording engineer and record producer who has worked with a variety of artists and bands. She is also an award winning composer, whose work with MPath Tracks won a Broadcast Production Music Award. She has written music for film, TV, choreographers, and has a strong interest in creating music for video games. She is also a freelance writer for Sonic Scoop, as well as a published author with Routledge Taylor Francis, and her latest title with Rowman & Littlefield.
Christopher Johnson is the President of Global Financial Services at Pitney Bowes, where he manages the financing and lending businesses, as well as the consumer and merchant payments and risk management functions across the company. Christopher also holds leadership responsibility for Pitney Bowes Bank, a state chartered industrial loan company.
Andrew documents the history of the Rosenwald schools program which transformed education for African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. The founders were Julius Rosenwald, born to Jewish immigrants, who rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company and Booker T. Washington , born into slavery, who became the founding principal of Tuskegee Institute. In 1912 the two men launched an ambitious program to partner with Black communities to build public schools for African American children. Andrew examines the role of education as the onramp to the American middle class as well as the past, present and future of the Black/Jewish progressive alliance.
Luis Martinez-Fernandez is a Professor of History, University of Central Florida teaching Latin American and Caribbean history. He is a multiple-award winning author who has recently reinvented himself as a syndicated columnist at Creators Syndicate.
CEO Bettie Kirkland, has led Project Return for 10 years. Founded in Nashville in 1979, Project Return is a Tennessee nonprofit dedicated to helping people successfully return to the community after incarceration and avoid recidivism. It has helped thousands of men and women find employment and establish stable lives, all while maintaining its inclusive, productive relationships with its program participants, employment partners and supporters. In 2021, Project Return program participants had an 82% job acquisition rate with only a 13% recidivism rate compared to state and national averages exceeding 50%.
When Project Return, recently opened a new office in Chattanooga, the milestone was celebrated with a reception featuring these remarks its CEO.
Eileen Koteles is an actor and choreographer. Raising her three sons, she realized the gift of teaching through the Arts. Now returning to the stage, Eileen performs as Dr. Ruth, an iconic sex therapist who lost her family in the Holocaust.
Jed Mescon is a relationship builder, brand ambassador, dynamic speaker, creative thinker, persuasive communicator, veteran fundraiser, and community advocate. He is well known in Chattanooga having served as the host of the radio talk show Chewin the Chatt and as the morning news anchor for WRCB-TV.
Rudy J. Ortega, Jr. is the Tribal President of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Rudy steers the continuing efforts of the Tribe’s missions of protecting the rights of Fernandeño Tataviam as Native American people and plays a supportive role with the Tribe’s non-profit, Pukúu Cultural Community Services (Pukúu) to provide community programs to Native Americans living in the Los Angeles County.