Category Archives: Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion

Commerce, Generational, Of Women

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Lacks Diversity

A new report shows that 80 % of financial industry arbitrators are male with an average age of 69. Contrary to claims made by the FINRA, its pool of arbitrators that decide virtually all investor disputes with financial professionals in the U.S. lacks diversity, according to a new report released by the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA). This diversity problem in arbitration is made worse by the almost total lack of transparency in how the FINRA arbitrators are recruited and what disclosures they make, said the report.

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Authors R-Z, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Imagine All the People – By Yvor Stoakley

Close your eyes. Imagine that you are the average white American in the early 21st Century. You can visualize yourself as president of your country (or country club). You can see yourself as the object of widespread adulation for winning an Oscar or Olympic gold. You have no difficulty picturing yourself as a graduate of Stanford or Harvard or Duke, as an inventor, as a diplomat or a thousand and one other achievements. But when you focus your mind on your fellow Americans of African or Asian or Native or Latin heritage, what do you imagine then? What images spring to mind?

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Authors A-H, Generational, Social Issues

Family in Sepia — by Poonam Chawla

A black-and-white photograph curled at the edges pressed between the pages of Anna Karenina falls into my hands as I fumble about the bookshelf. Anna Karenina. It appears I was using the photograph as a bookmark and apparently gave up after page 662. Do not judge me, dear Reader – I was only fifteen at the time. No doubt, I found the drama of my own life infinitely more interesting.

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Generational, Levine articles, Women in STEM

Women in Accounting – by Deborah Levine

This article in our Women in Technology series features women in accounting professions. A discussion group was pulled together with the assistance of ADR advisor, Larry Stone, who is then  Director of Professional Development for Decosimo Accountants and Business Advisors, commonly known simply as “Decosimo”. Larry has deep roots in the Chattanooga area and serves on the Professional Development Committee of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA). The group of women that he assembled represent diverse professional and generational perspectives. They shared their insights on STEM education, careers, and work-life challenges …

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Authors A-H, Of Women, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

The road less traveled –by Terry Howard

The three panelists were “women of color”; a Mexico-born Latina, a U.S. –born African-American and one reared in Africa, all highly regarded electrical engineers.  In skin color, they ranged from “very light” (the Latina) to “light/medium brown” (one black woman) to “very, very dark” (the other black woman), the former two with shoulder length flowing black hair.

The audience consisted of thirty managers and I was the facilitator.

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Levine articles, Of Women, Women in STEM

Women in Engineering Part 2: Education — by Deborah Levine

A discussion among women engineers recently took place at the office of the Interim Dean at the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences/ University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Part 1 focused on career challenges; Part 2 of the dialogue highlights issues of STEM education. Convened by Lulu Copeland, the diverse discussion group included participants from the Chattanooga and North Georgia area.

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Authors I-Q, Of Women, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Recognizing Bias — by Dionne Poulton

Recently in the news, a woman was out to lunch and overheard a group of male IBM business executives speaking publicly (well actually privately, but in a public place) about not wanting to hire young women who are in their childbearing years because they get pregnant again and again.

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Authors A-H, Teams & Leaders, Wellness

Regaining Forward Momentum – by Dennis Ghyst, Ph.D.

Our Challenging Times

In much of the Developed World, we’ve struggled with the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In addition, we live in a culture that has grown increasingly pessimistic in the face of multiple global challenges that seem too complex for our species to navigate. Pessimism seems a lot smarter, certainly more hip, than optimism.

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Artists, Authors I-Q, Race & Ethnicity

Traveling Hearth of Humanity – By Marineh Khachadour

Home is the place that cradles our souls and soothes our most primal needs. Yet, for most of us, the only place that is certain to be a home is a mother’s womb, for after we are born, we move through time and space sometimes by force, sometimes by will, and spend a lifetime searching for a way of return. My family relocated to the United States when I was just out of high school. It was a decision made by my father who as a young man had been brought to the Soviet Republic of Armenia in 1946. My father’s parents had survived the Genocide of the Armenians on western Armenian lands (Eastern Turkey) in 1915, and like thousands, had made a life for themselves in Aleppo, Syria after walking for days through the deserts of Der El Zor.

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Authors A-H, Of Women, Race & Ethnicity, Women in STEM

How a Latina Blogger Became an International Success — by Connie Harryman

I was born in rural Texas well before the digital age of social networking. I am a Mexican American. For those of you familiar with the digital divide, you know it is not commonplace for an older Latina to carry a laptop, travel internationally, and blog at a major innovation conference. This is a story about the success of a Latina with blogging and social networking in Europe.

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