Tulika Mehrotra is a Chicago-based branding and communications expert. She has over 15 years of experience in various sectors and organizations including start-ups with brand building, digital marketing, and communication. Tulika began with Peterson Technology Partners in 2018 as a consultant, leading brand marketing, communication, and digital strategy efforts across the organization. In 2021 she was promoted as PTP’s first Chief Digital Officer in ’ 25-year history.
Hear Tulika discuss…
What strategies can be applied to appeal to Gen Z?
What is the impact a diverse workforce has on a company’s bottom line?
Why does Gen Z care so much about DEI?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is not just a buzzword. It is imperative DEI is a top priority of companies if they want to attract top talent as Gen Z, the most diverse generation in American history, continues to enter the workforce. Companies must show their commitment to DEI rather than just telling.
Devora Yellin Fish is a social justice experiential educator with the goal to increase inclusion in the world. She mentors under-represented purpose-driven Emerging Professionals and Entrepreneurs toward goals. Her mission is to Uplift each and every person for their unique contribution to humanity. No one and nothing left out. (FormerDirector of Education for the TN Holocaust Commission) Hear Devora discuss:
What is Up In the Chair and why did you start it?
How do Uplifter Clubs in schools, campuses, companies, and communities create a culture of inclusion?
What kinds of activities are included in the Uplifter Clubs?
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lewis M. Simons (Lew) has been a foreign correspondent and investigative journalist for half a century, reporting throughout Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. He covered the Vietnam War, opened the world’s eyes to the terror in Tiananmen Square, was expelled from India for revealing Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s abuses and saved the life of a teen-aged Tibetan monk. Simons won the Pulitzer Prize for for exposing the billions that the Marcos family looted from the Philippines and led to the People Power Revolution and the fall of the government. Simons’ newest book, To Tell the Truth, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, chronicles those and many other extraordinary adventures.
Hear Lew discuss:
1. Why did you write To Tell the Truth?
2.What do you consider the most important story you ever covered?
3. Why did the Dalai Lama write the foreword to To Tell the Truth?
Takeaways for ongoing discussion:
1. Can Americans believe the news they read and view today?
2. What is the future of the free press in social media-obsessed America?
Jim Fielding is President of Archer Gray’s Co-Lab Division. He is a respected leader in brand strategy, consumer products and experiences, and storytelling.
As author of All Pride, No Ego(Wiley, August, 2023), he is committed to safe and authentic spaces for all individuals.
Having led consumer products groups at the world’s largest media companies, including Disney, Dreamworks, and Twentieth Century Fox, Jim has built diverse cultures and visionary teams that excelled in competitive global markets.
Hear Jim answer these vital questions:
1. With today’s challenges to basic human rights, how can we use our voice and story to create change?
2. How can storytelling assist leaders striving to build a more inclusive, high-performance culture?
3. What should young people know today how to “Control the Controllable” and why is it so important to leave space for the possible?
Mike Bernhardt is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in many print and online publications including DIVE Magazine, Journey Beyond Travel, GeoEx Travel, and Hidden Compass. He’s also the editor of “Voices of the Grieving Heart,” an anthology of grief poetry. His new short story for Hidden Compass, “The Tides of War,” explores his search for what happened to his wife’s grandparents during World War II.
Hear Mike discuss:
1. The motivation behind writing “The Tides of War”.
2. The challenges that he faced in researching and writing this story.
3. How can we learn from past mistakes and look at individuals, rather than their racial or ethnic affiliation, when determining who is a risk to public safety?
Too many of us don’t take an interest in our elders’ past and stories until it’s too late. History is far more interesting when viewed through the eyes of those who lived it. In times of war or conflict, societies tend to fear and even criminalize innocent people.
Robert Chelsea was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA where he lived and was educated as average black person, but became a Burn survivor, Amputee and Face Transplant Recipient. Hear his passion for advocacy in Transplant Technology and what caused him to advocate for the disabled diaspora.
Richard Humann is a Brooklyn-based neo-conceptual artist with innumerable international gallery and museum exhibitions, including: the Kemi Art Museum, the Tampere Art Museum, the Tornio Art Museum, the San Cristóbal Art Museum, the Daelim Art Museum, Macao Art Museum, the Kaohsiung Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ssamzie Space, and the Espoo Museum of Modern Art. Humann was born and raised in the Lower Hudson Valley region of New York State. He divides his time between Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Woodstock, NY.
Hear Richard discuss…
1. Moving to Brooklyn in the mid 1980’s from upstate New York – How has the art scene changed in all those years?
2. His work is displayed now on an international stage. How did this transformation happen?
3. What direction is his art now taking especially given the changing art world due to technological advances?
4. What is the place of art in today’s society and how is he viewing his legacy?
Calvin Hosey is Head of Operations and Payment Partnership at Regpack, a software leader in automation of billing and other business processes. As a Black tech executive who climbed the corporate ladder for the last 20 years, Calvin has a breadth of knowledge to share with other people of color looking for insight into career development and execs wanting to navigate DEI in tech.
Regpack is proud of its diverse employee base including 64% female employees and 28% Jewish. They are a great example of embracing diversity and encouraging people to celebrate their differences in and out of the office.
Hear Calvin discuss:
How he got started in tech and what has inspired him throughout his career.
How diversity on his team helps Regpack problem-solve.
Why it’s important to put more diverse tech leaders on the world stage/in the media to inspire young people to get into STEM careers.
How technology is helping provide more opportunities to groups who previously were left out.
His advice for people of color considering tech jobs.
Alan Chapell is an attorney, singer, songwriter and bandleader. Based in NYC, Chapell tours the world. He is influenced heavily by 80s and 90s music – but his lyrics reflect the world around him.
Hear Alan talk about…
1. His career as an attorney and what drove him to become a singer, songwriter and bandleader.
2. What he learned from touring the world and how that’s shared in his music.
3. His future plans for his music and what audiences he plans to impact.
4. What are the takeaways from his journey that will inspire others, especially young people, to follow their dreams.
Constance Hayes Matsumoto and Kent Matsumoto authored “Of White Ashes” which is based on the true story of their Japanese American family during World War II. Constance is a former corporate and interior design devotee who embraced the art of creative writing. Inspired by Shakespeare’s “What’s past is prologue,” her writing is intended to influence positive change in our world. Kent, a third-generation Japanese American, was born in Virginia and spent his formative years living in Japan where he attended the American School. Together they empty-nest in Delaware and will make the Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimage.
Hear them discuss:
1. The inspiration for “Of White Ashes”.
2. Their decision to co-author “Of White Ashes”.
3. What readers can take away from “Of White Ashes”.