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 …
Category Archives: Inclusion
Diversity and Inclusion
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.
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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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.
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.
Continue reading Regaining Forward Momentum – by Dennis Ghyst, Ph.D.
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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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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ABA’s First Hispanic President on Changing Demographics – by Deborah Levine
Stephen Zack is determined that the American Bar Association (ABA) does not give in to ‘diversity fatigue.’ Zack is the first Hispanic president of the American Bar Association in its 150 years. Not surprisingly, Zack has an ongoing passion for both the law and for the issue of diversity. Recent census numbers underscores Zack’s insistence that the U.S. legal profession to become more diverse. One in six Americans is now of Hispanic heritage; the Asian-American population has more than doubled in the last 10 years. But the increasingly multiracial American population is not yet accurately reflected in the U.S. legal system even though lawyers and judges should represent the community they serve. The ABA formed the first-ever Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities to address the disparity.
Continue reading ABA’s First Hispanic President on Changing Demographics – by Deborah Levine
Defying Gravity with Prima Ballerina Maria Tallchief — by Deborah Levine
Maria Tallchief, international ballet superstar, inspired the ballerina in those of my generation caught up in the Dance Fantasy. Like gambling fever, the Dance can be all-consuming, easily contracted and a life-long passion. I caught dancing fever at first sight, growing up in Bermuda. I stared, open-mouthed when the square dance caller yelled ‘allemande right’ and my older brother Joe and his friends flew around the circle formation. “Me, too!” begged my five-year-old self. “Can I, huh, Can I?” The caller looked pained when Mom asked permission. “Yeah, OK. But only if she can find someone who’ll dance with a kid that young.” The deck was stacked against me, but Joe paid a friend sixpence to dance with me. My love affair with dance was off and running.
Continue reading Defying Gravity with Prima Ballerina Maria Tallchief — by Deborah Levine
Conversation with a New Dad about Women — by Deborah Levine
A friend on Facebook is the brand new father of a baby girl. Simon Cohen, in awe of childbirth and fatherhood invited his friends to give him ideas for an upcoming British radio show asking, “Why aren’t women given more respect? It’s the 21st Century!”
Continue reading Conversation with a New Dad about Women — by Deborah Levine