Let’s Talk About Race: Navigating Race in the Workplace
In a follow up to our “Let’s Talk About Race” panel this past June, we will discuss the complexities of navigating race and intersectionality in the workplace.
Experts will provide guidance on how race, identity and bias play out in professional settings and how to have effective conversations with managers, colleagues and HR about these concepts.
The panel will cover:
The roles of power and identity and how they contribute to the experience of employees
The importance of embracing inclusion in the workplace
How to empower teams to address these issues and take tangible action to combat racism
Our hope is to help members of our community build a capacity to broach these issues and develop useful strategies to continue educating yourself and others. We will also provide tools for how you can turn these conversations into tangible action.
A Q&A session will follow the panel. We recommend submitting your questions in advance when you register. You will also have the opportunity to submit questions throughout the webinar.
If you’re unable to attend, register anyway and we’ll send you a link to the recording.
Featuring insights from:
Ananda Seeram, Moderator
Ananda is the Public Diplomacy Coordinator at the British Consulate General New York, where she has worked since 2015. Her portfolio includes arts & culture, LGBTQ+ human rights, mental health and intersectionality. A born and raised New Yorker, Ananda is a proud alumna of the New York City Public School System, where she graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Industrial/Organization Psychology at CUNY Baruch College.
Rita Kakati-Shah
Rita is an award-winning, gender, diversity, inclusion and career strategist, speaker, mentor and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. She is the Founder and CEO of Uma, an international platform that empowers confidence, inspires success and builds leadership in women and minorities. Rita began her professional career at Goldman Sachs in London, where she was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Citizenship and Diversity Award. She is also a Distinguished Alumna of King’s College London, triple Stevie Awards for Women in Business winner, and judge for the Middle East Awards. Rita actively coaches and mentors business leaders, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, women in STEM, schoolgirls and students. She also serves as an advisor, ambassador, and diversity and inclusion expert to multiple boards and global organizations around the world. Rita is Founding Member of Democracy Without Borders in India and Founding Circle Member of ACP Women Veterans in the US. Rita is also a regularly invited speaker and guest lecturer at various academic institutions, multinational corporations and global policy forums such as UNESCO in Paris, European Parliament in Brussels, and many more spanning Delhi, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Sochi, and Toronto. Rita has been featured as an expert on multiple international television and news shows, interviewed and quoted in various podcasts and publications such as the WSJ, Fast Company and Thrive Global, and also hosts the popular South Asian television show, The Uma Show, on Mana TV International.
Kamillah Knight, MPA
Kamillah has a passion and purpose to be a change superhero—changing the way that people interact with their environment and with other people. Kamillah is the co-founder of Éclat Culture LLC which focuses on coaching and consulting individuals and organizations on learning and development practices, in addition to building cultural competency rooted in diversity and inclusion. Kamillah is also currently the Diversity and Inclusion Lead for a major CPG company, where she is focused on attracting, cultivating, and elevating diverse talent.
She joined the company in June 2015 and has served in roles in Supply Chain Procurement, Customer Development, and now Human Resources, all with a focus on helping to bridge gaps within the business and bring Unilever’s brands and employees closer to the consumers they serve.
Prior to starting her career, Kamillah was a student at Cornell University where she received an MPA in 2015, a BA in Economics, a BA in Sociology and Spanish minor in 2013, also from Cornell University. Kamillah is currently working on her Executive MBA at Cornell University, from which she will graduate in 2022.
Currently Kamillah serves as the VP of Programming for the Cornell Black Alumni Association, a class officer for the Cornell class of 2013, a member at large of the Cornell Mosaic Steering Committee, a member of the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network, the youngest board member of the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence, and a board member of the International Girl’s Academy.
Jeffrey Wright, EdM, MA, LMHC
Jeffrey is a NYC-based bilingual (EN/ES) psychotherapist in private practice and an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Jeffrey holds two Master’s degrees in psychological counseling from Teachers College as well as a post-Masters certificate in psychodynamic psychotherapy from PANY, affiliated with NYU School of Medicine. He is currently working on a graduate certificate in Gender Studies at SUNY and fulfilling practice hours to become a 500-hour certified Modo yoga teacher. Jeffrey’s approach to psychotherapy and teaching is informed by person-centered, intersectional, psychodynamic, somatic, and mindfulness perspectives.