As we approach the close of another transformative year, we invite you to look back at our 2023 highlights. We also welcome you to participate in a poll to let us know which topics you want to hear more about in the year ahead.
Corporate Programs and Community Engagement
Over the past year, we were honored to work with incredible clients to advance intersectional gender equity in the workplace. Verve Therapeutics invited us to their downtown offices to facilitate our Inclusive Leadership Series, with a full house participating both in-person and online. During this workshop, employees gained self-awareness of their intersectional identities, practiced bias interrupters, and modeled Brave Dialogues as workplace allies. IPG Photonics gathered their global HR team in person for the first time in almost ten years, and we facilitated another new program, Disrupting Bias in Talent Management, where we discussed the five levels of bias and how they impact career advancement and workplace inclusion. In October, for the first time, The CWB sponsored the Women in Tech Boston Conference, where Becky McDougal, Director of Programs & Engagement, delivered a workshop, Building Pathways for Inclusion: Driving Equity and Advancement through Networking. This year, the program was developed with new data and activities that draw connections between systemic barriers to networks, personal actions, and unconscious bias and how these perpetuate the leaky pipeline.
Regarding our speaking engagements, Executive Director Yaro Fong-Olivares developed her keynote speech "From Token to Trendsetter: Reframing How We See Our Power at the Table." Through powerful storytelling, Yaro connects the painful experiences of bullying and inequity to how she has learned to navigate her career, using her voice effectively to advocate for change. She first shared her talk at the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association's Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference for an audience of 300, then brought it to the renowned Massachusetts Conference for Women and stood on their Learning Stage in the exhibit hall.
As we closed out the year, the CWB partnered with Cambridge Savings Bank to host "Changing the Face of the C-Suite: Supporting Caregivers in the Workplace" to highlight the systemic issues that impact working caregivers and the caregiving industry. An esteemed panel of professionals with different caregiving experiences brought the data to life. It underscored why it is a business imperative to invest in this growing demographic and how doing so will propel more diverse leadership in organizations. The event also launched Cambridge Savings Banks's CARE employee resource group to create a community of employees facing caregiving challenges and connecting these experiences to strategic priorities.
In June, we hosted our 18th annual Gearing Up Conference
The CWB, alongside campus partners, achieved a significant milestone in March as we initiated a coordinated effort to celebrate Women's History Month. The initiative comprised over 15 events throughout the month, designed to honor the diverse achievements of women. Moving beyond mere celebration, the events aimed to illuminate the enduring challenges and gender barriers women face globally. This groundbreaking initiative successfully engaged over 600 students, faculty, staff, alums, and external partners, providing a platform for substantive discussions about women's experiences at Bentley and beyond. The CWB took pride in advancing the university's dedication to raising awareness and promoting understanding of gender equity, actively creating a more inclusive campus culture that supports the thriving of all genders.
The CWB leads corporate visits to expose our graduate and undergraduate students to different workplace environments and the various opportunities that exist in the corporate sector. In March, students visited the Cambridge offices of Microsoft, where they engaged with various employee resource group leaders on how they foster inclusivity within their organization. In November, students visited the offices of Brown Brothers Harriman, where they engaged with staff on topics related to managing the corporate ladder, finding your voice in the professional workplace, and the impact of mentorship and sponsorship in your career journeys and successes.
In another first, we introduced the inaugural edition of our brand-new newsletter, "According to Bentley." Guided by our esteemed Faculty Director, Dr. Laura Jackson Young, this publication focuses on faculty research at the crossroads of diversity, equity, inclusion, and intersectionality. We would like to thank our inaugural thought leaders, Dr. Tracy Noga, Dr. Cynthia E. Clark, Dr. Patricia Flynn, Dr. Kristina Minnick, and Dr. Martin Conyon for their contributions. To dive into our first edition, please click on this link. As part of this initiative, we also launched a new faculty research page, where you can discover cutting-edge research that offers an intersectional perspective spanning diverse academic disciplines. You can find our faculty research page here. If you are a faculty member interested in submitting your work to our publication, please contact Dr. Young at ljackson@bentley.edu.
Established in partnership with the Office of Gender and Sexuality Student Programs (GSSP), the CWB launched the Rainbow Scholars Leadership Development Program in 2022. The program offers LGBTQ+ students and allies the opportunity to engage more critically and meaningfully with their queer and trans identities. It emphasizes how important it is for business leaders to lead with empathy and authenticity. The program aims to create a brave space where students can explore how their identities affect their leadership capabilities and learn how to carry their whole selves into the workplaces they will eventually inhabit.
In April of this year, the program hosted the university's first-ever Rainbow Conference, engaging the wider Bentley community in discussions about cultivating a more inclusive campus culture. In May, esteemed alum Paul Grover '81 became the first major donor to this program. In November, the Rainbow Scholars Program was awarded Program of the Year for the state of Massachusetts at the NASPA Conference, securing automatic consideration for a national achievement award. The program was recognized for meeting critical student/campus needs, its relevance to the institutional mission, addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, impacting student learning or success, and collaborating with academic and other departments.
Final Thoughts
Amidst the challenges and triumphs of 2023, it has become increasingly evident that leaders are pivotal in steering their teams through the complexities of our ever-changing world. A key learning that has resurfaced throughout the last few months focuses on the critical need for leaders to actively support their teams. In this context, engaging in meaningful brave dialogues becomes essential.As we close out this year and look to the future, we encourage leaders to:
