Leaders develop future leaders, so it is imperative that senior leaders are involved in shaping and championing development initiatives designed to grow and advance talent with disabilities. The 2023 Disability Equality Index found that 92% of participating companies have a senior executive within two levels of the CEO who is a visible ally for the disability community. Yet just 5% of those same companies indicated that they have advancement and retention programs solely focused on their employees with disabilities. This session features executives and other leaders discussing how to design and deploy professional development and leadership programs for talent with disabilities, including effective strategies for leveraging Employee/Business Resource Groups (E/BRGs) in the process.   

Learning objectives: 

  1. Examine effective professional and leadership development strategies that include talent with disabilities and how to measure and report the business benefits of such initiatives.  
  2. Discover how executive sponsors listen, learn, and engage, and how they can work with E/BRG leaders to advocate for inclusive talent development strategies. 
  3. Discuss methods for tying disability inclusion into the performance objectives of senior leaders to maximize adoption and impact. 

Moderator:

  • Kimberly Brown – VP, Facilities, Capital and Logistics Procurement at GSK

Panelists:

  • Karl Doss – Workforce Diversity Director (DEI) at Freddie Mac
  • Dennis Middleton – Senior Director- Technology at Liberty Mutual
  • Cynthia Vodopivec – Senior Vice President – Environmental, Health & Safety at Vistra Corp