Joseph E. Aoun, a leader in higher education policy and a renowned scholar in linguistics, is the seventh President of Northeastern University.
President Aoun has strategically aligned the University’s research enterprise with three global imperatives—health, security, and sustainability. Northeastern’s faculty focus on interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, and transforming academic research into commercial solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. During President Aoun’s tenure, the University has realized a 189 percent growth in external research funding, along with approximately 1,500 patent applications filed by faculty and students.
Racism doesn't just hurt us on a personal level. It divides and alienates companies and their employees, employees and their clients, clients and brands. Featuring author, NBC news analyst and expert on racial healing Heather McGhee, we explore the self-destructive bargain of racism, the rising cost to all of us and ways we can unite to achieve transformative change within our workplaces so we can prosper together. Following her remarks, Heather leads an engaging panel discussion that shares a mix of research and real-life examples to help you kick start a much needed cultural effort towards putting systematic repair into action with urgency, sensitivity and transparency.
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HEATHER MCGHEE is a renowned expert on the American economy, and one of the most brilliant and influential thinkers exploring inequality today. Both her viral TED talk and her eagerly anticipated book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, reveal the devastating true cost of racism—not just for people of color, but for everyone. In The Sum Of Us, she illuminates how racism is at the root of some of our most vexing public problems, from collapsing infrastructure to rising student debt. The book has been endorsed by the likes of Ibram X. Kendi, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza. As the former president of the inequality-focused think tank Demos, McGhee has drafted legislation, testified before Congress, and become a regular contributor on shows like Meet the Press and Real Time with Bill Maher. She also led Demos’ own racial equity organizational transformation, resulting in a doubling of the organization’s racial diversity and growth across all measures of organizational impact. Racism doesn’t just hurt us on a personal level. It divides and alienates companies and their employees, employees and their clients, clients and brands. Now a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos, McGhee earned a BA in American studies from Yale University, and a JD from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Civic Participation, and serves on multiple boards of trustees, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Indivisible. @hmcghee
NAJUMA ATKINSON is Dell Technologies’ senior vice president of global HR services in the CHRO. She is an executive leader with more than 20 years of experience leading global organizations. Under her leadership, the organization leverages data and insights from across the leader and team member journey; identifying break-through focus areas to improve employee experience. Atkinson has global responsibility for Dell's regional HR teams, employee relations, labor relations, HR compliance, team member services (HR service desk/chat), payroll services, contingent labor solutions, HR operations, and HR mergers and acquisitions and divestitures. Atkinson is a committed advocate for social impact and increasing diversity in the technology industry. She currently sits on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Austin Area. She is a founding member and current executive sponsor of Dell’s Black Network Alliance and GenNext Employee Resource Groups; as well as a member of Dell’s Women Entrepreneur Network (DWEN). In fall 2019, Atkinson was featured in Black Enterprise’s (BE) Corporate Leadership Edition. She was also featured in the Spring 2020 Edition of Savoy magazine, as one of the 2020 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and Dell’s FY’20 Progress Made Real report. In the Winter 2021 issue of Diversity Woman, she was included among the Elite 100, A Tribute to Black Women Executives. @dellÂ
JAVIER BARRIENTOS is the head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He joined Takeda from T-Mobile, where he led the DE&I engagement team. His corporate career encompasses the technology, telecom, finance, health, and health sciences sectors, having worked for companies such as T-Mobile, Amazon, Biogen, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Bank of America, the TJX Companies, and Business for Social Responsibility. Barrientos’ work includes several firsts in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space. These include a Multiple Sclerosis program for underserved patient populations, tax benefit equality for same-sex couples, women's leadership programs, transgender healthcare benefits, the Biodiversity Fellowship, and Raising the Bar Women on Corporate Boards programs. He has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal with the Leaders in Innovation Award, the Harvard Medical School Biomedical Career Sciences Program Honor Roll, the National Center for Race Amity, and GK100 as a top 100 most influential leaders in Greater Boston and Boston's Whittier Street Health Center as a Men's Health Champion. @takedapharma
CHINA WIDENER serves as Deloitte’s consulting business leader in the telecommunications, media and technology industry market focused on technology clients., on Deloitte’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council, and Black Action Council. During her tenure, a key program inaugurated is an innovative approach to preparing clients and practitioners for growth – SPRING (Sponsorship Readiness to Invest, Network and set Goals). She has been featured in Savoy Magazine discussing the value of Sister Circles and interviewed in several publications regarding women leadership development. Before joining Deloitte in 2006, China spent fifteen years in various C-suite roles including COO, chief of strategy, and chief risk officer, and served as an assistant prosecuting attorney and in-house counsel. China received her BS in government, economics, and philosophy from Eastern Michigan University, and holds a J.D. from the University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law. She has studied at Harvard’s Kennedy. @deloitte
PAMELA J. BOONE is senior managing director, SSGM – global head of client service solutions for State Street Corporation. She is responsible for end to end client onboarding and account opening, contract management, and organizational and business process solutions within the COO organization. Boone was previously SVP, North America controller. Her responsibilities included end-to-end accounting for ongoing financial transactions and new products, as well as accounting and system support for all strategic initiatives and acquisitions. Prior to joining State Street in August 2005, Boone was the director of financial reporting and accounting policy at Investors Bank and Trust. In addition, she spent 12 years at FleetBoston Financial Corporation in various roles, including accounting policy director-derivatives and hedging, director of capital markets financial reporting, and manager of financial reporting-international private banking. Her responsibilities in these roles included SEC and regulatory reporting, providing accounting expertise to capital markets and treasury businesses, accounting research, and implementation of newly issued accounting literature. She also worked in corporate finance at Unisys Corporation in Philadelphia, PA and Arthur Andersen & Co. in Northern Virginia. Boone earned a BBA in accounting from Howard University, Washington D.C. and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. @statestreet
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