In this episode of the Persist Series, we’ll dive into how both employees and organizations can make necessary changes to reflect their core values in lasting, sustainable ways.

What mindset or practices can be helpful for working toward your personal growth, and ability to persevere through challenges? How can centering empathy and inclusion create benefits for companies and employees? What allows for institutions to meet needs at a person-to-person level?

We’ll take a look at these questions and more to think about how we can work from the inside out to make lasting personal and organizational change.

Featured Speaker: Gayathri Shukla (Founder, Campfire Kinship)Gayathri is an engineer, writer, speaker, and certified instructor in a method of storytelling, known as guided autobiography. She believes in the power of empathy to celebrate diversity and foster a culture of inclusion. Starting out as an engineer in a remote town in Alberta, Canada, Gayathri quickly found that she looked pretty different from the typical engineer. In her own words, “I soon realized that diversity is a competitive advantage - and I got really honest with myself about my strengths and challenges.” Now, her aim is to leverage empathy and build bridges with others across their differences. She founded Campfire Kinship to do just that - offering storytelling services to foster belonging from the individual to the institutional level.

Q&A Speaker: Madhu Seera (Manager, Transportation Strategy, City of Calgary)A transportation engineer and manager for the City of Calgary, Madhu takes a citizen-focused approach to public service, with an eye for people-focused leadership and strengths in diversity.

Q&A Speaker: Cassandra Polyzou (Manager of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Engineers Canada) As the Manager, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Cassandra works on strategies and partnerships that promote the recruitment and retention of women in engineering and supports increased Indigenous Peoples’ participation in engineering. Previous to Engineers Canada, Cassandra worked for Environmental Defence on their Toxic Nation campaign, where she helped successfully ban Bisphenol A from consumer products in Canada. She has over a fifteen years experience in community engagement on social justice, and diversity, equity and inclusion issues.

Host: Andronica Klaas (Facebook)

Q&A Moderator: Vanessa Raponi (Spin Master)

DiscoverE's Persist Series is a monthly series creating conversations to help women persevere and thrive in engineering and tech careers. Connect with thousands of women around the world to watch an inspiring TED-style video and candidly share stories, navigate workplace challenges, and discuss effective tactics to help women stay and advance in the field.

Agenda (listed in Eastern Time Zone)

• 2:00-2:30: live-streamed video featuring keynote speaker(s)
• 2:30-3:00: facilitated live Q&A with the speaker(s)

Event Platform Details

• This event will be hosted on Zoom (please make sure the Zoom application is installed on your device).

• The Zoom link will be made available to participants through Eventbrite's Online Event Page. Participants will receive the Online Event Page link via their provided email as soon as they register.

• Online registration is mandatory.

Questions about the event? Contact: PersistSeries@dothegoodery.com.