Diversity & Inclusion Roundtable.

This month, Utah Business partnered with Comcast to host a roundtable event featuring diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders to discuss equity in the workplace, small business growth, and success moving forward. Moderated by Sara Jones, CEO of Inclusion Pro and co-founder of the Women Tech Council here are a few highlights from the event.

By Utah Business

What's energizing you right now around diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Layne Kertamus I Founder I Asperian Nation

One of my key focuses is on neurodiversity in the workplace. I'm really excited about the possibility that we come out of this pandemic hopefully having left our old, worn out, highly problematic thinking and attitudes behind. This can be a restart for us. I see diversity, equity, and inclusion really as a blue sky opportunity for all of us and it's in a workplace where this really can happen and be transformational.

Tekulve Jackson-Vann | Founding Member | The Black Clinicians

One of the things that's energizing me right now is the multi-layered conversations happening around issues of race, with Pride happening in June, and then also seeing this movement toward having Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday. I just feel like the conversation is shifting. As a narrative therapist, I get a little geeked out when it comes to creating your own narrative. And so we're just in this moment right now where the narrative is open and everyone's voice can be heard. It's energizing.

Liz Pitts | Vice Chair | LGTBQ + Chamber of Commerce

I'm energized most by visibility and celebration. [We had a great] pride month [in June] and I'm very energized by many of the organizations that I see springing up after this pandemic. I'm involved also with Project Rainbow Utah and am one of the directors of the Red Rocks Music Festival, formerly the Women's Red Rock Music Festival in Southern Utah. And I'm excited to be working alongside and in support of the members of the BIPOC community. The People's Pride Project is a new project coming up out of the QTPOC committee of Black Lives Matter. I'm very excited to hopefully use some of my experience to help support and be in the background and help support folks who are becoming more visible in the Utah LGBTQ+ spaces.

Katie Nielson | Co-founder & CRO I Assure

We focus on special purpose vehicles, which are an entity used to pull investors together to invest in startups. And so what is energizing me right now is the amount of investment money going...