Morning Session: Yarbrough Group
The Yarbrough Group is a consulting group based in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington D.C. that focuses on the human side of organizations, helping you tend the flame of sustainable change and ignite the genius of individuals, groups, and organizations.
The Yarbrough Group’s work on unconscious bias focuses on helping unearth our biases and put reminders in place to help mitigate bias in the workplace.
Dr. Elaine Yarbrough is president and founder and specializes in developing healthy systems with a focus on diversity and inclusion, communication, conflict management, and managing change for individuals, groups, and organizations in a diverse global context. During the past 38 years, in over 30 countries, she has assisted hundreds of organizations– business, education, government and human services.
Lindsay Burr Singla, MS, specializes in conflict analysis and resolution, women’s leadership and helping organizations and people set and achieve goals that are tied to meaningful work. She has worked with domestic and international governments creating learning and best practice sharing opportunities for members of parliament from over 20 countries so their institutions can accomplish the goals of the government in innovative ways.
Click here for more information about The Yarbrough Group.
MODERATOR
Alison Martin-BrooksMcGrail
Founder & CEO, Diverse Talent Strategies
Alison Martin-Brooks is the Founder and CEO of Diverse Talent Strategies, a consulting practice who helps companies attract, retain, and develop their talent through strategic mentoring initiatives.
With impressive background work and roughly 19 years in nonprofit, beginning with four years working in higher education and on to Executive Director at two different health-related nonprofit organizations, Alison Martin-Brooks excelled in all areas of leadership and communication
Her passion for supporting the advancement of women led her to found the Pass the Torch for Women Foundation in 2013. The Foundation was developed to provide mentoring for women in need and their vision is a world of equal opportunities for women in professional environments.
She is married with three children and volunteers for Girls Inc, and the Business Leadership Network, an organization dedicated to helping employ people with disabilities. She was nominated for Indianapolis Best and Brightest in 2013 and was recognized with the Indiana Commission for Women’s Torchbearer award in 2014. She is the author of the book, “Learning to Lead Through Mentoring”, published first in 2013 and re-released in 2016, which outlines the 8 lessons one must consider before pursuing a mentoring relationship.
Click here for more information on Diverse Talent Strategies.
PANELISTS
Kerri St. Jean
Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Northeast Division, Comcast Cable
Kerri St. Jean serves as Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Comcast’s Northeast Division, which consists of approximately 22,000 employees and 8.8 million customers across 14 northeastern states from Maine down through Virginia. In this role, Kerri is responsible for leading all facets of human resources and organizational effectiveness strategy for the Division.
Kerri has more than 20 years of experience in the cable industry, and has held various management and human resource positions with Comcast and its predecessor companies, including Cablevision, MediaOne and AT&T Broadband.
Kerri began her career in cable as the Director of Human Resources for Cablevision Systems in Boston in 1989 and later joined MediaOne to lead the HR organization during a time of rapid growth and change as the company launched its high speed data and voice services for the first time. When AT&T Broadband acquired MediaOne, Kerri was promoted to Vice President of Human Resources for the new company’s Northeast Region, where she helped implement the highly successful acquisitions of Time Warner, Colony Cable and Cablevision, and led the change efforts surrounding AT&T’s purchase of MediaOne. After Comcast acquired AT&T Broadband in November 2002, Kerri was instrumental in leading the Region’s transformation from 2,500 employees to 24,000 employees as it became Comcast’s second largest Division. In this role, Kerri developed and implemented progressive human resources strategies and practices that have now become standard operating procedures nationwide.
Kerri earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Flagler College and received her master’s degree from Northeastern University. In addition, she earned a certificate in human resources management from the Northeast Human Resources Association and is a graduate of the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, the flagship executive leadership program facilitated by Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). Kerri also earned her Executive Coaching certificate from Integral Coaching Canada Inc., a leading edge world-wide coaching institute.
Kerri resides in Merrimac, MA with her family and is an active member of her local community where she serves as a board member for City Year, and an active member of WICT.
Julie Smith
Senior Vice President of Marketing, Atlantic Broadband
Julie Smith is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Atlantic Broadband, the nation’s 9th largest U.S. cable provider. She is an original member of the company’s management team, and has been with the company since 2003. Julie is responsible for brand positioning and corporate identity, and oversees advertising, public relations and social media, direct marketing and web marketing to help drive the company’s continued residential and business sales growth. Julie started her career in telecommunications over 25 years ago, and has held management positions at both MCI Communications, and MediaOne. She holds a BA in Economics from Bucknell University, as well as an MBA from Duke University.
Lisa Yarussi
Vice President Human Resources, NESN
Lisa A. Yarussi serves as Vice President, Human Resources for New England Sports Network . In this role, Ms. Yarussi is a member of the senior team and a performance driven business partner. Her focus is on the development of strategy and HR initiatives that impact progress and success.
Engaging the organization through purpose, coaching, and continuous learning.
A passionate HR professional for over 20 years, she is a steward of the culture, talent, and performance.
Celia Bouza
Associate Supervisor in Creative Services, ESPN
Celia Bouza is an Associate Supervisor in Creative Services at ESPN. She joined ESPN in 2010 as a Production Assistant and went on to become a two-time Emmy-winning Associate Producer on College GameDay producing features. In the fall of 2014, Bouza joined Production Enhancements serving as a liaison between Production, Technology and other groups to help generate new ideas and facilitate new techniques that can improve content as well as storytelling. Last year, as the Motion Graphics and Production Enhancements teams merged, she also began leading a small team of talented Motion Graphics designers.