Meet The Collaborative

by Dr. Kristen Liesch

THE ORIGIN STORY

Some of you may be familiar with the origin story for the Kristen/Anna partnership that is the Women’s Work Institute, but if you're not:

I [Kristen] came across Anna's posts on LinkedIn. I thought, "she seems to be working toward the same end I am," so I booked a call with her. We knew within minutes that we needed to hitch our stars together.

Today, a year later, we're thrilled by the progress we've made and the impact we're having.

the context

Women's Work Institute is evolving. We are refining our services and working strategically toward augmenting impact - one of our 2019 strategic priorities. To that end, we are acting on, in a more intentional way, our desire to be a hyper-collaborative organization that amplifies the work and voices of individuals and entities working toward the same goal of, you know, just changing the world.

Over the past several years, we have had the privilege of meeting so many brilliant, creative, disruptive people working toward creating a more equitable world. However, collaborative opportunities are not always clear in the early days of a connection, but a common cause often is.

So, we are launching The Collaborative.

THE COLLABORATIVE

We describe The Collaborative as "exceptional professionals working to advance equity and justice through their areas of expertise and contributing their wisdom, insights, data and analysis to the Content Platform, which, in turn, amplifies their voices."

OUR VISION

We would like to see The Collaborative become just that: a network of autonomous professionals working to advance a common cause, augmenting each other's work, and finding opportunities to collaborate.

We want to amplify the insights and expertise of Collaborative members, and make these available to a community of individuals and organizations who can benefit from their work.

On that note, allow us to introduce the inaugural Collaborative members:

SIRI CHILAZI

GENDER AND ORGANIZATIONs RESEARCHER, RESEARCH FELLOW, WOMEN AND PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAM, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

Siri’s life’s work is advancing gender equality in the workplace through research and research translation. She operates at the intersection of academia and practice, both conducting research on how companies can become more gender equal and inclusive, as well as bringing research insights to practitioners through speaking, training, and workshops.

Siri specializes in translating scholarly research into practical approaches and tools to design more inclusive workplaces and de-bias processes. As an advisor and speaker, she frequently collaborates with organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and leading professional service firms in order to close gender gaps and advance women in the workplace.

ANDREA VÁSQUEZ RODRÍGUEZ

INNOVATOR FOR GENDER EQUITY, FLEXABILITY

Andrea helps organizations to advance gender equity using communication tools, behavioural sciences, and design thinking. She’s worked in behavioural change, gender equality, and human rights for more than ten years in United Nations agencies and the Government of Canada. Andrea is passionate about using choice architecture to promote gender equality and inclusion.

SONALI MOHAPATRA

RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX & FOUNDER, CARVED VOICES INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL MAGAZINE

Sonali is a physicist, speaker, writer, innovator and strategist who applies her expertise to evidence-based policy-making. She is the founder and creative director of the International Liberal Arts Magazine Carved Voices, is a freelance science writer and a motivational speaker. She applies her analytic and critical thinking skills to connect ideas from seemingly disconnected areas in highly non-intuitive and functional ways.

MADHAVI KULKARNI

CULTURE & INCLUSION PROPAGATOR

Madhavi serves organizations looking to become diverse and inclusive in a wholistic way. Where leaders are open to change, Madhavi implements effective change strategies aligned at all times with the value of equality.

MERU VASHISHT

Dangerously contagious bundle of energy, Human Centred Designer & Agent of Change

The planet is full of purpose-driven people. Meru is one of them. She is a Design Researcher with an interest in human centred design. She believes that it is important to understand people in order to understand their problems. Understanding their problems leads to suitable solutions, and when these solutions are embraced, we can create social change.

Meru has explored the fields of Design Research, Product Design, Service Design and Organisational Design and is tackling system-level design challenges in the area of social impact. She is also a poet and athlete.

SHERI SPINKS

PROCUREMENT & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE, SUPPLIER DIVERSITY EXPERT

Sheri is an award-winning, CSCMP, procurement and supply chain management executive and a passionate advocate for supplier diversity and the empowerment and advancement of women and other historically under-represented groups and individuals. She was recognized as one of SCMA 100 Influential Women in Supply Chain and as one of Canada's Top 10 Women in Diversity & HR for her contributions to advancing supply chain and supplier diversity in corproate Canada and North America.

She is the CEO & Founder of Grace2, a consulting firm offering solutions in strategic procurement, supplier diversity and supply chain optimization and educates and assists corporations in designing, implementing and leveraging fully integrated diversity and inclusion strategies that holisitcally incorporates, workforce, customers and communities through optimization and diversification of the supply chain.

She currently serves as the Executive Secretary & Director, Supplier Diversity, WBE on the Global Council for the Advancement of Women in Procurement. She is also a corporate advisory ambassador to The Canadian Women's Foundation.

Stay tuned! In the coming months we will be featuring new Collaborative members.

As ever, we are committed to our values: