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Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM - Haas Conference Center, Room 171

Sponsored by: Alliance for Women in Media SoCal

Diversity & Inclusion: Elevating the Workspace & Identifying New Talent in this Movement for Positive Change

Here from industry professionals about how the Diversity and Inclusion movement has helped spark positive conversations, where we are going and ideas of what else we can do to support persons from many cultures, abilities and disabilities. This will be an hour panel with a half hour left for questions from the audience.

Moderator: Jeanette DePatie, Award Winning Media Producer (PGA) and author for “The Fat Chick”

Kristena D. Hatcher, HR Executive Diversity and Inclusion CAA

Arlene Krantz, Author, World Women Foundation

Sahar Andrade, MBBch Diversity, Leadership Success Coach TEDtalk

Jay Francis, VP - Current Series, Diversity & Inclusion, Disney Television Animation

Tery Lopez, Director of Inclusion and Equity, Writers Guild of America West

Dr. Michael V. Nguyen, Cross-cultural psychologist with expertise in the areas of diversity and inclusion (D&I), cultural change, and organizational development.

Honored Guests - Exceptional Minds

Expert On-Hand - Jennifer Lenze/Lenze Lawyers

Jeanette DePatie, Award Winning Media Producer (PGA) and author for “The Fat Chick:” Jeanette DePatie is a spectacular storyteller and a seasoned producer. She has served on the national board of the Producers Guild of America and has curated a wide variety of extremely popular live events including the Visionaries, Innovators and Producers event in conjunction with the New York Times, the VIP awards at the Produced By Conference, a number of panels for SMPTE, and others on diversity in the workplace and Producing Change (about linking technology and social good) in conjunction with LA Center Studios. She has produced literally hundreds of hours of live streaming content that has been distributed worldwide. She has been hired to describe technology by a host of Fortune 500 companies including Adobe, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Monsanto, NTT Electronics, Panasonic, Pulitzer Samsung and Sony. She is highly sought after for her dynamic and fun presentations and has spoken at CES, NAB, SMPTE CEATECH The Lean Startup Conference and a variety of Colleges and Universities including Dickenson College, UCLA and USC. She is frequently contacted by the media and has appeared on or in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dr. Drew, The Katie Couric Show, ABC News, CBS Interactive, NPR and The Huffington Post.

 

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh is a Diversity, Global Leadership & Culture Competence Speaker/ Consultant, certified as a Social Media Strategist. She lived, worked and been educated in 7 countries and 3 continents; she speaks 5 languages. She holds a Double Bachelors of Medicine, and Surgery, Major in Psychiatry from Cairo University; and successfully completed a Mastery of HR Studies Certificate Program. She is an author, and a “TED Talk” Speaker. Nominated for the 2018 Women and Council awards; Named as a “National Authority on Diversity” by the LA Business Journal, Her Entrepreneur training program received Congressional Recognition. She has been nominated as a “Woman Advocate” by CWI in 2017, recognized by the “State Senate”, the “State Assembly” as well as the “Board of Equalization”, and nominated as a “Women breaking barriers” in 2016; and had been honored as an “Inspirational Woman” in 2015. She was awarded the “Diversity Insights award 2015” by the National Diversity Council and the “Leadership Excellence award 2014” by hr.com. She consulted for a Netflix documentary about “Racism” in 2016. She appeared multiple times on nationally syndicated radio like 1100 AM KFNX news radio. She gave speeches at University of Phoenix, USC, UCLA, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State San Bernardino, SBA (Small Business Administration), and the Woodbury University, she also spoke at many conferences locally, in Canada and overseas. She has been featured as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) numerous times in many National magazines’ articles as: Diversity Executive, and Diversity Bar. She is a Business Advisor at PCR-SBDC a subsidiary of the “Small Business Administration”. She termed as a Board Member for NAAAHR, and as a Board Member for Los Angeles Diversity Council. Currently a board member of Leadership Circle of change. Her book “49 things about Entrepreneurship” is published on Amazon. Her current clients’ list include government agencies, public utilities, nonprofits, healthcare and educational organizations. Sahar is the founder of “Sahar Consulting, LLC” and “Reinvent Yourself to Greatness.

 

Jay Francis, Disney Television Animation: As VP of Current Series and Diversity & Inclusion for Disney Television Animation, Jay has been instrumental in the development and creative management of a long list of successful animated series for both Disney Channel and Disney XD. He recently expanded his role to work closely with the development and recruitment teams to identify, secure, and mentor diverse creative talent for Disney Television Animation and Disney Junior. Prior to joining Disney Television Animation, Jay held the position of VP and General Manager of LEVEL13.NET, developing original properties and acquiring films for Film Roman’s internet subsidiary. In addition to his duties as VP, Jay also handled all of the company’s artistic and production recruitment for The Simpsons, Family Guy, and King of the Hill. He has given presentations to high profile and elite educational institutions such as UCLA, Purdue, Texas, and Vanderbilt as well as most of the country’s most prestigious art and animation schools in the country. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Jay received a B.S. in TV/Film Production from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Jay is a member of Disney’s Leadership Learning Advisory Board, ATAS, and ASIFA, as well as having served as an advisory board member at several schools.

 

Tery Lopez is the Director of Inclusion and Equity at the Writers Guild of America West. Previously, she was conference director for the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (www.NALIP.org). Ms. Lopez began her career in the film industry as an assistant to producers, Moctesuma Esparza and Robert Katz (Selena, Gettysburg, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge). Later, she worked as part of Moctesuma Esparza’s, Maya Pictures development team, producing 13 episodes of the Sí TV comedy series, Circumsized Cinema. She also worked as post-production coordinator for the HBO film, Walkout, and was co-producer of the feature film Innocent Voices, which was Mexico's official entry to the 2005 Academy Awards. Tery received her B.A. in Telecommunications and Film from the California State University at Los Angeles.

 

Kristena D. Hatcher, PHR, is an HR Executive focusing on Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). She partners with leadership to solidify the overall I&D business strategy to foster an environment inclusive of more diverse voices, from diverse backgrounds across the workforce. Most recently, she led the pilot of CAA Inclusion & Diversity’s Embracing Our Differences, conceived to leverage the diversity of thought and collective genius across the organization. Prior to overseeing I&D, Hatcher focused on talent acquisition, establishing and maintaining internal and external collaborative partnerships, and developing and implementing staffing plans and strategies with a focus on building diverse, high-caliber applicant/candidate pools within the Motion Picture, Television, and Foundation client groups. Prior to joining CAA in 2014, Hatcher was an Executive Recruiter for Morgan Samuels, a retained executive search firm, where she was responsible for placing senior executives and C-level talent across industries including digital media and entertainment, consumer packaged goods, and engineering and construction. She actively volunteers her time with organizations including Step Up, Dress for Success, and Hire Heroes USA. Hatcher holds a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Criminal Justice from the University of Alabama. She received her Professional in Human Resources (“PHR”) Certification through the HR Certification Institute and completed coursework in Human Resources Management at UCLA.

 

Arlene Krantz, representing the LGBTQ community - Arlene Krantz is an author, speaker, mentor, business coach and an adventurous woman. She started her first business and went from zero to 7 figures even when everyone said she couldn’t. Arlene is the host and founder of “Amazing Women in Action” on World Woman Foundation.com where she interviews amazing women who share their stories.

Arlene has been fighting for women’s rights all her life and her goal is to have more women find their voice, step into their power and make their dream come true. As a mother of two daughters and a grandmother of six granddaughters and one grandson, her legacy is to empower women to go deep inside their soul, touch their heart and find that deep voice that wants to come out and declare “I’m here”. Arlene is the author of “The Business Within You” and co-author of “Woman Entrepreneur Extraordinaire and “So, What Do You Do?”

 

Dr. Michael V. Nguyen is a cross-cultural psychologist with expertise in the areas of diversity and inclusion (D&I), cultural change, and organizational development. Dr. Nguyen provides customized strategic solutions to address the specific needs of your organization’s culture to drive sustainable, measurable results in the workforce, workplace, community, supplier base, and marketplace.

 

Honored Guests - Exceptional Minds – Will be out honored guests to represent the Autism spectrum. A college who trains Adults with Autism to work in the field of animation for TV and film. https://exceptionalmindsstudio.org/ Some credits include: SOLO – Star Wars, Avengers, Ant-Man and Wasp, Black Panther, Jurassic World, X-Men, Game of thrones and more. Exceptional Minds (EM) is a nonprofit vocational school and working studio that prepares young adults on the autism spectrum for careers in digital animation and visual effects. The first and only school of its kind, EM is a dynamic answer to the high unemployment and social isolation characteristic of today’s young adults with ASD as they age out of the public school system. We provide customized instruction in visual effects and digital animation along with a work readiness curriculum to prepare this underserved population for lifelong careers. Our full-time, three-year vocational program offers a crucial bridge between high school and meaningful employment by building on the strengths of these individuals. EM also offers private tutoring, small group instruction, and summer workshops.

 

Expert On-Hand - Jennifer Lenze/Lenze Lawyers – Jennifer owns an all women law firm in Manhattan Beach where she helps individuals who have been harassed or discriminated against. She will be on hand to talk about any legalities on this topic. https://www.lenzelawyers.com/attorneys - Jennifer is the founding partner of Lenze Lawyers, PLC. Jennifer studied at the University of San Diego receiving her B.A. in 2002 and Juris Doctorate in 2006. During her time in law school she studied abroad at the Institute on International and Comparative Law, University of Barcelona, Spain and Trinity College, Ireland and was a member of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity. After law school she began her legal career at the Los Angeles based Plaintiff firm of Girardi & Keese where she worked on large mass tort cases such as Vioxx, Bextra/Celebrex, and Avandia, as well as personal injury cases, employment law, environmental suits, and class actions. At GK, Jennifer was honored to receive the distinction of lawyer of the year.