January Roundtable Luncheon

  • 01/17/2018
  • 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (UTC-03:00)
  • Cumberland Club, 116 High Street, Portland Maine (free parking available off of Spring Street)

Registration

  • lunch is included in WST membership

Registration is closed

January Roundtable Luncheon
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
12:00-1:30 PM
Cumberland Club, 116 High Street, Portland

Susan M. Gallant, EdD, PCC
Diversity Immersion: Seeding Change in Our Economic Ecosystem

If we can’t solve our diversity issues, we can’t solve our economic issues. There are decades of sociological and economic data to support the benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet effective action is lagging. The work of diversity, equity, and inclusion has many strands (gender, race, class, age, civil discourse, etc.). Diversity Immersion (DI) is an initiative to focus on the intersectionality of the strands. It’s a sequence of facilitated learning experiences designed to develop our adaptive leadership and change agent skills, strengthen the strands, and weave them together. It’s called immersion because it’s a deep dive during a one-month span.

The first DI will be March 2018.  Each cohort will have (30) participants, each representing some aspect of the economic ecosystem.  Participants commit to attend (7) days in person (3+2+2), complete interim assignments and skill practice, and develop and implement a change project.

The challenge question for Women Standing Together is:

  • How would you communicate the value proposition to potential sponsors (underwriters) and participants?

Susan M. Gallant is an organization and leadership development practitioner. She brings deep systems and organization experience to her practice. Her focus is helping to create great organizations. Great organizations are good for people, good for performance, and good for the planet. Susan has worked with clients at all levels of the system and across diverse sectors – Fortune 500, family- owned, start-ups, government, health care, education, and various not-for-profits. She has collaborated globally, providing services in over 15 different countries.

Susan focuses on designing learning experiences that make visible the patterns and structures that enable or inhibit inclusion, innovation, and a sense of belonging for all. The intent is to inspire individuals, groups, and systems to gain awareness, build skills, and develop effective strategies for change. She synthesizes and integrates a range of theories, models, techniques, and tools from a variety of disciplines. Susan is a pragmatist and employs what is most likely to be productive in the current context to sustain change over time. 

Susan currently lives in Falmouth, grew up in Waterville, and spends as much of the summer as she can in Willimantic on Sebec Lake. She’s an enthusiastic learner, committed to her own growth and development in tandem with her clients.