Diversity & Inclusion Leader Spotlight: Amy Lazarus from InclusionVentures

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By Jared Karol

In today’s Diversity & Inclusion Spotlight, we hear from Amy Lazarus, Founder and CEO of InclusionVentures. Through strategic consulting, expert facilitation, interactive workshops and trainings, and inspiring keynotes, InclusionVentures creates transformational experiences, skill-building, and knowledge transfer that lead to innovative practices, better decision-making, optimized performance, and a better world.

Change Catalyst: What motivates you to work towards an inclusive tech ecosystem?

I was raised in an intentionally racially integrated community outside of Cleveland, Ohio. In high school, I was part of the Student Group On Race Relations. We taught elementary school students about race, stereotypes, and discrimination. To prepare to teach the younger students, we gathered in one another’s living rooms every week to practice the curriculum and have our own conversations. This model helped us learn not just why we should talk about this, but how — and it became part of the culture of the district and community. There are high school students in Shaker Heights, Ohio that can facilitate conversations about identity and difference better than many executives in Silicon Valley.

Why is that? And what is the most effective, efficient, and joyful way to make inclusion the norm?

I’ve been exploring this question at every stage of my life. In college, I co-founded Duke’s Center for Race Relations and Common Ground. We created transformational retreats for college students to practice empathy, learn more about their multiple social identities, and identify how to create a more inclusive campus. There are thousands of alumni applying this in their daily work at companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Workday. After running a nonprofit — the Sustained Dialogue Institute — for five years, I founded InlcusionVentures because I wanted to make inclusion the norm more quickly by working with tech and media organizations that are such an integral part of our daily lives.

Amy Lazaras, Founder and CEO of InclusionVentures

Change Catalyst: What are you currently working on to improve diversity and inclusion in tech?

Amy: We work with influencers at all levels of the company to create spaces where everyone can thrive. We’ve found that most people understand the business case for diversity and inclusion but are not implementing behaviors to get there. We help companies bridge that disconnect by implementing strategies and tactics. For example, what does it look like to be an inclusive leader? How does that translate for executives, managers, and junior talent? We’ve created Inclusive Leadership Ambassadors that are trained to, charged with, and committed to changing the culture of their organizations. It’s incredible to watch the transformation that comes through an Executive Team member and a junior staff member catalyzing their trust, listening differently, and, as a result, identifying better solutions.

We’re also working on helping companies identify the difference between a workplace environment that has bullying or harassment and one that isn’t inclusive — collaborating with Michael Thomas at the law firm Ogletree Deakins on “Inclusion and the Law”. We take a company’s legal requirement for providing sexual harassment training to another level by helping staff understand where comments and behaviors fall on a spectrum of inclusiveness in the workplace.

Change Catalyst: What will be the biggest story around diversity and inclusion in 2017?

Amy: I hope it’s that start-ups finally commit to the idea that building for speed and building for diversity are not mutually exclusive. I frequently hear from founders and leaders in start-ups: “We’d love to hire more diverse candidates, but if we don’t hire someone right now, we may not make it to our next three months.” Then the same situation arises three months later, and a year or two after that the company looks up and asks how they have so many people who are talented and look the same. People need to be thinking about how they always can be recruiting outside their typical networks.

Change Catalyst: What one key solution would make a huge difference in creating a more inclusive tech ecosystem?

Amy: Two! First, when companies release diversity numbers, add inclusion and engagement metrics. Diversity (who is there and who is not there) is only one part of the equation. If you’re not also focused on inclusion (is this an environment where everyone is thriving?), and the specific skills of managers and leaders to create inclusive team environments, you won’t be able to experience the full potential benefits of diversity. In fact, you could be causing more harm than good for the women, candidates of color, and LGBTQ employees that you invested so heavily in recruiting. In one organization we work with, telling their inclusion journey helped with the organization’s hiring: Four out of five new hires were people of color, and all five new hires shared that one of the reasons they chose the organization was because they knew the company was committed to inclusion.

Second, infuse inclusion into every aspect of the company. Diversity and inclusion are not only an HR function. Coca-Cola did this brilliantly, aligning product, corporate social responsibility, HR, pay equity, leadership development, and more. It’s important to bring a D&I lens to your widgets. Who is creating your products and services? Who isn’t creating your products and services, and what perspectives might you be missing as a result? We partnered with Stanford’s d.school to address this issue — combining unconscious bias with design thinking, resulting in a TEDx Talk and a free open source deck to download.

Change Catalyst: What is the best example of leadership in inclusion you’ve seen recently?

Amy: Who comes to mind are all of the people working on inclusion who don’t have “diversity and inclusion” as part of their job title: Heads of Employee Resource Groups, allies becoming more aware of the power and impact of their language and actions, managers taking steps to decrease their unconscious bias before interviews or performance reviews. Research supports the idea that one of the biggest causes of wasted resources at work is having to manage perceptions and navigate our identities. The best examples of leadership in inclusion are the people who every day show up at workplaces where the environments may not be designed for them to thrive, and yet they still contribute their amazing talent and perspectives. It can be exhausting being “the only,” or being questioned or not given credit because of one element of your identity. For individuals of color, women, people in the LGBTQ community, or people with visible or invisible disabilities, showing up in the face of subtle or not-so-subtle exclusion is an example of leadership.

Change Catalyst: Describe the impact you’re having in your role.

Amy: I am fortunate to work with incredible humans at leading organizations. Given the nature of this work, our conversations tend to go deep quickly, and we build trust and vulnerability with each other. It’s incredibly satisfying to collaborate with organizations, see their rapid and tangible progress, and equip them to phase InclusionVentures out of their work over time as they learn to be inclusive leaders and create inclusive cultures. It’s validating when someone says to us after a workshop series, “I’m able to stay at this organization because of the work we’re doing around inclusive leadership.” And it also reinforces the importance of organizations focusing on this work.

Change Catalyst: Just for fun, what unique or unusual talent/skill do you have?

Amy: Growing up in a very “punny” family, I appreciate — and often make — puns. I’m also grateful that Wayne Sutton, co-founder of Change Catalyst, does not let our Duke v. UNC rivalry interfere with collaborating with each other toward a more inclusive world.

About Change Catalyst:

Change Catalyst empowers diverse, inclusive and sustainable tech innovation — through events, consulting, research and training.

Our Tech Inclusion programs explore and develop innovative solutions to tech diversity and inclusion.

Our Startup Ecosystem programs help underrepresented entrepreneurs and investors to start, scale and fund worldchanging businesses.

Change Catalyst is a Certified B Corp, winning the “Best for the World”​ award for community impact in 2014 and “Best in the World”​ overall in 2015.

Join Us in Driving Jobs, Empathy and Tech Inclusion Across the U.S. and Beyond in 2017

The Change Catalyst Team
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Empovia logo
Privacy Overview

Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 25, 2023
Effective as of April 25, 2023

Introduction

Empovia is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to www.empovia.co website (the “Service”) operated by Empovia (“us”, “we”, or “our”) and governs data collection and usage at all Empovia sites and services; it does not apply to other online or offline sites, products or services. Empovia is a general audience website intended for users of all ages. The personal information of all users is collected, used, and disclosed as described in this Statement of Privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information in compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”).

Please read our Terms of Service before accessing our Services. To the extent permitted under the applicable law, by accepting the Terms of Service, you agree with our privacy practices as described in this Policy. If you cannot agree with this Policy, Terms of Service, or other policies, please do not access or use our Services.

We may modify this Policy at any time, and non-material changes may apply to any Personal Information we already hold about you, as well as any new Personal Information collected after the Policy is modified. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this Policy. We will provide you with advanced notice by email or telephone number, which we have on file, or through a notice on our website if we make any material changes to how we collect, use, or disclose your Personal Information or that impact your rights under this Policy. The such material change will not apply retroactively to any Personal Information we already hold about you. If you continue to access or use our Services after receiving the notice of changes, you acknowledge your acceptance of the updated Policy.

In addition, we may provide you with real-time disclosures or additional information about the Personal Information handling practices of specific parts of our Services. Such notices may supplement this Policy or provide you with additional choices about how we process your Personal Information.

Who We Are

Our website address is: https://empovia.co

Collection of Your Personal Information

The personal information we collect about you may include:

  • Identifiers such as your name, postal address, email address, and phone number;
  • Commercial information, such as products or services you purchase from us;
  • Internet or other electronic network activity information, such as your browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interaction with our website;
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  • Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this to, for example, show you products you’ve recently viewed
  • Location, IP address, and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like estimating taxes and shipping
  • Shipping address: we’ll ask you to enter this so we can, for instance, estimate shipping before you place an order and send you the order,
  • Professional or employment-related information, if you apply for a job with us; and
  • Inferences drawn from any of the information listed above to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, behavior, and attitudes.

We collect this personal information directly from you, as well as automatically through our website and third-party service providers. We may also obtain personal information from other sources, including publicly available databases and our business partners.

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To fulfill your requests for products and services;
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  • To recruit and evaluate job applicants.

We also collect information about you during the checkout process at our store. We also use cookies to keep track of cart contents while you’re browsing our site. View our Cookie Policy below.

When you purchase from us, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details, and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes such as to:

  • Send you information about your account and order
  • Create your account for our LMS
  • Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints
  • Process payments and prevent fraud
  • Set up your account for our store
  • Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes
  • Improve our store offerings
  • Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them
  • If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email, and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.

When using our LMS, we store course progress, including completion status, quiz scores, assignments and/or essay submissions (if applicable). We will also store comments on courses, lessons, topics, assignments, and essays if you choose to leave them.

For the purposes of processing recurring subscription payments, we store the customer’s name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, and credit card/payment details. Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, both Administrators and Group Leaders can access Order information such as your enrolled courses, course progress, and username/email address. Any additional information added to your WordPress User Profile can also be visible to the administrator(s).

When shopping, we keep a record of your email and the cart contents for up to 30 days on our server. This record is kept to repopulate the contents of your cart if you switch devices or needed to come back another day. Read the Mailchimp Privacy Policy here.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

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We use the following types of cookies on our website:

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We may use third-party cookies on our website for the following purposes:

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If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

You can control cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, or to set preferences for certain types of cookies. However, if you block or delete cookies, some parts of our website may not work properly.

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in response to changes in applicable laws or our use of cookies. We will notify you of any material changes to this Cookie Policy by posting the revised policy on our website or by other means. We encourage you to periodically review this Cookie Policy to stay informed about our use of cookies.

Embedded Content from Other Websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who We Share Your Data With

We may share your personal information with our service providers, who help us operate our business and provide products and services to you. We may also share your personal information with third parties for other business purposes, including marketing and advertising and automated spam detection service.

We accept payments through Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Bancontact, EPS, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Stripe. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to them, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information.

Please see the following for more detailed information:

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How Long We Retain Your Data

We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. For example, we will store order information for 5 years for tax and accounting purposes. This includes your name, email address, and billing and shipping addresses.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Your Rights Under the CCPA

Under the CCPA, you have the following rights:

  • Right to Know: You have the right to request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected your personal information, the purposes for which we collected your personal information, and the categories of third parties with whom we shared your personal information.
  • Right to Delete: You have the right to request that we delete your personal information that we have collected from you.
  • Right to Opt-Out: You have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
  • Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights under the CCPA.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided below.

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at contact@empovia.co