Fostering Inclusive Leadership and Wellness: Weaving Diversity, Equity, and Belonging Throughout Our Organizations and Communities
Join us Thursday, October 26th from 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM in person at the Reinhart Center at Viterbo University. We’ll be collaborating with local organizations, local and national speakers, and educators to build an understanding of different DEI practices and the connection (intersectionality) among them.
Special thanks to our sponsors: Mayo Clinic Health System, Marine Credit Union Foundation, Waking Up White Collaborative, Viterbo University, and Great Rivers United Way.
SOLD OUT!
Agenda
7:30 am – Breakfast and Registration
8:00 am – Welcoming: GLADC’s Executive Director and GLADC’s Board President
8:30 am – Keynote- Future Cain
10:00 am – Break
10:15 am – Leadership Panel
11:45 am – Lunch
12:15 pm – Your Inward Journey: Caitlin Lyga Wilson
1:15 pm – Strategic Approach to Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity
2:15 pm – Announcements and Updates
2:45 pm – Adjournment
Keynote: Equitable Social and Emotional Leadership: Forging Sustainable and Thriving Workplaces in the Decades Ahead
Keynote objectives:
- Promote Self-Awareness: Emphasize the importance of self-awareness as a fundamental component for instigating internal change and fostering workplace fundamental principles and guiding ethos evolution.
- Attributes of Belonging: Explore the essential qualities of belonging within a workplace, providing insights on how to cultivate and sustain an environment where everyone feels they belong.
- Authentic Accountability and Action: Encourage authentic accountability and action among individuals, highlighting that achieving equity is a collective responsibility that involves the entire workforce.
- Effective Planning and Measurement: Provide strategies and tools for planning and measuring efforts geared towards achieving greater workplace and team equity.
The key takeaways:
- Increased Self-Awareness: Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of their own role in promoting equity within their workplace through self-awareness so that they can take action and center authentic accountability.
- Practical Steps: Practical advice and actionable steps for creating a culture of belonging and inclusivity within their teams and organizations.
- Collective Responsibility: A reinforced understanding that equity is a shared responsibility, with actionable insights on how each individual can contribute.
Keynote Speaker: Future Cain
Future Cain is a social emotional leadership and workplace wellness expert who is the CEO and Founder of Future of SEL and the host of Healing Our Future videocast. She is an international speaker, consultant, trainer, one of NASA Astrophysics IDEA practitioners, and a certified culture facilitator and assessor. Future is one of LinkedIn’s Top Leadership Development Voices and is also featured as one of their Black Voices to follow.
With over twenty years of leadership and education experience, her career expands across several industries including the private sector, education, small businesses and large corporations.
This ambassador for humanity partners with organizations to optimize human potential through a systemic, holistic approach to improve leaders’ social emotional intelligence, employee wellness, and organizational performance. She is committed to helping organizations see that their greatest assets are the people.
She sits on the executive board for Rotary’s World Affair Seminar for high school students, is a mom to two who resides in Wisconsin, and is a certified yoga instructor who is passionate about people sitting in their self awareness, social responsibility, equity, and the mental health and well-being of all adults and children.
Future’s been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review and she has several published pieces with the most recent piece on the generational divide which can be read on Blinkist Business.
This CEO has been honored as Rotarian of the Year and has partnered with a variety of organizations including University of Wisconsin, Reebok, Forever 21, Mental Health America, NANOG, LinkedIn, and AASA.
Future is a forever learner who has received her Administration and Director of Instruction License from Concordia University, Master of Arts Multi-categorical Special Education from Governors State University, and dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication and Psychology from East Stroudsburg University.
You can connect with her at Future of SEL, on LinkedIn, or Instagram.
Leadership Panelists:
Mitch Reynolds
La Crosse Mayor
Mitch Reynolds was elected in 2021 to serve as mayor of La Crosse. This is the first elected office he has held. Prior to becoming mayor, Mayor Reynolds was the Operations Manager for the Madison-based sustainable manufacturing company, Whole Trees. He also spent 16 years as a radio journalist in La Crosse at Midwest Family Broadcasting. Additionally, he has worked as an arborist, a bartender, a room service waiter, a crab fisherman, and a piano mover.
Mayor Reynolds originally hails from Michigan and spent many years in south Louisiana before moving to Wisconsin and settling in La Crosse in 1994 where he has lived since.
Mayor Reynolds has an undergraduate degree in History from UW-La Crosse and an MBA from Viterbo University.
Mayor Reynolds has focused his efforts as mayor on improving the quality and quantity of housing in La Crosse, implementing sustainability measures, and modernizing systems and processes that fulfill his mission of providing the highest possible level of equitable services for all who live in La Crosse.
Neal Zygarlicke
La Crosse Chamber of Commerce CEO
Neal Zygarlicke is the Chief Executive Officer of the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce, where he has led the organization since November 2020. The Chamber of Commerce unites more than 550 businesses in the La Crosse area to help cultivate a strong business community and local economy.
Prior to taking on the Chamber position, Zygarlicke served as Property Executive and Internal Audit Manager for First Supply, LLC, located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He holds his Master of Business Administration with an emphasis on Servant Leadership from Viterbo University. Neal’s passion for service and love for the La Crosse community extends beyond his role as CEO, as he and his wife, Whitney, are both active in the community. Neal, Whitney, and fur-child Sata Mae, reside in the City of La Crosse.
Future Cain
CEO and Founder of Future of SEL and the host of Healing Our Future videocast
Future Cain is a social emotional leadership and workplace wellness expert who is the CEO and Founder of Future of SEL and the host of Healing Our Future videocast. She is an international speaker, consultant, trainer, one of NASA Astrophysics IDEA practitioners, and a certified culture facilitator and assessor. Future is one of LinkedIn’s Top Leadership Development Voices and is also featured as one of their Black Voices to follow.
With over twenty years of leadership and education experience, her career expands across several industries including the private sector, education, small businesses and large corporations.
Future’s been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review and she has several published pieces with the most recent piece on the generational divide which can be read on Blinkist Business.
Amrita Prakaashana
Mayo Clinic Director – Nursing Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity (EID) | Department of Nursing (DON) – Enterprise
Amrita has over a decade of experience in diversity recruitment, human resource development, adult education, transformational coaching, intercultural training, strategy development, project management, and dialogue facilitation. She works toward creating a culture and community where differences are embraced, where people can be their most authentic selves and feel a true sense of belonging. Amrita lives in Rochester MN with her family. She is an artist who enjoys creating with metal and collaborating with others to teach, learn, and create art. She seeks out opportunities where she can combine her passion for DEI and her passion for art to support her community.
Monica Kruse
La Crosse County Board Chair
After 26 years as a public school teacher, serving on the La Crosse County Board is another way of giving back to this wonderful community that has been home to my family since the early 1980’s. My husband Paul and I have three adult children and six grandkids.
Committees: Alliance 2 Heal, CouleeCap, Inc, Criminal Justice Management Council, Economic Development Fund, Executive Committee, Joint Commission on Emergency Medical Services, La Crosse County Redistricting Committee, Western Technical College Board of Directors, La Crosse Area Planning Commission, Local Emergency Planning Committee, Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee.
Our neighborhoods, our county, our state, our country, our world will never be at peace as long as huge disparities in income, power and opportunities divide us, enrage us and make us hate each other.
Fun fact – I love trivia contests!
Your Inward Journey
After writing numerous essays and books on servant leadership principles, practices, and applications, Robert Greenleaf, the founder of contemporary servant leadership theory, authored a notably different type of essay near the end of his life, intriguingly titled “The Inward Journey.” What clues did Greenleaf’s exploration of this concept leave for us to explore, and what is the connection to servant leadership? Explore both concepts of servant leadership and the inward journey with ample space for self-reflection. Access a self-directed model for exploring personal readiness and begin to seed personal goals and strategies to support behavior change. Outcomes: Understand the concept of the inward journey, identify where you are at and plant seeds for personal growth.
Caitlin Lyga Wilson (she/her), VP, Communications & Inclusion
MarineCU.com
Strategic Approach to Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity
In this session we will define Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Why they are important and how they impact every part of an organization. We will outline how to build a strategic approach to enhancing equity, inclusion and belonging in your organization. And discuss interview best practices to ensure you are providing equitable opportunities for potential candidates and current staff with the goal of representing the communities you serve in your staff and leadership roles.
Amrita Prakaashana, M.Ed., PGDBM
Mayo Clinic
Director – Nursing Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity (EID) | Department of Nursing (DON) – Enterprise
and
Melanie Yrjo, M.H.A
Mayo Clinic
Operations Administrator, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
