Pia Flanagan is the head of mass markets for life insurance and financial services company, MassMutual. She joined the company in 2013, after practicing law in New York City for over 15 years and becoming a partner at an AM Law 100 law firm. She is responsible for identifying and developing strategies to reach, engage and serve more Americans with solutions that meet their financial needs. A Career Aligned with Passion“After I made partner at my law firm, I began to rethink my career goals,” Flanagan reflects. “I wanted to align my profession with my passion and engage in work…
Author: DiversityComm
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As we celebrate our outstanding Wonder Women, we also recognize the women making history this year—championing equity and inspiring future generations. Below are some of their latest history-making accomplishments that we can all celebrate: Women Athletes Receive Their Own Barbies In honor of Barbie’s 65th anniversary, the toy brand has chosen nine athletes to honor by making a doll of their likeness. Knowing the role that sports can play in boosting girls’ confidence and leadership skills, these dolls are being released in tandem with the Barbie Dream Gap Project—a program that strives to level the playing field for girls in…
This summer, many students in Charlotte are celebrating achievements and setting new goals. George Taylor, a rising junior at Palisades High School, is shooting for the stars. Taylor was accepted as a NASA summer intern in Texas as part of the 2024 STEM Enhancement in Earth Science program. This prestigious program, which starts this week, only accepted the top 10% of the 500 applicants. The internship is held at The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Space Research, where students will work with scientists and engineers to conduct authentic research. They will also work to develop experiments for the…
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs has announced the opening of the Indigenous Connectivity and Technology Division within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The new division will assist federally recognized Tribal nations with managing and expanding new technological and wireless services on their lands and advance their sovereignty over the digital resources and assets on those lands. “The new Indigenous Connectivity and Technology Division will modernize the way Tribal nations engage in technological opportunities and give them a long overdue seat at the national connectivity policy development table,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. “The Biden-Harris Administration…
By Leena Rinne For those of us who have been fortunate to have had strong mentors in our lives, we fully recognize how they helped change the trajectory of our personal and professional lives. But what exactly is mentorship? It’s a transformative relationship that fosters growth, nurtures development and cultivates success through guidance, shared experiences and mutual dedication to progress. It’s dynamic and enables open communication, trust and a genuine commitment to the advancement of the mentee. As you reflect on your professional journey, it’s likely that mentors have made an impact in shaping your path, just as they have…
The 2024 Paris Olympics marked a significant moment by achieving numerical gender parity in competition, ensuring equal representation of male and female athletes. This achievement reflects progress, equality, and a strong commitment to inclusion at the world’s largest sporting event. The journey to increase women’s participation in the Olympics has spanned over a century, with their numbers steadily rising since the 1936 Berlin Games, where women made up just 8.4% of competitors. By the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, female participation had risen to 47.8%—the closest the Games had come to gender balance. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were a turning point, offering…
Over 300 corporate supplier diversity professionals came together recently at the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) Business Diversity Leadership Summit (BDLS) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This membership benefit for NMSDC corporate members reflects NMSDC’s shift in focus from supplier diversity to business diversity. The 2024 BDLS programming was designed by a committee of NMSDC’s top corporate leaders and focused on the following topics: Best practices in supplier diversity and how to shift to a business diversity strategy. Content focus on innovation, career development and learning solutions to meet supplier/business diversity professionals where they are. Soft skill development in executive presence,…
Although she didn’t win the coveted Miss USA title on Sunday, August 5, 2024, Miss Michigan’s Alma Cooper was crowned the winner of the Miss USA pageant, she is still making history as Miss Maryland USA. When Bailey Anne Kennedy was crowned Miss Maryland USA on June 1, she made history multiple times. Not only was Bailey the first transgender woman to hold the title, she also became the first Asian American and first woman over the age of 28 to win — as well as the first spouse of military service member. “My goal is to leave a positive…
By Caroline Winnett If we think about the most impactful technology companies of the past two decades, none of them were founded with making money as the key goal. Instead, they aimed to solve a specific problem and produce a particular societal or industrial impact. Purpose is at the core. Whatever you might think about Elon Musk, it’s hard to disagree with the rationale behind SpaceX—reducing the cost of spaceflight to expand humanity’s frontiers to other planets within our solar system. Facebook sought to connect individuals in previously impossible ways at a truly global scale. These companies illustrate the importance…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently made disability rights history with the release of a long-awaited final rule implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This comprehensive update—the first since the initial regulation was put into place more than 40 years ago—creates one of the most powerful tools we have ever had to combat discrimination based on disability in health care and human services. The direct result of decades of advocacy by people with disabilities, the new Section 504 rule represents a giant step forward in the disability civil rights movement. The Rehab Act…
