What Allyship Looks & Feels Like

In Episode 57, Melinda Briana Epler is joined by four inspiring DEI experts: Ritu Bhasin, Wayne Sutton, Rachel Williams, and Tiffany Yu. They explore what allyship means to each of them, specific examples of how allies have impacted them, and how they think about being allies for others. This conversation was originally recorded during the launch event for How to Be an Ally, Melinda’s book. 

About the Panelists

Ritu Bhasin, LL.B. MBA, President of bhasin consulting inc., is an award-winning speaker, author, and expert in diversity and inclusion, women’s advancement, and authentic leadership. Her Amazon bestselling book, The Authenticity Principle: Resist Conformity, Embrace Differences, and Transform How You Live, Work, and Lead, was released in Fall 2017.

Wayne Sutton is a serial entrepreneur and founder of the Icon Project. The Icon Project mission is to address Black and Brown Men’s mental health and professional development needs in tech. Wayne is also the Co-Founder and CTO of Change Catalyst. In addition to mentoring and advising entrepreneurs, Wayne’s life goal is to advocate for the awareness of humans to address their mental health.

Rachel Williams is a Bay Area native with more than 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley. Her experience spans human resources – recruiting, strategic employee relations and engagement, organizational change, culture & learning development, inclusion programming and implementation. Rachel is currently the Head of Equity Inclusion & Diversity Talent Acquisition for X – the moonshot factory.

Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to rebrand disability through the power of community and the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, a monthly micro-grant for disability projects that has awarded $37.5k to 38 projects in 8 countries. She was appointed to the San Francisco Mayor’s Disability Council by San Francisco Mayor London Breed in 2019. 

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For more about Empovia, visit https://ally.cc. There, you’ll also find educational resources and highlights from this episode.

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Production Team

Creator & Host: Melinda Briana Epler 

Producer: Juliette Roy 

Project Manager: Emilie Maas

Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos 

Director of Marketing: Ariyah April

Marketing Communications Coordinator: Christina Swindlehurst Chan

[Image description: Leading With Empathy & Allyship promo with the Empovia logo and photos of  Melinda Briana Epler, a White woman with red hair, glasses, and orange shirt holding a white mug behind a laptop; Ritu Basin, a Punjabi Indian-Canadian woman with long black hair and beaded necklace; Wayne Sutton, a Black man with a goatee, glasses, and a dark grey button-down; and Tiffany Yu, an Asian woman with brown hair and beige shawl.]

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