By Karina Cabrera-Bell, Founder & CEO, Reach Mama Network
March is Women’s History Month, a time when we celebrate the many amazing achievements of women. It was born out of a few small events in the Sonoma, California school district in 1978. The celebrations and recognition caught on nation-wide, and by 1986 Congress passed legislation declaring March Women’s History Month.
As I thought about how to mark the special occasion, Comcast approached me and I couldn’t be more excited to partner with them.
I am proud to announce a collaboration with Comcast California to host a Women’s History Month event to recognize the many contributions of mothers – especially moms of color – who work at Comcast.
This event will feature an engaging panel discussion and a networking reception with the Comcast Women’s Network employee resource group. During the conversation, we will hear inspirational stories from moms in leadership about their career journeys.
The conversation will include the voices of several women from Comcast in California – Karen Fascenda, Vice President of Human Resources; Jenny Gendron, Director of External Affairs; Maria Quijada, Business Development Representative and Tamara Fortson, Retail Market Manager – and cover a range of topics from each woman’s experience regarding family and career. We plan to touch upon important policies and benefits including family planning, adoption, parental leave – for men and women – and the perennial topic of work-life balance.
Culture will also be a key part of the dialogue. Comcast believes that a diverse and inclusive company is a more effective company. They approach diversity as a driver for business growth and innovation. As a result, Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is a fundamental part of Comcast’s corporate strategy and, in fact, has become part of the company’s DNA.
I have been impressed with the many ways Comcast celebrates diversity among its employee base. I’ve learned a lot about the Women’s Network employee resource group (ERG), and was excited to learn that Comcast also has ERGs for African American and Asian-America employees, for Veterans and for members of the LGBTQ community. These ERGs foster networking, learning and development and are actively involved in the community. In fact, the Black Employee Network (BEN) ERG just hosted a series of events in Oakland for Black History Month and the Asian-American ERG played a central role in Comcast’s sponsorship of the Chinese New Year Parade and Festival in San Francisco.
The panel discussion will be recorded for an episode on the Reach Mama Podcast, my show which elevates the stories of successful moms of color.
The event will take place on Wednesday, March 27th from noon to 1:00 p.m. PST. We will be hosting a Twitter Live for those who want to join the conversation online at @ComcastCA. You can also follow me on Twitter @KarinaCBell.
Use the hashtag #MomsInLeadership to follow the dialogue and submit your questions to the panel.
We hope you will participate in this important conversation!
About Reach Mama Network
The Reach Mama Network is a premier community of professional moms of color who are passionate about professional development and expanding their networks. We provide our moms with the support and the tools they need to be successful. We accomplish this through digital storytelling, empowering events and honoring moms.
Our platform has cultivated over 13,000 women who are empowered to bring their unique skills and networks to supercharge the future of work.