BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//ChamberMaster//Event Calendar 2.0//EN METHOD:PUBLISH X-PUBLISHED-TTL:P3D REFRESH-INTERVAL:P3D CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20231026T123000Z DTEND:20231026T140000Z X-MICROSOFT-CDO-ALLDAYEVENT:FALSE SUMMARY:Coffee & Contacts- Elevate Company Culture DESCRIPTION:Paola Velasquez\, Director of Diversity\, Equity and Inclusion in Manufacturing\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision" Helen Keller\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJoin Paola A. Velasquez\, IMEC's Director of DEI in Manufacturing\, and discover how companies are approaching diversity\, equity\, and inclusion (DEI) to elevate company culture and drive advancements across their organization. Paola will walk you through steps of earning and improvement using IMEC's DEI journey map tool and share insights on companies that are creating pathways for tomorrow's workforce.\n\n\n\n\n\nPaola's family has a long tradition in manufacturing. Her parents worked and retired from the industry\, so she learned of the value of manufacturing at a young age. She joined the manufacturing workforce at the beginning of my college years and later went on to gain experience in academia\, business\, and healthcare. Because of this\, she brings a different perspective to the manufacturing industry.\n\nPaola's career has been marked by her passion for leading diversity and inclusion training. For over 20 years\, she worked with the underserved and underrepresented population\, and has created and led sustainable programs. She facilitated trainings like Unconscious Bias\, Becoming an Ally\, Understanding our Privileges\, Brave\, Bold Conversations\, and Value Exercises all aimed at addressing the skills gap and raising multicultural awareness. Now\, she gets to do the same for manufacturers and help improve economic equity and inclusion in Illinois manufacturing.\n\nShe leads with purpose and understand that diversity\, equity\, and inclusion need to be embedded into the everyday work and in turn\, it will drive meaningful change by cultivating an atmosphere of inclusion and belonging where employees can thrive\, and business can grow. By combining her knowledge of critical and emerging issues in the United States with IMEC resources\, she helps establish actionable goals and objectives to reduce turnover\, support workplace collaboration\, expand creativity and problem solving\, and promote opportunities for career advancement.\n\nAs the Director of Diversity\, Equity\, and Inclusion at IMEC\, she helps strengthen Illinois manufacturers and facilitate job opportunities in ways that reduce the industry's equity and skills gap.\n\n\n\nExpertise\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n DEI Training\, Initiatives\, and Educational Programs\n Continuous Improvement\n Leadership Development\n Employee Engagement\n Project Management\n Trilingual (English\, Spanish\, and Portuguese)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpecialized Skills\n\n\n Lean Six Sigma Green Belt\n Bridging the Gap Trainer & Trainer of Trainers\n Master of Arts in Spanish Translation\n Bachelor of Arts in Business & Spanish Translation\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nResults\n\n\n Recipient of $30\,000 grant for culturally relevant initiatives\, 2019\n\n \n Implemented bilingual marketing & outreach campaign\n Provided 20+ community outreach events each year & touched over 400 lives\n Provided education & training in Spanish for 3 consecutive years\n \n \n Led Community Health Worker project\, 2019-2021\n \n Increased the # of resource referrals by 10% each year\n Saw an 88% reduction in ED utilization of patients\n \n \n Led LGBTQ Taskforce\, 2016-2021\n \n Facilitated education\, training & panel discussions\n Led review of policies & procedures\n Recognized as an Equality Leader from the Human Rights Campaign for 3 consecutive years\n \n \n Led departments through transformational change for employee engagement\, increased engagement team from Tier 3 to Tier 1\n\n\n\nContact Information:\n\nPhone: 630-981-1270\n\nFax: 309-677-3289\n\nEmail: pvelasquez@imec.org\n\nLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paola-andrea-velasquez/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Paola Velasquez\, Director of Diversity\, Equity and Inclusion in Manufacturing

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&ldquo\;The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision&rdquo\; \; &ndash\; Helen Keller

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Join Paola A. Velasquez\, IMEC&rsquo\;s Director of DEI in Manufacturing\, and discover how companies are approaching diversity\, equity\, and inclusion (DEI) to elevate company culture and drive advancements across their organization. Paola will walk you through steps of earning and improvement \;using IMEC'\;s DEI journey \;map tool and share insights \;on companies that are creating pathways for tomorrow'\;s workforce.
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\nMeet Our Team | Paola Velasquez | IMEC

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Paola'\;s family has a long tradition in manufacturing. Her parents worked and retired from the industry\, so she learned of the value of manufacturing at a young age. She joined the manufacturing workforce at the beginning of my college years and later went on to gain experience in academia\, business\, and healthcare. Because of this\, she brings a different perspective to the manufacturing industry.
\nPaola'\;s career has been marked by her passion for leading diversity and inclusion training. For over 20 years\, she worked with the underserved and underrepresented population\, and has created and led sustainable programs. She facilitated trainings like Unconscious Bias\, Becoming an Ally\, Understanding our Privileges\, Brave\, Bold Conversations\, and Value Exercises &ndash\; all aimed at addressing the skills gap and raising multicultural awareness. Now\, she gets to do the same for manufacturers and help improve economic equity and inclusion in Illinois manufacturing.
\nShe leads with purpose and understand that diversity\, equity\, and inclusion need to be embedded into the everyday work and in turn\, it will drive meaningful change by cultivating an atmosphere of inclusion and belonging where employees can thrive\, and business can grow. By combining her knowledge of critical and emerging issues in the United States with IMEC resources\, she helps establish actionable goals and objectives to reduce turnover\, support workplace collaboration\, expand creativity and problem solving\, and promote opportunities for career advancement.
\nAs the Director of Diversity\, Equity\, and Inclusion at IMEC\, she helps strengthen Illinois manufacturers and facilitate job opportunities in ways that reduce the industry&rsquo\;s equity and skills gap.
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\nExpertise

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  • DEI Training\, Initiatives\, and Educational Programs
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  • Continuous Improvement
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  • Leadership Development
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  • Employee Engagement
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  • Project Management
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  • Trilingual (English\, Spanish\, and Portuguese)
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Specialized Skills

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  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
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  • Bridging the Gap Trainer &\; Trainer of Trainers
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  • Master of Arts in Spanish Translation
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  • Bachelor of Arts in Business &\; Spanish Translation
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Results

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  • Recipient of $30\,000 grant for culturally relevant initiatives\, 2019\n\n
      \n
    • Implemented bilingual marketing &\; outreach campaign
      • \n
    • Provided 20+ community outreach events each year &\; touched over 400 lives
      • \n
    • Provided education &\; training in Spanish for 3 consecutive years
      • \n
    \n
    • \n
  • Led Community Health Worker project\, 2019-2021\n
      \n
    • Increased the # of resource referrals by 10% each year
      • \n
    • Saw an 88% reduction in ED utilization of patients
      • \n
    \n
    • \n
  • Led LGBTQ Taskforce\, 2016-2021\n
      \n
    • Facilitated education\, training &\; panel discussions
      • \n
    • Led review of policies &\; procedures
      • \n
    • Recognized as an Equality Leader from the Human Rights Campaign for 3 consecutive years
      • \n
    \n
    • \n
  • Led departments through transformational change for employee engagement\, increased engagement team from Tier 3 to Tier 1
    • \n
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Contact Information:

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Phone: 630-981-1270
\nFax: 309-677-3289
\nEmail: \;pvelasquez@imec.org
\nLinkedin: \;https://www.linkedin.com/in/paola-andrea-velasquez/

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\n LOCATION:Roosevelt University Alumni Hall (Attendees will want to park close to circle drive and enter in circle drive (main entrance doors.) Security will be there to assist people to getting to the right location. Attendees will turn right at the security desk and head straight down the hallway where they dead end into Alumni Hall.) UID:e.9129.4190 SEQUENCE:3 DTSTAMP:20260407T133939Z URL:http://schaumburgbusiness.memberzone.com/events/details/coffee-contacts-elevate-company-culture-4190 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR