This June, Out & Equal has partnered with The Lead With Your Brand!™ podcast for special Pride month programming. This is the first of two special roundtable discussions.
Pride on Brand : The Intersection of Race and LGBTQ+ in the Workplace
In this special episode, Jayzen welcomes Patty Dingle from BNY Mellon and Dr. Reza Rahaman from MIT to explore the impact of race and sexual orientation on their careers and in the workplace.
Patty is the Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Americas and is responsible for leading the region’s engagement in our global diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy. Prior to BNY, Patty held a similar role at Visa. She is an out lesbian who identifies as “blasian.”
Reza identifies as an out gay man of Indian and Arab descent who is muslim. Prior to returning to MIT as the leader of the Gordon MIT Engineering Leadership program, he was the Vice-president of Research, Development, and Innovation for the Specialty Division of the Clorox Company.
In this episode, Patty and Reza candidly share their experiences and how their intersectional identities have shaped their careers and the workplace.
Out & Equal has developed discussion guides to supplement the program, and we encourage you to use the podcasts as a virtual “book club” with your resource group or team! Listen to the episodes and schedule a group discussion using this resource as part of your own Pride programming.
Check out http://www.leadwithyourbrand.com/pride to download the discussion guides and visit https://outandequal.org/pride-out-of-the-box-an-erg-guide-to-celebrating-pride-virtually-in-2021/ to explore Out & Equal’s Pride resources!
 
Guest Bio
 Patty Dingle
Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Americas
 
As Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Americas, Patty is responsible for leading the region’s engagement in our global diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy, ensuring D&I is integrated into business and client initiatives, and overseeing our partner network to optimize a diverse talent pipeline and professional development opportunities and outcomes. Patty works closely with senior leaders and our Employee and Business Resource Groups as we accelerate our focus and actions supporting underrepresented talent, including Black and Latinx.
 Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Patty was with Visa, where she focused on similar initiatives and played an integral part in designing an underrepresented talent strategy, including standing up the company’s first Black Executive Council. She also designed and launched Inclusive Leadership training for people managers.
 Reza Rahaman, Ph.D
Bernard M Gordon Industry Co-Director and Senior Lecturer
Gordon-MIT Program in Engineering Leadership
 Dr. Rahaman returned to MIT in 2018 after a 29 year career in the Consumer Packaged Goods, Pharmaceuticals, and Agricultural Chemical Industries. Immediately prior to MIT, Reza was the Vice-president of Research, Development, and Innovation for the Specialty Division of the Clorox Company. In that role he was accountable for developing innovation strategies for a diverse set of businesses and ensuring robust technology roadmaps and innovation pipelines to deliver growth and profit targets for 45% of the Clorox Company portfolio ($2.7bn in net customer sales). Among his businesses were Brita, Burt’s Bees, Glad, Hidden Valley Ranch, Fresh Step, and Kingsford Charcoal.
In addition to his passion for developing leaders, Reza is passionate about workplace equality. He was the Executive Sponsor of the Clorox Pride Employee Resource group, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, the world’s premier nonprofit promoting LGBT+ workplace equality.
Links
To learn more about Lead With Your Brand and the Career Breakthrough Mentoring program, please visit: https://www.leadwithyourbrand.com
 To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: https://www.jayzenpatria.com
Please connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j