During March, NuVasive’s Employee Resource Group, Women In NuVasive (WIN) honored and celebrated Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day through their Celebrate Women series focused on the international theme for 2022, #BreakTheBias. WIN is a woman-led organization that is focused on being an internal resource that supports women in advancing their skills through connection and education. Throughout the month, over 200 members of WIN along with other employees engaged in two events that empowered women, highlighted their achievements, and challenged bias.
The first event was a Women of NuVasive panel discussion held on International Women’s Day, March 8. Employees heard from employee panelists: Chelsea Mills, Olivia Nobre and Ayesha Patel. The panel was moderated by employee, Colleen Friedman and discussed their personal journeys, who inspires them, where their career path has taken them, and ways women can empower themselves and others.
The second event began by streaming the TED Talk “How to Outsmart Your Own Unconscious Bias” with Valerie Alexander, founder and CEO of Goalkeeper Media. The TED Talk explained how the human brain instinctively reacts when encountering the unexpected, like female tech execs, and proposes ways to examine our own behavior when faced with the unfamiliar. Followed by the TED Talk, employees engaged in an open dialogue related to unconscious bias and ways to break bias facilitated by Celebrate Women executive sponsor and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Harbaugh, WIN Program and Events Manager, Caroline Berger, and WIN Finance Manager, Debaleena Kabiraj.
Along with the events, the team had a dedicated internal Microsoft Teams Channel that highlighted female employees and created thoughtful conversation starters where employees could shout-out their female colleagues, share resources and continue the dialogue from the events. Thank you to WIN and the Celebrate Women planning team for all their work planning the events and dialogue! We look forward to continuing to bring awareness to the challenges women face in the workplace and celebrating their accomplishments throughout the remainder of the year.