Recap: Annual Women in Businesss and Civic Engagement Powered by Google
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On Thursday, September 15, 2016, Walker’s Legacy and the Walker’s Legacy Foundation in partnership with the Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce (MBCC) Women of Color Entrepreneurship Circle hosted its 4th annual Women in Business and Civic Engagement Program at the Google offices in Washington, DC. Taking place during the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference, our program and reception brought together women of color in business, entrepreneurship, policy, and technology for a day of inspiration and education.
The program, moderated by Jummy Olabanji, reporter and anchor for WJLA-TV ABC7 News, featured two expert panel discussions and remarks from our title sponsor, Google, and beauty sponsor, Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture.
Our first panel, Women Leading: Building Innovation Ecosystems, was led by Chanelle Hardy, Strategic Outreach & Public Policy Partnerships for Google, and discussed strategies for building innovation economies, supporting local businesses, and the role that governments/public-private partnerships can play in ecosystem development.
Experts for that discussion included Theia Washington, Founding Executive Director of The City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative; Aisha Glover, Acting EVP, Chief Business Officer, City of Newark New Jersey, Newark Community Economic Development Corporation; Rumia Ambrose-Burbank, President, SDE Vendor Management Solutions, Inc. and Board Member, Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce; and Faith Leach, Chief of Staff for Washington, D.C. Deputy Mayor for Economic Opportunity Courtney Snowden.
The second panel discussion, Strategies to Increase Women of Color in Technology, focused on the current state of women of color in technology and the opportunities to increase our community’s presence in technology. Featured panelists included Aisha Bowe, Co-Founder, and CEO, STEMBoard; Jewel Burks, Founder, and CEO, Partpic, Inc. and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Google; and Valeisha Butterfield-Jones, Founder and CEO, Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WEEN), and Head of Black Community Engagement at Google.
Remarks were provided by great-great-granddaughter of our inspiration Madam C.J. Walker, A’lelia Bundles, and Suezette Yasmin Robotham, Team Lead, Global Business Operations & Portfolio Channels Diversity at Google.
Highlights from our event can be found on our Twitter feed and by using the #WLCBC2016 hashtag! View our gallery for more photos from the program.
