50 years after the Stonewall riots, a pivotal event that helped spark the modern gay rights movement, New York City is celebrating the "Year of Pride.” As we honor this important milestone, there is still much to be done in the workplace to support diversity & inclusion. A 2018 report by the Human Rights Campaign found that nearly half of LGBTQ employees in the U.S. are closeted at work, down only slightly from a decade ago.

Join us for this month’s Women’s Breakfast as we celebrate World Pride and have a conversation about visibility and identity in the workplace from an LGBTQ+ perspective. We’ll be joined by industry leaders and important voices to discuss feeling seen and heard at work, workplace bias, how to be an ally, and advocating for equality in the workplace.

At this moment where we celebrate a half-century of LGBTQ+ liberation, the political climate continues to call into question even our most basic human rights. We gather together with friends, coworkers, colleagues and allies to reflect on how far we’ve come since Stonewall, and where we go from here.

Doors open at 8:30 AM for bagels and coffee and an opportunity for networking, and the program kicks off at 9:00 AM sharp.

This event is sponsored by: Verizon

Speakers:

• Kelly Fitzpatrick is the owner and founder of Blue Park Kitchen, a sustainable restaurant grounded in the belief that food should be nourishing, honest and delicious. A graduate of Cornell and the Culinary Institute of America, Kelly decided that Lower Manhattan was the place to bring her cooking chops when looking for the perfect neighborhood to open her first restaurant.
• Kristin Russo (moderator) is a writer, speaker, educator and consultant with a focus on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) issues. She co-founded LGBTQ organizations Everyone Is Gay & My Kid Is Gay, authored This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids (Chronicle, 2014) and worked as host and producer of First Person, a video series on gender and sexuality from PBS Digital and WNET. She holds a Master’s in Gender Studies from the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also the co-host & producer of the critically acclaimed Buffy rewatch podcast, Buffering the Vampire Slayer!
• Kristina Villarini is Lambda Legal’s first digital director in its 46-year history, and she currently sits as the only queer woman of color driving messaging for the largest and oldest LGBTQ litigation nonprofit in the country. As the first dedicated person at the helm of Lambda Legal’s multi-channel digital efforts, Kristina has accomplished many groundbreaking achievements in the last two years. By empowering legal clients through digital storytelling and building their personal brand as ambassadors of LGBTQ and HIV civil rights in an increasingly monitored and documented activist space, Kristina’s digital team has improved the transparency and increased the nimbleness of an organization that has served these communities for nearly half a century.
• Hannah Wolf is a Professional Passion Matchmaker, where she has a direct hand in connecting students to their passions through her work as a Campus Recruiter at Spotify. In her role, Hannah manages all things technology student related at Spotify. Hannah also focuses on creating a menu of different programs and initiatives to attract and develop young, diverse talent. During her time at Spotify, she also co-chairs Spotify’s LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group, Spectrum, where she focuses on partnerships with LGBTQIA+ organizations, internal employee activities, engagement and advocacy. Prior to her time at Spotify, Hannah was a University Recruiter at Yahoo in New York City, where she primarily focused on business undergraduate and new graduate recruitment. After graduating from Franklin & Marshall College with a degree in Business & Women + Gender Studies, Hannah immediately sought out the world of Human Resources. Stemming from her passion to connect the journey in her academics with a career in Human Resources, Hannah found a centerpiece with recruitment through the lens of diversity and inclusion.