RAW FILE
Disability:IN Virtual Inclusion Works Meeting 2025 
Session 8:  Leading Employees with Disabilities:
Building High‑Performing, Inclusive Teams 
Thursday, February 27, 2025
3:30 p.m. EST.

Services provided by:
Caption First, Inc.
P.O. Box 3066 
Monument, CO  80132 
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This text, document, or file is based on live transcription.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), captioning, and/or live transcription are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.  This text, document, or file is not to be distributed or used in any way that may violate copyright law.
>> Recording in progress. 
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Hello, everyone.  And welcome to Session 8, "Leading Employees with Disabilities:  Building High‑Performing, Inclusive Teams."
I am so pleased to be here today and bring to you these wonderful panelists.  We have Mark Feinour; he's with Bank of America.  Kristin Hohn from Eli Lilly.  And Kizmet Moore, who is with us from NFP.
And so today we are going to start out with a housekeeping slide.  I know that you have probably seen this already.  But it is worth taking another few minutes to go through it again, just so you are aware of all the things that are available to you, especially the CART.  CART is available.  And there's also some StreamText links provided in several different languages, up to, I believe, 12 or 14 different languages so you can use that.  You will find the link in the chat.
As well, we have ASL interpreters today.  And this session, all your microphones are muted.  And so if you do have questions, please put them in the Q&A feature that you will see at the bottom of your screen.
If for some reason there's some kind of a technical difficulty, you may need to reboot your computer.  So you have to log off and log back in.  If you need to resolve it, that will do the trick.
Please continue throughout the session to submit your questions.  We do have someone who will be manning or womaning the box, and we will ‑‑ you will be able to see ‑‑ she will be able to help you with those questions at the 15 minutes prior to the end of the session.
I do want to introduce myself and say that I am Diane Hettinger.  I am a Disability Inclusion Consultant with the Inclusion Works program.  And one other thing from this that I wanted to mention is all these sessions have been recorded.  This one included.  And so you will have an opportunity to listen to it, probably the link will be sent out within a week or two and you will have an opportunity to go back and catch up on the sessions you weren't able to join, and relisten to the ones that you might want to refresh yourself on.
So, let's get started.  I want to go through and allow everyone on the panel to introduce themselves.  And I am going to start with Kizmet.  And, Kizmet, talk a little bit about who you are.  And, first, actually, I will say that I am a white woman, and you have a purple blouse on today with a gray blazer.  And I am a apparent with non‑apparent disabilities and go by she/her pronouns.
Kizmet, if you could do something similar, and as you are introducing yourself, tell us in what capacity do you lead employees with disabilities at NFP.
>> KIZMET MOORE: Apologize for that.  It looks like I got a little blurp.
There we go.  I'm Kizmet T. Moore.  I work to NFP, which a brokerage consulting firm.  I am an African‑American woman with an off‑white sweater on and red glasses.  And my role at the company, when it comes to our coworkers with individual disabilities is, I am a part of the leadership that oversees our Business Resource Groups.  And one of those groups is called D‑IS‑Ability.  And I oversee that group and help our coworkers in dealing with physical and neurodivergent disabilities.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you so much.  And we will go to Kristin next.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Wonderful.  Thank you so much for this opportunity.  Happy to be here today.  I am Kristin Hohn.  I am a white woman with long brown hair.  Today I am wearing a green blazer.  My pronouns are she/her.  I am the head of disability inclusion and accessibility at Eli Lilly and company.  We often refer to ourselves as Lilly and I lead our disability inclusion and inclusion efforts enterprise‑wide.  What that means, among other things, I am the leadership advisor for our ENABLE ERG group.  Also lead our group that works through digital accessibility and workplace accommodations and many other functions of our accessibility efforts.
Also leading our mentorship program for individuals with disabilities and caregivers.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you as well, Kristin.
And Mark, would you like to introduce yourself?
>> MARK FEINOUR: Yep.  Good afternoon, everybody, my name is Mark Feinour.  I am the support services executive here at Bank of America.  I am a white male with blond hair, blue eyes and I'm wearing a green and blue checked button‑down T‑shirt ‑‑ or T‑shirt, shirt.  So, I have been at Bank of America 33 years.  And I have been running the support services operation for the last 20 of those years.  And we are a back office support operation here at the bank where we pretty much support every major line of business within Bank of America, and I just happen to have a different talent pool that I use to support my operation.  I have over 250 teammates that are part of my team that have intellectual disabilities.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Excellent.  And Maureen, would you like to introduce yourself?  Maureen will be helping us with the question and answer session later on towards the end of the session.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Hello, everyone, thanks, Diane.  I'm Maureen Corcoran, I'm an Inclusion Works consultant as well and I'm a white woman with blond hair wearing a blue blouse today and I'm looking forward to tracking all of your questions and making sure we get you all the information you need and are interested in.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you, Maureen.  And thank you all for that introduction.  And it's clear from your introductions that you all are very well poised to share with us about leading individuals with disability in the workplace.
So, I want to start, given the fact that 25% of all people, at least here in the U.S., are people with disabilities, and 70 to 75% of those are individuals who have non‑apparent disabilities.  So, many times we do not know we have employees who are individuals with disabilities working with us.
How can managers support and empower their teams so that individuals who may have a disability, keeping in mind that some of them might be non‑apparent, can flourish and be as successful as possible?  And we will start with Kristin, I think.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Yeah.  Thank for that question, Diane.  I think fostering an environment of trust and, you know, making it safe to share so folks people comfortable self‑identifying as an employee with a disability is the very first step.  So creating that environment where folks feel there is a reciprocal relationship of trust with their leader, as well as the others within their team and that really create that environment where folks feel safe to self‑identify as someone with a disability and doing so, be able to talk about the barriers that they need to be removed, right, in terms of asking for workplace accommodations, self‑advocating for what they need in order to be their most productive.
In addition to that, I think we also need to continue to upskill our leaders so they know what is needed to lead everyone.
At Lilly, one of our may core values is respect for people and it's more than just a tag line.  It is part of the who we are and part of our corporate culture.  So supervisors respecting everyone on their team and meeting everyone where they are and providing their teams with the tools that they need to be successful, it just creates better business outcomes.
So, I think when we talk about how to we best support people, I think that foundational element of shared respect, of, you know, creating an environment of trust, listening to folks, ask people what they need and then listen to the answer, and then continue to focus on removing barriers, whether that be in the digital space, whether that be in facilities in the built environment, whether that be through training, you know, continued allyship in creating communities where folks feel comfortable to share, I think all of those things are foundational elements to set up that culture, a disability confident culture where folks can bring their full self and then be their best.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you.  And we will get into a little bit later some of the ways which you do that at Lilly.
Kizmet, would you like to join in and talk about how we can support and empower teams of individuals?
>> KIZMET MOORE: Sure.  First and foremost, as I mentioned, we have a Business Resource Group that, of course, is dedicated to our individuals with disabilities, whether they be neurodivergent or physical disabilities.  But I think to Kristin's point, the main point is understanding that disability inclusion is a business advantage.  It's not a disadvantage.  And if we look at it as a business advantage and have open conversation with our employees to determine what is it exactly that they need, that in order for them to be functional and successful in the workplace, what accommodations are needed, as Kristin mentioned and being able to have those open conversations about those things, I think that's the best way that we start the conversation.  That's the way we started the conversation in NFP.
As we started to use self‑ID, we started to do assessments to find out who do we have in our population, that we needed to address.  And in the beginning it was a very small population that self‑identified.  But as we built the Business Resource Group, we invited in everyone that wanted to participate.  We invited them to have conversation with us and to share.  The group began to grow because stories were beginning to be told.  Whether it being themself self‑identifying on the call because they are sharing a personal story or sharing challenges that they had with family members, where they needed support.
So, I think first we have to make sure that we realize that disability inclusion is a business advantage.  It's not a disadvantage.  And that we need to open up the lines of communication for people to feel comfortable and have empathy for them to share so we can make sure that they are bringing their best selves to work.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Yes, yeah.  And that storytelling is so important.  So that others can hear that they are not alone.  They may be very unique in their disabilities.  But there are others in the workplace that also have disabilities of different natures, you know.
So, Mark, would you like to add anything to that, supporting and empowering teams?
>> MARK FEINOUR: Yeah.  I think I need to piggy back on exactly what Kristin and Kizmet said is, you know, I hear common themes there of trust and support and how important those things are, where if the employees trust, they feel more comfortable about self‑identifying and bringing their whole selves to work and also making sure that the resources are in place for the employee, but then also for the manager to make sure that they can help that employee be successful.
We all bring different strengths to the workplace, and I love that Kizmet brought up about treating it like a business.  And that's something that we realized back in 1990 when we started support services that it makes business sense to employ individuals with disabilities.  I always say within Bank of America, you will not find a more loyal, dedicated group of teammates in this company that are part of my team.  My attrition rate is very low.  My tenure is very high.  I can't tell you how many teammates I have that are celebrating 25 years this year.  And for an operation to have that kind of tenure, it's unheard of.  And how are we able to do that is, you know, we have a dedicated Employee Relations Team.  We have a medical accommodations team.  And, again, that helps the employee, but then it also helps the manager.
And then we also make sure that we have the supports in place with partnering with external agencies and we use those agencies to help attract our talent, but then more importantly the agencies are there to help support our employees if they need help inside or outside the workplace.  And again, those are things that help the employee be successful, which in turn makes is business sense to have operations and employ individuals with disabilities.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: You know, listening to you, Mark, just your enthusiasm as a leader and a manager, it's no wonder that you have the type of loyalty and long‑term service of your employees.  Thank you so much for sharing in the way that you share.
One of the things that came up prior to today's panel was how we get to that trust and that and that sense of belonging, so to speak.  And there was some talk about training.  Kizmet, do you want to talk a little bit more about that and what you have done in the way of training?
>> KIZMET MOORE: Sure.  What we have done, when we started our Business Resource Group, we realized that as our employees started to share, they also didn't understand what was available to them as far as resources were concerned, as Mark mentioned.
We partnered with Disability:IN and we created a nine‑part series that we put out to all employees in the workplace that began simply with disability etiquette.
I always, when I think about that first class, I remember all the faces on Zoom that were saying, ooh, ah, oh, my goodness, I can't believe I said that because you don't think about the comments that are made or you don't think about those types of things.  Or just like with me, when I raised my children, if we saw someone with a physical disability, I would say go up, hold the door, do those types of things and then that first etiquette class, the first thing we learned was to ask.  Ask the question, do you want my help?  Do you need my help?  And that gives them their sense of independence to say yes or say no.
So, within that nine‑part series we touched on several different things.  We touched on etiquette, we touched on what is a neurodivergent disability.  We talked about physical disabilities.  We also talked about accommodations and accessibility.  And just attending the Disability:IN Conference, our social media person actually came back and created an accessibility guide that brought us up to speed with technology where we were falling a little bit short.
So, bringing those things to the table and bringing that training not just to those in that group, but bringing it to all employees, we offered it to all 8000 of our employees at the time, that gave them an opportunity every month to learn just a little bit.  And we figured if they take just a little bit away, just every single month, then that would open their minds, their hearts, their understanding and creating a safe and respectful workplace for those with disabilities.  So, we have that nine‑part series and now we are expanding on it.  We are taking it over to the UK and Ireland and also to Canada.  So, we can also make sure that our employees in those areas are trained in those areas, in those countries as well.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: That's fabulous.  And you touched on some wonderful points, it's very important about the education, the education, and also what I call universal inclusion so that everyone can have access to anything that they need to do their job, whether there's barriers for them or not, you know, those services are there.
>> KIZMET MOORE: Always say you don't know what you don't know.  If folks aren't disclosing or don't feel comfortable disclosing or know how to disclose, then that's where me as a company fall short that they don't feel like they belong.  And you mentioned that earlier.
Within our DEIB journey, we focused on the belonging piece.  We want employees to know not only do they belong at NFP, but we want them to also know that they ‑‑ not to just know it, but we want them to feel it.  And a part of that is making sure that education and awareness is a part of everything that we do.  That's where we started, was with those training classes, and it was successful.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: That's excellent.  And Kristin, did you have a similar experience you wanted to share?
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Yeah, absolutely.  We wanted to tailor our education and learning opportunities to the specific needs of our workforce and the specific needs that we had at team Lilly.  Here at Lilly something we have done over the last seven or eight years is something called an employee journey series.  About 18 months ago we embarked on our ENABLE employee journey series which was for individuals with disabilities and caregivers, and what that employee journey was, was essentially it started with a survey for folks to opt in.  We have got about 50,000 global employees right now, and 8000 opted in to participate in the journey.  And those 8000 employees completed a series of surveys.  They also participated in focus groups and then the journey culminated in a two‑day in person, something we call an Innovation Lab with senior leaders present to have a dialogue around here is what we found through this journey work and here are the solutions that we are committing to as a company to move forward to continue to remove barriers for the community and put things in place that will help this community succeed and also feel that they are included in.
So we aligned on five key moments of truth from that journey series, and we used that as a basis for the solutions I talked about, one of which is education and awareness.  And so following that journey and when we launched it to employees, it's been just about one year now, we launched it in March of 2024, really that was around education and awareness to say UN 25% of our ‑‑ of the employees that participated identified as being an individual with a disability, another 25% said that they were at either a caregiver now or have been in the past a caregiver.  And so the data was really rich and pointed to the gaps and opportunities that we had and we used that to put together a computer‑based training program that we launched through our learning platform for all employees it's about a 35‑minute self‑study and it walks folks from everything from disability etiquette like Kizmet mentioned to accessibility features and how individuals can tailor their work to make it more accessible for all, and really, sort of, walk through some of the basics.  It was sort of a disability 101 type of a course.
We are also now working through a strategy for how we can continue to level up that learning and put a two‑year roadmap in place for how we can continue to educate and tailor that to individuals.  So if you are an individual contributor, if you are a leader of teams, if you are a hiring manager and you are interviewing candidates, all of the various different touchpoints that folks may come into contact with individuals with disabilities, and make sure that we are really looking at what are those opportunities and where can we get the most progress as seen in a short period of time for our teams.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Yes, and when you talk about education, so important the way you framed it, but also the fact that you listened and you listened to that employee experience of actually what is happening with your employees and then reacting to that and framed your goals around that.  So, that's so important.
And so, Mark, what are strategies or best practices do you use to kind of build that trust, that open communication with the employees?
>> MARK FEINOUR: And, again, I feel bad I'm going third because I feel like I'm taking back ‑‑
>> DIANE HETTINGER: I will take you first next time.
>> MARK FEINOUR: I'm good going third.  I'm reinforcing the messaging that they are saying.  It's good to hear that other organizations are doing the same thing and we are learning from each other and, again, hearing the custom theme about the training and the promoting and the awareness and, you know, one of the things that we realize is, and I learned very early on is UN I don't have a background in disabilities before coming and running the sports services operation.  When you look at my staff that runs my organization, none of them have a background either.  They all have backgrounds in operations.  And why I'm saying that is, is you focus on the resources and the talent based off of the job, not because they have a disability.  Again, back to what the statement I made that everybody brings different strengths and it's amazing with a lot of the things that we have put into place, whether it's the training or the skills that we each bring to the team or to the organization, how many others benefit from that.
So, we have been able to streamline our operations.  We have been able to share best practices with other managers and other lines of business in the company that have been able to benefit from our employee base and then also from our standpoint, a lot of the things that we learn from our employees, we are able to share and help our customers.  So not only is it benefiting our internally, it's also benefiting us externally.
And then back to the groups and the ERGs.  We may not have a disability.  But I guarantee you, in some way, shape or form, we touch or we will somehow be touched by somebody with a disability and putting that training and having those resources in place to be able to help our teammates, 213,000 teammates we have across the company is so beneficial.  And, again, it's benefiting those with disabilities in general.
So, again, it's great to hear the same consistent messaging between these organizations, Kizmet and Kristin's.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Yeah.  And it just ‑‑ I love the fact that you tied it to your customers, because that's how we, getting into the talent aspect, that's how we attract individuals with disabilities to come work for our companies, is if you are a customer and you know that a company is being inclusive to all people, then you are going to want to go work there.  And so that's a great little segue there.
So, one of the things that we talked about is psychological safety.  And so I thought, Mark, I would start with you to talk a little bit about UN what does that mean to you and how do you create a culture?  We talked a lot about culture throughout the day and various aspects of disability inclusion where employees can feel safe and that sense of belonging that we have touched on.
>> MARK FEINOUR: I think we touched on a little bit about we try and create and, again, seems like all of us are similar that are sitting at the table here, that we are trying to create an inclusive environment where teams and teammates can feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work.  And that's where it starts.
And how does that start?  Not only does that start with the manager, but then also starts with the teammates that they are working with.  So, when they feel comfortable, they feel better about being able to open up and share what their needs are, what they need to help them be successful.  And as I said, that's something that not only benefits that employee, we have seen proof that it benefits the whole team and the whole organization.
So, again, a lot of it is that comfort and openness to be able to share what they need or what challenges or barriers they may have.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Excellent.  Thank you so much for sharing that.
Kristin, any other thoughts on psychological safety, what that might mean at Lilly?
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Absolutely.  I am echo with Mark said, but, Mark, we had you go first this time.  So I hope you felt good about that.  I thought we needed a laugh for a second.
I think I have experienced firsthand that psychological safety and bringing your best to work and being able to succeed.  When you feel empowered to be your authentic self and not have to mask or hide parts of your identity, you bring your full self and you are able to deliver and you are just nor successful and you are more productive.
Data shows that, lived experience shows that, storytelling amplifies that.  So, I think that it's ah no brainer.  It goes back to what Kizmet said about being a business imperative and being good for business.  It's also just sort of a basic expectation of leadership here at Lilly that creating the environment that is psychologically safe for the members of your team and for everyone from a culture perspective is just, it's an imperative and it's part of who we are and it's an expectation of leadership.
I think that the other piece, going back to something Mark was talking about a minute ago, and Diane, you mentioned talent, something that resonated with me, Mark, when you said you had an operations background.  So do I.  I think that what I bring to this role and what my personal why is and how it connects to talent acquisition and bringing in talent with individuals and disabilities.  I have a son who is neurodiverse, and when I think about the workforce of the future and I think about Lilly needing to sustain our lead as an organization and what that means and bringing in top talent, that means bringing in all top talent and that means creating an environment where individuals of all abilities can thrive and feel that they belong.
So, my son's name is Elliot.  When I think about how we are creating an environment, by the way, he's only 7, but when I think about creating an environment that is inclusive for everyone, is accessible for everyone, and really can attract that top talent of all abilities, I think about the type of environment that I want my son, Elliot, to be able to have when he joins the workforce.
So, I think that's part of ‑‑ it fuels my why and it helps me focus on that culture that we are creating and why it's so important.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: That's so important.  Thank you so much.
And cuz, I saw you nodding.  Any thoughts on that?  Psychological safety?
>> KIZMET MOORE: The only thing that I will add because I think everything has really been said, is just to share that we have to lead by example.  We have to lead by example.  So, in getting our managers on board to understand how to lead and how to be open to those with disabilities, I think it's leading by example.  If we address microaggressions or biases that happen, when they happen or if someone brings it to your attention and to let people know that that's not what our company is all about.  That's not the culture that we are creating.  I think when we lead by example, it opens us up to more possibilities, to more people.
As Mark said, you could be in so many different areas of the business.  For me, I had an opportunity to speak with someone who is a senior person in our company, who disclosed to me that she had a neurodivergent disability.  Nobody knows but me.  She has never told anyone.  She has done ‑‑ taken on the resources, she has done all the things that she needed to do personally to get her to the level that she is at right now.
But still didn't feel like she could disclose to the company because she thought it would be a hindrance to her.  But once we started our efforts and started to make people educated and aware, she is at this point where she is still not quite ready to share but I felt proud she was ready to share with me.  And the reason she wanted to share with me was to say we were doing the right things.  We were doing the right things in educating the employees and starting to lead with empathy and sharing how to get resources.  So I think when it comes to the psychological safety, it starts with education and awareness, like we mentioned, but it's also continuing the conversation going.
You can have a training and some people do training and they think that's it.  No.  It's something that has to have an evolution to it.  You have to build off of what you have created and continue to do that and continue to create that safe space for everyone.
I think for me, that's the kicker for me is to make sure that everyone feels that they are included, that they have a safe space that is available, that they can come to me if they want to, and if they want to keep it quiet, that's okay, too.  But to still give us a ‑‑ be an active listener to understand what do they need and provide those opportunities and resources for them.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Yeah.  And the ‑‑
(Overlapping speakers).
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Go ahead, Mark. 
>> MARK FEINOUR: I was going to say, Kizmet, I think that's great you have a senior leader that is willing to share that, because I wish more senior leaders and organizations would share that for a couple different reasons.  One, it gives individuals with disabilities to see what their potential can be.  And then also on the flip side, it also lets managers and other leaders see what the capabilities are of those with disabilities.
So ‑‑ and I think over time, when you look, it's funny, I always say, when I first started going to Disability:IN, when it was called USBLN, there was 50 of us at the table and now going to the events when there's thousands, it's great to see what this is morphed into, and as we go year over year, people are becoming more comfortable.  We are starting to see more and more of that, and I wish more senior leaders would be that comfortable, because I think if they would see the benefit, I think they that would be more open to share in that.  That's something I think.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: I agree with you 100%, Mark, I they representation matters and we don't see enough of it.  I think some of that is needing to create additional pathways to senior leadership roles for individuals with disabilities because I think there's a lack of representation.  But then I also think that encouraging folks to share, making it safe to share, really talking about the value of self‑IDing publicly for those leaders that are in leadership roles but have not shared that they have a disability is so important.  And until we are able to create a space where we have more individuals in those senior leadership roles that are openly unmasked as having a disability, we will continue to have work to do in that space.
And to Kizmet's point, there is no goalpost, there is no finish line.  This is work that requires constant, continuous improvement because things are constantly changing and evolving, and what good looks like today may not be what good looks like tomorrow.  And it's really important that we continue to evaluate what are we and how can we continue to do better for the people that we serve and the communities that we keep.  So, it's just really important that we don't feel like we get to a place where we are done, because there is no done in this work.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Absolutely.  You know, and I also had an experience where senior leaders shared with the BRG leadership that they were a person with a disability, but would not share with the general employee population.
And I think that, to Mark's point, the more that we continue the storytelling amongst those who will share, that those numbers will ‑‑ you know, he talks about going from 50 to thousands, you know, and so hopefully the more that we support the storytelling within our ‑‑ even just our BRGs, the more we will be able to reach more folks, including our senior leaders.  And it just snowballs from there.
So, you have all talked about the culture.  I mean, the things that you have been talking about, it's all this culture that promotes the positive interactions and as Mark especially mentioned, the clients, the customers, and communities that are all part of.  When we also think about communities, we think about the different types of diversity throughout our populations in the workplace, what I like to refer to as the intersectionality of employees.  In what ways, maybe we will start with you, Kizmet, in what ways have you done upon that to connect people with disabilities with other individuals who might have disabilities, but also have other characteristics that are unique.  
>> KIZMET MOORE: Our BRGs are heavily involved in working together, so what we tried to do is even for, for example, Black History Month, we work with our disability group to put on a program where we talk about the health disparities, the caregiving piece of it and the differences in caring for someone with a disability that may have a health disparity at a higher rate.  So, for African Americans, that could be heart disease, that could be high blood pressure and how that affects them having a disability.
So, what we do is we try to work with our BRGs to come together and determine what are those common characteristics, because I tell people all the time, you never know what a person is walking around with.  I could be a black woman with a neurodivergent disability.  I could be part of the military and you not know because I haven't disclosed that I have served in the military.  I could also have Hispanic culture.  And I can be a parent and a caregiver.  You won't know any of those things by looking at me, but unless I disclose that to you, right?
So, if we start to work together to determine where are those characteristics, especially with those with disabilities and how we can work together and build programs and bring more awareness to our community, to our culture, to our work culture, then we take away the not feeling included in any different way.  We take away the individual pieces of it.  Not to say that we don't have our own individual characteristics.  But we have more in common than what we think.
So, a part of our structure is finding a way to work together with the different BRGs and bringing programs and bringing awareness together that we can bring more resources to the table.
So, intersectionality is really big with us.  We don't want anyone to work as a silo.  We don't want anyone to recreate the wheel either.  So, what we do is we have meetings where we work together, we put those things on the table and we brainstorm together to figure out how we can do it.
Our motto is we are better together.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Fabulous.  Thank you.
Kristin, any thoughts on that?
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Yeah.  I love that, Kizmet.  I think so much of what you said resonated with me.  That's why I was shaking my head as I was listening to you.  I think, you know, the one thing that I think is unique about the disability and caregiver communities is that any person can become a member of the disability community or the caregiver community at any point in time.  And that's something that this community is, sort of, sets us apart from others but it also means that we are inherently the most intersectional community because we represent all kinds of other dimensions of difference, as Kizmet was illustrating when she was talking about herself.
I know for me one of the most important things is intersectional allyship and making sure that folks know what that means and how we can signal that we are allies for others and allies to each other, right?
So, we are focused here today, we are talking about disability and we are talking about caregiving but one thing that we all did at the top of this meeting is we introduced ourselves using our pronouns.  And I can tell you that as a queer woman, that means the world.  And that signals that this is a safe space for the LGBT+ communicate too.  We are all individuals that represent different dimensions of difference and signaling that allyship is so important to creating safe spaces so that you feel that you can bring your full authentic self and all of your full authentic self, all of your dimensions of difference and be valued and respected.
So, I think that's what I would add and that better together, we say that, too, Kizmet, which is so funny.  That that's what I would add on that.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you, yeah, you said it perfectly, wonderfully.
And Mark, I bet Bank of America has similar ‑‑
>> MARK FEINOUR: I was going to say indict doe.  That's what you get for having me go third again.  Yeah, we pride ourselves on being a great place to work for all.  And, you know, part of that is supporting employees, again, what Kizmet and Kristin said, both personally, professionally, and we do it through our employee networks.  And the employee networks are open to everyone.  You don't have to be whatever that network is to be a part of it.  And that's, again, regardless of their ability or background.  And that's a great way for us to learn about ourselves and each other.
So, again, ditto to what my fellow panelists have said.  I couldn't agree more.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you.  Thank you.  And so, Mark, any different, unique approaches that you have used at Bank of America, any emerging best practices that you want to share just before we get into the question‑and‑answer period?
>> MARK FEINOUR: I mean, one of the things that I have learned and it took me a while to learn is never judge a book by its cover and that's something that I have learned through experience with my teammates.
You know, hearing Kristin, you talk about your son and that's what keeps me doing what I have been doing for the last 25 years.  If you would have asked me 25 years ago would I be sitting here talking to you guys about and it was disability, it would be absolutely not.
But that's what keeps me going, is my teammates and seeing the opportunities and what we have been able to afford them to be able to do, both personally and professionally.  And when we have new opportunities come in or we bring new jobs into our organization, you know, we know what skills we potentially need for that job and we think if somebody is good at doing a certain skill of a certain job today, I will give an example.  We had a job come in, for a data entry job.  And I came, my team and I came together with a list of teammates that we thought would do great at it because they were great at doing a KIP fulfillment job we were doing.  Brought them over and half of them didn't do it because they couldn't catch it or they didn't do it well.
And then we went back and looked at those that we overlooked because we didn't think that they would do good in that role because they couldn't do that KIP fulfillment type stuff.  Tried them and they are flourishing.  Back to my point, you can't judge a book by its cover and everything is individual.  And trying to ‑‑ you can't have a play book for your whole organization or for individuals with disabilities.  Can you have a general foundation?  Yes, and then you build upon it for each individual person.
And I guarantee you those things that you are using to build upon for that person, you can continue to strengthen that foundation which can be shared and improved with others and, as I said before, with the whole organization.
So, that's the one thing that I will say.  And, again, it makes business sense, to what Kizmet said, to employ individuals with disabilities.  For operational areas and, again, Kristin having an operations background, the cost that goes into bringing individuals in to train them and especially if you have a high attrition rate, why not look at this untapped talent pool of individuals that want to work, they want to try.  So many companies are missing out.  And that's one of the things that we try and do more of, is share our experiences.
We actually put together a playbook, it's on the Bank of America website, if you search support services, of what we have learned over the last 30 years.  So, companies can still shamelessly, employ more individuals with disabilities.  It's more of doing collaboration interaction like we are doing here today.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Wow, that's ‑‑ and it just speaks to equitable opportunity for all, you know,.
Anything to add, Kizmet or Kristin?
>> KIZMET MOORE: I think the only thing that I would add is if there's anyone on the call who is ‑‑ because I don't want to naturally assume that everyone is on a part of Disability:IN.  I would want to say that Disability:IN has been one of the biggest resources that has helped us develop our program here in NFP.  We haven't talked about the Disability Index, because we wanted to get into the meat of the conversation.  But it was a great benchmarker to let us know what we were already doing well, but what we needed to do better.
And so year over year, completing that index lets us know how we can raise the bar and how we can take it to the next level.  I will say if you are not a part of Inclusion Works or I don't know who is out in the audience.  Definitely get with your consultant or get a country that can help you develop the plans, that can bring you up to speed on all of the things that we need to know, legislation trending and the things that we have in order for us to keep doing the work that we are doing.
I think everyone on this call, I can tell, is that they are passionate about what they are doing, it's not just a job.  It's a passion, it's a purpose that we are bringing to the workplace to make sure that we are creating an inclusive environment for all.
So, I just want to say those partnership organizations are ‑‑ those partnerships are really, really, really important in this space to keep us aware, to keep us alert, to make sure that we are doing the things that we need to do and that we are not leaving anyone behind.
(Overlapping speakers).
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Sorry.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: No.  Go ahead.  I was going to thank her.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: I thank you, too, Kizmet, so great I wanted to jump in and amplify what you were saying.  I think one of the things that is most important is thought partnership and shared learnings.  And when one of our organizations is doing well in this space, we all are collectively doing better, right?
So, it's all part of shaping that ecosystem of disability confidence and accessibility for all.  We want to help other organizations learn from what has worked well for us and what hasn't.  We want to be able to phone a friend and ask other organizations how they do things when we are trying to get a new program off the ground for the first time.  It helps us all advance our disability confidence and our accessibility for our organizations when we share those learnings and we are open and it advances all of us collectively.
So, I would say just the only thing I would add to that is, you know, if you are, whether you are just beginning your journey for your organization or you have been at this for a long time and you are learning ‑‑ you are still on that learning journey, don't hesitate to reach out and try to share those learnings and partner with other organizations to see what they are doing, how you can benchmark, leverage the index for sure.
And as we all continue to grow together, each of our individual organizations will do better as well.  So, we are in it together.  Back to Kizmet's better together statement.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: Thank you.  Thank you all.  So, now I am going to bring on Maureen to tell us what questions we have in the question‑and‑answer bullet there for our panelists.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Great.  And oh, my gosh, what awesome information.  And so inspiring and motivational to know that at each level of an organization, we can really be making a difference.
And one of our questions goes back to something that you said, Kristin, when you were answering the question about psychological safety.  You mentioned our expectations of leadership and of leaders.  And then Kizmet, you shared that a readiness to openly talk about issues, maybe confront issues and potentially be vulnerable and express our own ‑‑ the way we deal with, perhaps, our own disabilities or the disabilities of family members, like you mentioned, Kristin.
So, the question is, long setup, if you had to identify one or two most essential qualities of a leader who is leading or interacting with diverse teams, what would each of you highlight?
>> KIZMET MOORE: I would say, first and foremost, lead with empathy.  I think that is one of the most important qualities of a leader, is to lead with empathy.  You never know anyone's situation.  You never know where they are at in the moment that they are coming to you for assistance or looking for you to lead them in a certain way.
And then I would say the second thing outside of empathy is to be an active listener.  Sometimes I feel that we listen to respond versus listening to understand.  So, if you are an active listener, you are taking the time to listen to what the person is saying to you, especially if they are asking for assistance or asking for help.  So, you will know how to respond and how to help them, instead of listening to respond really quickly where they may feel like they are not heard at all, because I feel like everyone's voice needs to be heard.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Thank you.  Anyone else?  Those are great.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: I was going to say compassionate leadership, but cuz stole that one a little bit with empathy.  So I think I will take a different approach and say being flexible and adaptable as a leader so that you are not expecting that your team will always be able to do things your way.  And I think that that's particularly true for individuals with disabilities, because a lot of times, whether it's through an accommodation or it's just a work style, individuals need to be able to get to what good looks like in their own way.
As a leader, you need to be flexible and adaptable and it's not wrong or bad just because it's different, right?  So there are a lot of ways to get to good.  And so I think having that approach as a leader is really important.
I think the other piece is being an advocate.  And so whether you are acting as just a direct line supervisor, whether you are a mentor or a coach, being an advocate for people and helping them find their path to promotion, helping them with their career navigation as they are thinking about their next steps, being a sponsor for someone, and making sure that you are thinking about them in their career development and advocating for them whether they are in the room or not when it comes to opportunities for advancement.  That's what's going to create that powerful group of senior leaders that identify as individuals with disabilities, you know, having folks advocate for them and help them find that path to navigate their career development.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Terrific.  Thank you.  It sounds also like creativity.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: Yeah, that too.  That's always good.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Right along with flexibility and being openly to that without being fearful of are we going to get called up on doing something different or that that's actually a good thing in a lot of situations.  Thank you.
And Mark, anything to add?  And I didn't call on you last.  You just sort of fell into last.
>> MARK FEINOUR: And Kizmet, I did have empathy on the top of my mind.  No.  I think a lot ‑‑ and, again, so many things, what makes good leaders, it's a leader in general, it's not just about leading individuals with disabilities and, you know, one of the things that I have found that worked very well for me is, you know, communicate.  Being a good communicator and being an open communicator and having a presence.  And when I walk around my operations, you know, I know all my teammates' names.  I know what they are doing.  I know what they are involved with, whether it's inside or outside the workplace and that just having that comfort level.  We always say sense of community, sense of family because if you have that, back to the communication, people are going to be more comfortable bringing their whole self to work, sharing things that might be bothering them or you may be picking up on things.  So many things my team and I pick up on because we have not only communicate, but listen.  So much that we will be just listening to conversations of our teammates that we will realize that they are dealing with something that they don't want to share or they are being taken advantage of by somebody that they are not even realizing it.
So, I think being a communicator and a good listener makes you a good leader and, again that benefits not just individuals with disabilities, but everybody within the organization.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: And, Mark and others can as well, but you mentioned the word family.  And I am seeing a trend in chatrooms and some of these professional sites where, ooh, we don't want to talk about workplace employees as families.  We want to be careful.  This isn't our family.  These are not all our friends, that there may be something wrong with that.
Can you talk a little bit about employee populations and work team as families?
>> MARK FEINOUR: I think ‑‑ and, again, I think a lot of it starts at the top of the house or the top of the organization or the top of the line of business on what ‑‑ how they are and what they are.  And I think that's something within, to speak personally within support services, I always call my teammates a family.  I say as corny as it sounds, we are family.  We are look out for each other.  Probably more so outside the workplace than inside the workplace, because a lot of my teammates, again, I have over 250 that are part of my team that have intellectual disabilities in addition to other types of disabilities but a lot of them, the older they get, they are losing the supports or their caregivers are passing and they don't have anybody to help them.
And if they are not doing well outside the workplace, that's going to carry over inside the workplace and they are not going to be successful.
So, we care, and just like the tenure of my employees, the tenure for my staff is almost as great as my employees, because they care about the teammates that they work with, in addition to knowing that we are doing meaningful work.
So, I always say it's corny, but we do look at support services as a family.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Thank you.  Anyone else want to comment?  You don't have to.
>> KRISTIN HOHN: I agree.  I agree with Mark.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Okay.  Kizmet, when you were talking about the growing of community an NFP and that it started in a lot of ways with your employee resource groups, you talked about stories and the value of people starting to share their stories.
Do any of you have a story ‑‑ you have shared the story of your organization supporting your teams and of individual leaders, but does anyone have a story of where real change happened for a person, maybe for your company through, you know ‑‑ both the supporting of teams with disabilities or an individual, and then even, you know, your communities and the clients that you serve.  One thing led to another that really made a difference.  Any stories you want to share?
>> KIZMET MOORE: Our chair of our D‑IS‑Ability group is an individual that has a physical disability as well as a speech disability.  It was through a community organization that one of our offices was just kind of volunteering with that they came across Jason.  And he has given us permission to share the story.
So, she came across Jason.  He was very technologically savvy.  On Instagram and all these different things going on and she said why don't you apply for an opportunity with NFP so he did and he got the job.  And he shared that when he was hired, it was during COVID.  And so it was great for him because he didn't have to worry about coming into the office.  He could work from home.  The position he had, he still works from home.  But he can do it from his home.
And then when we created the disability BRG and we don't call it disability BRG.  It's D‑IS‑Ability BRG.  We asked him to be chair.  We were like, "Hey, would you like to be chair of the group?"
And he was like, he would love it.  It has given him confidence.  It has given him exposure.
There was a time when we first started the group and we started to have programs.  We did not want to talk.  He did not want to speak.  He would ask me to do it or someone else that was on the committee to do it.  But he came up with these great ideas.  Who wants to be a millionaire that all the questions were focused about learning, about folks with disabilities.  But he would not moderate the show.  He would not share.
So, even when we had our training sessions with Disability:IN, he wanted us to speak.  Slowly but surely we encouraged him to have a voice.  And we approached it, all it took was patience and understanding.  Nobody is going to drop off the call.  One call we had over 500 people, I couldn't get enough people in because my Zoom limit was 500.  So, I had to turn people away.
But he is now speaking.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Wonderful.
>> KIZMET MOORE: Being interviewed in an article.  He got a plaque.  He was named ‑‑ he got an award and he's gone to Chicago to speak with children with disabilities to say what he's doing in the community.
So, we have opened up this entire world for him, not just working from home siloed, but we have him out traveling to our retreats and speaking.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Awesome, yeah.
>> KIZMET MOORE: And speaking for the group.  To me, that's a win‑win.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: What a great win.
>> KIZMET MOORE: We brought him out of his shell.  He has a voice now that he was scared to share.  And now he wants to talk all the time.  Always looking for a speaking opportunity.
So, that's that.  That's a win for NFP, that's a win for Jason most of all because that's what's most important is we develop our people.
Like Mark said, no matter what it is, it doesn't have to be a person with a disability.  It's our people that we spend time with day in and day out.  But for this particular person, Jason has a voice.  He's moving around, he's doing things.  He's attended Disability:IN for the last two years and he's been our chair for the last two years as well.  So, he is flourishing.  He's always calling saying is there a speaking opportunity available?
>> DIANE HETTINGER: And you know what?  That's not only an amazing story about Jason, it's the lives that he's touched.
>> MAUREEN CORCORAN: Yes.
>> DIANE HETTINGER: With his voice.  And so he's playing that forward and that's just such a great testament to the support that you gave him and all of you are giving your employees throughout your companies.
So, I want to thank you, Mark from Bank of America, Kristin from Eli Lilly, and Kizmet from NFP for being with us and sharing these great tidbits that we can all take away.
And also to our interpreters, Nikki and Leah and to Maureen for helping us with our questions.  And Ashley and Jason behind the scenes, making sure that we all got on here successfully.
We are at time.  However, I did want to mention that immediately following this session, there is two breakout sessions.  One is for the tech industry.  And the other is for the healthcare industry.  I believe tech industry is in Room 1, and the healthcare industry is in room 2.  So we welcome everyone to join us for those.  An opportunity to interact more.  And I don't think you really have to be in those industries to join.  So, please feel free to do so.
And, again, thank you all, thank you to our participants, our listeners and everyone who attended the sessions today.  Appreciate it.  Thank you.
(Session was concluded at 4:33 p.m. EST) 

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