Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano

How many organizations, processes, and products are poorly designed or produce real-world harm because the right voices weren't let into the room where the building...happens? How much money has been spent on “diversity & inclusion” while companies remain homogenous and underrepresented employees struggle to thrive?

Funding external partnerships and PR don’t address daily microaggressions underrepresented employees face, while unconscious bias training has been shown to potentially *increase* bias in the workplace. An almost singular focus on women in the workplace has left women of color behind, erased the experience of people with disabilities, and left almost everyone with “diversity fatigue”. Progressive business leaders are questioning many traditional “best practices” that haven’t shown to have positive impact on employees, and are building new, data-informed and intersectional strategies to truly move the needle. Join The Mathpath Aubrey Blanche, Director of Equitable Design & Impact at Culture Amp, to learn how you can evolve your programs to create fair experiences for every employee and build better, safer products.

*Keynote presentation includes:*

• 30-minute content prep & tech check
• *40-minute of presentation with*
• *20-minute Q&A*

*The keynote may be adjusted to focus on DEI strategy, talent processes, collaboration (meetings & 1:1s), and/or product development.*

As artificial intelligence (AI) takes over more and more aspects of our work and personal lives, how does it impact the way we and others–especially those from marginalized backgrounds–are treated? With the rise of large language models (LLMs) trained on highly biased datasets and those writing algorithms lacking the lived experience and formal education to understand how and to what extent their creations are introducing, perpetuating, and exacerbating social and institutional biases, we are at a crossroads. Join The Mathpath, Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano, for a deep dive into what the potential future of a machine-enabled world can look like, and walk away with practical ideas about how we can ensure that leaning into technology can create a fairer, more equitable future. 

Everyone and their cousin is talking about AI, LLMs, and ChatGPT…what’s a People & Culture leader to do? The push to leverage AI in every area imaginable is often putting huge strain on often-resource-strapped HR teams, for whom this may be a new frontier. But there are still huge questions when it comes to applying AI to people problems, and many in the space aren’t yet confident in how to understand, evaluate, select, and deploy these tools in a way that enables positive culture and avoids the many potential bias pitfalls that can arise when relying on computers in this space. Join The Mathpath, Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano, for a discussion of the key factors and questions to consider when applying machine learning technologies to your culture. 

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are a core part of many companies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies, but often fail to advance they cause. From lack of budget to burned out leaders–who are often volunteers–these groups that hold so much promise often do more to hold back company’s ambitions for equity than advance it. The truth is, most programs aren’t designed specifically to produce equitable outcomes, and often fall into the same traps that take advantage of the passion and vulnerability of employees from marginalized backgrounds while failing to provide the structure and incentives that makes the groups impactful. Drawing from her experience developing ERG programs that build true belonging and drive leaders to advance professionally, Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano believes that there are simple tweaks any company can make to improve the experience of underrepresented employees through these programs. Join her to understand how to build groups that truly help advance the promise of equity within your organization. 

How many times have we heard that we have to make diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) a part of the “fabric” or “DNA” of an organization? How many times have you wondered what that means, in practice? After nearly 10 years implementing DEI programs in global organizations, Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano has learned a few lessons that can help everyone move their company in the direction of their ambitions by looking at their work in a new way. Moving away from DEI programs to incorporating an “equity lens” into actions, decisions, processes, and policies, she introduces the idea of equity as a process that we can all contribute to within our scope of influence, unlocking new possibilities for what we can achieve together. 

There is more interest–and more pushback–than ever about how identity impacts employees’ experience at work, and how companies support people from underrepresented groups and those from marginalized backgrounds. Most people know that they have to start with the data, but might not know how (or whether they’re allowed to). Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano has spent years working with organizations around the world to build strategies that advance the cause of equity within the workplace, with a special focus on collecting, analyzing, and using data to make informed decisions about the best ways to drive positive change. In a changing and highly-charged environment, even the most convicted leaders might wonder how to move forward. In this talk, Blanche-Sarellano lays out an effective, legal framework to develop a data-backed approach to equitable organizational transformation. 

In an interactive workshop with Aubrey, up to 10 senior leaders (suggested Director level or above) dive into the history of the "business case" for diversity, equity, & inclusion; affirmative action; and why these frames ultimately set businesses up to fail at equitable design and transformation. Leaders will engage with common critiques and blockers to successful DEI programs, begin to build their own commitment for change, and learn how to successfully evangelize what they've learned to their teams and the broader business.

The workshop package includes:

30 minute content prep and tech check

The Mathpath Assessment - Beyond The Business Case

Pre-Work: Learning Journey (~30-45 minutes, individually)

2 hour workshop

Post Work: Self-Directed Extended Learning Journey

*Workshop can be delivered virtually.*

Aubrey is available to serve as a panelist and/or panel moderator on topics of DEI strategy, equitable design within organizations, talent processes, venture capital, and artificial intelligence and machine learning.