Introducing the Amplify Academy Diversity Council and Founding Members
A new initiative designed to create growth, leadership development, and mentoring opportunities for emerging leaders from underrepresented communities in human resources and people operations.
The world of work has seen seismic shifts over the past several years, bringing the field of HR to the forefront as we continue navigating this changing landscape.
Our success as practitioners and leaders is often directly connected to our access. Access to education and learning resources. Access to peer networks. Access to mentoring and stretch assignments. Access to opportunities.
The problem? Access is not equally distributed.
The HR field trends heavily towards white practitioners (65% in the U.S., according to recent reports).
While we’ve made steps (and some missteps) in our broader DEIB efforts over the past several years, our lack of representation at the leadership level will continue to hold back our progress toward building a more equitable and inclusive world of work for all employees.
Introducing the Amplify Academy Diversity Council
The Amplify Diversity Council is a newly created team that will lead programs inside and outside the Amplify Academy to create developmental and growth opportunities for HR/People practitioners from underrepresented communities.
The Council will design and drive a range of initiatives to be piloted in 2023, beginning with a new Cohort Scholarship Program we’ll be announcing next week.
Starting with the upcoming Golf Cohort in February 2023, for each cohort, we’ll be providing several full scholarships to HR and people practitioners from underrepresented communities, as well as scholarships to the AI Learning Lab & Community (more details on the scholarship program are coming next week).
Mentoring Programs and Career Opportunities are also on the roadmap for 2023. We plan to build in public and share our learning openly as we scale the Council and its programs.
In the meantime, I’m thrilled to introduce you to the founding members of the Amplify Academy Diversity Council.
Meet The Founding Members
Aman Malhi - Refrigerative Supply, Director, People & Culture
(Burnaby, BC, Canada)
Aman lives a purpose-driven life, and that purpose has always been to be of service. Service to people at work, people around her, her community, her family, her friends, and everyone. She brings this purpose to work daily, which fuels her passion for people and culture. She is passionate about making a difference by ensuring everyone gets to do their best work and live their best life every day. Aman serves as the Director of People and Culture of a Canada-based distribution company. In her role, she oversees all aspects of the People and Culture function. She has been in the People and Culture space for fourteen years and has had the pleasure of working with many different leaders, environments, cultures and challenges. Regardless of where she has been, the single most important thing has always been people.
Aura Huot - Lavallee Brensinger Architects, Director, People & Culture (Boston, MA, USA)
Aura is the Director of People & Culture at Lavallee Brensinger Architects overseeing all people, culture, HR and safety aspects there. An influential, strategic business professional with broad understanding of people and business environments, Aura loves to translate opportunities into action to drive strategy, process improvement, employee experience, engagement, diversity, equity, inclusion, communication, financials, technology, and organizational mission. During her career, Aura has had multiple roles within operations, loss analysis, finance, training, and human resources. Outside of work, you can find Aura with her husband, family and friends. Aura also serves as the Director Programming at the Diversity Workforce Coalition, as a Founder Member at HackingHR, as the Director at Large at the Manchester Area Human Resources Association, as an Advisor at the Student Advisory Board at Granite State College, and actively serves at other non-profit organizations. She received her Masters of Science in Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Granite State College and holds several certifications, including DDI-Certified Facilitator from Development Dimensions International, and Human Resource Management Certification from the University of New Hampshire.
Dom Merritt - dscout, Chief People Officer (Chicago, IL, USA)
Dom Merritt is an HR-preneurial, enthusiastic, collaborative, and culture-focused People/ HR leader with over 15 years of experience in shaping high-performing cultures in fast-growing venture and PE-backed start-ups (Series A-D) as well as established mid-market organizations. Using a People First approach, he helps companies translate business vision into innovative HR initiatives that improve performance, profitability, growth, and employee engagement while developing executable strategies to attract, retain, and develop high-performing talent. His broad areas of expertise include talent management, organizational development, HR management, change management, and communication.
Dom is currently the Chief People Officer for dscout, a SaaS video research platform that helps major brands gather, manage, share, and analyze millions of in-context moments submitted by people around the world. He has also held global senior leadership roles at several high-growth SaaS companies such as Uptake, Sprout Social, and several others.
Erica Spitale - EmployBridge, VP Talent (Atlanta, GA, USA)
Dr. Erica Spitale is a licensed clinical psychologist and experienced data-driven people and culture advocate. She has over 10 years of experience building and scaling creative and inclusive people processes and programs that promote equitable opportunities for all. She is the Head of Talent at EmployBridge, the largest light industrial staffing firm in the U.S., placing 400,000+ contract employees in jobs annually and delivering workforce solutions for businesses across their supply chain. In her role, she leads Talent Management, Leadership Development, and Culture to proactively create people-centric practices and tools that enrich the employee journey and transform ways of working that further employee wellbeing.
Dr. Spitale holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, a Master’s in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Hampton University.
Janelle Peterson - Givingli, Head of People (Durham, NC, USA)
Janelle Peterson is a progressive HR/People leader based in Durham, NC. She leads with courage, honesty, authenticity, and tenacity. She focuses on helping startups develop and implement people-first strategies and solutions to ensure positive business outcomes. By creating strong company cultures, and building equitable benefits and talent strategies, she creates space to help people perform their best work, in and outside of the workplace. Her comprehensive background across all areas of the People function, coupled with her fascination for data, strengthens her ability to create and drive innovative initiatives across the business. Outside of work, she’s a proud wife and mama.
Kendra Mitchell - Chief, Chief People Officer (Detroit, MI, USA)
Kendra Mitchell is Chief People Officer at Chief, where she brings a passion for making global workplaces more equitable and inclusive. Chief is a private, vetted network of women executives designed to strengthen their leadership, magnify their influence, and pave the way to bring others with them. What began as a vision to drive more women into power and keep them there is now a $1.1 billion unicorn with a membership of 20,000 executive women who collectively manage $750 billion of the U.S. economy.
Mariss Rafuse - Global Furniture Group, Manager, HR Business Partners (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
As a Human Resources Business Partner Manager at Global Furniture Group, Mariss Rafuse’s primary focus has been on transforming the People and Culture function and aligning the people strategy to the organization’s mission and strategic deliverables. She is passionate about delivering meaningful and relevant people experiences and creating workplaces where people want to work. She sees HR as a real game changer in terms of the company’s successes. She has experience across very diverse industries, including education, healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing. One of the key factors she attributes to her success is the ability to get curious and really understand the business and the players she partners with. She is passionate about sharing what she knows so others might find the same level of success she has.
Mijay Pavon - Spare, VP, People & Talent (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Mijay is currently the VP, People & Talent at Spare, a Vancouver-based startup with a mission is to unlock the potential of mobility for everyone. Previously, she held People roles at HelloFresh, Scotiabank, and Points and has experience in a wide range of industries from technology and financial services to learning & development and non-profit. She is deeply passionate about building companies and workplaces where people are supported to do their best work and feel a sense of inclusion and belonging. Outside of work, Mijay loves to cook, travel, and cheer on the Toronto Raptors.
Mira Persaud - The Learning Partnership, Senior Manager People, Culture, & Inclusion (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Mira (she/her/hers) is currently the Director, People, Culture, and Inclusion at the Learning Partnership, a talent advisor to Mental Health Research Canada, and a GEM mentor. Her expertise covers talent programs, DEIB initiatives, and internal communications strategy. She enjoys reimagining and redesigning systems to ensure that all people access equitable opportunities. Based in Toronto, she is excited and honoured to join her cohorts as one of the founding members of the Amplify Academy Diversity Council.
Pia Foard - BetterLesson, Head of Human Resources (Charlotte, NC, USA)
Pia Foard is the Head of People and Culture at BetterLesson, a leader in professional development for educators. She provides leadership in driving talent acquisition, development, engagement, and retention strategies. Her career has included HR positions in public, private, and not-for-profit companies across media, technology, education, construction, and architecture industries. Pia has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree from George Washington University, and an advanced HR studies certificate from Cornell University. She holds numerous HR certifications, including SPHR, SHRM-SCP, and CCP.
Stacey Nordwall - Pyn, Head of Employee Experience (Phoenix, AZ, USA)
Stacey Nordwall is the Head of Employee Experience at Pyn. She has an MA with Honors in Counseling Psychology from St. Mary’s College of California and a BA in Psychology and Communication from Stanford University. She is a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and is passionate about creating inclusive workplaces where people can thrive and helping People teams evolve to meet the new world of work.