Diversity at emfluence

Book Club: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

February brought back a Diversity Committee and Book Club collaboration with emfluencers diving into the pages of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. This historical fiction follows different generations of a family divided by slavery with one storyline taking place in war-torn Ghana while the other follows events in America. The team explored themes of racism, colonization, family, and conversation centered on how the book’s narratives continue to resonate with the fight for racial justice and understanding today.

MLK Service Day Project

Our team spent the day hard at work at Harvesters—The Community Food Network’s warehouse to sort and repack food for families in need. We loved getting out into the KC community and contributing to a cause that aligns with our values while honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of compassion and action. We’re proud to support organizations like Harvester’s. A huge thank you to everyone who participated!

January Diversity Event

Conflict Resolution Class

20/20 Leadership aims to provide high school students unique, experiential learning opportunities to expand their education beyond the classroom, develop resilient leaders, and build stronger communities. This month, emfluence was invited to teach a conflict resolution class to high school sophomores. By providing young leaders with the tools to handle conflict productively, they become more self-aware, empowered, and prepared for future success.

November Diversity Event

We invited Jillian Rainingbird to lead a roundtable discussion on Native American communities in recognition of November as National Native American Heritage Month. She addressed a range of topics, including healthcare disparities on reservations, educational inequities, environmental justice, and the impact of broken treaties. Our hour together concluded with a Q&A session, during which our team gained insight into the challenges these communities are currently facing, as well as those they are preparing for in the future, along with resources for meaningful allyship.

Book Club: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Another Diversity Committee and Book Club initiative led to a lively discussion of Junot Diaz’s book The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Moderated by Jake Siu, a member of the emfluence team, we dove into themes of free will, identity, race, and decolonization

October Diversity Event

Operation Breakthrough

Our remote team took advantage of some in-office time by rolling up our sleeves for a day of giving back at Operation Breakthrough. We spent the day tutoring students, building supplies, and organizing spaces to support this incredible organization. Teamwork makes the dream work when it comes to community impact!

September Diversity Event

Our very own analytics strategist, Jake Siu, hosted a presentation on the topic of immigration in America, focusing on the past, the present, and the power of perception. During his time with the team, he shared some of the key themes of discrimination and pulled together data dispelling misconceptions about immigrants. We learned about bias, media sensationalism, and more during this insightful hour.

August Diversity Event

We hosted Kirsten Brown Persley, CEO and Founder of a strategic advising firm and author of Delivering Dignity: A Guide to Cultivating Culturally Competent Organizations, for our monthly roundtable. Throughout her time with the team, she shared strategies for prioritizing cultural competence in the workplace and making teams feel invested in and valued. We appreciate her sharing some of her own stories with us and inviting the team to take actionable steps toward openness and vulnerability with one another.

July Diversity Event

Emfluencers had their noses in the books throughout July reading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. A collaborative event between the Diversity Committee and Book Club brought the team together to discuss major themes in the book such as bigotry, justice, race, and more. This historical fiction novel by James McBride takes place in the 1930s in the dilapidated neighborhood of Chicken Hill where immigrant Jews and African Americans reside. The story follows a community navigating complex social and racial dynamics and a cast of characters that band together against the damaging effects of white Christian America.

Diversity Roundtable

Emfluence invited Haile Sims to our monthly roundtable to speak on the topic of Juneteenth. Sims is a dedicated community leader and seasoned professional, actively contributing to his community through various roles. He is deeply involved in local governance, serving on the Police Policy Committee, Planning Commission, and Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee. Chairing the Roeland Park Community Foundation and currently running for City Council. He also extends his impact beyond Roeland Park, participating in the Johnson County Diversity Equity Inclusion Coalition and the 10th District Judicial Nominating Commission. As President of the Advocacy and Awareness Group of Johnson County (AAGJC) and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, he leads community service initiatives across the Kansas City area.

Pride Fest

Our team members volunteered at KC’s annual Pride Fest, an LGBTQ+ festival that features artists, vendors, food, activities, and more. The festival officially kicks off with a Pride parade and is followed by a weekend of celebrations and fun at Theis Park. They were happy to help the event run smoothly and enjoyed partaking in the celebration on a beautiful KC weekend!

Mental Health Awareness Month

May 2024
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we invited Katy Reid, a dedicated mental health professional, to our roundtable to share actionable ways to care for mental well-being in the workplace. She has a background in social work and crisis intervention as well as a passion for mental health advocacy and caring for those around her. We talked through techniques for grounding ourselves in times of mental crisis, how to communicate and help those around us, resources to turn to, and how mental health has changed since the pandemic.

The BrandLab’s Fearless Conference 2024

May 2024
Emfluence was in attendance at this year’s Fearless Conference created by BrandLab. The theme centered on moving from positive intent to real impact and gathered leaders, marketers, HR and DEI professionals, and community and education partners all in one place to learn and discuss. Kina and Sarah spent the day learning about examples and experiences and took away actionable strategies to help our industry make real impacts on the community.

April Diversity Event

We invited our remote team back to KC this month for some in-office socializing and had to take the opportunity to feed the crowd that kept our office lively some great food from local restaurants. For April’s diversity event, we celebrated Multicultural Awareness Month by bringing in a variety of cuisine to enjoy from around the River Market. We ordered in delicious food from Habashi House, specializing in traditional Middle Eastern dishes, and Ting’s Filipino Bistro, a small bistro that pays homage to the owner’s family and the recipes she grew up eating. Our team dined on traditional dishes like gyros, skewers, adobo, and more while our Diversity Committee shared their roadmap for goals and events the rest of the year.

March Diversity Event

What better way to celebrate Women’s History Month than hearing from an accomplished woman herself? For March, we invited Leilani Haywood to our roundtable. She is a creative problem solver, an award-winning writer, and a successful digital marketer. Our team was excited and thoroughly engaged by her presentation on AI and how it’s transforming the marketing landscape.

February Diversity Event

Our diversity committee took charge this month and put together a session for the emfluence team to learn more about racial bias in marketing. Our committee members took the time to extensively research AI and racial bias and ebonics. They also shared BrandLab’s State of the Industry Report. This session encouraged discussion among our team and challenged us to stay inclusive and conscious when developing marketing initiatives.

Martin Luther King Service Day Project

January 2024
The emfluence team gathered in office to put together bags of supplies for a local KC non-profit, Neighbor2Neighbor, that provides support and encouragement to the homeless community. These kits included essential toiletries such as toothpaste, lip balm, wipes, and a variety of snacks and useful items that come in handy. It was great to see so many faces in the office and work together to help our community.

Sumner High School Career Day

January 2024

Another career day to join our full calendar of events this month! We supported Sumner High School’s Career Day by bringing our team, our resources, and our best advice to guide high school students as they explored opportunities for after graduation. We were excited to engage with curious groups of students and other businesses in our community.

City Year Cleveland

January 2024

Our remote workforce refused to be left out of MLK day of service plans and discovered new opportunities to volunteer in her local community. Miriam joined City Year Cleveland at Goods Bank Northeast Ohio to unbox, sort, price, and organize donations. These donation items are then donated to areas of need or sold for a nominal fee to other non-profits or low-income families.

DiPasquale Moore Career Exploration Day

January 2024

Taryn and LaToya attended a local career day hosted by DiPasquale Moore with the goal of presenting to students and sharing opportunities for after graduation. This event included vendors from all over the KC metro area and the team loved hanging out with other businesses in our community and helping high schoolers explore their options.

December 2023

Our team members, LaToya and Kina, attended the Urban Leadership Career Expo hosted by the 2020 Leadership Program. With over 60 vendors across the KC Metro in attendance and close to 400 students, this event gave high schoolers the opportunity to meet professionals from different industries and careers, learn about opportunities after graduation, and practice networking skills.

October 2023

Our team chatted with Amy Harris the founder of KC based nonprofit, Diversibilities. Her organization is focused on giving people with cognitive disabilities a safe place to learn important life, job, and independent living skills. We dove into the topic of invisible disabilities and misconceptions and our team had the opportunity to ask Amy some important questions on promoting inclusivity and safe spaces in the workplace.

September 2023

We gathered in person at our River Market office to celebrate our team and honor National Hispanic Heritage Month. The focus was digital marketing and we invited Rob from Puente Marketing and Advertising in to share insights about the Hispanic market – what it can look like and what to keep in mind. The goal here is to build the bridge and create conscious marketers. We walked away with plenty of ideas and discussions for tailoring future campaigns and client work.

August 2023

We were excited to host the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce for their Coffee Connections event! This is a monthly event meant to bring together professionals and community leaders in a comfortable and intimate environment. Shoutout to Kinship Coffee, a locally based, black-owned, specialty coffee shop for supplying the much-needed caffeine for this early morning networking event!

June 2023

Our June speaker featured Justice Horn, a local community leader, policy advocate, and social justice advocate. He’s the highest-ranking member of Gen Z in local government across the Kansas City Region and has broken barriers multiple times as the NCAA’s first openly gay multicultural wrestler, UMKC’s first openly gay multicultural student president, the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate to run for Jackson County Legislature. He continues to serve the community through his work as an advisor and a leader.

May 2023

We were excited to send our teammates to BrandLab’s 2023 Fearless Conference where they gathered (virtually) with other professionals to learn and discuss topics around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the marketing and advertising industry. They brought their knowledge back to the rest of the company after the conference by leading a discussion with great discussion questions!

April 2023

We hosted a virtual volunteer day among our team members by sharing more about an organization emfluence has been proud to support for many years, Children International. Along with letter writing activities, our very own CEO shared his experiences traveling to locations this humanitarian organization serves and what he learned about families in poverty and breaking the cycle.

March 2023

We welcomed Kate Mangino to our virtual workplace to discuss gender and her latest book, Equal Partners Improving Gender Equality at Home. Kate is a gender expert who has spent over two decades working to change harmful social norms through writing, training, and facilitation in over 20 countries.

March 2023

Our River Market office played host to Digital Women KC (DWKC), a professional and local network of women working in the digital space. This organization is committed to learning, mentoring, collaborating, and growing together. Our topic of discussion highlighted the latest tech news- ChatGPT!

February 2023

Our team spoke with Mistinguette Smith about diversity and inclusion in companies. Trained in diversity and inclusion interventions by The Equity Institute, the People’s Institute, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Race Forward, she’s currently serves as a consultant for her own firm (M Smith Consulting) working with organizations to build inclusive processes for equitable results.

January 2023

To kick off our first diversity roundtable of the year, we invited Jamie Grayson, founder of POAC (People of All Color) Succeed, to speak about his experiences working with next generation leaders in area schools. His organization looks to partner with local organizations and businesses to provide internship opportunities, on the job training and skill development tools to help enhance students’ Market Value Assets, for higher paying jobs in their future.

December 2022

We ended the year with a bang by celebrating the holiday season with a virtual escape room party hosted by HELM Life. They host social and learning events that contribute to team building. We had a great time working through puzzles that taught us about how cultures all over celebrate the holidays

November 2022

In honor of Native American Awareness Month, we invited Jillian RainingBird to our diversity roundtable to speak to our team. She shared several resources to gain perspective and to support the Native American Community. Our team members at emfluence were quick to add her book recommendations to our GoodReads!

September 2022

Our goal was to continue giving back to our community and learn how we can make meaningful impacts to our community members. This month invited Hayley Rees from Lead to Read to share more with us on the organization’s mission and how we can help! Lead to Read is a reading and mentoring program created to support social, emotional, and reading skills that provide that foundation for student success.

August 2022

This month was spent connecting with our community more by inviting Dan Smith, a KC native and leader, to share his experiences. Smith provides organizational leadership and direction to The Porter House KC, an organization that provides entrepreneurship guidance to underserved business owners in the metro area.

July 2022

Our team set up an impromptu book club after Alvin Brook’s presentation in February. We ordered a copy of his memoir, Binding Us Together, for anyone interested and spent time learning more about his past before inviting the author himself back for an enlightening discussion.

June 2022

Clinton Bradley was warmly welcomed back to our diversity roundtable discussion to honor LGBTQ+ communities for Pride Month. He was originally a connection made through the LGBT Chamber and our team is always excited to engage with discussions with him.

May 2022

Small Changes Big Shifts hosted a webinar for our team on Building Rhythm and Resistance. This discussion was focused on “building rhythm and resilience” in the “new normal”. We learned about ways to identify issues with and how to improve your physical, mental, and emotional health.

April 2022

Conference season was well underway again and we were excited to send two of our own team members to attend Brand Lab’s second annual Fearless Conference. This event featured two days of speakers mentoring and challenging attendees on creating inclusive workplaces.

We also invited Pam Rosterman from Lever 1 to talk about best practices for work/life balance and mental health.

March 2022

Digital marketing and women were the focus of our conversations this month in celebration of Women’s History Month. We invited Jen Capstraw, email marketing extraordinaire, was invited to discuss her podcast, Humans of Email. We specifically focused on episode 3 of season 1 which featured Alice Li, a staff engineer at Squarespace and a force in the email marketing and human rights world.

February 2022

In honor of Black History Month, we were able to bring Alvin Brooks to our diversity roundtable. Brooks is a former and one of the first black Kansas City police officers, councilman, and mayor pro-tem, as well as the founder of the community organization AdHoc Group Against Crime. He has decades of experience advocating for civil rights, violence prevention, and criminal justice and was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to the President’s National Drug Advisory Council and by Governor Jay Nixon to the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners. 

January 2022

We invited Lynn Burnett back to emfluence to once again honor Dr. King. This discussion focused on the current status of his legacy and our team continued to dive into MLK’s speeches as well as topics like systemic racism.

August-November 2021

Our team was hard at work throughout these months training with the BrandLab at their Fearless Workshops. These workshops were designed to create inclusive cultures in organizations just like ours. We spent time in conversations about race, identity, and inclusion and how those play into our intent, impact, and privilege and into creating safe spaces.

June 2021

Our Diversity featured Clinton Shane Bradley on the topic of Juneteenth. Bradley has a rich background in DEI, including being an ex-military and being part of the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He consults on DEI for companies and is a leader in the KC DEI community.

May 2021

The theme of our diversity roundtable centered on celebrating Asian Heritage Month. We invited Rui Xu, the Kansas state representative for the 25^th District and Emily Weber, the Missouri state representative for the 24^th District to come speak to our team. We also distributed Stop Asian Hate social cards to provide resources to everyone.

April 2021

We were more than excited to attend the Brand Lab’s Fearless Conference this month and learned how to courageously move forward by building self-awareness, courage, and action on an individual and an industry level.

In honor of Diversity Awareness Month, we also took time to celebrate our unique team members by learning more about each other in our monthly discussion. We invited everyone to share traditions, stories, and anything else that defines who they are.

March 2021

Celebrating women highlighted our events for the month. Our team at emfluence was busy throughout March. We invited Jennifer Spencer, Jenn Capstraw, and Natalie Jackson to host a discussion, published an article on inclusion in paid media, created an International Women’s Day social campaign, and became a member of the MidAmerica LGBT chapter.

February 2021

We brought this month’s discussion closer to home by inviting Spark Bookhart to present on the KCMO school district and redlining. Bookhart is a leader involved in public education and at Parent Power Lab, an organization working to empower parents throughout the KC area through a series of rigorous training.

January 2021

Our year began by remembering and honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy with knowledgeable facilitators, Lynn Burnett and Larrye Franklin. Ahead of our meeting, we explored resources shared through Cross Cultural Solidarity. Our team was left in awe of the history shared and were eager to bring these speakers back for future roundtables.

November 2020

Our discussions for the month centered around National American Indian Heritage Month and the popular American holiday, Thanksgiving. The goal was to challenge mainstream conceptions and ask ourselves how we could ally with the Native American population. We hosted an internal roundtable for team members by sharing statistics, readings, and articles and inviting discourse on the following questions:

1. What surprised you about these readings or facts?
2.  Are there assumptions about Native culture you caught yourself making as you went through these readings?
3.  What are your thoughts and feelings about the way we celebrate Thanksgiving in schools or popular culture? Are there ways we could make this holiday more inclusive?
4.  How do we talk to children about indigenous cultures in a way that is positive and productive?
5.  What is your cultural experience with Native Americans today? Can you speak to recent movies, books, or TV shows that featured Native Americans? What did you notice?

October 2020

We welcomed a variety of community leaders to emfluence in celebration of Hispanic Awareness Month. Pedro Arroyo, Clare Murphy Shaw, Christy Joyce, and Rodrigo Cabeza made up panel of guests to lead our discussions and shared how companies like ours can become allies of the Hispanic community.

September 2020

Our first roundtable gathered with Lauren Anderson for a mental health workshop. Lauren is a mindfulness and energy healing coach as well as the founder of The Nourished Heart, an organization dedicated to empowering others. This first meeting was focused on discussing the mental and emotional strain of events occurring this year.

June 2020

Our journey towards improving DEI at emfluence began at the height of the pandemic and discussions emerged as a result of disturbing events happening across the country. We began our diversity dialogue and took action by forming out Diversity Committee and creating a statement, compiling social justice resources for team members, and our CEO, Dave Cacioppo, released our #activelyseekingdiversity statement.