Oakland County Employment Diversity Council Hosts Women in Leadership Summit

Pontiac, MI, October 26, 2010 – The Oakland County Employment Diversity Council announces today the five women leaders who will participate in a panel discussion to be conducted at the ninth annual Workplace Diversity Forum and Women in Leadership Summit, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Friday,
October 29, 2010 at The Metropolitan Hotel in Troy, Mich.

The panel participants are:

• Dr. Patricia A. Dolly, president, Oakland Community College, Auburn Hills Campus
• Linda Forte, senior vice president and chief diversity officer, Comerica Bank
• Susan Kaufmann, associate director for advocacy, U of M Center for the Education of Women
• Terri Moon, president, Terri Moon and Associates
• Nancy Skinner, president and CEO, NextWave Media Studios

The moderator of the panel discussion will be Juliette Thorpe Okotie-Eboh, senior vice president public affairs of MGM Grand Detroit. The discussion will focus on understanding the barriers that contribute to a lack of women in leadership roles; increasing awareness of the vital contributions women make to leadership; sharing best practice strategies of successful women; sharing best practices and lessons of progressive companies; and creating long-term strategies that increase representation of women in leadership roles. 

As president of Oakland Community College, Patricia Dolly leads campus operations of the four-campus public institution through management of its resources to achieve the college’s mission.  She has years of experience in higher education at both public and private institutions.  Dolly is a native of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Linda Forte is senior vice president of business affairs and chief diversity officer for Comerica.  She is responsible for defining and driving business strategies that establish Comerica as a leader in diversity and work life practices.  She also oversees the company’s corporate giving and community involvement programs in all of its markets.  Forte serves on numerous boards of directors and has been recognized as a business and civic leader.

Susan Kaufmann has been an associate director of the University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women in Ann Arbor since 1990.  After leading the center’s counseling services, programs, and leadership development activities for over a decade, Kaufmann became the associate director for 

advocacy in 2006, heading advocacy and policy initiatives that benefit women within and beyond the university. In 2004, Governor Granholm appointed Kaufmann to the board of the Washtenaw County Department of Human Services, on which she continues to serve. Kaufmann has a master’s degree in environmental advocacy from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment and a B.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

As president and owner of Terri Moon and Associates, Ms. Moon is a dynamic business executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of strategic planning, purchasing, and manufacturing experience that helps to transform and position businesses to deliver great products and services. Prior to launching her consulting practice, she held executive positions at General Motors and Bing Group where she excelled in non-traditional roles, achieving recognition within the automotive industry for her accomplishments.  She often mentors young business professionals with executive aspirations.

Nancy Skinner is currently the president and CEO of NextWave Media Studios in Troy, a new, full-service studio providing a broad range of media services to the business and political community, including HD TV uplinks, webcasts and webinars, graphic design services and producing TV and radio spots. She is also a long-time Democratic radio host and regularly provides a Democratic point of view on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, MSNBC and CNN.  Skinner once lost a political race to then-state-Senator Barack Obama in the 2004 Illinois Democratic Primary U.S. Senate race.

The Women in Leadership summit seeks to provide attendees with the most current information about the status of women in leadership roles within the workplace. The sessions are energetic and will provide human resource professionals, diversity and inclusion practitioners and others with effective tools to use in their workplaces and personal lives.

The theme of the 2010 event is “Advancement for Women in Challenging Times.” The keynote speaker is Denise Ilitch, vice chair of University of Michigan Board of Regents and owner and publisher of Ambassador Magazine.

To register for the event, please call the Oakland County Employment Diversity Council (OCEDC) at (248) 858-5204 or visit online at www.ocedc.net. Tickets are $50 per person or $45 per person in groups of five or more. A table of 10 is available for $400. Lunch is included in the price. Society for Human Resource Management credits will be available for human resource professionals.

Oakland County Michigan Works is the presenting sponsor of this event. Other sponsors include: Oakland Community College – Auburn Hills; Oakland County Human Resources Department; Baker College of Auburn Hills; Arab American Chaldean Council; MGM Grand Detroit; The Michigan Chronicle and The Pontiac News.

About OCEDC:

The OCEDC exists to help increase awareness of diversity in the workplace and to assist in building an inclusive work environment. The OCEDC is a leader in creating forums to advance employment diversity for governmental agencies, private business, community service agencies and residents.

For information about this event, please contact Kiesha Speech Event Chairperson at 248-586-8925 speechk@ocedc.net or Frank Russell OCEDC Chairman at (248) 858-5204, or russellf@ocedc.net.