SOUTH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY –It is with great pleasure that DiversityPlus Magazine presents the 2021 Top 15 Women in Power Impacting Diversity. These women are national and global leaders who have achieved enormous success in the Supplier Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (SDEI) space. They will be honored in the 2021 Top 15 Women in Power Impacting Diversity Special Issue published in June 2021.

The special issue will be shared with thousands of corporate executives and readers in The United States, Canada, UK, European Union, and 7 other countries. Every business leader (and indeed, anyone embracing the effort to advance SDEI) will find inspiration in each woman’s bio. The Women in Power use their positions to develop and implement best practices for driving measurable results. They are leaders who are passionate about making the workplace and society inclusive in the real sense of the word. They are the links between the vision of D&I and progress through action. While open dialogue is crucial to their efforts, they also deeply believe in the importance of backing up that dialogue with measurable goals, and the implementation of strategies that go beyond talking.

Each year, DiversityPlus Magazine names successful women across industries who are leaders in the SDE&I space. They are visionaries, global influencers, and results-oriented. They keep their visions of an inclusive workplace and society alive by focusing on relationship building, and taking practical steps to bring internal and external stakeholders into a sincere effort to advance SDE&I. The 15 women represent a variety of industries and entrepreneurship, including public utility, health insurance, medical technology, energy, international airport, electronics and technology, consumer goods, banking, hospital, and staffing solutions.

Each organization is at a different stage along the supplier diversity and SDE&I spectrum, and their bios demonstrate how the Top 15 Women have designed unique strategies that perfectly fit their respective organizations. Some of the women leaders are at the stage of building internal support for supplier diversity and D&I in their organization as an intentional business imperative, through regular communication and goal setting. There are women diversity leaders who implemented frameworks for change, tracking and reporting systems, mentor-protégé programs, and supplier capacity building programs.

The common themes that emerge are the importance of top down support, having a commitment of adequate resources, regular communication, and tying business goals to diversity goals for supply chains and workforces. Of great importance is the focus on what Kristen Malek at CDW calls the “big picture.” The big picture is the drive to bring real change at scale and social justice to communities. The Women In Power connect what they do within their organizations to the external social change needed to improve communities.

The Top 15 Women in Power Impacting Diversity were nominated by coworkers, senior leaders, suppliers, and industry peers working in supplier diversity or workforce diversity. Nominees then answered three overarching questions. First, they explained their keys to developing a successful supplier diversity program. Second, each woman described the personal inspiration that keeps them striving for success. The third question asked how the company’s top down support for the diversity program made a difference in their success. Without exception, top down support was named as a critical element for making progress, but support goes far beyond talking about a culture of diversity and inclusion. It includes executives participating in a variety of activities, including participating on speaker panels, writing blogs, speaking at webinars, and attending conferences, to name but a few.

A team of independent researchers and editors evaluated the submissions and selected the final 15 women. Year on year, this is never an easy task, but there was consensus among the evaluators that each nominee shows vision, leadership, and passionate commitment to creating an inclusive global society.

Please join DiversityPlus Magazine in congratulating the Top 15 Women in Power Impacting diversity. DiversityPlus Magazine is a leading diversity publication in the U.S. and on a global basis. Published quarterly, the magazine covers a variety of topics relevant to supplier diversity and inclusion in the supply chain and procurement, shares webinars and interviews with influential business leaders, reviews industry trends, and shares best practices. For more information about DiversityPlus Magazine and the 2021 Top 15 Women in Power Impacting Diversity, visit diversityplus.com or contact the PR team at 973-275-1405 ext 702.

Number	Name	Title	Company Name
1	Sharon Manker	Senior Diversity Program Lead, National Supplier Diversity	American Water
2	Janice Bryant Howroyd	Founder and CEO	ActOne Group
3	Daylana Ervin-Parker	Director of Budget and Supplier Diversity	Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
4	Jessica Gemmell	Supplier Diversity Program Lead/Global Procurement	BD
5	Saken Khokhar	Supplier Diversity Manager	Boston Scientific
6	Kristin Malek	Director of Business Diversity	CDW
7	Karin Cozzi	Senior Supply Chain Manager, Supplier Diversity	DTE Energy
8	Holli Turner	Director of Supplier Diversity and Sustainability Initiatives	Humana
9	Holli Harrington	Senior Director of Supplier Diversity and Diversity Officer	Indianapolis International Airport
10	Marie O’Malley	Senior Director of Supplier Outreach	Medtronic
11	Rosa Botello	Global Head of Supplier Diversity	Motorola Solutions
12	Kate Kiselyk	Director of Supplier Diversity	Nicor Gas
13	Nalini Bates	Senior Director, Supplier Citizenship	P&G
14	Hannah Fletcher	Manager of Supplier Diversity	PNC Bank
15	Paula A. Gutierrez	Director, Diversity & Inclusion and Babs Siperstein PROUD Center	Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset