EACE Employer Relations Professionals Affinity Group Kickoff

How to Approach Employers with DEI Initiatives to Create Recruiting Partnerships

Friday, March 22, 2024
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET

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This panel discussion will provide attendees with strategies for approaching employers with DEI initiatives to create recruiting partnerships. Hear from employers at companies with DEI initiatives, as well as employer relations professionals who have been successful in initiating and building these relationships.

We will dedicate time at the end of this meeting to hear from our members on what else they would like to learn, discuss and connect on.

Panelists: 

Adesuwa Igbineweka (she/her/hers), Director for Career Equity and Access, Center for Career Equity, Development & Success

Adesuwa (Ade) Igbineweka (she/her/hers) is an equity and access advocate in career development and the workplace. She has almost 20 years of work experience in non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Her aptitude in working with people from different backgrounds, abilities, and cultures includes leading a 24-hour residential program, teaching high school seniors and adult learners in Nigeria, and college students in the US.

As the inaugural Director for Career Equity and Access at the Center for Career Equity, Development, and Success at Suffolk University, she supports the career center in creating an inclusive environment for students, as well as work with the team in building strategies to engage employers in the efforts to increase access and reduce barriers to employment. In the last few years, she has led the creation of the Employer DEI toolkit utilized at the center with employer partners. She provides training for staff on enhancing intercultural competencies, working with students from historically marginalized backgrounds, and building collaborative processes with employers.

She created and partnered with the center’s industry advisors to highlight employers committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion through a program series, Bridging the Opportunity Gap (BTOG). After a full year of planning, she led the team in hosting the first-ever Career Equity Conference. It was an opportunity to highlight the tremendous work university career centers, employer partners, and non-profit organizations engage in to increase access and build workplace equity. The second career equity conference will take place in November 2024.

Motivated by her Gen Z colleagues, she founded Heymama Career Services, a career coaching program with an intense focus on supporting first-generation college students and graduates. As a first-generation college student and American, this is a dream come true, and she is grateful for the opportunity to learn while teaching.

Michelle Goldberg, M.A. (she/her/hers), Associate Director of Career Communities, Management & Entrepreneurship, Strategic Lead for Innovative Business Partnerships

 Michelle Goldberg (she/her) is a dedicated multicultural career counselor who thrives in creating professional pathways for historically marginalized populations. As the Associate Director of the Management and Entrepreneurship Career Community and Strategic Lead for Innovative Business Partnerships in Suffolk University’s Center for Career Equity, Development & Success, she advises students at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree levels and alumni at all stages of their career. She partners directly with faculty of the Sawyer Business School to embed career development into the classroom. Michelle builds intentional partnerships with employers and community organizations to match recruitment needs with top talent. She advises employers on successful diversity recruitment strategies and co-authored Suffolk’s Employer DEI Toolkit. 

Prior to joining the Suffolk community, she worked as an Assistant Director in Career Design at Northeastern University, her undergraduate alma mater, where she primarily supported students, employers, faculty and staff within the D'Amore-McKim School of Business and Cultural Life. As a former member of the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council and presenter at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, her personal mission is to break the cycle of inequity in the workforce. Michelle completed her Master’s in Higher Education Administration from George Washington University with a focus on Student Affairs and Multicultural Counseling.  

As a certified MBTI®, Strengths Profile, and Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, Michelle embeds assessment into her advising practice and is often called upon to lead team building, leadership development, and career advancement workshops from an assessment-based mindset.

Kiegh Dudley (he/him/his), Senior Campus Recruiting Specialist, People & Culture, CohnReznick

Kiegh Dudley is a Senior Campus Recruiting Specialist, serving as a primary lead for all campus recruiting efforts involving CohnReznick’s five New York Metro offices, including the company’s headquarters in Manhattan, NY.  Additionally, he is the current leader of the Diversity Working Group for CohnReznick’s recruiting team.  He has quite an interesting journey as he previously spent time working in both the assurance and advisory service lines within the public accounting profession.  He is a licensed CPA who started his career in the Commercial Audit group of CohnReznick where upon making Senior Associate, transferred to their Transactional Advisory Services (TAS) practice.  His hope is to continue leveraging his experience of having worked in two out of the three service lines in public accounting to offer a unique perspective to speak from when engaging with college faculty as well as their students to try and inform them of the rewarding opportunities this industry has to offer.

Throughout his time on the client service side, he had always gotten involved in the firm’s campus recruiting efforts in addition to committees and mentorship programs at various colleges and universities.  For example, despite not being a Baruch Alumni, Kiegh was invited by the executive board of Baruch College’s chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) back in 2018 to serve as a professional mentor to two students, one of which went on to receive the 2018 Mentee of the Year Award, the same year Kiegh was named the Mentor of the Year.  This combination of passion and experience has also led Kiegh to serve as both an Adjunct Lecturer and current member of the Accounting Advisory Board at his alma mater, Stony Brook University, whereby he is further able to bridge the gap between the classroom and the profession.

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