Great Change; Great Women Series 2

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Series 2 of our #GreatChangeGreatWomen starting from 3rd June please register for all 4 webinars.

Register for all webinars -You can register for all 6 webinars by filling out this form

Episode 1- Laura Allen and Sara Basson

Head of Strategy, Accessibility and Disability Inclusion Google

June 10, 2021 2:00 PM [BST]

Laura Allen is the Head of Strategy for Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at Google. She works cross-functionally across teams to improve the accessibility and usability of Google products and processes, and to make Google a more accessible and inclusive place for people with disabilities. Due to her personal experience with low vision, she believes that technology has more power now than ever to transform lives, and progressing accessibility and disability inclusion is her true passion.

Prior to her role as Head of Strategy, Laura was the Senior Accessibility Program Manager for the Chrome and Chrome OS teams at Google. For 6.5 years, she collaborated with engineers, designers, product managers, and researchers to make the Chrome family of products accessible and usable across platforms, for people of all abilities. She also leads various accessibility workshops and trainings for teachers of the visually impaired, advocacy organizations, and special education classrooms. In addition, Laura helps to lead Google's presence at major accessibility conferences, as she believes that connecting with the community and gathering hands-on feedback is critical. Laura also represents Google in the Teach Access organization, where various technology companies, higher education institutions, and disability advocacy organizations come together to drive the inclusion of accessibility in core computer science, design, human centered interaction programs, and other key disciplines to close the accessibility skills gap. As of 2020, she serves as the Chair of the Teach Access Executive Committee. Since 2017, Laura has also served on the board of directors for the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. As of June 2020, she serves on the board of the Alphapointe Foundation, an organisation centered around empowering individuals who are visually impaired to achieve their goals and aspirations and gain meaningful employment. Prior to her role in accessibility, Laura worked as an Account Manager in Google's Large Customer Sales division where she advised business-to-business technology companies on their advertising and marketing strategies. For her undergraduate education, Laura studied International Business, Marketing, and Music at Georgetown University. She also completed an Executive Leadership graduate program at Stanford University in March 2021.
Laura Allen

Episode 1- Sara Basson

Disability Inclusion Lead Google

June 10, 2021 2:00 PM [BST]

Sara Basson works at Google as Disability Inclusion Lead, with the goal of making the experience of Googlers more accessible and usable, through enhancements to technologies and education and advocacy around accessibility. In previous roles, she worked at IBM Research on the Education Transformation initiative, to achieve better academic outcomes using personalised learning and analytics. In 2011, she completed an international assignment at IBM Research-India, where she was working on strategy, business, and user interface design issues for Spoken Web, a tool that created internet-like access for developing regions, using mobile phones and speech recognition.

She has also served as principal investigator from IBM Research to drive improved educational access using speech technologies for university students with disabilities through the Liberated Learning consortium, working with 20 universities worldwide. Sara has more than 50 articles published on topics in speech technology and accessibility in technical journals, as well as a number of pending and issued patents. She was granted the title of Master Inventor in IBM Research in 2011. Sara holds an M.B.A. in Management/Marketing from Stern School of Business, New York University, and a Ph.D. in Speech, Hearing, and Language Sciences from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in recognition of her extensive activities using speech technologies to enhance accessibility in the educational arena. Sara serves on the Board of Directors for Lexington School for the Deaf, and Meals on Wheels of White Plains.
Watch the recording -watch the recording of Laura Allen and Sara Basson
Sara Basson

Episode 2- Helen De Bretton

June 17, 2021 2:00 PM

Director of Corporate Solutions, Microlink Awarded a Masters Degree in 2015 researching “Perceptions, Awareness and Relevance of Non-Visible Disabilities to Employers. Director of Corporate Services with 24 years’ experience in the disability industry.

Specialist consultant to organisations in workplace adjustment services and disability within the workplace. Architect of the award winning workplace adjustment service, first championed by Lloyds Banking Group, now delivering unparalleled benefits to multiple large UK and Global organisations. Designed and implemented managed services to assess, supply, train and support over 500,000 employees with disabilities or health conditions that impact their work, increasing productivity and reducing absence by 76%. Specialist topics include Workplace Adjustments (WPA), neurodiversity, mental health, wellbeing, project management, business process engineering and gap analysis, workplace adjustment workshops and consultation for organisations and stakeholders
Watch the Recording -watch the recording for episode 3 with Stav Papageorgaki and Helen De Bretton
Helen De Bretton

Episode 2- Stavroula Papageorgaki

June 17, 2021 2:00 PM

Stavroula has been with Microlink for the past 19 years and in that time she has served in Customer Service, Supply Chain, Tenders, Contract Management and Compliance, giving her an in depth understanding of the Microlink operations. She was awarded a Bachelors in Media with Cultural Studies and is currently finalising her thesis for a Masters in Corporate Governance and Law, with her dissertation focusing on promoting Disabilities up the Corporate Governance agenda for FTSE companies. Stavroula has been trained by the Business Disability Forum and the Mental Health Foundation and has trained Microlink employees on Disability Awareness and Mental Health Awareness.

Stavroula Papageorgaki

Episode 3- Ali Knowles

Founder Ollie & his superpowers

June 24, 2021 2:00 PM

Ali is a practising emotional therapist, author of the Ollie and his Super Powers series of books, public speaker, NLP trainer and creator of the Ollie Model.  Ali’s strength is the unique way she views the world and her instinctive ability to empower children and parents to find the solutions from within.

Watch the Recording -Watch the recording for episode 4 with Ali Knowles
Ali Knowles

Episode 4- Caroline Casey

Founder The Valuable 500

July 7, 2021 2:00 PM

Caroline Casey is the businesswoman and activist behind The Valuable 500, the world’s largest CEO collective and business move for disability inclusion.

Casey launched the movement at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Summit in 2019 and since then has signed up 500 multinational organisations with a combined revenue of over $8 trillion, employing 20 million people worldwide to radically transform the business system. The membership includes 36 of the FTSE 100 companies, 46 of the Fortune 500 and 28 of the Nikkei.

Recently appointed President of the IAPB, Caroline also sits on several diversity and inclusion boards to include L’Oréal and Sky and is a much sought-after speaker. Caroline has received an honorary doctorate as well as multiple awards and accolades for her work as a disability activist.

Watch the Recording -Register for episode 6 with Caroline Casey
Caroline Casey