DEI Strategies that Stick

Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Choose Chicago & Choose Chicago Foundation

Roz Stuttley serves as Director, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) with Choose Chicago, and the Choose Chicago Foundation. She develops and leads a comprehensive EDI strategic action plan which includes Choose Compassion employee resource group, education/training for staff and community engagement initiatives for underrepresented communities. Her professional journey began as a freelance event planner with the Black Women’s Expo. Over the past twenty+ years, her career has evolved to include sales, travel, site visit planning, client services and event planning experience with Advantage International, The Field Museum and Choose Chicago. Roz holds a B.A. in Journalism, minor: Theater and dual certifications, Certified Meeting Professional and Certified Diversity Executive. She is an active member of the Destinations International’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and also serves as a board member with Tourism Diversity Matters.

Head of Multicultural Marketing at Cadillac

Juanita Slappy is an award-winning marketing and communications executive with a personal commitment to serving multicultural audiences. April 2021 she was promoted to Head of Multicultural Marketing for Cadillac leading efforts to drive measurable business results, develop impactful content, and secure strategic partnerships crafted for the iconic brand. Juanita joined General Motors in 2017 as a lead in Diversity Brand Communications. Since then, she has also led initiatives and teams in Program Operations, managing key reveal and launch events for the GM suite of brands and in Global Product Development and Innovation & Growth. With more than a decade of multicultural marketing and communications experience serving in leadership capacities at two of North America’s premier multicultural agencies, Juanita has consistently delivered culturally relevant campaigns. She directed Ford and Lincoln’s multicultural public relations and experiential efforts via agency alignment with Uniworld Group. Prior to supporting Ford, she served in various communications capacities via GlobalHue, a full-service multicultural advertising agency, with clients such as FCA (Chrysler), U.S. Navy and Walmart, among others–such as the 2010 Census campaign which MediaWeek recognized as Multicultural Campaign of the Year. Juanita has contributed to national publicity and experiential efforts for ESSENCE Festival, Super Bowl XL, Detroit Grand Prix and a host of others including working with talent such as Regina King, Big Sean, Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges, Steve Harvey, Winnie Mandela and others.

Product Marketing Manager at Disney+

Ariana Vergara-Johnson is passionate about using technology and media to bring about positive change. Images on-screen whether the big ones or the small ones in our pockets have the power to spark curiosity and move people of all ages to action. She intends to use her strategic experience and quantitative knowledge from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (’21) to bring about collective global progress and systemic change. As a proud first-generation Peruvian-American and member of the LatinX and LGBTQ+ communities, inclusion and DEI are passions of hers. She truly believes creative storytelling can make an impact on the status quo: processes, transparency, ruthless prioritization and the like can move the needle. Anyone can be a creator and tell their story. Furthermore, she has found herself in a unique position as an intersectional human being at The Walt Disney Company during a rather tumultuous time in history consequently she also has become an activist within the BERGs for human rights as a Community Outreach Chair for DMED-Pride and LatinX in Tech. Talk to her in Spanish, French or English.

Associate Vice President of Patient Access Operations & DEIB Officer at Erie Family Health Centers

Kellie Medious is a results-driven and highly effective leader with several years of experience in operations, business administration, customer service, team building, and call center management. Kellie currently serves as Associate Vice President of Patient Access Operations at Erie Family Health Centers. As a member of Erie’s Executive Leadership team, Kellie contributes to and develops strategies for organization priorities and supporting the organization’s annual action plan. Kellie has been instrumental in the leadership and redesign of the Patient Access Operations Department. She oversees 100+ of Erie’s employees including the Centralized Patient Access Center, Front End Revenue Cycle Team, Scheduling Operations, Referrals and Reproductive Health Specialists, Interpreters, Telehealth Specialist, Quality Improvement, and Health Information Management teams. Kellie is also Erie’s first Diversity, Equity Inclusion and Belonging Officer. Instrumental in starting Erie’s DEIB initiatives, she helped to form DEIB committees, Employee Resource Groups and DEIB Training team.

President and Founder, MRPP and Associates Communications

Accomplished communications leader with extensive experience in media and public relations including executive communications and media training; strategic planning; crisis communication management, project management and budget oversight; television/radio broadcasting, communications education; guest lecturer and public speaking. Skilled community and organizational counselor recognized for building collaborative stakeholder relationships. Extensive experience writing news releases, op-eds, commentaries, executive speeches, and broadcast communications. Proven track record of ability to raise an organization’s profile through innovation, leadership, planning, and incorporation of social media. Recognized for community service, creativity and media production. Appointed Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Minnesota chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (Minnesota PRSA) January 2019. Ordained Minister by the Minnesota State Baptist Churches (MNSBC) July 2018.