First Impressions

It was the first time at the conference for most of DMC’s four attendees and DMC’s first time attending as a company. Everyone was excited for the opportunity to connect with more women in engineering and expand the DMC talent pool.

Cecilia Tetlow, Project Engineer at DMC’s Houston office, was a first time conference attendee. 

“I thought, this is going to be a great opportunity for DMC to reach out and increase our diversity,” Tetlow said. “It was exciting to show up and see that many female engineers and engineers in general supporting each other at the conference.”

Jason Mayes, Senior Director of DMC’s South Region, is no stranger to gender disparity in the tech industry. 

“I sit on the Industry Advisory Board at Notre Dame and diversity is a constant challenge we discuss each year. Engineering has been a male dominated industry for a long time so it was exciting to see so many talented engineers at WE22 and know that the gap is narrowing.”

The annual conference boasts companies, engineers, and universities from all over the country.

“Once you actually go in to the conference area and you see all the different booths and […] big names that are showing up like Apple and Siemens and Tesla, […] its really exciting,” Tetlow said.

Mayes was also glad to see the variety of exhibitors at the conference.

“So many great tech companies from across the country are all here for one reason: to find the best engineers and their future leaders.”

Making Connections

DMC got the opportunity to connect with many students, engineers and organizations during the conference.

Caroline Courbois, systems engineer at DMC’s Houston office, attended SWE for the first time outside of college.

“It was cool to meet so many other women engineers,” Courbois said. “A lot of them were college students, so we were talking about their studies, their experiences in their programs, and their accomplishments. A lot of people, who were not necessarily looking for jobs, […] would come by and ask about our Tilt Table and then talk about their own work and careers as a woman in engineering.”

Natalie Pippolo, systems engineer at DMC Houston, also enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere.

“Even when I was still setting up the table, people would come up and chat with me. It was cool to see all of these booths from big companies just full of women,” Pippolo said. “You get to see all of the women who work at all of these big, male-dominated companies.”

In addition to making new connections, Tetlow and Courbois got to reconnect with some friends from their undergraduate programs, which was really fun, according to Courbois.

WE22 was also a great opportunity to connect with some of DMC’s partners and clients. 

“It was really cool to see a lot of companies that are also our clients doing recruiting there and interacting with a few,” Courbois said.

Pippolo also had the opportunity to connect with some familiar organizations.

“We were right next to the Siemens booth, so I got to talk to some people who knew about DMC at Siemens,” Pippolo said.

DMC’s Tilt Table Demo

DMC was excited to share the Tilt Table Demo with WE22 attendees.

“We were getting a lot of attention for it from people who were interested in DMC and those who had never heard of DMC,” Tetlow said. “That was definitely a lot of fun, just explaining how the ball demo works and how it relates to what we do at DMC.”

“It was fun to get to share that with some other companies,” Mayes agreed.

Conference Takeaways

DMC is grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with the many talented women in the engineering and technology community. 

“It was a great opportunity to get exposed to a lot of great candidates that we don’t typically get to make impressions on […],” Mayes said. “It was great to be a part of it, [and] it was fantastic to meet a lot of really talented engineers. Hopefully, we can widen our candidate pool and find an even better cross-section of engineers.”

Tetlow also noted the significance of attending WE22.  

“Hopefully, people who read this blog will see that DMC cares about diversity and supporting women and gender minorities in engineering,” Tetlow said. “I think it’s good that DMC is being involved in this space, with the added benefit that it will help us to recruit more smart people.”

Upcoming SWE Chapter Events

DMC is a proud sponsor of the SWE chapters at University of Notre Dame and Rice University. We look forward to connecting with SWE members at future events!

Learn more about DMC’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

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What SWE Does

“SWE is an organization that focuses on building community and promoting the advancement of women in STEM,” Elizabeth Goodnight, project engineer who attended the conference while at Rice University, said. “In your career, it also provides a lot of different opportunities for training, advancement, and networking to provide a support system – especially for those of us who might continue to work in a male-dominated field, industry, or work environment.”

The organization focuses on diversity and inclusion and is also open to gender minorities as a whole.

“Anybody who identifies as a woman or any gender minority who is in engineering can be a part of it,” Natalie Pippolo, systems engineer who attended the conference while at Rice University, said. “Most universities have chapters where people who are studying engineering can get scholarships from SWE, or SWE will help you find internships, help you out with job search, and just be a community and host events for women in engineering.”

The Conference

This year, three other DMC engineers will be attending the conference in addition to Pippolo – Cecilia Brookshier, Caroline Courbois, and Jason Mayes.

Some DMCers were involved in the conference during college – like Goodnight.

“When I was at Rice, I was really involved. I was an officer. For a couple of years, I was specifically the Conference Chair, so I was responsible for coordinating everybody’s attendance,” Goodnight said. “We would do scholarships and stuff for some students who couldn’t necessarily pay their own way. We would pay for hotel rooms and stuff to get people going. That’s actually where I got my first internship. There is always a career fair, and sometimes that is why a lot of people go. They also do speeches, workshops, and panels.

Alike to being a part of SWE, any gender may attend the conference, and Goodnight says she “fully supports this.”

“I would encourage anybody to go because everybody should see women achieving,” Goodnight said. “If you’re going to try to benefit from this conference, then you should also be prepared to support the overall mission – which is supporting and advancing women in engineering. Go to a talk, learn some things, apply that in your future, and then absolutely be a part of the community. Do it as an ally, not as an appropriator.”

The conference allows companies the space to hire a broader demographic of people in a space where these genders feel welcomed. While large, Pippolo says the opportunity to be surrounded by others like you is exciting – as she knows from attending the conference while attending Rice University.

“There’re so many companies, and it’s really cool to be in a giant convention center room full of a bunch of just women in engineering – which is a pretty rare opportunity, so that was really cool,” Pippolo said. “I know a lot of people from college who have gotten jobs and internships from the SWE conference, so I am really excited that DMC is going for the first time this year.”

Goodnight agrees that it is rare to see women featured in the workplace in this way.

“I think, for me, it was first time I ever saw women at the top of their field,” Goodnight said. “When you look at the people that kind of run the engineering world, you don’t see a lot of women. It’s a very cool environment to just see people who are really good at what they do and also who look like you, have a similar background, or have been through the same thing.”

While attending Rice University, Elizabeth Goodnight (left) attended the SWE conference.

The Next Generation

Since 2018, Goodnight has been pushing for DMC to attend the conference and recruit there.

“I think it’s absolutely worth it for exposure and demonstrating that you actually care about something,” Goodnight said. “It’s one thing to say ‘we care about promoting diversity in our workplace.’ It’s another thing to say ‘we are spending money on being there, being present, and being actively engaged.”

The conference actively engages with high school students by hosting Girl Scouts and other groups that participate in invention competitions.

“They also do an invention competition for high school students typically to do some kind of robotics invention task – which includes a bunch of girls and SWE volunteers all working together on some kind of design challenge,” Goodnight said. “It’s really cool. It’s more about, not just reaching out to current women in engineering or current women who are studying to be engineers but building up the pipeline early on.”

As SWE supports the next generation of engineers through events such as these, DMC is as well by sponsoring the SWE chapter at Rice University.

“This is our first year we are trying to sponsor a student club like that,” Goodnight said. “We are kind of stepping that up in general from an outreach perspective, so I think that also played into this – getting involved with SWE at one of our target schools and the conference happened to be there this year. There’s just a lot of things that came together where it made sense. I’m hoping that – seeing it as a positive experience this year – will make it worthwhile to attend in future years.”

Learn more about DMC’s culture and contact us today for your next project

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Topic Overview

After becoming open to a discussion in session one, we examined systemic racism in session two. Our third and final session in this series discussed “Becoming an Anti-Racist.”

Definition 

We shared the following definition of an anti-racist. “People who are actively seeking not only to raise their consciousness about race and racism but also to take action when they see racial power inequities in everyday life. Being an antiracist is very different from just being “nonracist.”

This diagram illustrates becoming an anti-racist.

Racial Biases

Next, we watched a video of Ibram Xolani Kendi. He is an American author, professor, and historian of race and discriminatory policy in America. Kendi explains that there is no such thing as a non-racist. All policies and ideas either hamper or advance equality.

Source: VCU Libraries

Dr. Kendi has also stated, “Racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be racist one minute and an antiracist the next.”

As we’ve learned in our last two sessions, everyone has racial biases. Our culture and media are all rooted in racial inequity, so just by the nature of growing up exposed to this type of content, we will have racial biases.

We discussed that scholars teach that a big part of being anti-racist is acknowledging that you have internal racism and you can act in ways or support things that are racist. A big part of anti-racism is acknowledging that and then working to dismantle racism in yourself. In order to be anti-racist, we have to continually examine ourselves.

Steps to Ending Racial Inequality

Next, we shared Dr. Kendi’s steps to ending racial inequality and asked attendees to reflect on these ideas.

• Acknowledge that the problem is caused by policy, not people
• Acknowledge that racial inequity is intersectional
• Find out which specific policies are causing inequity
• Come up with new antiracist policies to replace them
• Determine which individuals or groups have the power to put antiracist policies into place
• Educate the public about specific racist policies and antiracist replacements
• Connect with antiracist policymakers to get the new antiracist policies implemented
• Get rid of racist policymakers by asking antiracist policymakers to force them out of office
• Make sure the new antiracist policy is having an equalizing effect
• If the policies aren’t working, look for new policies, not new people
• Keep an eye on policymakers to make sure no new racist policies come into effect

Discussion Questions

Finally, we brought in some voices from throughout DMC to answer discussion questions. Our goal was to share information with each other so we can all learn and grow in our journeys to be anti-racist and normalize these reflections. 

• Can you think of a time when you noticed growth in your ability to recognize racism?
• What works for effectively dismantling racism within your community (friends, family, church, teams, workplace)?
• What works for effectively dismantling racism within a conversation or with an individual?
• What works for effectively dismantling racism in institutions (donations, advocacy, political involvement)?
• How will you personally work to address bias when performing recruiting, managing others, and other subjective processes in the workplace?
• If you received feedback that something you or another in the workplace had done/said that perpetuated racism, how would you want to approach receiving that feedback? What actions might you take?
• Do you have any tips for disrupting racism in the workplace? What steps have you found to be useful? What steps have been ineffective?
• What are good ways to be an ally and supportive without being performative, a “white savior”, or overstepping? Is there a line between being supportive and overstepping which could hurt the movement?

We hope that this series empowered attendees to be informed and positively influence racism in the world!

Learn about the other topics in this series:
Part One: Being Open to a Discussion
Part Two: Systemic Racism

Learn more about DMC’s company culture. 

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Part One: Being Open to a Discussion

Topic Overview

After becoming open to a discussion in session one, our next session addressed systemic racism. We all know that discrimination was “outlawed” after the civil rights movement. So why is there still disparities between races? The answer – systemic racism.

We discussed the definition of systemic racism and why institutional racism is more subtle and harder to recognize than individual racism.  

Educational Timeline

Next, we discussed the history of racism in America. Much of this content was pulled from “What is Owed” by Nicole Hannah-Jones.

We watched a clip from Netflix’s special Racial Wealth Gap to learn what happened after the end of the Civil War. We also discussed Black Codes and the Homestead Act. 

Credit: Netflix

Moving into the Twentieth Century, we discussed redlining. Redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services were denied to residents of certain neighborhoods on the basis of their race or ethnicity. Redlining prohibited black and brown individuals from being able to obtain loans, and thus buy property, in certain neighborhoods. At the same time, white people were empowered towards homeownership with government-subsidized loans. This became a source of intergenerational wealth disparity with very large impacts on our world today.

We learned about racial violence, including the Tulsa Massacre. We also covered Jim Crow laws and the New Jim Crow. 

Credit: Macat

Systemic Racism

We further explored the topic of systemic racism and started by watching this video on institutional racism. 

Our discussion on systemic racism included its perpetuation by the media, police brutality, the criminal justice system, the prison industrial complex, education, and systemic wealth and housing. 

Special Guest Expert

For the next portion of the session, we welcomed Reginald Champagne as our special guest expert to help us navigate the complicated topic of system racism who we answering our questions on the content. Reginald Champagne is Senior Counsel for Beam Suntory and teaches classes at Northeastern University in Boston. He holds a JD and Masters of Law from Boston University School of Law and studied Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University.

Reginald addressed some questions that DMC employees submitted regarding systemic racism and anti-racism. 

Check back as we share content from our final session on Unpacking Racism.

Learn more about DMC’s company culture. 

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Speaking to the Moment

The goal of this session was to empower listeners to be informed and positively influence racism in the world. We began by acknowledging that the conversations may be difficult or uncomfortable, the work is not easy, and feeling uncomfortable is okay. 

We reviewed some videos and discussed them together. The content demonstrated how racism takes many forms from small things that you say that you don’t realize how they come off, to systemic racism, to police brutality against primarily black people.  

Emmanuel Ancho's video "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man" addressed the question, "Why are people looting?" Lilly Singh's video "Real Things White People Have Said to Me" flipped the script on racist remarks. At this point, two DMC team members from minority backgrounds shared their experiences and how it affected them in the DMC space. 

Be Open to a Discussion

We really can’t unpack racism without having an open mind. The video "James Corden Gets a Lesson on White Privilege", reinforced that his white skin color didn't make his life more challenging.  

We covered the following educational phrases. 

Racial Colorblindness
Colorblindness creates a society that denies people of color’s negative racial experiences, rejects their cultural heritage, and invalidates their unique perspectives. This clip from PBS News Hour addresses "Why 'Colorblindness' is Not the Right Approach to Race." CEO Melody Hobson suggested "Being Color Brave."

White Fragility
Discomfort on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice. Dr. Robin DiAngelo shared "Why Are White People So Bad at Talking About Race?"

Colorism
Prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. One DMC employee shared a personal example. 

Breakout Groups

At this point, we broke out into small groups to review discussion questions together. It sparked meaningful conversation about the video content and how it affects our experiences at DMC. 

Check back as we share content from our following two sessions on Unpacking Racism!
Part Two: Systemic Racism

Learn more about DMC's company culture. 

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What makes DMC such a positive place to work, however, is the close-knit community we foster here. This spring, we celebrated our DMC community with personal touches to brighten our coworkers’ day, gifts for our administrative professionals, awards for extra efforts, and a virtual yoga and mindfulness event.

Lauren’s Daily Dose 

My favorite thing to do when working remotely is sprinkling joy whenever I can. As one of seven kids, my family’s dry-erase board was essential in keeping track of our busy schedules. It quickly became a platform for me to share daily inspirational quotes, which I called “Lauren’s Daily Dose”—LDD for short. I’ve always loved giving negative or mundane phrases a positive alternative and challenging people’s perspectives. LDD grew from that whiteboard to a family group text and now, I’ve brought LDD to DMC.

Here are a few examples of Lauren’s Daily Dose:

• “If you are stuck looking down, you will forget which way is up.” 
• “Life may give you lemons, but you had to look for sugar to make lemonade. Be proud of what you accomplished this week even if it’s adding a little sugar!” 
• “You do not need permission to chase your dreams! Validation is for parking.” 
• “Change is hard but if you were not willing to change, you’d still be wearing diapers driving a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.” 

These quotes help me connect with my team through empowerment, joy, and a couple of giggles. Connection is something I value when fostering a positive work environment. If I can empower just one coworker to have a better day with a silly saying, then I’ve accomplished something. During Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to find more ways to make my coworkers smile. 

Internal Operations Team Appreciation Gifts 

April 21^st is Administrative Professionals Day, which was the perfect time to show appreciation for DMC’s Internal Operations (IO) team. This past year, they worked extremely hard and still found time to welcome me and make my transition to the team extremely smooth. Being one of the newest additions, this was my chance to bring a little LDD to the entire IO team. 

I organized a surprise gift for the Internal Operations team, with a focus on making every item impactful. It was important that every member of the team felt the quintessential LDD sprinkle of joy. I put together a spa care package, complete with a fun-filled card to explain each part of the gift. This was my LDD time to shine:  

Hello Internal Operations! 

Wednesday, April 21st is Administrative Appreciation Day and this admin wanted to flip the script and show how much she appreciates you! 

Included: 

• Sweet kettle popcorn because you’re sweet when I pop up with a question! 
• A candle because you make the day bright! 
• Hand lotion because you make everything run smooth! 
• Head scratcher because you never leave me scratching my head! 
• Back scratcher because you always have my back! 
• Lip balm because you are the balm… like da bomb!  
• A stress ball because you never stress me out! 
• An eye mask because eye know I can count on you!  
• Chocolate because chocolate… am I right? 

Thanks for all you do!  
DMC Admin 

Working remotely can feel monotonous and breaking up the work week with a care package did exactly what I intended. It sprinkled joy and reminded people how much I, and the rest of DMC, value everything they do!  

Connecting Mind, Body & Soul through Yoga  

Mental health is more than taking care of your mind—it includes your body too! There is a bi-weekly meeting that all the internal teams attend to discuss company initiatives and potential solutions to issues that DMCers bring up. To encourage a healthy mental space, especially since it’s Mental Health Awareness Month, I asked if we could bring a guest speaker to our meeting. My manager was completely supportive of the idea. So, at the meeting, we didn’t just talk about mental health⁠—we did a yoga class! 

An important part of maintaining mental health stems from how we treat our bodies. Our guest speaker, Dr. Sara Siddiqui, is a licensed chiropractor and yoga instructor. For our session, she created a flow that stimulated our bodies and targeted places that tend told hold stress for many office workers. I have been seeking chiropractic care for five years and I loved connecting Dr. Sara with my team. 

Yoga Tips for Office Workers

Office and remote employees tend to hold tension in their sitz bones, mid-back, and neck/shoulders. Dr. Sara made our mental wheels turn when she said: 

“Sitting most of the day creates a break in blood flow and our hips become our main support. Therefore, you may think you are not doing anything, but your hip flexors are working overtime. The same can be said about holding tension in the neck. As a culture, we are very forward facing—always working on a phone or computer. This downward motion creates pressure on muscles that are not naturally meant to support the full weight of our heads. In short, we are not using the full capabilities of our bodies, and this stress affects both physical function and mental health.”  

She created a flow targeting these problem areas and cultivated a safe space to be fully present. Her flow focused on the three major areas: forward head posture, stretches to fix a neck hump, and stretching it out. Like most yoga flows, she had us start in a grounded position. We began in child’s pose and quickly moved to open our hips and engage our core through downward dog, cat-cow, and baby cobra. Fun fact: did you know that having a weak core encourages a forward-leaning posture and strains your back? Yes, sometimes back pain is because your core is not engaged.

After the relaxing start, she pushed us to do further core work with a nice forearm plank finisher. It was great to have a live speaker teach us why our bodies act a certain way, discuss the reasons for tightness in particular areas, and provide us with alternate movements to better suit our needs. If you’re interested in learning more about chiropractic care, Dr. Sara gave us her staff referral, which includes a free initial exam. 

I asked a few of my teammates what they thought of the experience:

“We set up a mini yoga studio at the office so we could step into a sunny cheerful room for an hour to relax!” – Mary Doctor

“Doing yoga with our little group in the office was so nice to move and relax with the company of others.” – Izzy Rankin

In addition to celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month through gifts and yoga, we wanted to highlight an organization that supports our greater community’s mental health. We chose Chicago Adventure Therapy because they provide services to underserved youth in Chicago like kayaking, orienteering, cycling, and rock climbing. These activities help teach effective social skills, encourage a sense of possibility, and foster personal empowerment. DMC matches charitable donations, so I encouraged my IO teammates to make a donation.  

Mental health is important to the well-being and growth of our employees. I hope that our Mental Health Awareness Month efforts empowered our teams to take the breaks they need and foster good mental health. 

Learn more about DMC’s company culture and contact us today for your next project.

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A More Equitable Future

This past summer, we witnessed the horrific murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Jacob Blake, and many more unarmed Black Americans. These tragedies are not isolated incidents—they are evidence of the systematic racism that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the United States and across the world contend with every day.

Black and Indigenous people are almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than their White counterparts. The typical White family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times the wealth of the typical Hispanic family. Black and Indigenous women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. From redlining to voter suppression to the prison-industrial complex, to deny these inequalities is to deny the lived experiences of so many Americans.

DMC is proud to stand with Black Lives Matter and we believe that as important as it is to live these values and speak on these issues, it is also imperative to provide financial support. Therefore, DMC is putting our money where our mouth is.

Supporting Positive Change

To support positive change in our communities and in honor of Dr. King’s mission, each DMC employee was given an allowance of up to $100 to spend however they think will have the greatest impact. This could mean donating the funds to an organization, supporting minority-owned businesses, buying books on anti-racism, and so on.

Here are some of the places DMCers have supported with their allowances so far:

WE ACT
“WE ACT’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT envisions a community that has:

• Informed and engaged residents who participate fully in decision-making on key issues that impact their health and community.
• Strong and equal environmental protections.
• Increased environmental health through community-based participatory research and evidence-based campaigns.”

Credit: WE ACT

Brave Space Alliance 
“Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ+ individuals on the South and West sides of the city. We strive to empower, embolden, and educate each other through mutual aid, knowledge-sharing, and the creation of community-sourced resources as we build toward the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”

Various Mutual Aid Funds
A mutual aid fund is a type of community organizing and support. Generally speaking, resources are pooled and shared amongst a community in order to build a sustainable support network. This is opposed to the typical organization of a charity, which is usually a one-way relationship.

“Finding your local mutual aid group is usually pretty simple, with a Google search of “mutual aid groups [your city/area/county].” You don’t need me to teach you how to Google. But if you’re looking for a bit more detail, there’s an interactive map of groups on Mutual Aid Hub.”

Tubby’s Taste
“Tubby’s Taste is a delicious dessert company that is surprisingly vegan. Our founder, Danielle “Tubby” Tubbs comes from a long line of Jamaican cake ladies on one side and a host of African-American foodies on the other. A naturally gifted baker, it’s safe to say that baking is in our founder’s blood. Raised in Miami, Florida, Danielle was surrounded by unique fruits, foods, and flavors. Sugarcane acted as a homegrown fence, fresh coconuts were a short climb away, and she could depend on neighbors’ yards for the sweetest mangoes known to man! These unique experiences and traditions her family held inform the bold flavors we celebrate in our cookies.”

Credit: Tubby’s Taste

Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation
“A national network mobilizing white men to learn, grow and take action against white supremacy and patriarchy.”

IMAN Chicago
“The Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) is a community organization that fosters health, wellness and healing in the inner-city by organizing for social change, cultivating the arts, and operating a holistic health center.”

Credit: IMAN

Chicago Community Bond Fund
“The Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) pays bond for people charged with crimes in Cook County, Illinois. Through a revolving fund, CCBF supports individuals whose communities cannot afford to pay the bonds themselves and who have been impacted by structural violence. Inability to pay bond results in higher rates of conviction, longer sentences, loss of housing and jobs, separation of families, and lost custody of children. By paying bond, CCBF restores the presumption of innocence before trial and enables recipients to remain free while fighting their cases. CCBF also engages in public education about the role of bond in the criminal legal system and advocates for the abolition of money bond. CCBF is committed to long-term relationship building and organizing with people most directly impacted by criminalization and policing.”

Semicolon Bookstore
“Chicago’s only black-woman-owned Bookstore & Gallery. Created, owned, and curated by an art and literature lover, Semicolon Bookstore merges both worlds seamlessly. Few things are better than books, art, and comfy couches.”

Credit: Semicolon Bookstore

Africatown Land Trust

“Africatown Community Land Trust is working for community ownership of land in the Central District that can support the cultural and economic thriving of people who are part of the African diaspora in the Greater Seattle region.”

Off The Street Club

“Founded in 1900, Off The Street Club is Chicago’s oldest boys and girls club. We currently serve more than 3,000 kids in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country, West Garfield Park. We are grateful to all our supporters, including the Chicago advertising, marketing and media community. We are a place where kids can truly find hope. Every child seeking a safe place to go is welcome to join us for games, play and mentorship.”

GirlTrek

“Our Mission: Pioneer a health movement for African-American women and girls grounded in civil rights history and principles through walking campaigns, community leadership, and health advocacy.”

Credit: GirlTrek

Harlem Grown

“Harlem Grown is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. Founded in 2011, we operate local urban farms, increase access to and knowledge of healthy food for Harlem residents, and provide garden-based development programs to Harlem youth.”

Junebaby

“Southern food’s humble beginnings embarked when West Africans were taken from their home and were forced across the middle passage to North America. The term soul food originated during American slavery to not only describe a type of cuisine but also a period of time of oppression and overcoming hardships. It is traditionally cooked and eaten by African Americans of the Southern United States and merges influences from West Africa, Western Europe, and North America. As a result, America’s culinary history was built on corn, rice, peas, and the hog; many of the ingredients associated with Southern food.”

My Block My Hood My City

“My Block, My Hood, My City provides underprivileged youth with an awareness of the world and opportunities beyond their neighborhood.  We take students on explorations focused on STEM, Arts & Culture, Citizenry & Volunteerism, Health, Community Development, Culinary Arts, and Entrepreneurism.”

Elastic Arts

“Elastic Arts fosters a community of music, art and performance in the Avondale/Logan Square neighborhoods of Chicago and beyond through developing, hosting, producing, and promoting creative, independent, and local music concerts, exhibitions, and multi-arts performances.”

Credit: Artsbiz-Chicago

Black Girls CODE

“Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. Black Girls CODE has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs we hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds. Black Girls CODE’s ultimate goal is to provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.”

We encourage you to check out these amazing organizations and businesses— and to do some research of your own. No matter the day, no matter the place, we can all make positive change and it is our responsibility to do so.

Read more about diversity and inclusion at DMC.

The post DMC Launches “Be the Change” Initiative For MLK Day appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Event Info

Whether you are new to the diversity, equality and inclusion (DE&I) discussion or looking to refine your processes, you’ll want to hear from this panel of professionals – from within the industry – on this timely topic.

In just 45 minutes, you’ll learn the:

• Reasons why DE&I matters
• Business case for DE&I
• Challenges of recruiting underrepresented groups
• Promising efforts to recruit a diverse work force
• Opportunities for partnerships

Not seeing the topic you are interested in? No problem. We’ve got you covered. There will be ample time for Q&A, so bring your questions!

Panelists

• Moderator – Lisa Richter, Industry Director at CSIA
• Frank Riordan, President & CEO at DMC
• Carolyn Baron, Kepware channel sales director at PTC
• John Glenski, President at Automation Plus

Registration

Learn more about DMC’s CSIA certification. 

The post Frank Riordan to Appear on CSIA Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Webinar appeared first on DMC, Inc..

DMC stands in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The recent instances of violence against Black people, including the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, are the latest examples of gross injustice perpetuated within a centuries-old system of racism and oppression. We are proud to stand in solidarity with people around the world protesting racial injustice.    

Per the Black Lives Matter mission, “We’ve committed to struggling together and to imagining and creating a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic, and political power to thrive.” 

Affirming that Black lives matter engages with our core values of “tell it like it is” and “share information” and recommits us to “make things happen.”  

At DMC, we are using this occasion to reflect. We pledge to work on initiatives and improvements within our organization because we believe that embracing these values will improve our work at DMC and lead to a more just society.  

As a start, we are organizing an internal discussion on unpacking racism. The goal of the event is to educate ourselves on systemic racism so that we can recognize it within ourselves and others and take an anti-racist approach moving forward. We will share our event content and anti-racism resources in a future post.  

In addition to contributing to Black Lives Matter on behalf of DMC, we have renewed our support of causes that are important to DMC employees by doubling the limit of our charitable matching program to $1,000 per employee annually. Causes we have supported include the NAACP and NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Equal Justice Initiative, Advancement Project, Cara, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Black Futures Lab, and My Block My Hood My City. 

We are committed to continuing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative that we launched in 2018. While we have seen progress from these internal initiatives, we recognize that there is significant room for improvement in our diversity outreach. We are proud to begin sponsoring multiple scholarships through the National Society for Black Engineers.    

We are grateful to have this opportunity to listen, educate ourselves, and reflect on our areas of improvement and room to grow.  

Learn more about Diversity & Inclusion at DMC.

The post We Stand with Black Lives Matter appeared first on DMC, Inc..