In February, Berkeley Lab’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) leadership teams attended a one-day ERG Leadership Summit with representatives from Berkeley Lab, Lawrence Livermore and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The keynote speaker was Gary Ross, the Inclusion and Diversity Specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. He spoke about his work with ERGs and how to grow leadership,membership, engagement, and purpose.
We’ve invited him to come speak to the Lab community on Friday, August 28th at 11 am.
We hope you can join us!
Date: Friday, August 28, 2020
Time: 11 am – 12 noon
ERG Insights & Lessons Learned slides
Watch the recording:
Bio: Gary Ross is a Senior Inclusion and Diversity Specialist for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. He is responsible for supporting the development and implementation of inclusion and diversity programs to build a more inclusive work culture for the Bank’s 1,700 employees across the twelfth district, which includes offices in Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Phoenix,
One of the programs that Gary manages is the SF FED’s employee resource group program. In this capacity Gary manages 11 distinct ERGs with a focus on community engagement and leadership development. Prior to working for the Fed, Gary was a Senior Manager of Diversity and Inclusion for the biotech company Genentech, where he led the companies ERG program across North America.
While Gary’s formal education and training are in Engineering Management, he transitioned to Inclusion and Diversity after reflecting on his own experience of being the very first legally married same-sex couple in the United States Military. Under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Gary didn’t have a voice and could not advocate for his right to marry his long-time partner. It was only through people advocating for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that Gary was afforded the same right to marry the person he loved as opposite-sex couples were permitted to do in the US military. After realizing what a burden had been lifted by no longer being required by federal law to lie about his life, Gary became an activist and began fighting for other people who didn’t have a voice.
