Episode 19
Jessica Halem, MBA, is a diversity, equity, and inclusion expert and consultant. She was recently the inaugural LGBTQ outreach and engagement director at Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining Harvard, Jessica ran the Lesbian Community Cancer Project in Chicago, where she implemented the nation’s first cultural competency training through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). She also served on candidate Barack Obama’s first LGBT advisory committee. Jessica has published on informed consent and transgender health, optimism, and organizational change, and mentoring across differences.
We sat down with Jessica to talk about how improvisation (specifically, improv as taught in comedy classes) can help us achieve better communication with colleagues at work and can allow us to be our more authentic selves in the workplace and beyond. Jessica also shared her insights on inclusion and belonging and diversity initiatives and how we can benefit from them in every workplace. We also had a chance to ask Jessica about her work with pioneering feminist and former member of U.S. Congress, the late Bella Abzug!