Unlock the Full Potential of Your Workforce: Empowering Neurodiversity in the Workplace

Thursday, May 11, 2023, 4-6 p.m.
Husky Union Building (HUB) Lyceum on the UW campus

Are you curious about how to cultivate a neuroinclusive organization to spur new ways of thinking? Join Dr. Hala Annabi and an esteemed panel of experts from Microsoft, Beyond-Impact, the How Skills, and Ultranauts at iAffiliates Day 2023 to explore the incredible value and potential that neurodivergent employees bring to organizations like yours. With the opportunity to ask questions, discuss ideas, and seek guidance from Dr. Annabi and other panelists, you’ll leave equipped with the tools and knowledge to cultivate a neuroinclusive and innovative work environment.

Why is this important?  Because the war for talent is on. Think about this:

• 50,000 autistic high school students graduate every year
• 60% have average to above-average IQs
• Only 17.4% attend a 4-year college
• Only 20% graduate (3.4% of the 50,000 students)

Yet autistic college graduates have an 80-85% under- or unemployment rate.

Every second, neurodivergent and disabled people must navigate a world not made for them. This requires innovation, critical thinking and resilience — the top skills the World Economic Forum states are required in today’s workplace.
 
Now, think about your competitor getting these candidates first.

By tapping into this underutilized and underestimated talent pool, your organization can overcome the constraints to growth and sustainability and unlock innovative approaches in the new economy.

Join us for this in-person conversation and happy hour, where we will serve delicious food and refreshments, and take the first step toward unlocking the full potential of your organization!

Reach out to Stephanie Ho at sho27@uw.edu with any questions or requests.

Agenda

• 4-4:15 p.m.: Welcome
• 4:15-5 p.m.: Panel discussion and Q&A
• 5-6 p.m.: Networking & happy hour

Panelists

• Dr. Hala Annabi, associate professor at the UW Information School
• Tarena Shanaberger, senior program manager, inclusive hiring, at Microsoft 
• Tara Cunningham, founder & CEO of Beyond-Impact
• Alexander Stern, senior coach at The How Skills
• Rajesh Anandan, co-founder and CEO of Ultranauts Inc.

About the panelists

Dr. Hala Annabi
University of Washington

Hala Annabi is an Associate Professor of Information Management and Director of the ACCESS-IT research group in the University of Washington’s Information School. She is also the chair of the MS in Information Management Program. Her research and consulting focus on creating and maintaining inclusive learning organizations. Dr. Annabi investigates diversity and inclusion initiatives aimed at recruiting, retaining, and advancing women, women of color, and neurodivergent employees. She pursues lines of inquiry focused on improving inclusive product management. Her work is published in academic and industry outlets to advance the science and practice of inclusion. Dr. Annabi collaborates with industry leaders to establish best practices for inclusion and recently authored the Autism at Work Playbook in partnership with Microsoft, SAP, JPMorgan Chase, and EY. The Autism at Work Playbook is considered the industry guidebook for the design, development and scaling of autism hiring programs.

Tarena Shanaberger
Microsoft

As Sr. Program Manager for Inclusive Hiring on the Microsoft Accessibility Team, Tarena Shanaberger is responsible for planning, organizing, scaling and executing the Neurodiversity Hiring program and other disability hiring initiatives. Tarena partners closely with the Microsoft Global Talent Acquisition team, Diversity and Inclusion, the Disability employee community, and Accessibility Office. Shanaberger works in partnership both internally and externally to bring different teams together to enable hiring, growth and retention of people with disabilities.

Tara Cunningham

Beyond-Impact

Tara Cunningham is the CEO of Beyond-Impact, an inaugural Member of the Valuable Directory. Cunningham has helped create neuroinclusive employment programs with Bloomberg, Salesforce, Goldman Sachs, TDBank, Deloitte, PwC, P&G, IPG Mediabrands / Kinesso, BNY Mellon, Boeing, MITRE, Charles Schwab, LinkedIn, AMC Networks, Take2 and Extend. While living in Ireland for 16 years, she was named one of the "Top 100 Irish Americans" and “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” as Ireland's prime minister, An Taoiseach Brian Cowen, appointed her to the National Disability Authority. She represented Ireland at the European Commission for Healthcare Innovation and was an Irish Representative for disability inclusion at the White House. As the executive director of the Grunin Foundation, she used her position as a globally recognized social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow to co-found the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship at NYU School of Law, where she remains on the Advisory Board.

Alexander Stern
The How Skills

Alexander Stern is a senior workplace coach at The How Skills and is a fervent advocate for the neurodiverse community, to which they also belong. They believe in approaching workplace coaching from a strength-based perspective to support people in finding how they best think and operate so that they can thrive in their life roles. Stern holds a Master’s in Teaching and over a decade of experience and service in education and coaching professionals. They are National Board certified and have been trained as a mentor. Alexander has co-taught English Language Learner and Special Education classes as well as an identity-focused elective math class aimed at improving self-efficacy for individuals who had historically not felt confident with traditional support methods. Their experience as a teacher-leader and coach in public schools and for corporations has equipped them with expertise for how to support neurodiverse individuals to be successful and confident by learning how they best learn and work. Stern utilizes the strengths and passion they developed in these varied education experiences to The How Skills in service to the employees they support.

Rajesh Anandan
Ultranauts Inc

Rajesh Anandan is an impact entrepreneur and growth architect. He is the co-founder and CEO of Ultranauts, an award-winning quality engineering firm with employees in 30 states, 75% of whom are on the autism spectrum. Ultranauts has been named a FastCompany World Changing Idea, MIT SOLVE Challenge Winner and Interbrand Breakthrough Brand. Anandan began his career at Microsoft, worked at Bain & Company, launched Unicef Ventures, and currently lectures at MIT. Anandan has a BSc and MEng in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT with concentrations in AI, Systems Dynamics and Economics.

About the UW iSchool

The iSchool at the UW is one of the world’s top schools in information science. In the last 20 years, the iSchool has grown from 150 students to more than 1,200 — continuing to meet the needs of the ever-expanding information field. We see a world where more effective use of information helps everyone discover, learn, innovate, solve problems, have fun and make a better world.

Our inclusive community fosters an environment that furthers our goals and enables us to take on active roles in both local and global conversations. We prepare information leaders. We research the problems and opportunities of information. We design solutions to information challenges. We make information work.

Thank you to our iAffiliates partners!

• Accenture
• Amazon
• Avanade
• BECU
• Boeing
• Coalfire
• Costco
• Epic Games
• ExtraHop Networks
• Microsoft Corporation
• PACCAR
• PitchBook Data
• Slalom
• Smartsheet
• T-Mobile
• US Bank
• West Monroe Partners

About iAffiliates

In the current business and organizational environment, information has become the single most important asset for any organization and leveraging information technology to transform has become a strategic imperative. The UW iSchool is proud to be at the forefront of this movement, as we work closely with our iAffiliates partnership base to understand, influence and promote socially responsible information management and tech innovation.

The iAffiliates program is designed to engage our strategic partners with iSchool faculty and students through impactful engagement activities. Accordingly, our iAffiliate partners meet with the iAffiliates director and staff annually to create meaningful engagement plans. Each engagement plan is designed to meet our partners’ goals, with action steps for participating in our intellectual community, recruiting our students, and other benefits based on a monetary investment that furthers iSchool teaching and research activities.

For more information about the iAffiliates program, contact iaffiliates@uw.edu or learn more at ischool.uw.edu/affiliates.