The National Organization for Workforce Diversity, in partnership with presenting sponsor BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, will host its 2018 Workforce Diversity Summit and Bus Tour in Chattanooga on Monday, May 21.
NOW Diversity, which organizes tours in cities across the country, hosts these events to educate employers about the diverse communities from which they hire, and the May 21 tour is the organization’s first in Chattanooga.
“We are excited to bring our diversity summit and bus tour to Chattanooga,” says Jacky Akbari, national board chair for NOW Diversity.
“The city is culturally rich, and it plays an important role in the economic health of Tennessee as a whole. We look forward to talking with local business leaders and employers about diversity efforts and hiring practices.”
The agenda features a full-day narrated tour of sites within the city, including the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Mizpah Congregation and the Islamic Society of Chattanooga. Each stop will include presentations and panel discussions.
Following the tour, attendees will participate in a town hall discussion about diversity efforts in the city and county featuring Chief David Roddy of the Chattanooga Police Department, Lieutenant Van Hinton of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department and Superintendent Bryan Johnson of Hamilton County Schools. Ron Harris, vice president of diversity and inclusion for BlueCross, will also make remarks.
“We are proud to partner with NOW Diversity in bringing this important event to Chattanooga. We’ve worked hard to build a culture at BlueCross where everyone feels included, and we look forward to sharing the value of diversity in the workplace with other area employers,” Mr. Harris says.
Nationally recognized for its efforts, BlueCross was recently named one of the country’s best employers for diversity by Forbes. The company ranked 33rd out of 250 national organizations and was the highest-ranked Tennessee company on the list.
For more information about the NOW Diversity summit and bus tour or to register, visit the event
site.