The Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce shows its regional commitment to advancing DEI initiatives with the return of the “NJ Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” on Friday, September 29, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Conference Center at Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road in West Windsor.
Tickets are $125. Register online at the PMRC website, business.princetonmercerchamber.org/chamber-events.
The day begins with registration, networking, and breakfast, followed by opening remarks and then words from the opening keynote speaker, Allison Chris Myers, chair and CEO of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, at 8:15 a.m.
Myers, who had been acting chair and CEO since January, started her tenure in June of this year. She joined the state agency in 2001 as a personnel and labor analyst trainee before becoming the director of the Division of Appeals and Regulatory Affairs, or DARA, in 2017.
Myers worked for the United States Navy as a reserve personnel supervisor for four years before changing fields to marketing, then law, and being admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 2000.
She has more than 31 years of experience in areas ranging from administrative law to sales, with an associate’s degree in business administration from Cumberland County College, a bachelor’s in labor studies from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and a JD from the Rutgers School of Law.
There will be two breakout sessions where a panel of experts will share their perspectives on a particular topic.
Craig Harley, the associate director of community wellness and engagement at Penn Medicine Princeton Health and a former senior park ranger for the Township of Plainsboro, moderates a discussion on mental health with clinical psychologist Dr. Michelle Drapkin, the founder and director of the CBT Center in Highland Park; clinical social worker and therapist Noreen Iqbal, the owner and director of the Olive Branch Therapy Group in East Brunswick; and Rosalind Williford, the CFO of Esperanza Health Center in Philadelphia.
Joe Forte, the deputy chief of staff and chief diversity officer for the New Jersey Department of State, moderates the other conversation, “Workplace Equity: Digging Deeper.” Forte is a resident of Lawrence Township, where he chairs the DEI Committee and serves on the Zoning Board. He has held numerous positions throughout the state government system, including the New Jersey General Assembly, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and the Civil Service Commission.
Forte earned a bachelor’s degree in global studies from Rider University, a master’s degree in public administration from Rutgers, and a master’s degree in international affairs from Northeastern University. Forte also serves as the vice chair of the New Jersey LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus.
This panel includes Dr. Tiffenia D. Archie, the AVP and chief inclusion officer at Temple University; Bill Bradshaw, the director of inclusion and diversity for Withum; and Aaron Watson, the deputy administrator of the Mercer County Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, as well as the executive director of the Mercer County Park Commission.
Then, Dr. June DePonte Sernak, a statewide diversity leadership officer with the Center for Family Services, and Erica Seremeta, the global director of DEI at BlackRock in Princeton, address the topic of the “equitable pipeline” in a fireside chat.
Seremeta oversees client engagements in the human resources department at BlackRock, an asset and investment management company where she has worked for more than 25 years. She has an MBA in finance and business administration from Rider University, as well as two certifications from the Wharton School and Cornell University.
Closing keynote speaker Jacqueline Battalora, the author of “Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today” (2021, Routledge Press), rounds out the day of DEI-focused programming. Battalora is an attorney, professor of sociology and criminal justice at Saint Xavier University, and a former Chicago police officer.
