Building Respectful and Inclusive Cultures

On Monday, October 29th 2018, at the 2018 AIChE Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, The AIChE Foundation in partnership with Chevron co-hosted a session titled “Conscious Inclusion, Building Respectful and Inclusive Cultures”. The program is part of AIChE’s Doing a World of Good Campaign and its on-going commitment to promoting an inclusive culture in chemical engineering. The session began with an overview of current research on workplace inclusion, the definition of diversity and then engaged participants in activities to promote inclusiveness at work.

The workshop was followed by a panel discussion among senior executives titled, “Courageous Conversations with Industry Leaders”. The discussion was led by David Allyn of Jennifer Brown Consulting and explored examples of cultural inclusion and exclusion. The panelists included: Ken Reid, SVP, Engineering and Maintenance N.A, BASF, Kevin Edwards, Global Manager of Culture, Inclusion & Diversity for Corporate HR, Bechtel and Delia Contreras, VP, Engineering Global Supply Chain, Ecolab

The panelists shared meaningful perspectives on their own experiences with inclusion in engineering. The program concluded with a lively question and answer segment with the audience where panelists offered thoughtful, authentic feedback.