The LGBTQ Institute Business Forum is a trusted event that helps business leaders think creatively about what’s next. With a continued focus on intersecting identities, the forum takes on innovating the corporate social construct and exploring how to create system change that lasts beyond leadership change.
2021 Forum Expert Panelists
Bentley Hudgins, Political Strategist, New Georgia Project
Feroza Syed, Community Activist
Carl Charles, Staff Attorney, Lambda Legal
Sebastian Smith, National Organizer, National Center for Transgender Equality
Erica Doray Seremeta, CIMA® is the Director of U.S. & Canada Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Client Engagement within Human Resources at Black Rock
Minister Ashton Totten-Reynolds, flight attendant and President of EQUAL - the LGBTQ+ Business Resource Group at Delta Air Lines
Jamie Ann Harrell, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics Lead, Goizueta Business School, Emory University
Dean Steed, Communications Lead for Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
Ames Simmons, Policy Director, National Center for Transgender Equality
Alex Rhodes, Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Global Banking and International Markets for Bank of America
Erica Doray Seremeta, CIMA® is the Director of U.S. & Canada Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Client Engagement within Human Resources at Black Rock
Erica is responsible for developing and driving BlackRock’s DEI client engagement strategy and alignment globally, ensuring that the firm is front-footed in responding to this emerging client need. In her role, Erica amplifies BlackRock’s DEI messaging to clients, including directly engaging with key contacts, designing client materials, and training client-facing professionals on best practices in DEI engagement. She partners with relationship managers, the global DEI ExCo, DEI Business Leads, Ambassadors and Champions, HR peers and other business leaders. Erica works across all U.S. & Canada channels, including both retail and institutional clients.
Previously, Ms. Seremeta was a Relationship Manager within the Aladdin Product Group Client and Sales Solutions team, where she was responsible for driving the unification strategy and adoption of enablement technology in partnership with the Client Experience Platform for BlackRock's Institutional Client Business.
Ms. Seremeta's service with the firm dates back to 1998, including her years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), which merged with BlackRock in 2006. In 2008, she formed BlackRock's Advisor Services Group, which handles inbound financial professional inquiries and supports BlackRock’s USWA sales desk. Her previous roles at MLIM include Regional Sales Desk Manager, Investment Management Associate and Syndicate Equity Coordinator. Ms. Seremeta began her career in Defined Assets Funds at Merrill Lynch as a hybrid wholesaler.
Ms. Seremeta earned a BBA degree in finance and an MBA degree in finance from Rider University in 1998 and 2003, respectively. She is also a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA). Ms. Seremeta is an active board member and office lead of BlackRock's OUT & Allies network. She has been a featured speaker at numerous events including Out & Equal's annual summit, Open Finance of New York City and BlackRock’s Women’s Initiative Network. In addition, she serves as a keynote speaker for BlackRock’s LGBTQ+ client program.
Minister Ashton Totten-Reynolds, flight attendant and President of EQUAL - the LGBTQ+ Business Resource Group at Delta Air Lines
Ashton also serves as the Assistant Creative Director for the Vision Cathedral of Atlanta and Board Member of THRIVE SS, Inc. For the last 15 years, Ashton has been committed to fighting for social justice and human rights. He was instrumental in the efforts to remove Confederate monuments and street names in the City of Atlanta.
He has worked with civil rights icons including the late Rep. John Lewis, Rev. Al Sharpton and Bishop O.C. Allen. As a champion for the rights of marginalized people, AJ has remained active in the fight to end HIV, police brutality, hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people and all forms of discrimination and oppression. More than anything, Ashton Totten-Reynolds believes it is his duty as a minister to sound the alarm for justice any and everywhere, until everyone is treated with the dignity and respect they are due.
Tricia Russell, VP, Life Event Services Consultant / Global Human Resources at Bank of America
Tricia Russell is a member of the Global Human Resources team at Bank of America as well as a member of the company’s LGBT Pride Enterprise Leadership Council. Tricia has more than 30 years of varied banking experience. She is also a former successful small business owner. Her educational background includes a BA in Economics and math from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and an MBA in finance from the University of Michigan.
Tricia is broadly engaged both within and external to Bank of America in diversity and inclusion education and advocacy work. In addition to her active involvement as a member of the Board of Directors of Equality Florida and a member of the TransAction Florida advisory board of Equality Florida, Tricia is broadly engaged in various advocacy efforts in NE Florida where she resides in Saint Augustine. These include serving as a member of the steering team of the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality and a steering member of the NE Florida LGBT Community Fund.
On a more personal note, Tricia grew up in the Midwest, has been married for 40 years, is a parent of four adult children and five grandchildren, an avid runner and cyclist (currently ranked #1 in the nation in her age group Criterium racing. She transitioned from Patrick to Tricia on the job in 2012 with the full and continuing support of Bank of America.
2020 Forum Expert Panelists
Kamau Bobb is the Global Lead for Diversity Strategy and Research at Google and the founding Senior Director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech
He is an engineer and science and technology policy scholar whose work focuses on the STEM enterprise, large educational systems, and the structural conditions that influence contemporary American life. He brings to his current position a wealth of experience as a former Program Officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF). At NSF he was responsible for $30 million annually of investments targeted on improving computing and STEM education. In that role Dr. Bobb worked to help shape the national research agenda for effective means of delivering equitable and quality computational education to all students.
He has worked with members of the Office and Science and Technology Policy in the Obama Administration to set the national strategy for STEM education at both post-secondary and secondary school levels. He was selected as a member of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper STEM + Entrepreneurship Taskforce to help U.S. cities craft strategies to engage young men and boys of color in the STEM landscape.
Prior to his federal appointment, Dr. Bobb was the Director of the STEM Initiative for the University System of Georgia, a collaborative effort with the governor’s office to improve STEM education across the 30 public institutions serving approximately 325,000 students in the state. Dr. Bobb holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Policy from Georgia Tech and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Pamela Stewart is
Senior Vice President, National Retail Sales for The Coca-Cola Company
Pamela Stewart is Senior Vice President, National Retail Sales at The Coca-Cola Company, where she has spent 20 years across key senior leadership roles in the areas of global, national & regional sales; sales operations; finance; foodservice on premise; and B2B retail business segments. Prior to Coca-Cola, she spent years in finance across the Telecommunications industry. She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of GLAAD, Board member of Coca-Cola’s Global Women’s Leadership Council and Co-Chair of Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms’ LGBTQ Advisory Council. Beyond her undergraduate and graduate business degrees and executive education certifications, Pam also is a proud graduate of the GCLS Writing Academy and Leadership Atlanta.
Pam is the recipient of numerous honors, including 2020 Visionary by Consumer Goods Technology; 2020 Woman of Influence in the Food Industry by Griffin Report; 2020 UK Diva Media Group’s Visible Lesbian Top 100 List; 2018 GO national magazine’s Top 100 Women We Love; 2016 AGLCC Business Woman of the Year; 2016 P.U.R.E. Humanitarian Award; 2016 Progressive Grocer’s Top Women in Grocery of the Year; and 2013 Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40. She also is included in the 2019 #1 bestselling Amazon new release, “9 Steps to Build Your Brand, Establish Your Legacy, and Thrive” by Jo Miller.
Pam is a purpose, family and impact-driven executive who is governed by 2 personal missions: 1) To create safe spaces for people to be more comfortable in their own skin and 2) To stretch people beyond their own perceived potential. She embraces and fosters diversity across all levels both from her leadership example and her consistent track record of creating thriving, high-performing cultures.
Ranjan Goswami is
Vice President of In-Flight Field Operations for Delta Air Lines
In this position, he is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction related to managing the day-to-day safety and customer service performance of Delta’s more than 23,000 flight attendants, supervisory and administrative personnel spanning the globe in 13 U.S. and four international bases. Ranjan also oversees the development of In-Flight policy and procedures to help ensure the safety and security of Delta customers and flight attendant crews.
Previously based in Los Angeles, Ranjan was the Vice President, Los Angeles & Sales – West, and oversaw commercial strategy and customer experience for Delta’s largest West Region hub at LAX, including: the airline’s growth to nearly 180 daily flights serving 70 destinations; its community, civic and public engagement; and its $1.86 billion plan for the Delta Sky Way at LAX, which will modernize and upgrade Terminals 2 and 3, connecting them to the Tom Bradley International Terminal in the next five years. In May 2017, Ranjan oversaw Delta’s relocation at LAX, in which 40 percent of the airport’s daily flights switched terminals to enable Delta’s move from Terminal 5 to Terminals 2 & 3, and to facilitate colocation with many of Delta’s airline partners, including Aeromexico, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia and WestJet.
Additionally, Ranjan led Delta’s corporate and travel management Company Sales organization in the Western and Midwestern U.S., including key markets Los Angeles, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Portland, San Francisco/Bay Area, Salt Lake City, Denver, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas and Houston. Through commercial and operational collaboration, Delta and its joint venture partners Aeromexico, Air France, KLM, Alitalia, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia increased corporate share alongside the significant and unprecedented expansion in the West.
Ranjan also oversaw Delta’s joint venture partnership with Virgin Australia, including the airlines’ joint Loyalty, Marketing, Network, Revenue Management and Sales activities for the JV’s 25 weekly flights between North America and Australia. Ranjan has served as Delta’s Managing Director – National Account Sales, overseeing Sales in the West.
Earlier in his career at Delta, Ranjan served as Director – eCommerce Commercial, focusing on delta.com and digital merchandising, as well as Director – Customer Experience Planning and Development, where he helped establish and deliver Delta’s global product and customer experience strategy through its merger integration with Northwest Airlines.
Ranjan earned a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, both in Political Science. He serves on the boards of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and GLAAD, and previously served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, Junior Achievement of Southern California and the LA Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the LA Coalition. Ranjan is a native of Hong Kong and resides with his partner in Atlanta.
Jeff Graham is the Executive Director of Georgia Equality
Jeff is the executive director of Georgia Equality, an organization that works to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities throughout Georgia.
Jeff began advocating on LGBT and AIDS related issues as a college student in the mid-1980s and has continued his advocacy on these issues since that time. He has been involved in a wide variety or grassroots and legislative advocacy campaigns and has served as either an executive director or board member to a number of local and national organizations working on issues related to gay and transgender rights, access to healthcare, community empowerment and HIV/AIDS.
Jeff has received numerous awards and recognition for both his advocacy and nonprofit work from organizations such as the National Center for Human Rights Education, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Atlanta City Council, The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, ACLU of Georgia and several publications and organizations within the local LGBT and HIV communities. He is a current board member of ProGeorgia and the national Equality Federation.
He served as a Grand Marshal of the Atlanta Pride Parade in 1999, 2010 and 2012.
Photograph by Fernando Decillis
Gabrielle Claiborne is Co-founder and CEO of Transformation Journeys Worldwide
Transformation Journeys Worldwide, an inclusion training and consulting firm with a transgender focus. She helps cutting-edge organizations position themselves to attract and retain the best talent, foster collaborative working environments, and drive innovation by creating fully trans-inclusive cultures. Some of her clients include Home Depot, Sun Life Financial, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada, Comcast, Mercedes Benz, UPS, Kaiser Permanente, Cox Media, WarnerMedia, New York City Pride, the Atlanta Hawks, Georgia Tech and the Centers for Disease Control, among others.
Gabrielle has been an out and active transwoman since 2010. She served on the Executive Board of Atlanta Pride for the past 5 years, and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Mentorship Committee on the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s TGNC Task Force, as Co-Chair of the Trans Affairs Committee on the City of Atlanta’s LGBTQ Mayoral Advisory Council, as Inclusion Chair and Secretary on the Board of the Out Georgia Business Alliance and as Advisory Board Member of Out Front Theater Group. In 2020, she published her memoir meets self-help book Embrace Your Truth: A Journey of Authenticity. In 2019, the Atlanta business Chronicle acknowledged her as their Diversity & Inclusion “Outstanding Voice” Award recipient and she delivered a TEDx talk for Centennial Park Women TEDx, Building Your Courage Muscles. In 2018, Gabrielle received the Georgia Small Business Administration’s LGBT Small Business Champion Award in recognition of her efforts in advancing LGBT business ownership. In 2015, Gabrielle was chosen as Atlanta’s Best Trans Activist, and her work was featured in Forbes in 2018 and the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2017.
Transformation Journeys Worldwide was honored to be chosen as the Out Georgia Business Alliance 2018 Small Business of the Year, and to receive the Atlanta Hawk’s prestigious 2019 True Comes in All Colors award for their cutting-edge inclusion work. The firm is proud to be an NGLCC certified LGBT Business Enterprise.
Fred Smith Jr. is Associate Professor at Emory University School of Law
Fred Smith Jr. is a scholar of the federal judiciary, constitutional law, and local government. In 2019, he was named the law school’s Outstanding Professor of the Year.
Smith clerked for Judge Myron Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama; Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to teaching, he also worked for Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP in Atlanta.
Smith's research focuses on accountability, federal jurisdiction, and state sovereignty. His work has appeared in Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, New York University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, among other academic journals. Notable articles include: “The Constitution After Death,” 121 Colum. L. Rev. (forthcoming); “Abstention in the Time of Ferguson,” 131 Harv. L. Rev. 2283 (2018); "Undemocratic Restraint," 69 Vand. L. Rev. 845 (2017); "Local Sovereign Immunity," 116 Colum. L. Rev. 409 (2016), and "Due Process, Republicanism, and Direct Democracy," 89 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 582 (2014). He has given lectures on related topics across the United States and internationally, including in Istanbul, Shanghai, and Warsaw. He also has been interviewed as an expert by major media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and various affiliates of National Public Radio.
In a range of volunteer capacities, Smith promotes equity and social justice. He serves on the board of Invest Atlanta, which serves as the economic and community development authority of City of Atlanta. He also serves on the Atlanta’s Mayoral LGBTQ Advisory Board; the national board of Lambda Legal; the national board of Civil Rights Corps; and the LGBT Advisory Board of Historic Atlanta. Smith was a founding member of BeltLine Rail Now, which advocates for transit on critical corridors around the city. He also served as an inaugural advisory board member for the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, which annually trains black Atlanta youth in critical thinking and public speaking.
Education: JD, Stanford Law School; BA (with honors), Harvard College.
Lisa Cunningham is a Digital Storyteller
Lisa Cunningham is a native of Atlanta and entered into film production while attending the University of Georgia. She is a Producer/Director and over the past 25 years she has been actively involved in the production community with her work spanning throughout film and television on hundreds of projects. Lisa has a strong footing into branded digital content. She has produced projects for McDonalds, W Hotels, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, The History Channel and many more.
As an influencer, Lisa was selected by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to serve on the inaugural LGBTQ Advisory Board for the City of Atlanta. Her community involvement continues as a philanthropist who devotes her time to several local charities focused on underserved minorities.
Bob Witeck is the President of Witeck Communications, Inc.
For nearly four decades a pioneering communications strategist dedicated to the advancement of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities around the world. He is a communications consultant, author, speaker and researcher, and his firm is based in Washington, D.C.
On their 25th anniversary, American Demographics magazine selected Bob Witeck as one of 25 global leaders ‘who have made significant contributions to the worlds of demographics, market research, media and trend spotting’ for his early and enterprising work on America’s LGBT community. In 2006, he authored the first book on LGBT marketing, Business Inside Out. He was the first LGBT consultant retained in 2010 by the U.S. Census to help inspire LGBT participation in that year’s count, and first LGBT owned business in the U.S. certified by the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Before opening his practice in 1993, he was senior vice president for Hill & Knowlton Public Affairs. On Capitol Hill, Witeck served as communications director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation as well as a Senate press secretary and legislative assistant. He is a graduate with distinction of the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar. In 2016 and in 2020, he was appointed by Virginia Governors Terry McAuliffe and later, Ralph Northam to serve on the Board of Visitors of George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public university.
Bob Witeck has served on the boards of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), GLAAD, GLSEN, and the NEA Foundation and currently serves on the Human Rights Campaign’s Business Council and the board of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. He and his husband live in Arlington, Virginia.
Andre Banks is the founder and CEO of A/B Partners
With over 20 years of political communications and agency experience, Andre brings best-in-class creative strategies and deep expertise in social movements to move critical voices from the margins to the mainstream. Prior to founding A/B in 2018, Andre was Executive Vice President for Social Impact & Philanthropy at BerlinRosen, a leading national public relations and strategic communications firm.
At BerlinRosen, Andre led communications strategy, staff-management, and business development for the 20-person practice area. Andre’s portfolio included philanthropy, criminal justice reform, international human rights, LGBTQ rights, voting and civil rights, sustainability, and media and culture.
Before joining BerlinRosen, Andre was founding partner at Purpose and the co-founder and former director of All Out, a global campaigning organization with more than 2.2 million members leading the global push towards LGBT equality. He currently serves as the chair of the board at Color Of Change, and as a staff member lead the organization in its early years.