about program

DEI programs have been in the headlines more and more frequently this year and leaders are still looking for where to turn, what resources to deploy and how to best discuss a company’s DEI journey. Join PRSA Chicago for a discussion on the state of DEI communications hosted by Flowers Communications Group. Take in amazing views of the Lake Michigan and the Chicago River while you learn from an expert panel how the 3Rs (Relevant, Relatable, Real) can guide best practices in a DEI initiative.

Once the program concludes, light bites and drinks will continue during open networking where all guests are welcome to enjoy the amenities The Lighthouse offers.

When: Wednesday, Aug. 30, 5:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Where: The Lighthouse, 303 E. Wacker Drive, 30th Floor

SPEAKERS

Problem solver, thoughtful strategic thinker, team player and high achiever are attributes that describe Sharron Banks, Executive Vice President of People + Culture and DEI at Flowers Communications Group.

A passionate Human Resources partner, she oversees talent acquisition, talent management and business operations for one of the industry's top multicultural marketing agencies. She also leads the firm's DEI practice, which has developed award-winning campaigns for numerous blue-chip brands. In her role, Sharron provides senior strategic counsel and serves as a trusted advisor to FCG’s client roster.

Banks began her career at FCG in 1995. She has held several positions within the agency that span across administration, operations, and HR.

Banks holds an MBA in Human Resource Management from Morris Graduate School. She has a DEI certification from Northwestern University. She is an active member of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) and PR Council's DEI and HR Community Groups that provide educational opportunities and industry best practices for Council members, which include 130+ of the country’s premier global, mid-size, regional and specialty firms across every discipline and practice area.

Brit Bouie
Communications and Change Management Lead | Publicis New York

Britney Bouie is a strategic communication professional with diverse client and organizational experience. Bouie’s communication career has taken her from leading PR at Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, to managing internal and external comms at the Illinois Commerce Commission, and now she leads communication projects across several media agencies and client accounts at Publicis Groupe, the second largest communications group in the world.
 
As an entrepreneur, Bouie owns BGB Strategies, her own communications consultancy, where she serves as a publicist and communications manager for various entrepreneurs, creatives, and non-profit organizations. As a creative herself, Bouie runs her own culture and lifestyle blog, BritBeLiving, where she interviews culture shifters making waves across their respective communities.
 
Bouie graduated from DePaul University with her Bachelors in Political Science and International Studies and received her Masters of Science in Global Strategic Communication from Loyola University Chicago.

Monica Eng is a veteran Chicago journalist who has worked as a staff reporter and editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune, WBEZ and Axios Chicago where she is a reporter today.

Luis Diaz-Perez serves as Senior Manager of State Government Affairs at ComEd, where he works with the Illinois General Assembly and state government to advance clean energy priorities on behalf of the largest utility in the Midwest, serving 9 million people in northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population.

A lifelong Chicagoan, Diaz-Perez has held a variety of government and community relations leadership roles on behalf of the region’s foremost energy utilities, not-for-profits and government agencies.

A bi-lingual (Spanish/English), bi-cultural communicator, his unique insight as a thought leader at ComEd and Peoples Energy, has contributed to his success managing a broad spectrum of communications, government affairs and economic development functions, developing strategies and programs reaching diverse constituencies on a range of public policy, legal, technical, and scientific issues

MODERATOR
Charles Whitaker
Dean | Medill School of Journalism

Charles Whitaker is dean and professor at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Whitaker, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Medill, is the first alumnus of the school to serve as dean. He previously served as the Helen Gurley Brown Professor and associate dean of journalism for the school. 

For nine years, Whitaker directed the Academy for Alternative Journalism, a summer fellowship program that trained young writers for work at the member publications of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in an effort to address the field’s lack of diversity.

Before joining the Medill faculty, Whitaker was a senior editor at Ebony magazine, where he covered a wide range of cultural, social, and political issues and events on four continents.

Questions? Please send an email the Programming committee at [email protected].

Program Details

Refunds:
All ticket sales are final. Substitutions may be made at any time.