What We're Reading on LinkedIn

Mentor Collective is filled with academics, former educators and administrators, engineers, instructional designers, and more. Part of what makes them tick is a thirst for knowledge and a passion for seeking out thought-leaders that transcend higher education's boundaries.?

That said, they find some pretty remarkable content.?

Content that we simply cannot just share to our own social accounts without highlighting their words and the inspirational connection they have to the work we do at Mentor Collective.?

Here's what they've been reading, the strides they're making, and who they've been engaging with on LinkedIn.

Partner Associate Lead Nicole Rizzo is one of our resident "Conference Warriors." A former educator, she relishes in meeting movers, shakers and disruptors working to make a difference at all levels of education. Follow her to see what Mentor Collective is up to during conference season and for thoughtful recaps?of events and issues affecting policy in higher education - like this

We may have the privilege of knowing Dr. Tiffany Wiggins as a Senior Program Success Manager at Mentor Collective, but she's also the Creator/Founder of Black Girl Mentor, LLC and the CEO/CoFounder of Noire Coaching and Consulting. Congratulating her on this exceptional accomplishment in hitting 600 followers!?

Spotlighting another major accomplishment, Judit Llavina Serra is one of several international Mentor Collective employees (a major perk for a remote-first company!). Judit is based in Barcelona, Spain and is just as active in her mission-forward work outside of the company. She was one of 111 young professionals under 35 who "will shape the future of Spain." Read her post to learn more about this honor and follow her to learn more about her work.

Partnerships Director, Gary L. King, M.Ed's joined Mentor Collective at the close of 2021 following an extensive career in academic advising and teaching at University of Illinois at Chicago and his most recent role as Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Lansing Community College. Specific to this experience, Gary continues his advocacy for high-impact student success practices at two-year institutions through his work at MC and shines a spotlight on higher education's most diverse student populations.

It's not just about sharing content at MC, it's about engaging with leaders to discuss today's most pressing issues affecting students and employees. Few have a network as wide reaching as Head of Partner Marketing Alexandria Glaize, who convenes C-suite university leadership and thought leaders in mentorship regularly in our roundtable series. She responded to this post from DEI Strategist Dion Bullock about prioritizing DEI policies in the early stages of company growth saying:

Many?#earlystage?companies are battling this tension, and leaders aren't just battling with "mission-critical decisions" but limited resources. Unfortunately, we don't have the same resources as late-stage or public companies. This means we're deciding which DEI focus areas we should invest in ( and this has to be driven by the employees)

At?Mentor Collective, we built DEI into our culture early. We started roughly two years ago when we had about 30 employees. We asked hard questions and had challenging conversations. What worked for us is that we conducted a 3-month DEI climate assessment to identify gaps, exclusion areas and determine what does DEI mean to us. We conducted anonymous and volunteer-based focus groups and one-on-one interviews with every senior leader. This helped inform our DEI pillars, focus areas/priorities, and roadmap.

It has been a journey building it from scratch, and there is no roadmap. So, I am interested in how others integrate DEI at the early stage!

Did you like this content? Did anything inspire you? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for another "What We're Reading" at the end of April!