March Bi-Monthly Task Force Meeting

Featured Presentation: Women’s History Month

Join us at our next bi-monthly Task Force meeting as we discuss and move forward with our initiatives. Our featured presentation for March will be centered on Women’s History Month. We’ll also be sharing out the Ask from the Lakewood Community’s leadership.

The Task Force meets on the first Wednesday of every other month to further group goals and initiatives. All Task Force members interested in attending this meeting are welcome to attend.

Meet our Speakers

Amelia Ransom

VP of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Smartsheet

Amelia Ransom, SPHR is Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Smartsheet. She is responsible for driving strategy and initiatives that impact, solidify and improve company culture. She also leads Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the organization. Amelia has over 30 years of experience building and executing strategy within Human Resources and Business Operations in a world class and customer-centric organization. In addition to DEI, her areas of expertise include leadership development, early in career engagement and executive level mentorship and advisement.

Before joining Smartsheet, Amelia was the Sr. Director of Engagement and Diversity at Avalara. She created the company’s first DEI strategy and was responsible for improving company engagement scores each year. Prior to that, she held multiple regional and company-wide leadership positions at Nordstrom including store management, Diversity and Inclusion and Learning and Development

Amelia serves on the boards of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington, The YWCA Seattle, King and Snohomish and The Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion.

Chelsea Behrens

Career Clarity Coach & Owner of Rise to the Occasion

Chelsea Behrens is a speaker, career clarity coach, and owner of Rise to the Occasion. She helps women in tech love their careers while leading extraordinary lives. Her own dynamic career – in film (Marvel Studios), finance, technology, coaching, and speaking – has taught her how to live her dreams and realize expectations far beyond what she thought was possible.

Chelsea’s most recent work includes producing and hosting three online shows, interviewing notable figures in thought leadership. She has been a featured speaker at companies like DocuSign, OneLogin, and Providence as an advocate for women’s empowerment and advancement in the workplace. Her new podcast, 2x Women in Tech, launches on March 8th this year!

Chelsea is driven by the power of positive change. She believes that authentic and diverse corporate leadership enhances the employee experience and provides all people with a path to rise up.

Website: https://www.risetotheoccasion.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseabehrens/
Instagram: @chelseaseattle
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seattlerise/

Kristine Reeves

Founder of the Political Equity Project

Kristine Reeves served as a WA State Representative from 2017-2019. She was the first African American woman elected to the Washington State House in 18 years and the only woman in the legislature with children under 5. She resigned in 2019 to run for Congress in WA-10. Kristine went on to serve as the WA Senior Advisor for the Biden-Harris campaign.

While in the state house, Kristine was instrumental in championing issues on behalf of women and children, working families, and veterans. As an economic developer, Kristine championed nation-leading legislation on childcare reform, environmental justice, and economic opportunity efforts. Kristine brought a lived experience to her work as a first-generation college graduate, former foster youth, and someone who experienced homelessness. While serving as Deputy Majority Whip, she founded the legislature’s first Black Members Caucus and the first Veterans & Military Families Caucus.

Motivated by her lived experience and challenged by the continued inequities perpetuated in access to and service in elected office for women and women of color in particular, Kristine was inspired to launch the Political Equity Project, focused on providing individual governance supports and organizational tools to combat systemic oppression and exclusion in public policy development and political institutions. Kristine is currently an Open Society Foundation “Leadership in Government” Fellow and attending Seattle Pacific University in pursuit of a doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Kristine lives with her husband, Camron, and their two elementary-age children in Federal Way, WA.