About
Our goal at Work Wider is to change the way companies work by making diverse teams a reality.
Founder
Michele Lanza
After 20+ years of HR experience, Michele knows the value a company realizes when employees can bring their full selves to work. And as a member of a number of the Work Wider communities, she is committed to creating support systems for underrepresented communities.
Well before founding Work Wider, a keen interest in innovative strategies led Michele to develop the ground-breaking online blind selection process for entry level talent work at Ketchum called LaunchPad that was featured in Fast Company.
Michele is also passionate about deploying recruiting processes that foster diversity and inclusion. She has experienced firsthand the value it creates for teams and businesses.
Advisor
Mina Seetharaman
Believing that people are most productive when they are free to bring their whole selves to work, Mina has been a long-time advocate for diversity and more inclusive teams.
Having had roles at The New York Times, Ogilvy, and more recently as chief strategy and creative officer at The Economist Group, she has had the opportunity to do work for some of world’s biggest brands, and the good fortune to work with foundations focused on social impact, and Native American tribal governments. She has a keen interest in driving cultural and operational change to match our constantly morphing cultural and business environments.
While at The Economist Group, Mina was the representative to UN Women’s Global Innovation Coalition for Change – a group committed to driving gender-responsive innovation by better incorporating women’s needs and ambitions into the innovation cycle. She currently serves as an advisor to the Digital Marketing Institute and WorkWider.
Mina holds a BA in German and Russian from McGill University and an MA in Journalism from NYU. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, who consider her “Pancake Making Artist in Residence.”
Advisor
Christofer Peterson
Known for saying out loud what others don’t and fighting for what others won’t, especially when it comes to work culture, and representation and equity in particular. Believes that companies should be fiercely protective of their people and invested in their culture. Takes her responsibility as an HR unicorn seriously and is committed to reframing the science of talent management, or lack thereof, in the ad industry.
Broad almost-20-year background in HR where she’s enjoyed being at times a generalist, a specialist, leading the function, hands-on doing the work, and all of the above.
Most recently with Hearts & Science, an OMG agency. 800 employees, 6 offices, running an HR region, employee engagement (including aspects of workspace and tech experience) and comms, D&I, L&D, and talent acquisition. Recently joined Dagger’s leadership team as SVP, People & Culture.
Passion for all-things-People & Culture, especially helping people and teams navigate change, work together better, grow as people and professionals, and love where they work.
A New York City native, Christofer lived in Chicago before moving to Atlanta in 2001. She and her husband, Michael, have three busy kids and spend most of their time chauffeuring them to swim practice. Fun Fact: She’s named after Kris Kristofferson. She was a child actress.
Partner
Glenn Singleton
Glenn Singleton has devoted over thirty years to constructing racial equity worldwide and developing leaders to do the same. Author, thought leader, and strategist, he is the creator of Courageous Conversation™ a protocol and framework for sustained, deepened dialogue, and Beyond Diversity™, the curriculum that has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to use it. Glenn is the Founder and President of Pacific Educational Group, Inc. (PEG), an agency that guides leadership development in education, government, corporation, law enforcement, and community organizing. He is the award winning author of Courageous Conversations About Race; A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, Second Edition; and of MORE Courageous Conversations About Race.
Glenn has consulted executives at Wieden + Kennedy (W+K) Advertising, Google, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, the New York Department of Education, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the Stavros Niarchos, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundations. Along with W+K, he received the 2017 Most Valuable Partnership (MVP) Award by AdColor. He is the recipient of the George A. Coleman Excellence in Equity Award by the Connecticut State Education Resource Center. Cited in the June 2018 edition of the Hollywood Reporter for his work with 21st Century Fox Animation, most recently, Glenn was awarded the AdWeek/AdColor 2020 Champion Award, and the 2020 National Speech and Debate Association Communicator of the Year Award. In 1995, Glenn founded the Foundation for A College Education and continues to serve on its Board of Advisors. He is also the founder and Board Chair of the Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, which develops partnerships to promote racial justice, interracial understanding and human healing worldwide.
Glenn has trained law enforcement leaders with the U.S. Embassy in Western Australia, and established the Courageous Conversation South Pacific Institute in Auckland, New Zealand. For eight years, he served as an adjunct professor of educational leadership at San Jose State University. Glenn has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University and has instructed faculty, students and administrators at the University of Minnesota, New York University School of Medicine, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, Glenn Singleton is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and 100 Black Men. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Advisor
Giannina Seaman
Giannina Seaman is currently the Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Advantage Solutions: Sales Marketing Technology organization. A seasoned Human Resources professional, Giannina has worked in several industries from non-profit, retail, professional services and consumer goods, and has been a champion of equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts throughout her career. After attending the first Women’s March in 2017, she came away feeling a greater need to dive deeper into her EDI journey. While at Ketchum Communications, Giannina leaned into their DE&I efforts, playing a key role in driving their efforts to create a culture of belonging. She was instrumental in leading and expanding their diversity councils across North America and developing a ‘Real Talk’ series globally.
Outside of work, Giannina also continues to give back to the community by serving as a board member for local nonprofit organization, Frontline Arts, an arts organization that provides transformational experiences through printmaking to Veterans, Migrant communities, and Frontline Medical providers. Their work has been featured in local and national media.
Giannina is a proud immigrant, originally from Peru and attributes her success and drive to her mother, who pushed her to do her best, even when faced with adversity. She is a mother of two amazing daughters, Autumn and Serena, wife to Rick Seaman and loving fur mom to her constant companion, Sandy, her adorable Labrador. When she’s not working she loves being the “Honeydo” in her home and enjoys gardening, writing poetry, and going to music festivals and Broadway shows (when possible).
Operations & Client Engagement Manager
Jennifer Cohen
Jennifer is passionate about building and scaling innovative Internet-based businesses for both world-class brands and start-up organizations. Her broad professional experience comprises a variety of functional positions from general management, marketing, business development, client services to project management. She has worked in a wide range of industries including home decor, gifts, financial services, telecommunications, high tech and energy.
As a member of several of the underrepresented groups that Work Wider supports, Jennifer is excited to use her entrepreneurial skills to grow a platform that helps companies advance their diversity recruiting. Jennifer’s role as Operations & Client Engagement Manager at Work Wider allows her to work directly with companies that prioritize improving EDI outcomes in the workplace.
Jennifer holds a BA in Political Economies of Industrial Societies from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. A native Californian, Jennifer currently resides in the Chicago suburbs with her husband.Work Wider Pledge
Work Wider partners believe diversity, equity and inclusion are business imperatives. While each organization may be at a different stage of the journey, they all pledge to:
- We are committed to creating a culture where every employee feels a sense of belonging. We understand progress isn’t the result of a single action but the result of dedicated effort to build a workplace that genuinely supports everyone, every day, throughout their careers.
- We have an EDI plan which has been shared with, at a minimum, your senior leadership team.
- We have or are working towards ensuring fair, equitable, and consistent pay and opportunities for advancement of underrepresented talent.
- We have EDI metrics in place to help us measure our progress.
- We are actively working to increase underrepresented talent (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, neuro differences, veterans, women, and 50+) at all levels of the organization, including the executive level.
- We have a mechanism for underrepresented talent (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, neuro differences, veterans, women, and 50+) to voice their concerns, as well as a track record of addressing the issues as they arise.
- We have taken concrete steps to ensure that the physical and virtual work environments are inclusive.
- We understand the importance of supplier and vendor diversification and have or are working towards diversifying our suppliers/vendors.
What is Work Wider?
Work Wider is both a career and recruitment ecosystem for underrepresented communities, as well as a website where companies come to hire unrepresented talent.
Why Should I Work Wider?
We offer companies the opportunity to accelerate growth and improve decision-making by engaging with and attracting a more diverse pool of candidates.
We provide job seekers industry-specific content, a community of peers, and quality hiring connections in your industry.