Eleversity

Wanda has over 20 years of experience and an extensive background in the non-profit sector. She has earned several community and academic awards and has served on numerous boards and community committees. Wanda holds a Bachelor’s in Community and Human Services from SUNY Empire State College and is currently pursuing her doctorate for Organizational Change and Leadership at the University of Southern California. She is also a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and is the Youth Advisor to their Amicettes Youth Auxiliary Club.

She currently serves as the Director of Community Impact at the United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes. Her role provides leadership in developing, promoting, and maintaining solid community collaborations to ensure a comprehensive, equitable, and an integrated approach to community-wide impact efforts in the areas of health, education, and economic mobility.

Wanda is the owner of Cooper ProductionZ LLC, a marketing company that is dedicated to assisting grassroot non-profits with telling their story of impact to enhance their funding opportunities. She has also dedicated her life to empowering women and young girls by sharing her story of how she overcame the perils of domestic violence, and has influenced numerous women to pursue better self-care, personal investments, building positive relationships, career paths, and educational goals.

Wanda understands the importance of respecting people, which is of the utmost importance for our society - where families are experiencing significant losses and difficulties. She believes that the best and only approach to serving our community is to treat everyone with respect, and focus on partnering with those in need to find the best way to help.

“Bring your full/true self to work” has been the new “lean-in” in corporate America since 2020, but when you look beyond the rhetoric what have been the real outcomes of cultural authenticity in the workplace? This workshop will delve into the effects of resource groups for women of color in corporations and the development of affinity recruitment efforts. We will want to have a conversation with you about your experiences with resource groups and your feelings around niche recruitment efforts and if they are truly authentic. If they aren’t what can we do to make them more so? If they are how can we or should we expand their reach into more corporations? Are they truly beneficial and if so, what is the real goal?

Workshop Objectives/takeaways:
- Define the goal(s) of culturally authentic recruitment and retention efforts
- Evaluate the viability of a The Tenth recruitment effort as a sample of cultural recruitment strategies. Is it sustainable, is it scalable, can it be effective toward the goal(s) defined?
- What do we do to improve or maintain resource groups as a retention vehicle?

Women of color continue to wait and rely on our white colleagues to recognize and leverage their privilege, invite us to their tables and elevate our voices. We do not need to wait for them to invite us or validate us. WE can build our own tables with folding chairs that will allow us the opportunities to move to the tables we desire to sit at and elevate our own voices.

Workshop objectives/ takeaways:
- Be introduced to strategies to advocate for themselves in the workplace regardless of their role or title
- Learn how to identify and collaborate with allies who are willing to decenter themselves
- Explore ways to build or find the community of support needed to sustain them mentally, physically, and emotionally

Pushing ourselves until exhaustion sets in should not be the norm. For too long, we’ve given rest a bad name. It’s the four letter work we rarely say. This eye-opening session will help you re-evaluate how to change the narrative of rest and sabbath in your life. Learn strategies to implement consistently instead of sporadically when you are feeling burned out.
Workshop Key Objectives/takeaways
- Identify negative rest patterns
- Shift your perspective on rest
- Learn new ways of incorporating rest into our life
- Create a new rest rhythm and routine
- Understand how rest can positively impact your output.

As the world and essence of work are changing, so are the opportunities offered, but where to start? This workshop gives insight into building your toolbox to ensure you are ready for that next step. Completing this workshop will provide you with a blueprint for making a possible pathway to the world of possibilities.
Workshop Objectives/takeaways:
- Understanding of how we as an adult learn now
- Tools that can help on your pathway
- Example of how to plan for your new path

Your skillsets from the (s) can be parachuted to support a publicly traded board. According to Catalyst, women of color hold just 4.6% of board seats in the Fortune 500; though women represent 18% of the US population.
Workshop Objectives/takeaways:
- Responsibilities of a board member board
- Board selection practices
- Preparation steps to secure a seat
 why board diversity is important to publicly traded organizations