The 2022 Pay-it-Forward Leadership Award nomination period has closed.

With talented women expressing more often feeling undervalued, underutilized, and overworked in the workplace and experiencing more gender disparities, we want to celebrate the leaders and workplaces who are supporting women in leadership through sponsorship.

BY SPONSORSHIP, WE MEAN THINGS LIKE:

Using your social capital to introduce talented female employees to stakeholders who could help them advance in their careers,
Advocating for women when they are in the room AND when they are not,
Identifying and interrupting workplace gender bias that holds women back from career advancement
Creating and offering programs that make a difference for more access to career promotional opportunities.

For this year, NOMINEES met BOTH OF THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:

You or your organization have helped women sponsor women in leadership this past year.
You or your organization demonstrate a value and commitment to supporting gender diversity and inclusion in leadership (including intersectionality of other marginalized identities in the workplace, such as Black women, women with disabilities, and non-binary or queer identities). For example, aiming to reduce barriers to recruitment, retention, or promotion of talented women leaders.

Winners

Individual award

Renita Joyce Smith, CDE

Renita Joyce Smith has leveraged her 20 years of management consulting and strategy experience transforming and driving change within Fortune 500 organizations. She is a well-rounded, fiercely authentic leader with a diverse consulting skillset. At the core, Renita is a relationship builder who drives consensus across executive teams, works cross-functionally to drive results and influences at all organizational levels. Currently, she sits on the executive leadership team as a Principal at Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company. In addition, she has her own consultancy and executive coaching practice, Leap Forward, focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging strategies that put people first and bridge the gap between theory and practical execution in the workplace. Her commitment to service spans from office to community. She currently serves as a Board Member for First3Years and Chase's Place, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Junior League of Dallas, Community Partners of Dallas, and Leadership Dallas Class of 2019. In her spare time, she practices self-care through random adventures, painting, and spoiling her fur babies, Mason and Toussaint.

Organization Award

National Institute of Minority Economic Development, led by Kevin Price

Kevin is the third president and chief executive officer of the National Institute of Minority Economic Development in Durham, NC. The Institute, a 36-year-old nonprofit management consulting and services firm, is focused on business diversity and inclusion. They are trusted advisors to businesses large and small, government agencies, policy makers and organizations that understand the key roles diversity and inclusion play in ensuring business and economic success. Their client services include customized one-on-one assistance, training, knowledge, networks and solutions that create diverse, globally competitive companies. The Institute is an award-winning organization and leading voice and constant advocate for public policies and business practices that promote marketplace diversity and inclusion. In June 2020, The Institute successfully merged with the North Carolina Community Development Initiative and rebranded it as Institute Capital (ICAP). ICAP is a community development financial institution, providing vital financing to diverse businesses, community development corporations and HBCUs throughout the state.

Nominated Organizations

Teradata is a connected multi-cloud data platform for enterprise analytics, solving data challenges from start to scale. Teradata gives flexibility to handle the massive and mixed data workloads of the future, today — making data easier to consume everywhere, with no added risk.

The National Institute of Minority Economic Development is a nonprofit management consulting and services firm focused on business diversity and inclusion. They are trusted advisors to businesses large and small, government agencies, policy makers and organization that understand the key roles diversity and inclusion play in ensuring business and economic success.