Diplomatic Data: Measuring and Setting Benchmarks to Communicate your DE&I Strategy Internally

Cat Colella-Graham is the Founder of Cheer Partners, an employee experience agency designed to revolutionize the day-to-day life of an organization’s most important stakeholders – their employees. In her deep experience as a Chief Human Resources Officer and Internal Communications expert, Cat saw a gap that needed to be bridged to drive forward a holistic employee experience. She foresaw that a new generation of employees were finding their voices and that companies would need to change the frameworks in which they communicate and engage with employees. Cheer Partners was founded to address this growing need. Cheer Partners is brought into organizations to define the employer value proposition through a proprietary Cultural DNA Assessment and build a bespoke employee experience that drives high-productivity and business results. Cat has created offerings to attract, engage and inspire employees to deliver best-in-class engagement results. Her extensive knowledge spans corporate culture, internal communications, diversity, equity and inclusion practices, talent development and change management. Cat is known for being a trusted C-Suite advisor to Fortune 100 leaders. Prior to founding Cheer Partners, Cat was the Executive Vice President and Global Head of People and Acquisitions at Ruder Finn and the Chief People Officer at Clever Devices. Cat was also the Senior Vice-President and Global Director of Human Resources and Recruiting at Cohn & Wolfe, a WPP company, Rubenstein Public Relations’ first HR Director and a Management Consultant in the Change Management Division of Accenture. Cat is a member of Forbes Human Resources Council, a co-founder of the Diversity Marketing Consortium and a mentor with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Cat is also a Senior Advisor to Benedictine University L.E.A.D.S program. She frequently guest lectures at Georgetown and NYU and is a volunteer TED translator in four languages. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston College, a master’s degree from Cornell University and is a Harvard Business School Executive Education alumna.

Joseph Dawson is director, strategic communication for the office of the chief human resources officer and chief diversity officer at Freddie Mac. He leads message development and positioning in integrated campaigns to mobilize people to take meaningful action, while also providing communication counsel to senior leaders. Prior to Freddie Mac, Dawson held global communication and digital marketing roles at Fortune 500 companies including the AES Corporation and Advance Auto Parts. He started his career as an economic developer with a local government agency.

Justin Joffe is the Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief at Ragan Communications where he oversees the editorial strategy for Ragan across brands and products. In addition to his editorial duties, Joffe also advises the programming team on best-in-class conferences, webinars and workshops during a time of unprecedented change in the way that communicators and marketers learn and meet. He is also a freelance journalist and communications writer specializing in the arts and culture, media and technology, and ad tech beats. Before joining the Ragan team, Joffe worked for Muck Rack, PR News, and The Observer. Additionally, his writing has appeared in several publications including Vulture, Newsweek, Vice, Relix, Flaunt, and many more. You can find him on X @joffaloff.