As Women’s History Month comes to a close, MENTOR New York is spotlighting the strong, diverse women that will tackle important conversations about racial injustice and inequity at our virtual 2021 Mentoring Matters Conference, presented by PSEG Long Island. These women have dedicated their careers to diversity, equality, and inclusion and will share their expertise with conference attendees.
Dr. Nisha Sachdev
At the 2021 Mentoring Matters conference, Dr. Sachdev will give a keynote address about empowering and inspiring Black and Brown youth through mentoring.
For 15 years, Dr. Nisha Sachdev has led multi-million programs and foundations that address social issues in underrepresented communities. She is also a public health strategist and senior clinical psychologist. She received her Master and Doctorate in Psychology and Public Health from The George Washington University, where she is currently an Adjunct Professor and Senior Associate at the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
Since 2019, Dr. Sachdev has been the President of Premnas Partners. They provide resources and services through a racial equity lens to organizations, foundations, school, and local, state, and federal agencies nationally and internationally to address social issues and reduce disparities in underrepresented communities. The advising they provide is through a public health lens on projects that impact issues including women’s health, child welfare, mental health, early childhood, and education.
Dr. Sachdev will be joined by other presenters and panelists throughout the conference including Dr. Laura Quiros.
Dr. Laura Quiros
At Adelphi University, Dr. Quiros is an Associate Professor of Social Work, and her research focuses on trauma-informed care from a social justice lens. She will present a workshop about how to address trauma through mentoring at our Mentoring Matters Conference.
Dr. Quiros is a proud Latina and Jewish woman of color. She is also a mother, daughter, associate professor of social work, coach, consultant, friend, and partner. Dr. Quiros is an Affiliate Partner of Coston Consulting, a certified Black-owned business advisory firm. Coston Consulting helps clients advance their DEI efforts, such as DEI services, training, audits, strategic planning, and ongoing executive coaching that ensures DEI sustainability and culture impact. They also provide professional development coaching to help members of diverse groups advance within their organizations. (Learn more on her website.)
“I work to find spaces to advance inclusion, belonging, and accountability within sectors to help connect leadership to missions and agendas of diversity, equity and inclusion. My work is accomplished through relationship building. I use my relationship building skills as a way to foster inclusion by helping to increase awareness and move towards action.”
Following the keynote and workshops at the conference on April 16th, panelist Ivette Maza Cabrera will take the mic as part of the Youth Stories and Youth Leadership Plenary.
Ivette Maza Cabrera
At the conference, she will share her experiences and stories about how she turned her interests into action and the role caring adults played in her growth and success as a part of the conference's plenary.
Currently, Ivette Maza is MENTOR New York’s Program Research Intern while she pursues a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and is in an honors program in business at CUNY Queens College. She will pursue a doctorate in School-Community Psychology at Hofstra University as well.
Ivette Maza is a proud Latina, who personally understands the struggle of learning a new language in a new country and the adversities immigrants face. “DEI in education has always been a passion of mine,” she says. As a Youth Advocate for Mentoring with MENTOR National, she developed a comprehensive policy memo regarding the importance of English Language Learners (ELL) receiving quality education. She has also written blogs and presented on the topic.
“I’ve been honored to work with MENTOR as a Youth Advocate and now as an intern for MENTOR NY. It has been admirable to see everyone not only do amazing work to improve the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships for young people but apply the same energy among one another with building a welcoming and caring community,” she says. It is a beautiful experience and motivator to work even harder.
Watch These Women in Action at the Conference
Even as Women's History Month ends, join us in recognizing the strong, diverse women that will inspire today's young people to achieve their dreams.
Dr. Sachdev, Dr. Quiros, and Ms. Maza Cabrera will be joined by many other experts on Friday, April 16 for our virtual 2021 Mentoring Matters Conference presented by PSEG Long Island. Learn more and register to engage with these women and the other conference presenters about issues related to racial inequity and how we can bring about actionable change and build spaces of joy for youth.
We would like to thank our community partner co-hosts Adelphi University and Niagara University for helping make this conference possible.