Name: November HHRABC Meeting
Start: 2024-11-07T12:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-11-07T13:00:00-05:00
Location: The Westin Fort Lauderdale

Join us for our final meeting in 2024, we will have not one, but two guest speakers!
About this Event

Join us, for our November HHRABC Meeting on Thursday, November 7th from 12noon - pm.

Our first guest speaker, will be Christie McGowen, who is the Curriculum Supervisor at Atlantic Technical College is actively involved in the Adopt-A-High School Program for hotels & restaurants in Broward County.

Our second guest will be, Monica Diaz. She is a Leadership & Career Coach, Award-winning Author, Consultant & Speaker. She is transformative executive coach and diversity, equity and inclusion coach who empowers her clients to lead their careers, their lives and their business with unprecedented postive impact.

Guest Speaker Bios

After graduating from Florida International University (FIU), Christie McGowen started teaching reading and language arts courses in Broward County Public Schools (BCPS). Christie taught for seven years and continued to make a difference as an assistant principal at a struggling school. During this time, Mrs. McGowen worked diligently to launch a successful on campus, dual enrollment program through FIU, and collaborated with students and teachers and towards realigning curriculum in English, reading, and social studies which resulted in three continuous years of increasing graduation rates. In 2015, Christie took a job as a curriculum supervisor for Career, Technical, Adult and Community Education with BCPS. Within her time at CTACE, she has overseen and expanded several programs, while focusing heavily on Culinary/Hospitality & Tourism and Entrepreneurship pathways and building partnerships through the School Adoption Program. In addition, she has served on several panels to share her expertise alongside the FLDOE at both FACTE & ACTE and has run professional development sessions for teachers and administrators at various conferences. Christie oversees Business, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Culinary, Hospitality, and CTSO’s. She is looking forward to the continual growth of Career and Technical Education Programs.

Monica Diaz’s diverse range of industry experience gives her valuable insights across many sectors and companies. She brings over three decades of experience as a seasoned HR and DEI executive at global blue-chip and Fortune 100 companies, such as Merck & Co, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company and Royal Caribbean Group. She is the award-winning author of From INTENT to IMPACT – The 5 Dualities of Diversity and Inclusion, a thought-provoking business memoir to strengthen corporate culture and business as a whole. Clients and colleague regard her as a passionate professional, who brings a refreshing perspective on addressing diversity, equity and inclusion. She is always ready with the clear suggestions and wields her humor as a secret weapon, to make everyone feel they are an integral part of a common effort. Monica has been recognized as a 2022 Literary Titan, Top DEI Leader, a Leader of Team Innovation, as one of Most Influential Minorities in Cable TV and one of the Top 10 Leaders in the Hispanic Executive community. She is a founding member of the Latino DEI Collective and serves as board member of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance and as Advisory Board member of the HISPA - a youth development organization. She is also an active contributor to organizations empowering children, families, and their communities out of poverty, as well as equality for the LGBTQ community.