Automotive News Leading Women Conference: Purpose and impact

Women inside and outside the auto industry shared ideas on collaboration and innovation for future success.

December 01, 2022 05:38 PM

REBECCA COOK

Creating inclusive cultures. Supporting the next generation. Confronting leadership challenges. Those were some themes explored at the annual Automotive News Leading Women conference Dec. 1 in Dearborn, Mich., as female leaders and women aspiring to be leaders learned from one another.

REBECCA COOK

Automotive News Vice President of Editorial Operations Chrissy Taylor moderates the panel discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion with Lia Theodosiou-Pisanelli, vice president of partner products, programs and operations for Aurora Innovation; Chandra Vasser, vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for Nissan Americas; and Cheryl Thompson, founder and CEO, Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement.

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Racing pioneer Lyn St. James, Automotive Hall of Fame inductee and Automotive News 100 Leading Women 2010 honoree, opened the Leading Women Conference. St. James talked about her influences, racing career and being a female athlete before Title IX. She advised the group “to become comfortable being uncomfortable.”

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Automotive News Copy Desk Manager Elizabeth Hardy leads the Lessons in Leadership discussion with Diana Lee, CEO and co-founder, Constellation, and Denise Gray, head of external affairs and government relations, North America, for LG Energy Solution Michigan Inc.

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FutureThink CEO and closing keynoter Lisa Bodell said two of her favorite questions to ask people during performance reviews are “What do you want?” and “What’s stopping you?”

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From left: Moderator Lindsay VanHulle of Automotive News, Fleming Ford of Culture Ignited, Laurie Kelley of JM&A Group and April Stevens of Ford Motor Co. discuss recruitment and retention for multigenerational employees.

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Volunteers from Eastern Michigan University’s Digital Divas program, which mentors middle and high school girls in science, technology, engineering and math, shared their knowledge with 60 Detroit-area high school girls just before the conference. From left are Sara Tirgui, Kaitlyn Tracy, Nautica Marshall and Destiny Haist.