IDE Lunch & Learn: Hidden Figures: Women of Color in the Hospitality Industry

This panel discussion will feature three women of color exploring their professional journey through the hospitality industry, with reflections on past and current experiences, thoughts on the impact of intersectionality of gender and race, and suggested changes that would positively impact women of color in hospitality for the future.

Our Panelists:

Grace Jan, CAE, CMP, is the Senior Vice President, Meetings Management and a member of the senior management team at Management Solutions Plus (MSP). With over 30 years of meeting planning experience, Grace has worked for two other associations, the Water Environment Federation and the American College of Cardiology. Grace’s experience has provided her with skills in meeting and trade show management, handling conferences ranging from 100 to 30,000 attendees.

Norma Taylor, CMP, is the Regional Sales Manager at Business Events Montreal. With over 20 years of diverse hospitality experience, Norma’s background includes hotels, meeting planning, convention center tradeshow management and convention visitors’ bureaus. Norma’s unique perspective of the overall industry from various experiences provide a fresh outlook on the hospitality industry.

Veronica Torres Hazley is the owner of Torres Hazley Enterprise, managing V12 Yoga and Healthy Latina Lifestyle brands that support corporate wellness, health and mindfulness and customized organizational leadership programming. In addition, she currently serves on the For Oak Cliff Board of Directors and Mayor Star Council Advisory Board for the City of Dallas. For the last 16 years of her career she worked for Visit Dallas in several capacities including Diversity and Inclusion roles, Digital Marketing and Branding and most recently as the Director of Experience. Her role with Visit Dallas brought a strong focus on developing partnerships in the local Dallas community. She oversaw membership programs, customized corporate partnerships along with event partner programing with a strong focus on customer service. Her diverse experience will add another a new perspective to the conversation.

Thank You to our Sponsor: