DE&I Executive Salon with HRTS & Easterseals

Easterseals, in collaboration with Change For Balance and HRTS, hosted a Virtual Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Executive Salon on Thursday, September 9. The event included some of the top entertainment executives who are actively shaping a more diverse and inclusive industry.

Speakers included: Amazon Studios Co-Head of Television Vernon Sanders; showrunner and creator Jason Katims; disability advocate and author of DEMYSTIFYING DISABILITY: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally Emily Ladau; and Easterseals Southern California Chief Advancement Officer Nancy Weintraub. This dynamic panel took part in a candid discussion of their experiences in entertainment. The group also discussed approaches and resources for creating an inclusive tv show, using Katims’ own project as a case study: the new Amazon Original series is based on the Israeli series “On The Spectrum,” about three 20-something roommates on the Autism spectrum. The event was moderated by Amazon Studios, Prime Video and IMDb’s Executive Head of DE&I Latasha Gillespie. Change For Balance was proud to have made this important conversation happen with our partners HRTS, ESSC, Amazon Studios and Emily Ladau.

For over 100 years, Easterseals has worked as a resource to the disability community as a service provider, advocate and champion for inclusion. In the past ten years, Easterseals in Entertainment has pushed that mission further to change the way the world defines and views disability though entertainment – by providing resources, tools and a pipeline to develop talent and support content. Learn more here.