Empowering Differences Inc. - Social Change Maker of the Year - LGBTIQ

Company: Empowering Differences Inc.
Company Description: Empowering Differences is an organization founded on the 10 Empowering Actions used by founder Ashley T Brundage to advance her career in less than five years. The company was started in 2011 when Ashley recognized the need for leadership based training to empower and inspire organizations and diverse individuals.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Social Change Maker of the Year - LGBTIQ

Nomination Title: Ashley T Brundage

Ashley T Brundage is the Founder and President of Empowering Differences. While seeking employment at a major financial institution, she self-identified during the interview process as a male to female transgender woman and subsequently was hired. She was offered a position and started as a part time bank teller and worked in various lines of business before moving to VP, Diversity and Inclusion in less than 5 years.Ashley credits her success to those closest to her for providing actionable allyship including her 2 teenage sons, Bryce and Blake.

Ashley captured this process of growth in her new book and online leadership & empowerment course called Empowering Differences.Since beginning transitioning in 2008, she has worked tirelessly to promote awareness and acceptance of gender identity and expression. She works to accomplish this goal by volunteering in the community, and holding education sessions for corporations. She serves on the Corporate Advisory Council for the NGLCC-National LGBT Chamber of Commerce.Ms. Brundage speaks locally and nationally about her transition, workplace equality, empowerment and leadership. She is in demand but always makes time to connect and mentor others so we have a stonger bench of future leaders.

26 to 400 TGNC business growth for the NGLCC- National LGBT chamber of commerce through the work of the task force mentioned above.

Herwork joining the board of GLAAD in 7/2019. Then helping to raise more than 50K for GLAAD during that time even with the pandemic. Then was voted as the Vice Chair of the board in 11/2020. Also volunteer to chair the development committee, which was hit hard with the loss of our last 2 years of GLAAD media awards in person for NYC and LA. Those events usually raise 1M each, so we had to make up the lost 4M revenue to keep our programming going strong so we can keep protecting and amplifying LGBTQ voices.

Also stayed connected to my local community organizations during the pandemic raising more than 60K for charity since July 2019 going to 6 local organizations.

Ashley was awarded the transgender rising star award at the New York Coming Out Conference in 11/2019

Ashley expandedthefocus of creating social change for TGNC (Trans, Gender Nonconforming) business owners like herself. She served as the chair and creator of the national TGNC inclusion task force for the NGLCC - National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. In doing a social inventory of how many TGNC business owners were being cetified nationally and realizingthere were only 26, Ashley went into action. That action began in 2019, with outreach and aquiring resources to support these businesses. Now today there are almost 400 certifed TGNC businesses engaging with the NGLCC. These business are also gaining access to 300 major corporations for business match makingas well as a world class mentoring program. Shealso worked to gain close to 100K in funding from the major coporations providing grants and sponsorships to attend programming and other support tools.

The transgender community is often attacked and marginalized in this world. TGNC people face 40% unemployment and 40% underemployment due to so much misinformation about us and how we have been depicted on TV, Movies, and news... So, the work she did to help them gain exposure through supplier diversity was of major significance. Her advocacy work in this is like the work done 15 years ago by the co-founders of the NGLCC - National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. This has brought an economic voice to a community who has such a hard time overcoming biases to gain employment. Her fundraising was critical to the launch of important projects like the new social media safety index here at www.glaad.org/smsi - This index proved that all the social media companies were deemed unsafe for LGBTQ voices and now all the social media orgs are working to get better.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials

www.nglcc.org/transresources This site is our landing page of resources that was built, it now shows success stories from business owners as well as all the corporate logos of the sponsors of the work for the task force.