2023 FSP Intern Career Conference

Moderator: Dayna Eubanks

Auyana S. Orr (she/her)

Auyana serves as the Director of Community Affairs at Ariel Investments. Her primary responsibilities include liaising between Ariel Investments and Ariel Community Academy, leading the firm’s corporate sponsorships and charitable giving, and representing the firm in various social advocacy partnerships.  Before joining Ariel, Auyana worked at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for eleven years.  Her positions at CPS included School Improvement Coordinator, Data Strategist, and Manager of Data Analytics in the Chief Education Office, where her responsibilities included managing project plans related to calculating the School Quality Rating Policy (SQRP) for all schools and specific measures used in teacher evaluation.  Beyond her role at Ariel, Auyana serves on the boards of The Chicago Public Education Fund, Cabrini Green Legal Aid and Sue Duncan Children’s Center. Auyana received her B.A. in Political Science from Macalester College and her M.P.P. with a concentration in Education Policy from the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Nikita Lawrence (she/her)

Nikita Lawrence is a Human Resources Manager with CBOE Global Markets and an Adjunct Business Faculty Member at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, with over 13 years of experience in Management, 10+ years in Human Resources Management across the retail, hospitality, technology, and financial services industries. As a Bestselling Author, Leadership Keynote Speaker, Certified Executive Coach and CEO, she is passionate about showing women, leaders and entrepreneurs learn how to maximize their potential, multiply their impact, and pursue their purpose in life and business. Lawrence has been featured in Forbes, Huff Post, Wrike, Reader’s Digest, Thrive Global and several other publications. She has published 15 Journals, and five books including: Wake Up Your Gift of Wealth, Bye-Bye Burnout, She Decrees, W.I.N. The Day in 90 Seconds, Amazon Bestseller, The Secret of the Wealth Success Chamber, The I Am Wealth Journal and more. She resides in Illinois and enjoys spending quality time with her daughter and husband.

Haseeb M. Siddiqui

People manager with an understanding of emotional intelligence; helping people connect, grow and innovate to a new tomorrow. Currently with CIBC’s Talent Acquisition team, overseeing recruitment for client facing lines of business (Private Wealth, Commercial and Real Estate).

LaToya Lewis (she/her)

Inclusion is a vital to ensuring the products and services developed by the financial services industry will meet the diverse needs of all the communities they serve.

Scott Morgan (he/him)

I have been in the Talent Acquisition space for 10+ years and have worked in the healthcare industry, consumer goods industry and financial industry. I graduated from the University of Illinois with my BS in Sports Management and my MS in Human Resources & Industrial Relations.

Alison Boder (she/her)

Alison Bodor is Executive Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Alison is responsible for developing and executing OCC’s DEI and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies and is adept in synthesizing complex information to inform a company’s culture transformation journey.  Before finding her passion for DEI, Alison’s career began as an Occupational Therapist and she later earned her MBA. Alison started her DEI journey focused on increasing access to health care for patients with disabilities, which then evolved into creating workforce practices for underrepresented communities, such as transgender people.  She is now using her skills and expertise in the financial services industry, aiming to build an inclusive and belonging work culture and connect business to the community to address key socioeconomic issues. Alison currently serves on the Financial Services Pipeline Initiative’s Steering Committee, Chicago United’s Leaders Council, and is a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow since 2023.

Melissa Donaldson (she/her)

Reporting to the CEO, Melissa is an executive DEI strategist with more than seventeen years leading corporate DEI practices for CDW, Walgreens and currently Wintrust Financial Corporation. Her responsibilities include shaping the strategy for the One Wintrust Diversity & Inclusion Roadmap covering the entire enterprise, including sponsorship and mentoring programs, multicultural segment strategy and consistent executive partnership. Melissa’s career mosaic includes, sales, professional services, career coaching, public speaking and public access cable talk show host of Generation Flex.   She is married, lives in the suburbs, is mother to two adult bankers, serves on several non-profit boards and holds degrees from Wright State University, Central Michigan University and Northwestern University.

Mike Jackson (he/him)

Mike Jackson is a highly strategic and visionary, performance-driven leader with nearly 20 years of business leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. He currently serves as U.S.- Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for BMO Financial Group. In his role, he works closely with BMO global business leaders to build and deliver comprehensive DEI strategies and programs within the U.S. business. In partnership with Global Talent and HR, he is responsible for guiding BMO’s Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025 strategy.

Carl Davis

Carl Davis is the Senior Vice President Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Corporate Recruitment in Mesirow Human Resources. He is responsible for spearheading the Diversity Equity and Inclusion & Recruitment efforts across multiple lines of business and consults with strategic decision makers globally to strengthen the value proposition within our Investment Management, Capital Markets, Investment Banking and Shared Services teams. Additionally, Carl serves on Mesirow’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council. Carl has more than 25 years of experience in technology and financial services recruitment. Prior to joining Mesirow in 2016, he was a senior technology recruiter with JPMorgan Chase. Carl oversaw the recruitment of all technology professionals across all platforms, as well as vendor management for the largest revenue generator, GTI (Global Technology Infrastructure), while working with their asset management, fixed income and commercial community bank teams. Carl is a proud board member of the Carl Davis Foundation and volunteers for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Carl earned a Bachelor of Science in liberal arts from University of Illinois
at Chicago.