The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber announced today that Devona Stripling has been named Women Excel Program Manager. Devona will lead the Chamber’s Women Excel (WE) platform which provides networking, education, mentoring, and leadership development for women in business.
“We are so thrilled to have Devona Stripling join us as the Women Excel Program Manager. Her previous experience and magnetic personality will truly help us take this platform to the next level,” said Amy Thompson, Vice President of the Leadership Center.
In addition to extensive program management, Devona’s experience includes dedicated leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her career has spanned many functions which include responsibilities in preparing and conducting ongoing training for key issues and trends such as creating a high-performance culture, employee engagement, cultural competency training, performance management, and handling difficult conversations during our high times of racial unjust. Devona has directed community efforts which include programs with Cincinnati STEM Collaborative, Beech Acres, Boys and Girls Club, Salvation Army, partnerships with local HBCUs — all of which are meant to strengthen our community connections and create spaces for our underrepresented minorities.
“I am immensely passionate about supporting and encouraging phenomenal women in our region to accelerate to the next level and helping them to envision themselves beyond what they see,” said Devona Stripling. “It’s incredibly rewarding to enter this new stage in my career for which I am able to utilize my skills in facilitation, training, and personal development to advance the Chamber’s mission to invest in the women leaders in our region.”
Devona is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University with two master’s degrees one in Human Resource Management and a Master’s in Business Administration. Devona is also a licensed minister with Christ Emmanuel Christian Fellowship and will pursue her Ph.D. in pastoral care and counseling in 2022.
In 2006, the Chamber launched the Women Excel platform in response to the survey commissioned by The Women’s Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Pulse: A Study on the Status of Women and Girls in Greater Cincinnati, which identified our region had an opportunity to further develop and promote women. Though we’ve seen progress over the last 15 years, it’s critical to keep the momentum especially during this time in which women are leaving the workforce in significant numbers and women of color not being promoted at the same rate as their peers. The Women Excel platform offers a range of programs to help address these challenges. The programs are primarily targeted to high achieving, goal-oriented women who are seeking advancement or have recently been promoted. Programs include:
- WE Lead – Ten-month leadership development program that includes a retreat, workshops, group coaching.
- WE Succeed – Three-month small group “just in time” group coaching experience.
- WE Ascend – Three-month small group leadership development program for women of color.
- WE Speak – Speaker series that provides an opportunity to get beyond the bios and hear authentic stories and lessons from local leaders.
