Meet The Fellows: Kristin Parris

 

Kristin Parris is a Talent Development Senior Manager at Essence, a global, data-driven advertising agency, where she designs and facilitates learning experiences that ensure people excel in their roles as media professionals and future leaders. In this capacity, she partners closely with business leaders to build high-performance teams with best in class onboarding, training, and employee advancement programs. Beginning her career as an integrated media strategist, she developed a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities for professional development in media, and has leveraged her skillset to help people realize their full potential.

Kristin is also a driving force in Essence’s efforts to create a more inclusive, diverse workplace and company culture. As the leader of POC@Essence, an employee resource group designed to build community and provide support for people of color within the agency, she has fostered and expanded the community of BIPOC employees across six of the agency’s offices in North America by coordinating access to programming that celebrates and promotes inclusion.

Driven by a desire to connect people to resources that often seem inaccessible, Kristin is focused on empowering career mobility in this next stage of her career, especially when it comes to creating more opportunities for those from underrepresented communities. She believes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a business imperative and is passionate about removing barriers that prevent individuals from being their most successful selves

Kristin is a New Jersey native and a proud graduate of Howard University. In her spare time, she enjoys experimenting in the kitchen with new recipes and vibing to R&B music (especially if she can catch a live show).

Follow Kristin on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram!

The i’mPART Women’s Fellowship, created in 2016, made a commitment of $100K annually to retain more diverse talent and promote more women into leadership positions. Now in its fifth year, the program has expanded from helping 10 to over 50 women pursue their goals and elevate their executive presence – providing more access, tools, & nurturing necessary for them to grow and thrive in all aspects of our industry.

Each Fellow receives:

  • All-expense registrations for industry conferences including but not limited to: ADCOLOR, Advertising WEEK NY, ANA, BE Women of Power Summit, 3% Movement Conference, SXSW, Fast Company Innovation Festival, CultureCon
  • Educational workshops, webinars and master classes
  • 1:1 Executive Coaching
  • Neuro-assessments to determine strengths
  • Monthly night school with PwC Executive Training Program
  • Executive Salon Series fostering mentor connections and high-level networking opportunities
  • 1-year AD Club of NY membership
  • Access to the industries top leaders

Learn more about the Foundation’s dedication to fostering the talent pipeline here!