Stronger Together: Partnering for Inclusion and Belonging

Webcast

Stronger Together: Partnering for Inclusion and Belonging

This session from the 2025 Accounting Pipeline Diversity Symposium explores how organizations can move beyond transactional relationships to cultivate strategic alliances that uplift talent and drive meaningful cultural change.

$49 - $59

Do you have an AICPA or CIMA membership? Log in to apply your member discount.

Format

Webcast

Date

Dec 15, 2025

NASBA Field of Study

Behavioral Ethics

Level

Basic

CPE Credits

Instructor

Jeff Chin, Catherine Foca, Damian Rivera, Crystal Cooke

Availability

3 months

Product Number

WC5151413

View

Business & partner

Product Details

This webcast is part of the Accounting Pipeline Diversity Symposium Bundle

In today’s rapidly evolving workforce, fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging requires more than internal efforts—it calls for intentional, ongoing collaboration with diversity partners like NABA, ALPFA, and Ascend. This session explores how organizations can move beyond transactional relationships to cultivate strategic alliances that uplift talent and drive meaningful cultural change. Attendees will gain actionable insights on engagement, measuring impact, and aligning shared values to ensure that their commitment to inclusion and belonging is both authentic and enduring.

Key Topics

How to move beyond transactional relationships to cultivate strategic alliances
Actionable insights on engagement, measuring impact, and aligning shared values
Practical steps to align shared values for more impactful inclusion
Creating belonging and supportive environments and networks for your workforce

Learning Outcomes

Identify effective approaches for building strategic partnerships with diversity organizations to advance inclusion and belonging.
Determine strategies for aligning organizational values with external partners to ensure authentic and sustainable cultural change.

Who Will Benefit

Professionals who want to learn more and be involved in creating a more inclusive and supportive pipeline throughout the profession. 

Credit Info

CPE Credits

NASBA Field of Study

Behavioral Ethics

Level

Basic

Prerequisites

None

Access

This is a digital product. With full paid access the content will be available to you for 3 months after purchase date.

Duration

1 hr

For more information, please refer to CPE requirements and NASBA sponsorship information

Pricing

Do you have an AICPA or CIMA membership? Log in to apply your member discount.

Nonmembers

$59.00

AICPA Members

$49.00

CIMA Members

$49.00

Group ordering for your team

2 to 5 registrants

Save time with our group order form. We’ll send a consolidated invoice to keep your learning expenses organized.

Start order

6+ registrants

We can help with group discounts. Email client.support@aicpa-cima.com
US customers call 1-800-634-6780 (option 1)

Speakers

Jeff Chin

Jeff is a Founder and the Inaugural President ( and President Emeritus)of Ascend Foundation and Ascend, and the current Treasurer of Ascend, the premier non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the presence, influence, and visibility of current and future Pan Asian business leaders. He is passionate about inclusion and the importance of giving back to the Pan Asian and business communities and served as the full-time volunteer leader of the Ascend Foundation (501)(c)(3)and Ascend (501(c)(6) for 15 years. Jeff is a retired EY partner with almost 30 years at the firm and over 18 years as a partner. He spent his entire career in the Metro New York Office, serving as the coordinating partner for numerous publicly and privately owned companies. Jeff provided services including assurance, SEC advisory, taking companies public, due diligence, and general business advice. At EY, Jeff was very active in inclusion, having served on the EY Tri-State’s Diversity Advisory Committee and EY's inaugural National Diversity Task Force. Jeff started the EY Asian American affinity network, EY/ASIA, now named PAPN.

Catherine Foca

Catherine Foca serves as Chief Operating Officer for NABA, Inc, where she leads Operations. Administration and Professional Services for the Association, as well as the NABA Foundation. Before joining NABA, Ms. Foca founded Foca Consulting, where she provided strategic counsel and coaching to leaders across private philanthropy, not-for-profit and government sectors. She has also served as Vice President of Community Affairs at Capital One and President of Capital One Foundation, as well as Vice President of Strategic Planning/ Organizational Learning at America’s Promise- the Alliance for Youth. Ms. Foca is also a proud Public Allies/ AmeriCorps Alumnus. Ms. Foca earned a Design Thinking Executive Education Certificate from Stanford University, a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a bachelor’s degree in politics from Wake Forest University. She serves as NABA’s representative on AICPA’s NCDI, served as President of the Brightpoint Community College Foundation 2016-2022 and as an adjunct faculty member of the CSR Institute at John Hopkins 2019-2021.

Damian Rivera

MBA

Damian Rivera serves as ALPFA’s CEO since September 2018. Prior to ALPFA, Damian Rivera was a Managing Director in Accenture’s Resources Utilities practice for 21 years where he started his career as a coder in their Technology Practice. While at Accenture, Damian focused on Customer Care Transformation work for utilities including helping clients with strategically pivoting to digital capabilities as they look to improve customer engagement. Damian has performed Digital Transformation Strategy and Implementation, Customer Information System builds, Utility Customer Analytics as well as Customer Care operations work. Through these engagements he worked on all project phases including Strategy Development, System Implementation, Business Process Definition as well as Operations. Damian holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University – College of Engineering and MBA from Columbia University specializing in Social Entrepreneurship. Damian’s focus on social entrepreneurship would come as no surprise to people who know him. In addition to his client roles he served as Accenture’s Managing Director responsible for North American Hispanic American Employee Resource Group from 2011 - 2017. In this role he led the strategic direction across the US engaging in internal career progression as well as local market activities focused on improving the local community in which the ERG is based. Damian also served as the Office Diversity Advocate for Metro New York, which focuses on improving employee engagement across all of Accenture’s Metro New York based resources. Damian also serves on the National Board of Directors of Per Scholas, whose mission is to “Break the cycle of poverty by providing technology education, access, training and job placement services for people in underserved communities”. In 2018, Damian was listed in Latino Leaders Magazine, as a member of their Top 101 Most Influential Latinos list. In 2019 Damian was selected to serve on the Young Alumni Board of Columbia Business School. In addition to his non-profit and diversity work, Damian is an angel investor having invested in tech start-ups with a social purpose mission. Damian is married to his high school sweetheart Idanis, and has 2 children, Damian Francisco, 18, and Ilanis, 15. When not working, Damian enjoys watching his son run track, and watching his daughter’s artistic talents in photography. Damian also enjoys triathlons, having completed the NYC Triathlon

Crystal Cooke

Crystal joined the AICPA & CIMA in early 2020 and oversees its member facing Diversity and Inclusion team where they encourage workplaces within the accounting and finance profession to cultivate environments where workforces are inclusive of people with different experiences and perspectives and where diversity of thought is valued and supported. She believes that a workplace that is reflective and inclusive of the global communities in which they operate is positioned to innovatively solve the challenging and complex issues facing clients and the evolving public interest. This is critical to the success and sustainability of our profession. The resources developed under her team are designed to support a culture where those with diverse lived experiences can grow and thrive. This includes underrepresented individuals such has those who identify as LGBTQ+, as well as gender fairness and equality for women. She also collaborates on initiatives aimed at supporting the profession’s emerging professionals. She serves as the Vice-Chair of the AICPA & CIMA’s National Commission on Diversity & Inclusion, whose mission is to be champions that guide and support the accounting and finance profession in creating sustainable workplaces through expanded pathways that attract and retain qualified high performing talent with a commitment to inclusive leadership. Her work requires collaboration with senior executives of partner organizations and accounting firms who also seek to increase and advance culture and inclusion in their workforces. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, Crystal was named as one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting. This listing identifies the thought leaders, change-makers, regulators and other leaders who are shaping the profession. Prior to the Association, Crystal spent 12 years at the Center for Audit Quality where she managed Governing Board operations, financial reporting and budgeting processes, and talent, which included leading efforts around Diversity and Inclusion. She was also employed at KPMG LLP for 7 years as an auditor in their assurance practice in Washington D.C. Crystal holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from the University of Cincinnati. She and her family reside in Bowie, MD

Accessibility

The Association is dedicated to removing barriers to the accountancy profession and ensuring that all accountancy professionals and other members of the public with an interest in the profession or joining the profession, including those with disabilities, have access to the profession and the Association's website, educational materials, products, and services.The Association is committed to making professional learning accessible to all product users. This commitment is maintained in accordance with applicable law. For additional information, please refer to the Association's Website Accessibility Policy. As part of this commitment, this product is closed-captioned. For additional accommodation requests please contact adaaccessibility@aicpa-cima.com and indicate the product that you are interested in (title, etc.) and the requested accommodation(s): Audio/Visual/Other. A member of our team will be in contact with you promptly to make sure we meet your needs appropriately.

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Stronger Together: Partnering for Inclusion and Belonging

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