PBN 2021 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Lisa Bergeron | Chief visionary officer, AWE LLC
Lisa Bergeron, chief visionary officer at AWE LLC, often begins virtual team meetings with a half-hour group huddle for colleagues to talk and reconnect with one another.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
This personalized and connection-driven approach to meetings at AWE, which stands for Advancing Workplace Excellence, seems to reflect the company’s human-centric ethos at large.
“We focus on creating belonging, and that lens is so huge,” Bergeron said. “So much of our work is through that lens – the human lens – of inclusion because it encompasses so much.”
AWE is a consulting agency in Providence that provides workshops and events centering on promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as providing professional development coaching and leadership series for individuals, communities and businesses.
Bergeron founded the organization 17 years ago, with the goal of “creating experiences to help people, teams and leaders expand the most important skills to navigate the new future of work,” she said.
For example, in April 2020, AWE launched the REACH series, guiding small-business owners and leaders through a multistep program focusing on building new skill sets and adapting to changes in their various industries. In April and June of 2021, AWE led a series called Women Who Influence, which addressed many of the challenges women are facing due to COVID-19.
The pandemic has impacted AWE’s approach to its services, particularly since COVID-19 has affected the state of work and the skills companies and employees need, including navigating working from home and fostering workplace equity.
“We especially found that after this past year, there’s even a deeper call to recalibrate, upskill people, reinforce resilience and empower people during this really challenging time,” Bergeron said. “Our programs that we design help people and individuals adapt to the changing workplace and doing that with emotional agility, authentic influence and inclusive engagement.”
