PBN Leaders & Achievers 2024 Awards
Shameem Awan | Amica Mutual Insurance Co. | Senior assistant vice president
ON A DAILY BASIS, Shameem Awan and her colleagues at Amica Mutual Insurance Co. follow the tagline of empathy being the best policy.
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The employees at the Lincoln-based insurer show the same amount of care for one another in the workplace as they do toward their customers.
“It might sound cliche, but it’s the people in our organization that make a difference,” said Awan, Amica’s senior assistant vice president who has been with the company for 28 years. “Some of us have worked together for [more than] 20 years in different locations. We have a strong sense of inclusion and belonging.”
With years of experience working in claims, Awan has since transferred her skills to human resources. There, she focuses on talent acquisition, talent management, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Having that support for our DEI initiatives, given the current climate, from not only the senior leadership but also our board of directors, I’m able to do so many great things to catapult that sense of inclusivity and belonging,” she said.
Awan counts Impact, the formal mentorship program started in 2022, among her major accomplishments. Another program, called Excel and Elevate, focuses on those who are part of marginalized groups.
A third program is Courageous Conversations – discussion panels that Awan moderates – in which speakers from within and outside the company share life experiences so others undergoing similar challenges understand that they’re not alone in what they’re facing.
Awan’s dedication to her role has led to many accolades, including being named the 2024 Emerging Leader and earning the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Award from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
Her winning streak extends to work in the community, too. One organization she is closely associated with is The Nonviolence Institute, based in Providence, which works on prevention and intervention of violence across the state. She has been the charity event’s chairperson since 2016 and helps raise more than $100,000 annually to support all its programs.
“I want to make a difference in people’s lives, whether it’s at work or in the community,” Awan said. “If we can save one person, it makes a huge difference.”
Contributing writer
