Why We Should Go Beyond EEO | Laura Bogardus | TEDxGreenville

People with disabilties offer some of the best workers in the labor pool today. Through effective equal employment opportunities, some of our best workers can be recruited, retained, and promoted. Laura Bogardus focuses her career on understanding and developing ways to remove barriers that interfere with individuals’ employment success. She developed her unique perspective on these issues by being heavily involved in both human resources and workforce development. Laura leverages her 20 years of experience to provide specialized consulting among businesses that seek to create or augment their disability employment initiatives.

Laura currently serves as Chapter Operations Director of the Greenville Society for Human Resource Management (GSHRM) and as HR Disability Employment Strategist for Greenville CAN, a role that is funded by the SC Developmental Disabilities Council. Laura earned her PhD from Clemson University, where she received the 2016 Kimbrough & Melton Parents Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Family and Community Studies and the 2017 Graduate Student Government’s Excellence in Engagement and Social Advocacy Award. She earned her MA in Human Behavior and Conflict Management from Columbia College and her BA in Political Science from Miami University.

She is a 2009 Marano Fellow of the Aspen Institute's Sector Skills Academy for innovative workforce strategies. Laura is a member of the Association of People Supporting EmploymentFirst (APSE), The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), The American Sociological Association (ASA), and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She is a SHRM certified senior HR professional. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx