May 19, 2021
This week, Tom Vander Ark is sitting down with Justina Nixon-Saintil, the Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at IBM. Justina drives strategic, socially responsible programmatic investments that enable IBM’s technology and talent to address some of society’s biggest challenges worldwide. She also leads initiatives like P-TECH and SkillsBuilds and uses multi-sector partnerships to help create more inclusive and innovative schools and workforces. Justina was also Verizon’s liaison to President Obama’s White House Office of Science and Technology, U.S. Department of the Interior, and U.S. Department of Education. Earlier in her career, she was an engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Join in for today’s conversation to learn about how Justina’s unique career trajectory from engineering to social responsibility, the future of IBM, digital credentialing, P-TECH, SkillsBuild, skills-based hiring, how IBM is doing its part in addressing inequities in America, the state of corporate social responsibility, and much more.
Key Takeaways:
[:01] About Screencastify, the leading K-12 screen recording solution.
[:39] About today’s episode with Justina Nixon-Saintil.
[1:33] Tom welcomes Justina to the podcast!
[1:57] Justina speaks about her upbringing and early education.
[4:10] Justina’s experience as the only African-American to graduate in her engineering class.
[5:06] Tom and Justina speak about how we have to do a better job of introducing young people to the STEM field.
[6:30] Is Justina encouraged by the response of leading companies like IBM to really live into their corporate social responsibility?
[9:15] IBM’s stance on AI.
[10:33] Justina’s thoughts on inequities in America (especially for women and People of Color) and how it fits into her role at IBM.
[13:35] How IBM has been a leader in moving towards skills-based hiring as a strategy to attack inequity.
[16:29] About IBM’s leadership in digital credentials.
[17:40] About P-TECH.
[20:29] Tom and Justina give a shout-out to Dallas ISD for having a P-TECH as the campus.
[21:17] What is Open P-TECH?
[22:20] Applications of AI that Justina is most excited about.
[24:25] How does Justina continue to learn?
[25:52] Tom thanks Justina for joining the podcast!
[26:02] Thanks to Getting Smart’s sponsor, Screencastify.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Screencastify.com/GettingSmart
Justina Nixon-Saintil’s LinkedIn
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