Have you ever felt like being a first gen graduate plays a role in how you build your network and shapes your workplace experience? As a first-generation graduate, you bring unique strengths and perspectives to building your network and shaping your workplace experience.
Join us to explore how these strengths can be leveraged for success in the professional world. Learn strategies to harness the distinctive qualities of first-generation graduates, and discover how employers can actively support and empower their first-gen team members.
Everyone is welcome—whether you are a first-gen grad or an advocate looking to deepen your understanding!
An Experienced Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Strategist & Coach
Layla is the Founder & CEO of FirstOnes Collective, a firm dedicated to cultivating and nurturing the voices and dreams of First-Generation Professionals, so that they can reach their potential. She has more than 10 years of experience also leading global, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives and coaching C-Level executives as they navigate their DEIB journeys. Layla is well known for coaching the whole person and for asking generative questions that help leaders get unstuck. She takes pride in helping clients define success on their own terms and then helping them stay accountable to achieving that success.
Layla is currently the Director of DEIB at Justworks and has held DEIB positions at Amazon Web Services, Netflix, Danaher Corporation, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) after spending several years in Global Wealth & Investment Management at Merrill Lynch. She has amassed an array of work experience in a multitude of cultural contexts throughout Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America, and has sharpened her functional expertise including strategy, operations, business development and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging along the way.
Layla holds an Associate Certified Coach Certification (ACC) from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) certification from the Co-Active Training Institute. She is an Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrator, a 360 Inclusive Leadership Compass Coach and is Dare to Lead trained. Layla is fluent in Spanish and holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Smith College and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.
Layla proudly identifies as an Afro-Latina with Dominican roots. She was born and raised in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City and spent her formative years in Boston, MA. She is both a first-generation college graduate and first-generation business school graduate, and is the first in her family to start her career in Corporate America. Layla is fluent in Spanish and holds a B.A. degree in economics from Smith College and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.
Layla is based out of Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with her husband Michael.