Reflecting on Progress, Looking Ahead in Disability Inclusion
Join NOD President and CEO Beth Sirull for an in-depth conversation with Apoorva Gandhi, Senior Vice President, Community Engagement and Business Councils at Marriott International.
Drawing on more than 30 years of experience in strategy, organizational change, diversity, community engagement, and global business, Apoorva will share insights on how organizations can create workplaces where disability inclusion is understood and advanced within the broader context of culture, identity, and lived experience.
The conversation will explore the intersection of disability with race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and other dimensions of identity, while examining how leaders can move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to inclusion and build workplaces where people with disabilities from all backgrounds can thrive.
Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, December 1
Time: 2-2:45 PM EST
Location: Zoom
Closed captioning will be available via Zoom.
To request any other accommodations, please email: Events@NOD.org
SESSION FOCUS WILL EXPLORE:
- Intersectionality and Disability Inclusion: Understanding how disability intersects with culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and other aspects of identity in shaping workplace experiences and how organizations can create environments that celebrate different cultural perspectives and experiences of disability.
- Global and Multicultural Leadership: Lessons from leading across diverse markets and communities, and how those lessons can inform disability inclusion in the workplace.
- From Representation to Belonging: Moving beyond representation to create psychologically-safe workplaces where employees with disabilities feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute.
Beth Sirull
CEO & President, NOD
Beth joined the National Organization on Disability (NOD) as President and CEO in May 2024. Prior to joining NOD, Beth served as the President and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation San Diego (JCFSD) from March 2017 through May 2024. During her tenure, JCFSD assets more than doubled, from $320 million to over $800 million, and the foundation granted over $750 million to nonprofit organizations globally, with 70% of that total going to secular causes.
Prior to joining JCFSD, Beth served as President/CEO of Pacific Community Ventures (PCV), a combined for-profit/nonprofit organization that leverages human and financial capital investments to create economic opportunity in historically underestimated communities. Beth led PCV through a period of significant growth, doubling revenues, increasing net assets by over 50%, and growing the team from six to twenty people.
Beth is the author of Creating Your Life Collage: Strategies for Solving the Work/Life Dilemma (Random House, 2000), as well as a contributor to Triple Pundit, The Huffington Post, and Philanthropy News. In addition, she edited and contributed to numerous Pacific Community Ventures publications. She is an accomplished public speaker, having addressed the Social Venture Network, SRI in the Rockies, Social Finance Canada, Principles for Responsible Investing Network, and the Democratic Caucus of the California State Assembly, among others. Beth has held two adjunct academic appointments, both in graduate business programs.
Beth received the 2015 James Irvine Foundation California Leadership Award, which recognizes Californians who are advancing innovative, proven, and replicable solutions to critical issues facing the state. She holds an undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, an MBA from Boston University, and a Master of Public Policy from Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley.
Beth’s home is Oakland, California, but she spends long periods of time in Manhattan enjoying theater, and in Lake Tahoe improving her skiing. Beth lives with her husband and has one grown son. She bakes challah every week.
Apoorva N. Gandhi
Senior Vice President, Community Engagement & Business Councils, Marriott International, Inc.
As Senior Vice President for Community Engagement & Business Councils for Marriott International, Apoorva Gandhi creates and executes an externally focused global strategy that builds reputation, preference and loyalty from diverse customer segments and communities for the Marriott portfolio of brands. Mr. Gandhi helps ensure the company’s communications, marketing, sales, and operations consider and reflect how Marriott welcomes all and creates opportunity for all as Marriott continues its rapid growth throughout the world. In addition, Mr. Gandhi leads Marriott’s more than 115 Worldwide Business Councils, which focus on delivering the company’s four pillars of Culture, Government Affairs, Market Driven Initiatives and Social Impact. Mr. Gandhi also oversees Marriott’s Social Impact program, ‘Serve360’, which helps Marriott International be a force for good, focused on volunteerism, empowering communities, welcoming all and advancing human rights.
Mr. Gandhi has 30+ years of proven strategy, business process, program management and organizational change expertise. He also has extensive management and delivery experience working with diverse business clients and a solid track record delivering measurable success across various business disciplines.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Gandhi was vice president for organizational capability where he led the company’s global reorganization program in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. He has held other positions with Marriott, beginning as a front desk associate when he first completed college as well as vice president for global lodging services, where he helped deliver critical brand initiatives.
Before joining Marriott, Mr. Gandhi was a senior consulting manager in Accenture’s Communications and High-Tech practice for more than a decade, managing merger and integration programs as well as process reengineering efforts for large telecom clients. He also previously led diversity programs at Accenture.
Mr. Gandhi is an honors graduate of the University of Maryland, School of Business and Management. He is a member of the J.W. Marriott, Jr., Diversity Award committee, Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity and Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership