SEATTLE, WA — Chronus, the leading enterprise mentoring platform, today announces Cohort Sistas as the grant recipient for Chronus’ 2022 Mentoring for Racial Equity grant program. Cohort Sistas provides digital resources, mentorship and community for Black women and non-binary people pursuing research doctorates. The organization will be given a three-year pro bono contract for Chronus mentoring software and services to support their growing mentoring initiatives. Additionally, Cohort Sistas will receive a $7,500 cash gift to facilitate the setup and assistance in getting the program up and running.
Cohort Sistas believe that Black women and nonbinary people should be able to enter, complete and thrive in doctoral programs with the same support and opportunities as other students. These support systems include institutional, financial, socioemotional and mentorship opportunities. Working to address the lack of mentorship and supportive community Black and non-binary doctoral students often face in their institutions, Cohort Sistas created the Sista Circle Mentorship Program, working to pair mentees with Black female doctoral degree holders in their same academic discipline for advice, leadership and career guidance.
“As a non-profit that emphasizes mentorship to advance racial and gender equity in higher education, we are honored to be the 2022 Mentoring for Racial Equity grant recipient,” says Dr. Ijeoma Kola, Founder of Cohort Sistas. “We’re looking forward to mobilizing the robust features of Chronus’ mentoring platform to improve the scale, efficiency and impact of our Sista Circle Mentorship Program.” 
This year’s grant program received many applications from organizations aiming to advance educational and business opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and/or other communities of color (BIPOC).
“As a DEI-focused organization, we’re honored to combat systemic inequalities by enabling impactful mentoring for BIPOC and underrepresented groups. Understanding that racial equity in the workforce and academic space is far from solved, we’re continuing to focus on the mentoring successes we can enable for organizations like Cohort Sistas,” says Seena Mortazavi, CEO of Chronus. “By elevating different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, identities and beyond, the Mentoring for Racial Equity grant program is on a continuous mission to help strengthen the pipeline of diverse, empowered students and professionals.”
This year’s selection committee included a diverse group of Chronus employees from varying departments, Chronus customers, and external business leaders. All inspired by the mission behind the grant grogram, selection committee members included:
- Amelia Ransom, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Smartsheet
- Susan Long-Walsh, Founder, SLWA
- Louis Desforges, Assistant Vice President – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (Corporate & Luxury Division), L’Oréal
- Macaire Pace, Global Data & Analytics Leader, Mercer
“Centered around racial equity and justice, the Cohort Sistas current mentoring program is well thought out, executed and measured – with impact very much at the forefront,” says Susan Long-Walsh, Founder of SWLA and a race and equity coach. “Their decision to search for a formal mentorship software to administer the program was strongly informed by listening, data, and the need to continue to improve upon what they have found to be a much needed resource.”
For more information, please visit www.chronus.com.
About Chronus
Chronus empowers the world’s top employers to shape a future-ready workforce, delivering mentoring software that unleashes the full potential of their people. Powering thousands of programs for millions of people, Chronus has been the market maker and innovator in mentoring software since the company was founded in 2007. The most innovative organizations in the world, such as Amazon, Edward Lifesciences, Electronic Arts, McGraw Hill and Uber rely on Chronus every day to power their inclusive and future-ready mentoring programs.
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