Gina Camiola
Eaton Corp.
Gina Camiola believes that learning is most likely to occur when a person is exposed and open to different perspectives. She treats others as though they are valuable and capable of teaching her something she did not know previously. Camiola carries this philosophy into her work, having served with organizations such as Eaton Corp., Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and U.S. Cellular.
One of the keys to her success is to identify with the message of inclusion. At U.S. Cellular, an organization that did not have a defined diversity strategy at the time, this drive led her to create and execute the company’s first Inclusion Council Summit. The summit drew 150 attendees, including senior leaders of the organization, with the goals of conveying a vision of inclusion and providing skills to be effective inclusion practitioners.
The organization saw such value in the summit that it was held for five years in a row at a time when budget cuts were made regularly. Responses on an annual employee survey showed significant increases related to the organization’s diversity practices, exceeding predetermined targets.
Another cornerstone of Camiola’s approach is to bring people together toward a common goal. At U.S. Cellular, she assembled representatives from different departments to use resources to support the company in a multifaceted way.
At NEORSD, she instituted a new approach to the diversity and inclusion conversation that brought together a team of carefully selected leaders, which served as a model of inclusion for the rest of the organization.
