Description: "Every day we hear about the importance of diversity and inclusivity. As you continue in your career, you will begin to see the importance and value of a diverse and inclusive environment. As a leader, you can help build an inclusive environment for your team and your organization. Dr. Stephanie Johnson, University of Colorado professor and author of the book “Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams” will help you learn how to become an inclusive leader. At the conclusion of this session, you’ll be able to: · Understand the business case for diversity and inclusivity. · Understand what being inclusive means. · Gain five strategies you can use in your daily activities to be more inclusive."

Description: Have you ever wondered why some people are the focus of everyone's attention the moment they walk into a room? Executive Presence is the set of qualities that enables an individual to command respect, inspire confidence, and influence others. In fact, Executive Presence sets successful leaders apart from others. It includes a range of skills and behaviors including effective communication, leadership, vision, and managing your emotions.

Description: This article looks at critical points in my life, offers a very brief bio, and then explains how I used the experiences to learn decade by decade. It is motivated by wanting to tell the story of how able I am to contribute to the SOA and other activities at the age of 85. It is motivated by offering this story as a way to motivate others.

Description: Describes the benefits of developing a personal leadership brand, including tactics and learning from others to bring our the best of your leadership abilities.

Description: A look back at 2024, reviewing and highlighting the things that the SOA Health Section Council accomplished, including education, research, webcasts, networking, and a new Health Section Council action plan that will be used on an ongoing basis to target, track, and measure areas of focus for the council, to better serve membership.

Description: We discuss an event that was hosted on the Georgia State University campus with the support of the Society of Actuaries. The purpose of the event was to introduce nearly 300 high school students, teachers and career counselors to the actuarial profession through presentations, an industry panel, and fun activities.

Description: The chief actuary of New York City, Sherry Chan, answers questions about her actuarial career.

Description: A real life situation is posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision, and readers are invited to submit their responses to "What Would You Do?" This issue’s case study involved a communication and mentoring issue.

Description: As actuaries, we’re trained to see patterns in numbers and to design solutions that mitigate risk. But I can tell you from experience that while quantitative analysis and modeling are critical actuarial tools, looking at the numbers alone can lead to insurance products that don’t succeed in the real world the way the math says they “should.” With new digital technologies, we have more data at our fingertips than ever before, but I believe it’s equally as important to bring qualitative research methodologies into your product development process if you want to design solutions that meet real needs in the market. In this article, Amanda Turcotte shares what happens when qualitative research is neglected or ignored, what happens when you incorporate it into the product design process, and how to implement qualitative research practices in your organization.