In the corporate world, queer and trans professionals are often told to bring their “whole selves” to work—yet the runway isn’t always built for us. Over the past few years, we’ve watched companies navigate a massive transformation, followed by an aggressive backlash against corporate DEI programs. From “DEI hushing” to shifting corporate commitments, DEI practitioners and workplace leaders find themselves standing in a complex, liminal space.
In Episode 6 of The Runway, co-hosts Stephanie Battaglino and Erica Vogel sit down with author, keynote speaker, and leadership evolution authority Jennifer Brown. Together, they explore how to lead through disruption, navigate the loss of familiar structures, and discover the power of rediscovery.
Key Takeaways from the Conversation
- Evolving Beyond the “Shape” of the ExpertAfter running a successful DEI firm for over two decades, Jennifer shares her personal journey through the stages of grief and acceptance as the external landscape shifted. Being attached to a specific “shape”—whether a job title or a consulting model—can block growth. Change is constant, and our value lies in making meaning, building community, and staying grounded in our purpose.
- Moving Past the Era of CertaintyThe days of top-down leadership, rigid certainty, and scripts are over. Leaders who succeed in this moment are those willing to say, “I don’t have all the answers, but here are our core values, and here is how we will navigate this together.”
- Humanity and Trust over Short-Term ThinkingWhen organizations default to pure risk mitigation and short-term shareholder pressures at the expense of human safety and belonging, trust breaks down. Groundbreaking ideas and strategic innovation stem from an environment of psychological safety and authentic connection.
- Finding Beauty in the “Winter”In her latest 2026 release,
The Shape of Change on Leadership, Resilience, and the Urgent Art of Becoming More Human Together,
Jennifer reflects on how life and business move in cycles. A winter season isn’t the end; it’s a quiet period of deep preparation, reflection, and reinvention for what lies ahead.
Featured Quote
“We can’t wait for the storm to pass. We are learning to dance in the rain.” — Jennifer Brown
🎧 Listen to Episode 6 now on Spotify!
📺 Watch the Video Episode: Catch the full edition on our digital home at Leading From the Heart on
Substack.
🤝 Connect with Jennifer: Find and network with Jennifer Brown directly on
LinkedIn.
We’d love to hear your thoughts!
How is your organization navigating corporate inclusion and allyship in the current landscape?
Have a question or a topic idea for the show? We want this to be a two-way conversation with our audience! Send your text or audio questions to us at
therunwaypc@gmail.com
to be featured onlanders a future episode, drop a comment below, or slide into our LinkedIn DMs.
👉 Support The Show Here!
If our show helps you see the workplace a little differently, consider fueling our independent production by
buying us a cup of coffee.
We’re paving the way together, and we’ll see you next time on The Runway.
— Stephanie & Erica
Welcome back to The Runway Podcast—the space where we stop asking for permission and start building the future of work ourselves.
In Episode 5, hosts
Stephanie Battaglino
and
Erica Vogel
welcome
Shawn Skelly
for an inspiring and candid conversation on service, advocacy, and leading at the highest levels.
🌟 About Our Guest
Shawn Skelly is the former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and served in both the Biden and Obama administration leadership teams. Senate-confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness under President Biden, she became the highest-ranking out transgender official in executive branch history.
A retired U.S. Navy Naval Flight Officer with 20 years of active duty service, Shawn co-founded Out in National Security, was honored in the 2017 Out 100, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
🎙️ What We Cover in This Episode
- Rebuilding & Strengthening Coalitions:
Shawn discusses her journey joining the HRC Board of Directors, addressing historical community tensions, and how HRC works across broader civil rights networks to protect LGBTQ+ rights. - Board Leadership & Governance:
The necessity of having trans leaders, parents, and diverse cross-sector representatives in boardrooms steering organizational budgets and strategy. - Navigating Corporate Backlash & “DEI Hushing”:
Analyzing how Fortune 500 companies are responding to modern political pressure on DEI while maintaining core inclusion and talent-retention practices internally. - Recruitment, Retention, and Family Care:
Why effective human capital management requires treating employees—and their families—with dignity and comprehensive care.
💬 Featured Quote
“If you’re not in the room… if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu, right? Presence matters in those organizations… The number of people that come from across the country from all these different professional disciplines and that represent the different pieces of our community—it’s about having those voices where decisions are made.” — Shawn Skelly
🎧 Listen to Episode 5 now on Spotify!
📺 Watch the Video Episode:
Catch the full edition on our digital home at Leading From the Heart on Substack.
🤝 Connect with Shawn:
Find and network with Shawn Skelly directly on LinkedIn.
We’d love to hear your thoughts!
How is your organization navigating corporate Router inclusion and allyship in the current landscape?
Have a question or a topic idea for the show? We want this to be a two-way conversation with our audience! Send your text or audio questions to us at
therunwaypc@gmail.com
to be featured on a future episode, drop a comment below, or slide into our LinkedIn DMs.
👉 Support The Show Here!
If our show helps you see the workplace a little differently, consider fueling our independent production by
buying us a cup of coffee.
We’re paving the way together, and we’ll see you next time on The Runway.
— Stephanie & Erica
Author’s Note: A couple of weeks ago, I drafted this piece as an op-ed submission for the Seattle Times. After a week of silence from traditional media, I realized: why wait for the mainstream press to decide if our lives and rights are “fit to print”? The conversation about our dignity cannot wait on centrist hesitation, so I am delivering it directly to you.
In times of economic anxiety, center-left political strategists frequently retreat into defensive, hyper-pragmatic postures. Faced with mounting pressure from populist opposition, the temptation to make tactical concessions—sacrificing the civil liberties of a vulnerable minority under the guise of “electoral realism”—becomes acute.
We are seeing this play out across our political landscape. As critical election cycles approach, progressive coalitions are grappling with a highly coordinated, existential assault on transgender individuals. To understand the profound danger of this transactional approach, we must synthesize the macro-institutional warnings issued by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the clear accountability demanded by Representative Pramila Jayapal, and the ground-level tracking of investigative journalist Erin Reed.
In his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney articulated a stern critique of traditional “transactional politics.” He warned that democratic institutions and alliances degrade rapidly when they treat core principles—such as human rights, pluralism, and human dignity—as flexible capital to be bartered away for short-term stability. Carney’s warning against “wishing the world to be what it isn’t” serves as a profound cautionary tale. When progressive coalitions view the defense of a marginalized community as a negotiable luxury rather than a foundational axiom, they compromise their moral authority and structurally weaken the democratic fabric they claim to defend.
This macro-warning aligns precisely with the alarms being raised from within the halls of Congress. Representative Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Transgender Equality Task Force—who recently reintroduced the landmark Transgender Bill of Rights—has forcefully called out this emerging hesitation. She has warned her fellow Democrats that transgender rights must never be treated as political leverage or a transactional bargaining chip. Jayapal’s mandate is clear: civil rights are not commodities to be traded away to appease the opposition or soothe centrist nerves.
The necessity for this absolute clarity becomes undeniable when contrasted with the chilling reality documented by Erin Reed. Through exhaustive tracking of anti-trans legislation, Reed has illustrated that the conservative apparatus is actively utilizing state power to systematically eliminate transgender public life via healthcare bans, the weaponization of medical data, and the legal erasure of trans identities.
We saw this playbook manifest at the highest level just weeks ago, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on trans youth athletes—a decision narrow in legal scope but massive in its potential to be weaponized for further anti-LGBTQ+ efforts. As election deadlines draw closer, right-wing strategists, facing vulnerabilities on economic fronts, inevitably escalate this kind of hateful rhetoric to trigger moral panic. Reed’s reporting uncovers a disturbing trend within this environment: the occasional quiet silence or defection of center-left politicians who cross the aisle to vote for restrictive measures. They operate under the delusion that minor capitulations will satisfy a predatory opposition, failing to realize that weakness only invites further legislative aggression.
Centrist political consultants often justify this silence by pointing to public opinion polling indicating that the broader electorate ranks economic anxiety far higher than issues of gender identity. From this, strategists extrapolate an insidious conclusion: that progressive parties should downplay transgender rights to avoid alienating voters.
This argument is both a moral failure and a profound strategic illusion.
For the transgender community, civil rights are economic rights. The ability to secure employment, access healthcare, retain housing, and navigate public spaces without fear of state-sanctioned discrimination directly dictates material survival. Furthermore, a party that signals it will compromise the basic dignity of its constituents destroys the trust of its most vital asset: the young voters, activists, and organizers who provide the passion and energy required to win tight campaigns.
The LGBTQ+ community and its allies must draw an unyielding line in the sand. Transgender rights must be an explicit, demonstrable, and vigorously defended plank of the progressive platform.
If a party can be bullied into treating its own people as a transactional liability, it lacks the moral fortitude to defend democracy itself.
Enjoyed this piece? Please share it with your network or leave a comment on substack to join the conversation!
Welcome back to The Runway—the space where we stop asking for permission and start building the future of work ourselves.
Episode 2 is officially LIVE, and we are sitting down with our brilliant friend Chris Mossiah (they/them), Program Director in AI Governance at JPMorgan Chase. Chris brings a powerhouse combination of operational fluency and advocacy to financial services, ensuring transformative tech like AI expands opportunity rather than replicating old inequities.
Beyond AI, we dove deep into navigating a “queer career”. Here are our top three takeaways from the conversation:
1. Challenge Accepted: Becoming the Representation You Need
When climbing the ladder, Chris realized they didn’t have executive mentors who shared their identity. Instead of being discouraged, Chris took it as a personal mission: “I guess that means I have to be it for others to see.” Driven by that determination, Chris reached Executive Director within a year.
2. The Art of Corporate T-Ball
True leadership isn’t just keeping the door cracked; it’s about throwing ladders down. Chris shared a powerful moment when they were tapped to present a major product to the Global CIO. Instead of taking the solo spotlight, Chris brought their lead software engineer—a trans woman—into the room.
Minutes before the meeting, Chris told her: “I’m going to introduce the product… and then I’m going to step to the side and you showcase it, because the work is yours.” Chris calls this setting the ball up on the tee and stepping aside so a rising star can swing. The engineer wowed the C-suite and has since been promoted to Executive Director.
3. Protect the Hat That Got You the Other Hats
For anyone heavily involved in ERGs, diversity councils, or external boards, Chris offers a vital reality check: Don’t neglect your day job.
“Your day job is the hat that got you the other hats… If I lose that hat, I don’t get these hats anymore.”
Keeping your primary role excellent ensures you have the leverage and platform to fuel your passion projects.
Where to Tune In
Hear the full, unfiltered conversation right now:
- 📺 Watch the Video Episode: Catch the full edition on our new digital home at Leading From the Heart on Substack.
- 🎧 Listen on the Go: Stream the audio on Spotify.
- 🤝 Connect with Chris: Find and network with Chris Mossiah directly on LinkedIn or Instagram.
If our show helps you see the workplace a little differently, consider fueling our independent production by buying us a cup of coffee.
Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share!
Have a question or a topic idea for the show? We want this to be a two-way conversation with our audience! Send your text or audio questions to us at therunwaypc@gmail.com to be featured on a future episode, drop a comment below, or slide into our LinkedIn DMs.
We’re paving the way together, and we’ll see you next time on The Runway.
— Stephanie & Erica
Welcome to the official premier edition of The Runway Podcast Newsletter!
In the corporate world, queer and trans people are frequently told to “bring our whole selves to work”—but the reality is that the corporate runway wasn’t originally built for us. This podcast is the space where we stop asking for permission, drop the masks we’ve been told to wear, and start building the future of work ourselves.
To kick off our very first episode, we are pulling back the curtain on who we are, how we got here, and why this conversation is more critical right now than ever before.
From a corporate vice president navigating a transition in 2005 to an ERG leader pushing global advocacy today, we are bridging the intergenerational reality of the queer workplace. We’re sharing our personal paths, our laughs, and how a chance meeting at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in Seattle sparked a partnership to pay it forward.
💡 Episode 1 Highlights:
- The Digital Rubicon & The 4 Pillars of Culture: Stephanie breaks down why AI is the ultimate cultural disruptor. Discover how enterprises must navigate Cultural Acuity, Agility, Elasticity, and Velocity to survive organizational stretches without snapping—and why grounded leadership vulnerability beats executive hubris every single time.
- Saving Ourselves & Queer Civic Virtue: Erica pulls back the curtain on her upcoming second book. We look at the staggering statistic that only 0.21% of elected positions in the U.S. are held by LGBTQ+ individuals and explore what it truly means to turn “caring” into “action” in our local communities.
- A Sneak Peek at Season 1: We dish on the incredible line-up of trailblazers joining us this season, including trans icon Jamison Green, Diego Sanchez from PFLAG, and executive leaders from JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
🎧 Listen to the Premier Episode Now:
📚 Support the Authors (Shameless Self-Promotion!)
As authors, we know the power of sharing our unfiltered stories. Grab your copies of our books online, everywhere books are sold:
- Reflections from Both Sides of the Glass Ceiling by Stephanie Battaglino
- Advice from Your Trans Auntie by Erica Vogel