May 2022 DEI Committee Blog

WGR’s DEI Committee met for its May meeting on Tuesday, May 10, featuring a discussion centered around the issue of Mental Health & Psychiatric Disability Awareness in the Workplace.

Our guest speaker for the topic was Laura Lefkow-Hynes, Associate, at The Prinz Law Firm. Ms. Hynes discussed a number of issues related to the topic, including what factors legally constitute someone being diagnosed as actually having a psychiatric disability. In addition, Ms. Hynes discussed the term reasonable accommodations, and what employees can ask for related to these, as well as what employers are legally obligated to do (or not do). The discussion also focused on what employees can do should they feel that they have been discriminated against because of their psychiatric disability, and a number of resources were mentioned, all of which can be found at the DEI Committee Resource Page.

The DEI Committee would like to thank Ms. Hynes for her participation, as well as a special thank you to DEI Committee Member Prianka Sharma for making the connection!

We welcome all WGR members to join us each month at our DEI Committee Meetings! The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 14 from 11:30 AM–1 PM (ET). For more information on WGR’s DEI Committee, please reach out to dei.wgr@gmail.com.

This month’s blog is authored by DEI Committee Chair Gamble Hayden.