Left to Right: U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao; Ty Alexander, Executive Vice President, Human Resources & Administrative Services at Highmark; Assistant Secretary of Labor W. Roy Grizzard, Jr. Photo source: U.S. Department of Labor
employment of people with disabilities, including the University of Pittsburgh Center for Assistive Technology, Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, Life’s Work, The Pittsburgh Disability Employment Project for Freedom and Goodwill Industries. As one of the leading health insurers in Pennsylvania, Highmark Inc.’s mission is to provide access to affordable, quality health care enabling individuals to live longer, healthier lives. Based in Pittsburgh, Highmark serves 4.6 million people through the company’s health care benefits business. Highmark contributes millions of dollars to help keep quality health care programs affordable and to support community-based programs that work to improve people’s health. The company provides the resources to give its members a greater hand in their health. Highmark Inc. is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans. For more information, visit www.highmark.com.
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MTV Networks Appoints Marva Smalls Executive Vice President of Global Inclusion Strategy NEW YORK – MTV Networks (MTVN), a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), announced that Marva Smalls has been named the Smalls company’s first executive vice president of global inclusion strategy. In this new position, Smalls will drive efforts to champion a diverse, multicultural and inclusive workforce and to develop the next generation of leaders across its worldwide brands. She will report to Judy McGrath, chairman and CEO, and will become a member of the company’s senior strategy team. Smalls also will retain her current responsibilities as executive vice president of public affairs and chief of staff for the Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group. “Diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion are core values for our company —they are at the heart of our business success, our programming strategy and
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our culture,” said McGrath. “There’s no person better suited than Marva to implement this vision across MTV Networks and help develop our next generation of leaders.” MTVN has also announced that it is restructuring its day-to-day approach to diversity leadership, with the introduction of a new internal advisory team. Members of the team will reflect the leading business units of MTV Networks, including domestic and international channel management, operations, programming, ad sales, corporate responsibility, creative and others. The advisory team will help set priorities, develop strategies and implement policies that advance MTVN’s core values throughout the company. As a result of the restructuring, the position of Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) has been eliminated. “Given our unique company culture with multiple stakeholders in our diversity efforts, we’ve come to realize that a team approach will best serve us in a global and now multi-platform environment,” noted McGrath. Among the initiatives Smalls has led has been the development of Nickelodeon’s strategies to combat the growing obesity epidemic among chil-