Overview
Imprimatur. Webster’s defines it as a mark of distinction, and retired Global Workforce Diversity program manager Millie DesBiens most definitely has left hers on IBM’s corporate diversity and accommodative programs.
Over her 31 years with the company, DesBiens helped create Entry Point, an internship program for people with disabilities (PwD), and later helped develop guidelines for a cost-recovery program for assistive and accommodative technology used by IBM employees with disabilities. “It wasn’t just a job,” she says of her extensive career in diversity. “It was a passion. You feel that you’re making a difference.”
DesBiens joined IBM as a corporate secretary in 1977, when Selectric typewriters were the word processors of choice. Just as the office environment quickly evolved to accommodate PCs, workforce diversity changed equally dramatically over the years, she recalls. Then it was called Equal Opportunity. Now it’s called Global Diversity, where DesBiens hung her hat in 1995. She helped create Entry Point that same year.
Giving diversity a lift
The thrust of the initiative was to bring qualified students with disabilities into summer and intern assignments, with the idea of hiring them when they completed the program. Working with an IBM engineer, DesBiens later developed a technology camp associated with Entry Point to involve disabled students in hands-on science, engineering and math projects.
Through IBM, she also became involved with Lift Inc., a nonprofit corporation that trains, hires and places information technology professionals who have physical disabilities. Donna Walters Kozberg, president of Lift, Inc, recently presented DesBiens with the group's Outstanding Commitment Award.
It’s just one more “tip of the hat” to a dedicated professional who early on understood the importance of diversity and accessibility.
