An authentic Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategist for your organization
Sandy is a well-recognized leader in the hiring, promotion and retention of Black people, people of color and women in the workplace. For Sandy, true equity and inclusion of marginalized and underrepresented people require more than just a performative “numbers game” and “checking the box” during hiring, with no further thought or consideration.
Sandy’s brand is authenticity. Her reputation among peers speaks for itself regarding her ability to create real, sustainable culture change throughout all layers of an organization.
Sandy is strategic and intentional about equitable work distribution and providing meaningful professional opportunities and promotional opportunities to marginalized people. She has proven abilities in building a true sense of belonging and community for marginalized people within organizations. She also knows how to build new organizations from the ground up, achieving buy-in and enthusiastic participation in the process.
Sandy is available to work with you, your team and your customers on issues such as Microaggressions, Cultural Competency, Cultural Appropriation, Cross-Cultural and Cross-Gender Mentoring.
She uses the following sample formats, customized for your specific organization:
- Teaching monthly, in-depth workshops and webinars (currently offered only virtually, due to COVID);
- Leading book club discussions and movie reviews;
- Facilitating Lunch & Learn and Outside Speaker Series discussions on antiracism and anti-bias;
- Assisting your Communications and Media teams with sensitive internal messaging on issues referring to and affecting marginalized groups.
Feel free to read Sandy’s co-authored article published in 2010 in the Connecticut Law Tribune, “Looking Back While Moving Forward,” addressing issues of particular concern to women and mothers in the legal profession.
Call Sandy to get this important DEI conversation started or to obtain a sample list of her prior presentations and topics!
Creating Connections
In her role as Chairperson of the Dartmouth Advocates For Reconciliation and Trust (DART) committee, Sandy personally invited noted author Ijeoma Oluo, to give a virtual keynote and participate in a Q&A interviewing session the evening of May 5, 2021. Sandy moderated in real time a lively discussion for Dartmouth College. Event attendees included current and admitted undergraduate and graduate students at all 5 schools at Dartmouth, their parents, alumni, faculty, administrators and guests.
Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work on race has been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 TIME 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Create a genuine, sustainable antiracism and anti-bias program for your employees and customers
Sandy is well-recognized by her peers as a frontrunner in the areas of inclusion and equity. She has a strong track record of pulling additional chairs up to the table to ensure that the voices of Black, brown and LGBTQ people, women, and other marginalized group members are represented and respected.
Sandy is skilled at identifying growth areas in antiracism and anti-bias work within organizations, gaining buy-in and inspiring broad participation. Her work has created much more welcoming workspaces and a greater sense of belonging.
Sandy graduated at the age of 20 from Dartmouth College (B.A., English) and attended Boston University School of Law (Juris Doctor), after working for a year as a litigation paralegal at a premier Wall Street law firm to fund her own legal education.
As one of very few Black women in predominantly white spaces throughout her career, Sandy’s personal experiences naturally led her to focus not only on her own professional advancement and success, but also on training, mentoring and career development of Black attorneys, attorneys of color and women attorneys to create professional opportunities for others similarly situated.
At every phase in her life Sandy has been intentional about creating business opportunities for Black attorneys and attorneys of color, greater inclusivity in the legal profession and access to legal process for underrepresented, marginalized people. In 2006, she was recognized by the Hartford Business Journal in their “Top 40 under 40 ” for her outstanding leadership qualities and commitment to personal and professional development. She was also recognized twice by the Connecticut Tribune, as a high-achieving woman attorney in its 2008 Special Edition of “Women and the Law,” and again in 2009 as one of its “Minorities & the Law ‘High Achievers.'”
Before attending law school, Sandy worked for a year on Wall Street as a busy litigation paralegal. Despite a 60+ hour work week, Sandy also volunteered with Legal Aid in Harlem as a matrimonial advocate for Spanish-speaking women clients seeking divorces in domestic violence situations. One of her greatest achievements there was giving her client the good news that she had located and served legal notice on an evasive, violent husband, enabling the client to finally obtain a divorce decree, freedom and personal safety.
As the Hiring Partner of the Hartford office at her former law firm Sandy was skilled at identifying talent, attracting new lawyers to the firm and ensuring equal professional opportunities and exposure to Black attorneys, attorneys of color and women. For this reason, Sandy was also the go-to products liability lawyer for a major American automotive manufacturer and a major American drug manufacturer invested in diversifying the legal profession as a whole.
Call Sandy if you want to discuss her unique brand of changing workplace culture to make environments more inclusive and welcoming. Her results and her reputation in this area speak for themselves, as those who know her work have attested.
She is tactful, strategic and persuasive in helping to change culture from the top down that is inclusive and equitable
She established our Executive Committee’s mentoring program and other initiatives that resulted in greater diversity, retention and promotion of attorneys of color. She was also a leader of our Women Working Together program. In short, she is tactful, strategic and persuasive in helping to change culture from the top down that is inclusive and equitable. Moreover, she is an amazing human being who truly cares for people. I highly recommend her!
— Stan Twardy, Partner, Day Pitney LLP