Lisa Fain
Helping global audiences discover how to create inclusive workplaces and bridge differences through mentoring.
Lisa Z. Fain is the Center for Mentoring Excellence™ CEO, a global speaker, and an expert in the intersection of cultural competency and mentoring. Her passion for diversity and inclusion work fuels her strong conviction that leveraging differences creates a better workplace and drives better business results.
Lisa brings her energy, enthusiasm, and engagement to any group, facilitating lively workshops and training, and delivering interactive speeches with practical steps that can be implemented right away. She is an Executive Coach who guides leaders to create better workplaces, and is known for her frank, kind, and holistic approach to helping leaders help themselves. As Senior Director of the Diversity and Inclusion function at Outerwall, Inc., Lisa spearheaded the development, establishment, and implementation of its diversity initiative.
Prior to assuming that position, she worked as Outerwall’s in-house counsel, coaching leaders and partnering with their human resources department to establish fair and effective policies and practices to sustain the organization as it grew in size, revenue, and renown. For almost a decade, Lisa practiced law in the Chicago office of a major multinational law firm, where she counseled employers on creating inclusive policies and practices. While in that role, she served as a Master Trainer who directed thousands of employees at companies large and small on creating better workplaces.
Lisa is a certified mediator, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Social Policy from Northwestern University, and holds a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. Lisa lives in Seattle, where she loves to hike and explore the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.
Lisa is the co-author of Bridging Difference for Better Mentoring (2020), and the 2022 revision (3rd Edition) of The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relations. Both are co-authored with Center for Mentoring Excellence's founder, Dr. Lois J. Zachary.
Lisa Z. Fain is the Center for Mentoring Excellence™ CEO, a global speaker, and an expert in the intersection of cultural competency and mentoring. Her passion for diversity and inclusion work fuels her strong conviction that leveraging differences creates a better workplace and drives better business results.
Lisa brings her energy, enthusiasm, and engagement to any group, facilitating lively workshops and training, and delivering interactive speeches with practical steps that can be implemented right away. She is an Executive Coach who guides leaders to create better workplaces, and is known for her frank, kind, and holistic approach to helping leaders help themselves. As Senior Director of the Diversity and Inclusion function at Outerwall, Inc., Lisa spearheaded the development, establishment, and implementation of its diversity initiative.
Prior to assuming that position, she worked as Outerwall’s in-house counsel, coaching leaders and partnering with their human resources department to establish fair and effective policies and practices to sustain the organization as it grew in size, revenue, and renown. For almost a decade, Lisa practiced law in the Chicago office of a major multinational law firm, where she counseled employers on creating inclusive policies and practices. While in that role, she served as a Master Trainer who directed thousands of employees at companies large and small on creating better workplaces.
Lisa is a certified mediator, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Social Policy from Northwestern University, and holds a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. Lisa lives in Seattle, where she loves to hike and explore the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.
Lisa is the co-author of Bridging Difference for Better Mentoring (2020), and the 2022 revision (3rd Edition) of The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relations. Both are co-authored with Center for Mentoring Excellence's founder, Dr. Lois J. Zachary.
Starting Strong: Making Mentoring Work For You
Starting Strong: Making Mentoring Work for You provides mentoring pairs with tools and strategies for success, and a roadmap for the first 90 days and beyond.
The Benefits:
Mentoring programs offer a huge return on your organization’s investment: higher rates of retention, productivity, recruitment, job satisfaction, career development and leadership competency.
The Challenge:
Mentoring partners often...
Creating a Mentoring Culture Keynote
Is your organization beginning its mentoring journey? Are you looking to create a culture that supports, sustains and encourages formal and informal mentoring initiatives? In this 45-minute keynote, your audience will learn what is means to create a culture of mentoring, why it is important, and
what practical steps leaders can do to align mentoring with other strategic initiatives. Attendees will discover what it takes to authentically support and champion...
Creating a Mentoring Culture Workshop
Creating a Mentoring Culture Workshop is a 2.5-3 hour workshop that can be held virtually or in person and is geared for senior leaders on how to create a mentoring culture at an organization.
Course objectives include:
- Help organizations and leaders understand key elements of mentoring.
- Create understanding on how to foster and build a mentoring culture.
- Provide a framework for understanding effective mentoring.
- Deepen...
Bridging Differences For Better Mentoring Keynote
Most organizations today understand the benefits of having more diverse and inclusive work environments. Yet, there is little movement, and often, very little individual accountability. In this interactive, entertaining and practical keynote, learn how mentoring can help drive inclusion, why talking about difference in your mentoring relationships is essential, and how to create transformative mentoring relationships that have an impact for mentors, mentees, their teams and their...
Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring Workshop
Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring Workshop will equip mentoring pairs with the skills and knowledge needed to structure their mentoring relationship, create accountability, and achieve measurable learning outcomes through mentoring. Course components include: mentoring basics, mentoring cycle, mentor/mentee breakout sessions, creating guidelines for the relationship, identity and culture, goal setting, and feedback.
Learning Objectives...
Mentoring Fundamentals Keynote
As your organization embarks on a mentoring initiative, it is important to ensure that all participants have a shared understanding of what mentoring is and
feel connected to it. Further, it is essential that all involved understand their roles, have a sense of ownership and create accountabilities for their learning and development.
Through this interactive introductory keynote, participants will:
- Feel a part of, and connected to, a mentoring...
Mentoring Fundamentals Workshop
In this workshop, both mentors and mentees will leave with a better understanding of the roles of each member as well as what to expect, how to set goals and guidelines in their relationship.
Organizations invest heavily in the training and development of their people. Mentoring is a proven way to promote employee growth and development, accelerate learning, fast-track leadership, improve retention, elevate morale, strengthen recruitment and promote...
Peer Mentoring Circles Workshop
When using a modality that employs horizontal mentoring, where peers engage one another as mentors and mentees, it is important to build capability in the role of mentor, mentee and peer.
At the end of this experiential workshop, participants will be able to:
- Understand the components of a successful peer mentoring circle.
- Have clarity on the role each member of a circle plays.
- Create a structure for the peer mentoring circle...
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