Jennifer D.

Jennifer’s compassion—and passion–for those with disabilities and impairments goes back to her childhood: Her brother was born with uncontrollable epilepsy, and Jennifer was ostracized for it by classmates. Their parents thought he was possessed by the devil. They were afraid their children would become possessed and develop epilepsy by interacting with Jennifer.

Jennifer joined WCG in 2019, bringing first-hand drug safety experience to the Safety Portal team. Despite having more than five disabilities, she excels at understanding the business’ needs of the system and ‘translating it’ for developers and testers.

She wants others with disabilities to be successful personally and professionally by moving past the labels and stigma—just as she herself has. When Jennifer became co-chair in July 2019, the disability-related ERG was renamed “EnABLE (Empowering Abilities Beyond Labels for Everyone)”.

“Our abilities outweigh our disabilities,” she says. “We’re planning a newsletter series featuring employees who will discuss their disability, not just their challenges, but also things that they’ve excelled at, their accomplishments.”

Leading the ERG has been transformative. “I had to get over that fear of talking to people of all levels in the company– not just my peers and my team members, but all the way up to the CEO.”

Last year, Jennifer participated in her first panel discussion, ‘Stop the Stigma’. “I have to say that while the experience significantly advanced my presentation skills, I was honored when several employees thanked me for sharing my personal experiences. Some even dropped their ‘protective shield’ and shared their own struggles with me.”