Past president of Amazon’s Black Employee Network to open Inclusive Product Management Summit

Angelina Howard

Angelina Howard, a senior product manager on the Digital Video Games team at Amazon, will be the opening speaker at the Foster School’s Inclusive Product Management Summit.

The day-long summit takes place online Friday, May 7, hosted by The Product Management Center at Foster.

Howard has been recognized among the Forbes 30 under 30 as a remarkably dedicated and effective advocate for Black, Latinx and Native American employees, customers and communities. She will open the summit by sharing “Why Inclusion is Critical in Product Management.”

“The Inclusive Product Management Summit is an opportunity for product leaders, UW students and alumni to learn, connect and develop,” says Jeff Shulman, the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor of Marketing and director of The Product Management Center. “Angelina Howard has an impressive track record of working with Amazon leadership to support Black employees and communities. She has a demonstrated passion and acumen for building inclusive products and increasing representation in tech. We are very fortunate that she is contributing her voice to help the PM community learn how to manage more inclusive teams and build more inclusive products.”

It is a PM’s responsibility to advocate for inclusion at the beginning of a product’s development.” -Angelina Howard

As a senior PM at Amazon, Howard maps the customer shopping journey for digital video games across eight marketplaces. She has presented as a speaker at Colorado State University, AWS re:Invent, Women Impact Tech and Girls Who Code. As the former president of Amazon’s Black Employee Network (BEN), she has worked with senior leaders on COVID-19 relief efforts, the Black Executive Professional Development Program, and community engagement including the BEN Scholarship. Howard helped found BEN Startup Week, a virtual conference that empowers and celebrates Black entrepreneurship.

“I have always been passionate about inclusion and diversity,” says Howard. “As an affinity group leader, I have been able to learn about different cultures, disabilities and the challenges that different groups face when interacting with different user interfaces and products.

“As I continued to grow as a product manager I started to understand how I could blend my passion for I&D and product management together. I believe it is a PM’s responsibility to advocate for inclusion at the beginning of a product’s development. I was thrilled to learn that UW has a Product Management Center and that they were planning a summit centered around product inclusion. The earlier that we share the importance of product inclusion and resources to build inclusive products, the better the products will be as they go to market. I am honored to be a part of this inaugural event!”

The Inclusive Product Management Summit is open to all current and aspiring product managers. To register, visit http://foster.uw.edu/inclusivePM.

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