Women's History Month Spotlight: Imari Olliver

It's National Women's History Month and we're celebrating strong female leaders by recognizing some of our very own here at KinderCare.

Today we’d like to showcase one our newest face at KinderCare: Imari Olliver. Imari has joined the Talent Investment & Culture Team in a new role to the company, as a Change Manager. She recently spoke on one of our panels for Black History month, and she shared what Black History Month means to her, and how her culture, history and lived experience led to becoming a self-published author of her first children's book, Beautiful girl, I love your hair!

We caught up with Imari after the event to learn more about her and her new role. Here’s what she had to share:

Tell us about your background and experience prior to joining KinderCare:

“For the past 12 years, I worked in the financial industry in banks, supporting mergers and acquisitions with project and change management. Whereas project management focuses on numbers and deadlines, change management focuses on people, processes, and technology. As a change manager, it was my job to help people prepare for changes to systems, tools and processes that impact them and affect them in their daily work.”

How will your previous experience serve you in your new role?

“As Change Manager for the Talent Investment & Culture Team, I’m focused on the digital transformation that’s happening here at KinderCare, supporting the digital family experience and overall change strategy. In this role, I help engage, motivate and coordinate activities that help to ensure that all people impacted by the changes being made receive proper support and communication throughout the journey to ease the transition and get them excited for what’s to come. This includes families and employees. I love it!”

What excites you most about joining KinderCare?

“The people and culture. Prior to banking, I worked in nonprofits, and KinderCare’s mission really resonates with me and shares the same nonprofit feel. I’ve met many wonderful people over the last few weeks, and everyone has been so excited to share about what they do for the company. I’ve also noticed that many employees here have held different roles, allowing them to grow with KinderCare. I think it’s awesome that the company believes in its people and supports employee development and growth.”

Is there a particular project you’re excited about working on currently?

“One of the projects I’m most excited about is payment standards. The goal is to streamline the family experience when it comes to making payments, removing the responsibility from our site and center directors. We’re also working on a new process that will allow families interested in enrolling in our programs to gather information through our website on their own that helps make their decision easy and straightforward, removing some of the barriers or bottlenecks to registering their children at KinderCare.”

Share a little about your personal life and who you are at home. What brings you joy?

“I have two toddlers, Elon Rue and Ivy Joe, and they are the light of my life. My son is enrolled in school now and it’s been exciting to watch him grow, learn and develop into his own person. My husband and I both work from home and are close with my parents, who are retired educators. I love tennis and play with my father often. We’ve been to every U.S. Open together since I was 12. I’m a homebody and enjoy having my family as a daily part of my life and my children’s lives.”

Do you have any plans to continue authoring children’s stories?

Actually, yes! I wrote a book for my son during his “terrible twos” to encourage him to work through his emotions when he became overwhelmed by taking time to breathe and realize we’re here to support him. The book is called Calm Down, Rooster Brown, which is an ode to his nickname “Rooster”. I’m working through the illustrations now and look forward to sharing his story!

As a change manager and woman inspiration, any advice you’d like to share with others?

“I would just encourage everyone to follow their dreams. Don’t allow limiting beliefs to prevent you from pursuing the things you want to do. If you fail, so what? Fail fast, learn from the experience and try again! We all have so many talents and gifts to share with the world.”

~ original article written by Emily Snyder