Cultivating Cultural Confidence: Embracing Your Identify, Owning Your Story, and Showing Up Authentically in Corporate America

Evelyn M. Pérez-Albino

Evelyn "Ella" Pérez-Albino is an accomplished Fortune 500 legal executive, employment attorney, and DEI professional turned speaker, career strategist, and founder of career strategy consulting firm, Ella Elevates LLC. Most recently, Evelyn served as Associate General Counsel at Meta (formerly Facebook), advising on all workstreams impacting global DEI and HR strategy. Before joining Meta, Evelyn was Director of Labor & Employment at JetBlue Airways Corp., where she counseled the airline and served as a thought leader for the airline’s diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. She also served as Labor & Employment Counsel at Advance Publications, Inc., the media conglomerate parent of a renowned magazine publisher, Condé Nast, after her time at the New York City offices of Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP. As an employment lawyer with over 20 years of corporate experience, Evelyn brings more than just career strategy to the table - she is a first-generation Afro-Latina corporate professional, and intimately understands the struggle of the come-up! In her legal career, Evelyn has had a first-row seat to the thinking of management and top brass and has unlocked the key to skyrocketing her own personal brand and corporate career as well as that of her coaching clients. In founding Ela Elevates, Evelyn aims to fuse her experience and innate strength of human connection to support the career advancement of professionals of color in corporate, via individual executive coaching, professional speaking engagements, and corporate consulting to help organizations equitably bolster diversity in their leadership pipelines and elevate diverse talent. Furthering Evelyn's commitment to community organizations, Ella Elevates also provides consulting services to community organizations serving historically underserved minority populations. Evelyn received her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, with a B.A. in Psychology and Political Science. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City's Washington Heights, Evelyn is a native Spanish speaker. Evelyn is a culturally competent corporate professional, often recognized for her ability to build trust and communicate effectively across a variety of audiences, serving as a frequent speaker on topics at the intersection of law, diversity, and career development. Evelyn is also an enthusiastic mentor to young professionals of color wholeheartedly invested in their collective success. Evelyn lives in New York with her husband and two kids and enjoys eating good food, traveling, and creating memories with her friends and family.