On Thursday, August 19, AEN will host a corporate diversity panel featuring Fortune 500 corporate diversity executives.

The panel will include Valencia Adams, chief diversity officer for BellSouth Corp.; Claudia Woody, IBM vice president of global services; Beth Johnston, vice president of human resources - field operations for Delta Air Lines; and Gloria Johnson-Goins, vice president of diversity and inclusion for The Home Depot.

Deloitte Touche National Diversity Manager Charles Stephens will moderate the panel.

Join us at the Sheraton Midtown Hotel at Colony Square. Networking will begin at 5:45 p.m., and the program starts at 6:45 p.m. Admission is $10 for members and $20 for guests; students can attend free.

Here's your chance to ask those human resources questions you’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

Please indicate if you would like a question to be directed to a particular panelist. E-mail your questions to questions@aen.org.

Southern Voice: Corporations increase focus on diversity

'The Color Purple’ World Premiere Run

AEN Night at the Alliance Theatre

We still have a few good seats left!

Click here to buy tickets

We are honored to offer an AEN special event, the October 5 performance of the new musical “The Color Purple” at the Alliance Theatre at 8 p.m. Tickets are available to everyone, including nonmembers of AEN.

Through AEN, you can get good orchestra seats at $38.95 each. Otherwise, the tickets would be $43.30 at the box office.

The play is a soul-stirring musical version of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Join us for the show during its world-premiere run before it heads to Broadway, and enjoy the unique company of AEN’s LGBT members and friends!

AEN Welcomes The Home Depot

AEN welcomes The Home Depot, USA, as a Bronze Partner

Debate sheds light on gay issues

Only two of the six candidates in the Democratic primary for Georgia’s 4th Congressial District participated in a debate on LGBT issues at AEN’s July meeting.

Former Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard, the first openly gay elected official in Georgia history, and businessman Chris Vaughn were on hand for the debate. A crowd of more than 200 showed up to hear the candidates.

State Sens. Liane Levetan, Connie Stokes and Nadine Thomas — all of whom had confirmed their attendance — did not appear, and neither did former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney. McKinney was invited but had not confirmed.

McKinney went on to win the July 20 primary. She will face Republican Catherine Davis in November.

Multimedia: Click to watch video highlights | Browse photo gallery

AEN Moves Into New Digs

AEN has moved into offices at the First Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta. AEN's new neighbors inside the building are Georgia Equality and the Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus.

Please update your address book with AEN's new contact information:

Atlanta Executive Network
1379 Tullie Road, NE, Suite 101
Atlanta, GA 30329-2308

E-mail: office@aen.org
Phone: 404.321.0079
Fax: 404.529.4584

AEN Listed in AJC Ultimate Guide

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed AEN as the only LGBT professional and networking organization for the gay and lesbian community in the 2004-2005 edition of the AJC Ultimate Guide.

The 34-page pullout was in the newspaper on July 22, 2004. Also mentioned in the Ultimate Guide were YouthPride, Northlake Alliance of Gays/Lesbians and Straights, PFLAG, AID Atlanta, Georgia Equality and the Murphy-Hope House.

AJC.com: 2004 Ultimate Guide

Matthew Cusick Swings Onto Magazine Cover

Gymnast addressed May AEN Meeting

Matthew Cusick has been a gymnast since he was 5, but nothing could have prepared the 32-year-old athlete for the struggle he would face when Cirque du Soleil dismissed him for being HIV-positive.

Cusick managed to fight back, winning a $600,000 settlement against the famed Canadian circus that will help stem employment discrimination against people with HIV for a long time.

The gymnast discussed his ordeal when he spoke to AEN in May.

While in town, Cusick was interviewed for the cover feature of the July issue of A&U magazine by Atlanta writer B. Andrew Plant, a longtime AEN member and former board member of the group.

Plant is editor at large of A&U, a national nonprofit monthly focusing on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Cusick was photographed for the magazine by Paula Collins, who also is based in Atlanta. The interview was facilitated by Dr. Barbara J. Rubin, an AEN board member and Atlanta psychologist.

A&U Magazine: Champion of Justice

Pride Picnic Basket Giveaway

Cheryl Williams of Atlanta won the raffle for the picnic basket featured at AEN's booth at Atlanta Pride 2004.

Congratulations, Cheryl!

What Is AEN And What Is It Doing Here?

By Bonnie Barton

I often encounter this question as I talk with people about AEN. As a longtime member, volunteer and now president, I would like to share my views on the topic.

AEN is first and foremost a networking organization. But networking can have a variety of meanings. When I first joined AEN in 1992, I saw it as a place I could promote my business. As my relationship with the group evolved, so did my understanding of its special and unique role as a networking organization.

AEN is perhaps the only organization of its kind in the Atlanta LGBT community. It not only provides the opportunity to network with potential clients, alliances and friends but also allows its members to interact with the broader Atlanta and national communities through the diversity of occupations and prominence of its monthly speakers. Where else can one go to see, hear a state governor, symphony conductor, leader of a local and national bank, a radical, feminist lesbian, a publisher of a prominent local magazine, a leading contender for the U.S. presidency and so on and so on?

Click to read more