Suggestions
Mary Ferrante
Mother - Employee Engagement Consultant - Strategic Culture Change Management - Executive & Leadership Coach & Facilitator - Creating Cultures That Care & Breaking Down Caregiver Bias At Work --> wrk360.com
Professional Background
Mary Ferrante is a dynamic leader in the field of workplace culture and parental support, dedicated to integrating career ambitions and family life harmoniously. With a strong background in business administration and sociology from the prestigious University of San Diego, Mary has built an impressive career that reflects her commitment to empowering caregivers in today’s challenging work environment.
As the Managing Partner at WRK/360, a company she founded with the vision of transforming organizational cultures, Mary has played a crucial role in developing strategies that prioritize the needs of working parents and caregivers. Under her guidance, WRK/360 focuses on cultivating flexible work environments, fostering empathetic leadership, and dismantling parental biases—a mission that has gained immense importance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the struggles faced by working parents.
Before her role at WRK/360, Mary amassed extensive experience in various high-profile positions, primarily at Bank of America, where she advanced from a Campus Recruiter to Senior Vice President of Business Planning & Strategic Initiatives. Her journey through the ranks at Bank of America equipped her with invaluable insights into business strategy and workforce management, skills that she now channels into her advocacy work.
In addition to her corporate endeavors, Mary has formerly served as a Senior Contributor at Forbes, where she provided thought leadership on integrating career and family life, touching the lives of countless professionals seeking guidance on these topics. She also offered maternity leave support coaching at Maven Clinic, further demonstrating her commitment to enhancing the parenting experience within the workforce.
Mary's impact extends to various renowned platforms. She has provided expert insights as a VIP contributor for FairyGodBoss and has been featured on prominent media outlets, including Today, CNBC, Thrive Global, Working Mother, The Ladders, and ScaryMommy. Her presence on these platforms highlights her dedication to raising awareness about the challenges facing working parents and advocating for systemic changes like national paid family leave and accessible childcare.
Education and Achievements
Mary graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a focus on Sociology, from the University of San Diego, where she laid the foundation for her multifaceted career. Her educational background equipped her with both the business acumen and the sociological perspective needed to understand workforce dynamics and the importance of inclusive workplace policies.
Throughout her career, Mary has not only focused on her personal achievements but has also emphasized the need for systemic reforms in workplace structures to support working parents. Her initiatives are designed to create environments where employees can thrive both professionally and personally without feeling the pressure to choose one over the other. This dedication is reflected in her effective advocacy for family-friendly policies and practices across various industries.
Achievements
Among her many achievements, Mary Ferrante's founding of WRK/360 stands out as a significant milestone in her career. By establishing this organization, she has created a platform specifically designed to support and retain working parents and caregivers, enabling companies to adopt better practices for work-life integration.
Her work has gained recognition across the media landscape, confirming her expertise and commitment to enhancing workplace culture. Through her contributions to Forbes and her appearances on numerous platforms, Mary has become a respected voice in discussions about parental rights and workplace inclusiveness. She aims to not only raise awareness but to also inspire tangible change within organizations that aim to attract and retain talent by supporting their employees’ family responsibilities.
Mary's former leadership roles at Bank of America highlight her remarkable career trajectory. Her development from a Campus Recruiter to Senior Vice President showcases her consistency and her command over various aspects of business operations, strategy, and human resources. This experience positions her as a valuable contributor to conversations about the future of work in the context of parental involvement.
Mary's passionate advocacy for national paid family leave and affordable childcare has positioned her as a thought leader on these essential issues. By participating in public discourse and sharing her insights, she continues to inspire others to take action towards creating a supportive environment for parents in the workforce. Her persistence in championing these critical issues not only reinforces her dedication to working families but also strengthens the foundational changes needed in today's corporate landscape.
Highlights
❗ Millennials Dread Motherhood.
This headline hit me hard.
The author, Rachel Cohen, rightfully called out that the more honest portrayals of motherhood and the statistics focus on the challenges and hardships of motherhood overall and of juggling parenting and work. These portrayals often exclude the bright stories, the joy, and the fun of motherhood and it is causing college-educated millennials and gen-Zers to question if it is worth it!
She calls out, "We can speak authoritatively about the burden of “the mental load” in heterosexual relationships, the chilling costs of child care, the staggering maternal mortality rates for Black women. We can tell you that women spend twice as much time as men on average doing household chores after kids enter the picture, that marriages with kids tend to suffer. We’re so informed, frankly, that we find ourselves feeling less like empowered adults than like grimacing fortune-tellers peering into a crystal ball."
She's right, the story of motherhood in America is grim. I know I often contribute to sharing that grim story, calling out the lack of support for mothers, demanding #paidleave and #affordablechildcare, and for companies to get their heads out of the sand and start supporting #caregivingandwork.
As a card-carrying "geriatric millennial," my first read through this article made me pause. It made me wonder, do we need to share the joy more? Am I doing damage by sharing the hardships and challenges?
My second read-through made me stop that thought immediately. The #momrage and those of us #parentingoutload are screaming for change and it's working. For example, at the national level, it is what bringing us closer than ever to #paidleave legislation, and putting more dollars into women's health research.
For individuals, I hope it is making Millennials pause before becoming parents. I hope it means they feel more empowered to ask not only if their partners want to become a parent, but ask them what it means to be an active parent and start conversations BEFORE baby arrives on how they will handle equity in their households.
I hope it means that Millennials are asking their employers how they support caregiving across the journey of their career beyond paid leave (if they are lucky enough to get that!).
I hope it means that Black Women are making more informed decisions about where they give birth and utilizing resources like virtual doulas that we now have the data to show that they are improving outcomes.
Most importantly, I hope it means that Millennials will value caregiving. I hope it means that when Millennials become leaders across organizations, companies, and our government they will recognize that paid labor and unpaid labor are fundamentally valuable to our economy and that caregiving is infrastructure in our country.
And yes, it is joyful, too.
The childcare crisis has made The Great Resignation a continuous struggle for mothers.
According to the 2023 Annual State of Motherhood Report by Motherly®:
➡ There are more stay-at-home parents than past years at 25%, compared to 15% in 2022.
➡ Eighteen percent (18%) of mothers in their sample changed jobs or left the workforce in the past year.
➡ Top reasons for this exit were staying at home with children (28%) and lack of childcare (15%).
➡ Fifty-eight (58%) of moms report they are primarily responsible for the duties of running a household and caring for children, up 2% over 2022.
This lack of support and loss of financial opportunity is also felt by those in caregiving roles.
So while it's completely understandable why moms are exiting a system that doesn't equally value nor support them, we HAVE to reverse this narrative so that future generations of women have the opportunity to thrive and succeed in a truly equitable and inclusive environment.
Invest in women. Lean into female-based communities. Recognize the value of caregiving.
#womenatwork #workingparents #caregivers
As the founder of WRK/360, I'm on a mission to improve the workplace culture for working parents and caregivers. We provide associates and managers with coaching, training, and resources at the intersection of career and care. Email [email protected] to get in touch.
People also viewed
Related People
Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
People also viewed
Related People