Tech & Innovation Blog
I Became My Own Nutrition Coach
Women in STEM, Voice of Our People, Impact
“It’s about receiving guidance from nutrition coaches on maintaining a healthy, personalized diet in life.”
I Became My Own Nutrition Coach
Dan W.
Dan W. is a Principal Data Scientist who supports sales and marketing initiatives across different businesses. Her team provides data insights, builds predictive models, and turns them into actionable information to support business decisions. This is her seventh year working at ADP! Dan came for the opportunity and stayed for the people. As an immigrant from a foreign country, she feels supported and looks forward to inspiring other women technologists with her story.
My ADP journey began in 2015 when I worked as a business intelligence manager in worldwide sales and marketing. I built predictive models and conducted deep analysis supporting all business units. My team then moved to Global Product & Technology (GPT), where I got promoted to my current position as the principal data scientist. I’m always proud to build impactful models for solving real-life business problems.
I’ve come a long way as a woman technologist who became her own certificated nutrition coach.
I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed and uncertain about where to start when it comes to making positive changes for your health. Throughout my journey, I experienced rewarding feelings of finding the healthy mindset and approaches that worked for my body. In this blog, I’ll share my story of how I became a certified nutrition coach.
Nine years ago, I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease. I suffered from chronic inflammation and symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Doctors told me I would be on medication for the rest of my life, and the news struck me. I felt defeated and did not want to rely on medicine. After connecting with a friend who teaches pharmacy and a professor who studies nutrition, I received support and learned about what nutrition human bodies need to stay healthy.
It was a long discovery process when I spent time on myself, monitoring both physical and mental health. I am incredibly grateful for my church community and family members who encouraged me to dive deeper into different learning opportunities. I decided to participate in the weight-loss program while enrolling in two nutrition certificate programs.
I first took weekly seminars from NutraMetrix Educational Institute and went through in-person training by health professionals every other year to get recertified. To gain more experience working with different clients’ needs, I completed another two-year Family Wellness Coach program at Whealkon Nutraceutical College and graduated in December 2021.
After hundred hours of training, I became a certified nutrition coach. Not only did this decision change my life, but also it gave me an opportunity to support others in need. As a nutrition coach, I remind myself, my clients, and my family of three best practices to achieve wellness goals:
1) Practice Healthy Eating Habits
Ask yourself: why do you want to achieve these health goals?
The diet changes start in daily behaviors. I help people understand their goals and have conversations beyond exercising and nutrition, including sleep schedules and how they feel about their lifestyles.
2) One Thing at a Time
It’s impossible to see immediate changes overnight. I find asking diet-related questions in systems helpful. As a coach, I switch focuses between the food quality and the quantity of each meal, depending on the client’s health condition.
3) There is No “Best Diet”
Every case is different. My goal is to find what works the best for everyone, making individuals feel strong and healthy based on the diet approach they choose to pursue.
I provided customized wellness coaching and weight management consulting in a family doctor’s clinic before the pandemic. It feels amazing to contribute to the community, including running wellness seminars, hosting 12-week weight loss programs, and providing 1-1 nutritional consultation. I plan to host more in-person events in the future!
Dan and Her Family
In my six years of practice, I encountered patients with common health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. One can overcome these conditions with weight-loss training while maintaining a healthy diet. Coming up with customized nutritional goals for them always brings me joy as I see their health conditions improve, building friendship and support along the way. If you are interested in learning more about what nutrition coaches can do, you may find this article helpful: How are Health Coaches Trained and Certified? Is Hiring a Health Coach Right for You?
Looking back, working as a data scientist has prepared me with essential skills in pursuing nutritional health. The common ground in both roles is excellent communication, efficient negotiation, and customized analysis.
In our current world, we see artificial intelligence (AI) everywhere as people adapt to their digital footprints. It makes our lives easier by speeding up communication across nations and time zones. As a data scientist supporting sales and marketing, I encourage associates to learn teams’ needs and strategically develop a plan to fit those needs. My advice for those new to the field is to focus on gaining experience in analytical and communication skills. They are also essential as I switch roles, working with different groups of people.
I used to be “shy” in starting conversations, but my experience as a data scientist has allowed me to take in stories through a new lens. I practice the same mindset in working as a nutrition coach, stepping out of my comfort zone to conduct health seminars at the clinic. Working with patients has also improved my presentation skills, which I can apply to the tech workforce.
It’s about receiving guidance from nutrition coaches on maintaining a healthy, personalized diet in life.
Regarding my health condition, I am happy to say I no longer need medication. I focus on making intelligent decisions in healthy eating behaviors and taking responsibility for my health goals. I am proud of my journey and will continue to help others in need, especially women who suffered from fatigue during the pandemic.
When giving nutrition advice, I am mindful of people’s financial situations. The same thought process applies to working as a data scientist, analyzing circumstances for different clients. Both roles build my confidence in identifying the needs and proposing customized plans after assessing them.
As a data scientist, I compare solutions and propose the best ways to reach business goals in given timelines. Mentoring new data scientists and identifying their needs has been a wonderful experience. I see myself continuing practicing analytical and interpersonal skills in tech and in nutrition coaching, achieving both health and career goals.
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Tech & Innovation Blog
Hacking the Future of STEM with iWIN EMPOWER and GirlsHack
Early Talent, Impact, Women in STEM
We thank the EMPOWER committee and members who generously donated their time to make this event successful.
Hacking the Future of STEM with iWIN EMPOWER and GirlsHack
In celebration and recognition of International Women’s Month, ADP’s International Women’s Inclusion Network (iWIN) Business Resource Group (BRG) sponsored GirlHacks 2022 Hackathon event at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). GirlHacks 2022 was a 36-hour women-centric hackathon that featured motivational speakers, discussion panels, and mentoring programs created to inspire women and support advanced career growth.
The event was an initiative propelled by the iWIN EMPOWER Committee. With core values of inspiring innovation and social responsibility, many ADP iWIN BRG members volunteered to participate in the event. In addition to providing tech guidance during the hackathon, our associates engaged students in thought-provoking discussions about the GPT Development programs, summer internship positions, and work opportunities across ADP.
GirlHacks at New Jersey Institute of Technology
“With a commitment to growing opportunities for women in STEM, the iWIN Empower BRG is proud to offer insight and guidance to new technologists, even before they begin their careers,” said Aini Ali, Vice President of Major Accounts Operations at ADP. “This event aligns closely with our mission to provide tools, guidance, and a network for women and children of all ages to reach new heights of success in STEM careers. It was an amazing experience too.”
The first-place winner of GirlHacks 2022 was Imposter Bubble, a mobile app inspired by the idea submitter’s own experiences with Imposter Syndrome (IS). IS refers to an internal experience of believing you are not as competent as others perceive you. 75% of executive women identified having experienced IS at various points during their careers. Imposter Bubble provides positive, powerful affirmations to women, helping them process their negative thoughts. The application was built using Flutter, a cross-platform app development framework by Google that allows the same codebase to develop apps for iOS, Android, and web platforms. Learn more about the Imposter Bubble and other submissions on Devpost.
ADP iWIN BRG would like to thank the EMPOWER committee and members who generously donated their time to make this event successful. ADP is committed to Diversity and Inclusion. We encourage you to learn about the fantastic opportunities for collaboration and partnership our BRGs offer.
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Tech & Innovation Blog
How ADP is Using Data to Make Our Clients—And Ourselves—More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive
Senior Leaders, Innovation, Future of Work
ADP has a culture where you can raise your hand and suggest something new no matter your role or background.
How ADP is Using Data to Make Our Clients—And Ourselves—More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive
By Giselle Mota, Principal, Future of Work
With more than 900,000 clients around the globe, we at ADP often notice shifts in the working world relatively early on—and that was certainly the case with the increase in corporate attention toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. To help our clients and internal teams track DEI, we launched the DEI Dashboard in December 2020, which offers insights and actionable recommendations to form more substantial teams.
Giselle speaking on TED Talk.
Getting Started: Data-driven insights
The ADP team tackles the DEI with a natural approach from a metrics point of view; we have always been a data-driven organization. By gathering time and attendance information, we can give clients helpful insights into things like managing overtime costs so they can make operational decisions. Our human resources platforms contain a wealth of demographics, including team members’ races, ethnicities, genders, ages, and disability statuses. What’s more is we help our clients understand the employee experience throughout their entire lifecycle, from interviewing, onboarding, leadership development to compensation and retirement.
Going Deeper: A push for accountability
Our team added filtering options that allow clients to get more granular with their newfound insights. One such resource is our new Candidate Relevancy app, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to help recruiters organize the thousands of résumés they receive. This tool has become critical for helping mitigate unconscious biases. We train the model to eliminate discrimination by focusing only on the skills and competencies needed for the roles. At the same time, we’ve made sure all hiring managers have access to make human decisions on pursuing candidates. The same is true with our AI-driven Chatbots that provide pre-screening functions for recruiters.
Giselle M.
Looking Inward: ADP’s journey
Our team recognized the DEI Dashboard project as transformative for both our clients and for ourselves. Like many organizations, we have long championed diversity, equity, and inclusion. But we knew there was room for a renewed and enhanced approach—and it had to begin with the people creating the DEI Dashboard.
While our Data Science team took the lead on the initial build of the platform, we brought in experts from each of our products to help us understand how we could reimagine through a DEI lens. Our goal was to expand on EEOC requirements and consider anything relevant to our clients and their employees, creating more equity across the recruiting space.
With our goals in mind, the insights we gathered from the DEI Dashboard on ADP have led to several new initiatives and processes, including surveys, mentorship, leadership development programs for underrepresented groups, and the job auditing process for discriminatory languages. Not only did we hire recruiters who specialize in finding diverse talents, but we also focused on disability inclusion, from raising standards for vendor products to rebuilding product features. ADP is committed to achieving a fully accessible user experience across our products.
What’s Next: The inclusive future of work
Giselle M.
We have continued to evolve the DEI Dashboard since it launched, and a long roadmap still lies ahead. One upcoming project is benchmarking—leveraging the unparalleled scale of ADP’s data and insights to help our clients understand how they stack up against other companies in their demographics.
My colleagues and I continue to ask questions, regularly creating new projects for ourselves. For example: Should remote and hybrid workers be paid differently apart from their in-office counterparts? How can we move beyond pay equity to true financial inclusion by giving employees the guidance they need to build wealth? We should have a lot to keep us busy!
With global and social changes happening during the last year and a half, I have seen our team move quickly and respond with solutions. ADP has a culture where you can raise your hand and suggest something new no matter your role or background. My Future of Work teammates and I are living proofs. With this mindset and institutional support in place, I believe we lead the way to a more inclusive future of work.
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Tech & Innovation Blog
Designing For All People: Inclusive UX at ADP
UX Design, Inclusive Design, Voice of Our People
Amber Abreu, Senior Manager of User Experience (UX) research at ADP, speaks with us about the essentials of inclusive design, educating with empathy, and the future of UX innovation at ADP.
Designing For All People: Inclusive UX at ADP
Amber Abreu, Senior Manager of User Experience (UX) research at ADP, has devoted her career to working in the field of inclusive and accessible UX design. She speaks with us about the essentials of inclusive design, educating with empathy, and the future of UX innovation at ADP.
What are you working on these days?
I just started a new role as Senior Manager of UX Research for the Growth team. ADP’s Global Product & Technology organization has three UX teams working under an “OneUX” umbrella: Our Generative team focuses on foundational understanding of our customers and internal associates, the Emerge team handles next-generation products, and the Growth team, my team, does boots-on-the-ground, day-to-day research for various product teams. OneUX is a huge effort with a focus on inclusive and accessible design. It’s a new initiative, and we’re all sort of holding hands as we move through this process together.
As a team leader, I’m excited to support people who are making a positive impact. The work we do on this team really does help people in their lives. I like having a sense of purpose that gets me out of bed every morning, and I want to share that feeling with the rest of my team.
You’ve had quite a career journey and came back to ADP. What brought you back? 
Someone I used to work with at ADP remembered me, told me they had an opening and asked if I was interested. I liked the people and thought it was a good fit. It was that simple. But I also saw it as a place where I could make a difference. In the 15 years since I’d previously worked at ADP, I’d worked on UX teams at companies like Delta and AT&T, where I’d been able to educate so many people about accessible design.
I think lots of organizations don’t fully understand what inclusive design actually means, even if they think they do. They might have UX teams, but sometimes they’re just checking a box—though I see this less and less as more people become aware of what smart user experience design can achieve. I was happy to come back to ADP because their commitment to inclusive UX matches my own.
Your passion for inclusive design is evident. How did you follow that career path?
In art school, we had only one semester on inclusive design, touching only a small facet in the much larger field of research and design. Inclusive UX is very technical, but the way you implement and deliver technical requirements can be so innovative. I’ve always been drawn to the intersection between problem-solving and really technical aspects of design. Think of some of the technologies we take for granted, like Alexa or Siri. Those ideas came out of inclusive UX design trying to help people with different capabilities and needs. Now everybody uses them, not just people with disabilities. Also, consider people who, for whatever reason, can’t use a mouse. What’s their user experience going to be?
My personal story is one of the reasons I’m passionate about inclusive design. I was paralyzed due to one of my pregnancies and lost the use of one side of my face. I couldn’t drink from a cup anymore. I couldn’t close my eye. I had to relearn how to do all sorts of things. My experience isn’t the same as someone who is permanently disabled or missing a limb or blind, but I think going through that and being willing to share the experience helps us talk about how UX can affect people and how it can help.
Probably the most significant technological innovation in modern history has been computerized technology and the internet. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier—but an entire segment of the population wasn’t considered and was left behind, which is antithetical to the whole purpose. If anything, computerized technology should create more equity instead of causing a great divide. I’ve been working my entire career to close the gap.
What’s your approach to inclusive design?
I try to educate and create empathy. At previous companies I’ve worked for, I’ve tried to bring people from the community to help inform designers of their particular experiences. I’ve also taken designers to an exhibition called Dialogue in the Dark that simulates total blindness. When you go in, you’re in utter darkness. You can’t see the hand in front of your face, and you confront the challenges blind people face every day. People who aren’t blind know it must be challenging, but being exposed to their daily experience helps us understand what that means.
It’s important to ask a lot of questions, seek knowledge, and share that knowledge. I tell this to people all the time: You’re not the first person to have this problem; someone has solved it. We just need to talk to each other.
How do you see your work shaping the future of ADP?
We’re still in the early days of evolving our UX teams. One area we are focusing on is the employee experience—if you’re an employee and you have to go out and check your payroll statement or your W-2, you’ll see changes there. We’re also updating our all-in-one platform for payroll and HR software targeted at mid-market clients. We’re working to make all of our visual design and interactive components accessible from a shared library. Once we get further, those changes will be visible across other products in our portfolio.
In the next six months to a year, I would like to put in place a solid foundation for an inclusive research program. It would include recruiting partnerships to bring people into research who have different disabilities and language capabilities and people from communities outside of ADP offices. Long term, I’d like to stand up a dedicated research program focused on informing future-thinking designs so we can operate on an international scale in countries with stricter accessibility requirements like Australia, UK, and Canada.
What excites you about what’s next?
There’s this misconception that the accessibility guidelines are only for people with disabilities, which is not true. They are for people whose first language is not in the system language. They’re for people who are older or less educated. There are different tiers of accessibility. And the core fundamental principles are that this work should lift up everyone.
There’s a lot here to be excited about, and because we’re all working together, we’re going to be stronger in the long run. Our team is growing, and we want people who care, who are willing to say, “I don’t know, but I’m willing to learn.” Every person who works on the project will say that they directly impacted someone with a disability in a positive way.
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