Andrew Graff, CEO of advertising agency Allen & Gerritsen announced today that the agency has appointed Sandra Peralta to Senior Vice President of Talent and Sugeily Peña to Director, Talent & Operations. The new hires reflect Allen & Gerritsen’s commitment to consistently evolve and bravely challenge themselves to be inclusive.

Sandra joins the agency from her most recent title of Director of Talent Acquisition at Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan where she was responsible for developing new sources of talent and recruiting diverse candidates for positions. She served on the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Council where she focused on executing accessibility management strategies and researched organizational effectiveness and cultural competency. She has held positions in talent recruitment at State Street, Liberty Mutual, and the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Sandra will lead HR and Talent in Boston and Philadelphia. Sugeily will oversee Talent & Operations in A&G’s Philadelphia office. Her background is centered on the advertising and media world, having spent time at Edelman, A&E Networks, Ogilvy, NBC Universal, Digitas Health and most recently McCann Torre Lazur (a division of McCann). She brings a wealth of experience across staffing and recruitment, organizational development, talent management, employee engagement and training and development.

“Sandra’s passion for learning and development and creating great leadership will allow us to continue to accelerate our diversity and inclusion efforts to a whole new level. Her experience outside of the advertising industry combined with Sugeily’s background at well-known advertising, PR and media companies will be a winning combination as our agency leads change in our industry” said Graff.

Allen & Gerritsen works tirelessly to change the status quo in the advertising industry, which has historically had issues recruiting and retaining diverse talent. Its ongoing programs have long been a part of the agency culture and focus on all ages and stages of life and career. Initiatives include: BossLadies, which empowers women to build careers, workplace mentoring through Big Sister, where 10-year-old Little Sisters visit the agency monthly, as well as a panel series program where the agency hosts members of the community to address difficult conversations in the workplace, such as racism and criminal justice reform. The agency’s beliefs are reflected in their client roster, which includes the National Organization on Disability.

“At Allen & Gerritsen we bravely challenge ourselves to be inclusive and want to provide our teams the opportunities to consider unique perspectives by engaging with community in new ways, said Graff. “We all have a long way to go, but each senior level hire down to internship candidates must reflect the future of our industry and our world.”