VLS | From Idea to Impact: Leading Mentoring Circles in a Fortune 250 Women’s BRG
This webinar is part of the WIMEF Virtual Learning Series.
This event will take place on Zoom; details will be sent via email after registering.
Event Details
From Idea to Impact: Leading Mentoring Circles in a Fortune 250 Women’s BRG
When: August 11, 2026
11:00 a.m. - Noon ET
Seven years ago, Parker Hannifin's Women's Business Resource Group launched a high-performance team with six women (Melissa was one of the six) to champion launching "Lean In" peer-to-peer mentoring circles inside a Fortune 250 company. Each circle includes 6 to 8 team members from various levels of the organization (from group presidents to first-year professionals) who meet monthly to learn through educational topics and create spaces to discuss upcoming opportunities and decisions. The program improves every year: including Spanish-speaking circles, welcoming allies (those who support women at work), and launching "canvassed mentoring" sessions where teams invite a subject matter expert to a meeting. This presentation will tell the story of how I scaled from a 200-person cohort across North America, peaking at 500 in a single year, and growing to more than 1400 team members over time and how you can bring this model to your organization at any size.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for accessing this webinar via Zoom.
Melissa Childers
Value Stream Manager, Parker Hannifin
Melissa Childers is a Value Stream Manager at Parker Hannifin with 13 years of manufacturing industry experience. She drives operational performance through the Parker Lean System and Win Strategy—ensuring a safe work environment, maximizing profitable growth, improving quality, delivering premier customer service, and reducing operating costs, inventory, and lead times through continuous improvement. From 2022–2025, she served as the Global Chair of Mentoring for Parker Hannifin’s Women’s Business Resource Group, helping scale mentoring circles across North America and applying lessons learned internationally; she now supports the program on the steering committee. Melissa holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The University of Akron (Akron, Ohio) and was named a Rockford Chamber of Commerce 40 Under Forty (Rockford, Illinois 2022).
