Meet Cassie Ross: Championing Disability and Inclusion Through Advocacy and Compassion

Our purpose is what unites us at Henkel North America: Pioneers at heart for the good of generations. Our pioneering spirit is reflective of the diverse backgrounds, experiences and talents of our employees and partners. They dare to make an impact on the world by collaborating to tackle challenges, find solutions and open new perspectives.

Their contributions allow us to deliver products, services and innovations that enrich and improve everyday life.  We invite you to “meet” our pioneers in our series, “Pioneers for Good.”

Introducing Cassie

Cassie Ross is a Senior Customer Marketing Manager for Henkel Consumer Brands but her most important role is being a mother to a child with autism spectrum disorder ‏(ASD). Daily she ensures that her son is happy, healthy, and loved while advocating for disability awareness and inclusion in all parts of her life, including the workplace.

Cassie’s personal experiences color her approach across her endeavors.

Navigating the Unknown with Compassion

While Cassie has always anticipated challenges, little can prepare you for life-changing moments. Cassie’s moment was when her then-four-year-old son was diagnosed with nonspeaking autism. Cassie immediately knew this was her hard moment, this is what she was meant to advocate for.

“My husband and I were so lost,” she says about the years leading up to her son’s diagnosis. “I was a mess for almost two years, looking for every piece of information I could find to help give him a means of communication and deciding how our family would navigate his diagnosis alongside the pandemic.”

Cassie enrolled her son at Sunshine School & Development Center, an education center that provides a range of services to enable children touched by disability. Here, she knew her son would thrive. What she didn’t know was that it would become a home for her, a place where she could put her passion for advocacy into action and encourage her to push for disability awareness and inclusion at work.

Charting a Path of Support for Families

Today, Cassie is a Board Member for Sunshine School & Development Center. “I’ve made it a personal mission to ensure no other family that I come into contact with feels as lost as we did during those first two years.” With support from Henkel, Cassie has been able to further her mission through two grants received from  Henkel’s Make An Impact on Tomorrow ‏(MIT) initiative to help fund playground equipment for the school.

Cassie also serves as Vice President and Board member at Autism Involves Me ‏(AIM), a local organization that empowers and supports individuals with autism and their families. In this role, she brings her business experience and financial acumen to help the organization build long-term stability.

Working with AIM and the Sunshine School & Development Center gives Cassie the opportunity to connect with others whose lives are affected by disability. At AIM’s annual AIM Fest in September, Cassie instantly recognized a mother who was experiencing the same struggle her family faced.

“I gave her a hug, then she started crying and I started crying. And I was reassured, ‘This is why I’m here.’”

Transforming a Challenge into a Triumph

Cassie’s experiences as a mother of a child with autism have fueled her passion for promoting disability awareness and inclusion in the workplace. When she wanted to start an employee resource group ‏(ERG) dedicated to this subject, she connected with her colleagues Angie Parker and Patricia Tucker, to bring it to life. 

The Awareness of Visible and Invisible Disabilities ‏(AVID) ERG works to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for employees with disabilities or employees who may be caregivers for a family member with a disability. Cassie appreciates the collaborative nature and the ability to connect with Henkel employees outside of her department who have been affected by disability.

Cassie also appreciates the overwhelming support from AVID’s executive sponsor, Robert McNamee. “He shows up to every call, is active and very involved in the work we are doing. Our entire executive leadership team members are active participants – they’re in it with you.”

Promoting an Accommodating and Respectful Workplace

Whether at home, in the office, or in the community, Cassie pioneers empathy, compassion, and understanding. She strives to build a more inclusive workplace culture for people with disabilities and their caregivers, for today’s workers and for future generations.

“I want my son to enter a workforce that has jobs with a career path for people with disabilities and a physical work environment that makes it accessible for them to thrive.” Cassie is proud to work for an organization who is well on that journey as Henkel was recently named a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion by Disability: IN and The American Association of People with Disabilities.

In the end, Cassie’s message to us on being a pioneer at heart for the good of generations is simple: