The thought leaders
General John R. Allen
President, Brookings
General Allen assumed the presidency of the Brookings Institution in November 2017. He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. He also served in two senior diplomatic roles as senior advisor to the secretary of defense on Middle East Security. Then President Barack Obama appointed Allen as special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.
Dr. Lawrence Bobo
Dean of Social Science, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard Professor
Dr. Bobo is Dean of Social Science and the W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. He has served as Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies. He holds appointments in the Department of Sociology and the Department of African and African American Studies. His research focuses on the intersection of social psychology, social inequality, politics, and race.
Dr. Camille M. Busette
Senior Fellow, Brookings
Dr. Busette has appointments in Governmental Studies, Economic Studies and the Metropolitan Policy programs. She is the Director of the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative, Brookings’s cross-program initiative focused on issues of equity, racial justice and economic mobility for low-income communities and communities of color. Prior to joining Brookings, Busette was an executive at the World Bank where she led the World Bank’s financial inclusion innovation arm.
Eduardo Briceño
Co-Founder and CEO of Mindset Works, the leading provider of growth mindset development services and programs
Briceño is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wiring Growth and Mindset Works. He is the most booked keynote speaker on growth mindset and the Learning Zone, which he began working on in 2007 when he partnered with Carol Dweck and Lisa Blackwell. Each of his TEDx talks have been viewed by millions. He is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and a member of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network.
Dolly Chugh
Psychologist and Jacob M. Melnick Term Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University
Chugh’s research focuses on the “psychology of good people,” and she teaches courses in leadership, management, and negotiations. Prior to becoming an academic, Chugh worked at Morgan Stanley, Time Inc., Scholastic, and Merrill Lynch. She has received degrees from Cornell and Harvard University. She has been named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by Ethisphere Magazine.
Dr. Stephanie J. Creary
Scholar, field researcher, and Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Creary is an identity and diversity scholar and field researcher as well as a professor. She is an affiliated faculty member of Wharton People Analytics, and as an organizational scholar, she investigates how people effectively navigate identity-related tensions and boundaries at work, particularly around issues of inclusion and exclusion.
Prof. Kimberlé Crenshaw
Co-Founder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum and host of the Intersectionality Matters podcast
Crenshaw is a Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School and is known for her development of “intersectionality,” “critical race theory,” and the #SayHerName Campaign. She is a leading authority on Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law. In early 2021, she received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Law Schools.
Eduardo Díaz
Director, Smithsonian Latino Center, Interim Director, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino
The Smithsonian Latino Center increases access to Latino art, history, and culture through exhibitions, online content, educational programs, and leadership development. In 2022, the Center will open the Molina Family Latino Gallery, the forerunner to the National Museum of the American Latino.
Dr. Ken Dychtwald
Psychologist, Gerontologist, and Founder and CEO of Age Wave
Dr. Dychtwald is an author of 18 books on aging and longevity-related issues and founded a firm to guide companies and government groups in product and service development for boomers and mature adults. During his career, Dychtwald has addressed more than 2 million people worldwide. His predictions and innovative ideas are regularly featured in leading media worldwide.
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Centennial Professor at Vanderbilt University, New York Times contributing opinion writer
Dr. Dyson has taught at some of the nation’s most distinguished universities, including Brown, UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, DePaul, University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University. He is presently Centennial Chair and University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies at the Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science, and a University Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt’s Divinity School.
Dr. Peter Fasolo
Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Johnson & Johnson
Dr. Fasolo is responsible for global talent, recruiting, diversity and inclusion, compensation, benefits, employee relations and all aspects of the human resources agenda for the Company. He’s a member of the Executive Committee, Management Compensation Committee, and Chairman of the Pension and Benefits Committee.
Dr. Kayla Follmer
Assistant Professor of Management at West Virginia University
Dr. Follmer’s research is broadly focused on diversity in the workplace, with specific interest in understanding the work experiences of employees with mental illness. In particular, she has examined the ways in which stereotypes and stigma influence individual and organizational outcomes.
Rev. Mark Fowler
CEO of Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
Rev. Fowler is the CEO of a secular and nonsectarian nonprofit that works to transform individuals and institutions to reduce prejudice, hatred, and violence rooted in religious identity. Rev. Fowler is also an ordained minister and Dean of second-year students at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City.
Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld
Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business
Dr. Gruenfeld's research on power and group dynamics has appeared in many academic publications and been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Fast Company, Psychology Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. Gruenfeld teaches courses on power, teams, and leadership to a wide variety of audiences around the world. She is on the advisory board of the Lean InFoundation and is the author of Acting with Power: Why We Are More Powerful Than We Believe (Penguin Random House, 2020).
Dr. Tanya Hernandez
Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
Dr. Hernandez teaches Anti-Discrimination Law, Comparative Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory, The Science of Implicit Bias and the Law: New Pathways to Social Justice, and Trusts & Wills. She received her A.B. from Brown University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Note Topics Editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Prof. Binna Kandola
Business Psychologist, Senior Partner, and Co-Founder of Pearn Kandola
Over the past 35 years, Professor Kandola has worked on a wide variety of projects for public and private-sector clients, both in the UK and overseas. Kandola is particularly interested in the study of gender bias and unconscious bias in organizations.
Dr. Adrienne Keene
Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University
Dr. Keene holds a doctorate in Culture, Communities, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on college access for Native (American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian) students and the role of precollege access programs in student success.
Dr. Ami Klin
Director of Marcus Autism Center at Emory University School of Medicine
Dr. Klin is the author of over 250 publications in the field of autism and related conditions. His primary research activities focus on social mind and brain, and on developmental aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. His studies include novel techniques that are now being applied in the screening of infants and toddlers at risk for autism.
Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo
Global Disability Advisor for the World Bank Group
McClain-Nhlapo’s work focuses on disability-inclusive development. Earlier in her career, she was appointed by President Nelson Mandela as a Commissioner to the South African Human Rights Commission, focusing on social, economic, disability, and child rights. She holds law degrees in international law and administration from the University of Warsaw, Poland, and the Cornell Law School.
Lindsay-Rae McIntyre
Corporate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Microsoft
Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, McIntyre has lived and worked throughout the United States, Dubai, and Singapore. With more than 20 years of experience as a human resources executive for the technology sector, she leads Microsoft’s strategic efforts on systemic solutions to advance diversity and inclusion guided by a commitment to be mission-driven, outcome-oriented, globally-informed, science-based, and culturally-competent.
Dalia Mogahed
Director of Research, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
Mogahed leads the organization’s research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims, is the former Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, and co-authored the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. President Obama appointed her to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009.
Dr. G. Cristina Mora
Co-Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies and Associate Professor at UC Berkeley
Dr. Mora’s research focuses mainly on questions of racial and ethnic categorization, organizations, and immigration. Her book, Making Hispanics, provides a socio-historical account of the rise of the “Hispanic/Latino” panethnic category in the United States. Her work has received wide recognition, including the 2010 Best Dissertation Award and the 2018 Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association.
Rhonda Morris
Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Chevron
Morris has been vice president and chief human resources officer for Chevron Corporation since 2016. She is responsible for the company’s human resources, employee assistance/work-life services, ombuds, and diversity & inclusion groups. She also serves on the company’s Executive Committee. Morris also received the Industry Leader Award from the Professional Businesswomen in California recognizing her work to advance gender equality in the workplace.
Dr. Balmurli Natrajan
Professor of Anthropology, William Paterson University
Dr. Natrajan is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Community Development and Social Justice. He is also a visiting faculty at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India. His research and teaching focus on group formation, identity and inequality, culture, and international development.
Diana Navas-Rosette
Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion - Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships, Microsoft
Navas Rosette is responsible for the design, development and delivery of enterprise-wide strategy and solutions. She draws upon two key strengths to lead: her passion for connecting the power of people, innovation, and technology to accelerate change; and her more than 15-years of experience developing, managing, and executing key people initiatives, and offering thought leadership.
Phill Nosworthy
Founder and Managing Director, Nosworthy Group
Nosworthy’s insight into leadership, emotional fluency, high performance, and meaning at work have given him a unique perspective when it comes to helping others perform at the highest level. He has a dedicated following of employees at leading organizations who have set their sights on being the best leaders they can be.
Ellyn Shook
Chief Human Resources Officer, Accenture
Shook is responsible for helping the nearly 514,000 people of Accenture succeed both professionally and personally. Her global team is re-imagining leadership and talent practices to create the most truly human work environment in the digital age. Ellyn is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper Community Foundation Board and the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Distinguished Professor, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
Dr. Smith is renowned for her work in Indigenous Māori education, Kaupapa Māori, and her book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples. She is also member of the Waitangi Tribunal, a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Chase Strangio
Deputy Director for Trans Justice and attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project
Strangio’s work includes impact litigation as well as legislative and administrative advocacy. In his role as Deputy Director for Trans Justice with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project, he litigates trans rights cases across the country and advocates for trans people in state legislatures, before Congress, and in the press.
Dr. Jeanne L. Tsai
Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, and Director of Stanford Culture and Emotion Lab
Dr. Tsai is broadly interested in the cultural shaping of emotion and its implications for health, decision-making, and person perception. At Stanford, she has received the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Asian American Activities Center Faculty Award. She is former Associate Editor of the journal Emotion, and current fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, American Psychological Association, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and Society for Experimental Social Psychology.
Darren Walker
President, Ford Foundation
Walker is president of a $13 billion international social justice philanthropy and co-founder and chair of the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. Before joining Ford, Walker was vice president at Rockefeller Foundation and COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation. He serves on the Independent Commission on NYC Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and UN International Labour Organization Global Commission on the Future of Work.
Rebecca Walker
Writer - Producer - Catalyst
Rebecca Walker is a best-selling writer, producer, and cultural critic who has contributed to the global conversation about race, gender, sexuality, power and the evolution of the human family for over two decades. Her many books include One Big Happy Family, Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence, and Her newest book is Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo.
Sherrie Westin
President, Sesame Workshop
Westin leads the organization’s efforts to serve vulnerable children through mass media and targeted initiatives in the United States and around the world. She serves as Sesame Workshop’s chief mission ambassador. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the board of directors of UNICEFUSA, Communities in Schools, Vital Voices Partnership, and The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
Kay Wilson Stallings
Executive Vice President, Creative and Production, Sesame Workshop
Wilson Stallings oversees Sesame Street and all Sesame Workshop shows, as well as the development of new programs and content across existing and emerging platforms. She leads creative for domestic production and partners with global teams to enrich and expand Sesame Workshop’s presence around the world. She was most recently the SVP of Creative Development at Sesame Workshop. Prior to joining Sesame Workshop, Wilson Stallings was Senior Vice President of Production and Development at Nick Jr.
Prof. Kenji Yoshino
Yoshino is the Director of the Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. He specializes in constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, and law and literature. He has authored three books: Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights; A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice; and Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial.
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