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Diversity & Inclusion Speakers

 

Companies flourish and transform when enlivened through diverse personnel and inclusive environments. In keynotes, these diversity and inclusion speakers show you the practical steps to employing diversity, and how you can implement them in any environment.

22
Diversity & Inclusion
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Stephanie Mehta

Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company | Former Deputy Editor at Vanity Fair

What makes the world’s most creative people—and companies—tick? The most qualified person to answer the question is Stephanie Mehta. As Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company—the influential magazine championing creativity, innovation, and inclusive workplace cultures for a new generation of business— Mehta is the rare editor who talks to pure creatives and corporate leaders in equal measure. She draws on her decades in business journalism to show us how to transform our organizations, starting with its people.
Heather McGhee

Distinguished Senior Fellow & Former President of Demos | Expert in Racial Healing

What if, in the middle of your live TV appearance, someone called in and asked for advice in overcoming racial prejudice? For public policy expert and speaker Heather C. McGhee, the response was natural—she helped. In the wake of that exchange (viewed more than 8 million times), Starbucks approached her to institute a company-wide anti-bias training program.
 
Sarah Kaplan

Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy at Rotman School of Management | Author of The 360° Corporation

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, many companies today are making the “business case”: arguing that gender equality—a social ideal—is also a source of competitive advantage and growth. In her book The 360° Corporation, as well as her work at the Institute for Gender and the Economy, Rotman professor Sarah Kaplan explains why this type of “win-win” logic can become a trap that blocks progress, and what we can do to actually eradicate discrimination and promote diversity in the workplace.
Shivani Siroya

Founder and CEO of Tala

As the Founder and CEO of microfinance company Tala, Shivani Siroya delivers credit to customers with little to no formal borrowing history—helping them start and expand small businesses. The company has disbursed more than one billion dollars to customers in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, leading Forbes to name it one of the Top 50 FinTech companies in the world. Believing that financial visibility is crucial to living to our full potential, Siroya shows us why radical trust will be the currency of the future—and how we can leverage it to create a financial system that works for everyone.
Wajahat Ali

New York Times Contributing Op-Ed Writer, TED Speaker, CNN Contributor

Wajahat Ali—a New York Times contributing op-ed writer who regularly appears on CNN to discuss politics—is a new kind of public intellectual: young, exuberant, and optimistic. He speaks on the multifaceted American experience, covering our growing need for cultural unity, racial diversity and inclusion. 
Soraya Chemaly

Journalist & Author of Rage Becomes Her | Co-Founder and Director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project

Being human means playing host to a variety of emotions—and it’s not optional. To award-winning author and viral TED speaker Soraya Chemaly, the trick is learning to see them as vital signals, critical to how well our organizations function. Chemaly speaks with crackling lucidity to the wealth of data that our emotions provide us with—at work, at home, and in the world at large.
 

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Ashton Applewhite

Anti-Ageism Activist | Author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism

Ashton Applewhite is a leading voice in an emerging movement dedicated to dismantling ageism and making age a criterion for diversity. The author of This Chair Rocks, she reveals the untapped possibilities of late life—in our communities, at work, and in ourselves.
Ritu Bhasin

Speaker on Diversity & Inclusion, Women’s Advancement, Leadership, and Self-Empowerment | President bhasin consulting inc.

What happens when employees—who come from increasingly diverse backgrounds—hide their best selves at work? There is a bottom-line consequence: conformity spreads, innovation stagnates, and top talent leaves. Ritu Bhasin is an energetic speaker who champions authentic leadership as the antidote to exclusionary work cultures, and shows you how to build more engaged, inclusive, and productive teams and environments.
 
Anthony Jack

Assistant Prof. of Ed. at Harvard University | Author of The Privileged Poor

A student from a low-income background attends an elite university on scholarship, and finds herself burdened by that status. Upheaval like this will be addressed when modern institutions revise the policies of subtle, and not-so-subtle, exclusion that harden these divisions between students. In the ongoing dialogue about race, inclusion, and social justice, Jack’s talks provide a firm foundation for that conversation. 
Margot Lee Shetterly

Author of Hidden Figures: the #1 New York Times bestseller, and inspiration for the #1 movie.

Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures—a #1 NYT bestseller and inspiration for a #1 movie in America—is the true story of the black women mathematicians at NASA who helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. In talks, Shetterly celebrates these unsung heroes, teasing out issues of race, gender, science, and innovation against the backdrop of WWII and the Civil Rights Era.
 
Gabby Rivera

Author of Juliet Takes a Breath and the Marvel Comic Series America

Gabby Rivera is an outgoing, outspoken creator invested in fostering better dialogue, inspiring radical creativity, and improving our most vulnerable communities. The author of Juliet Takes a Breath, she’s also the writer of the Marvel series America—featuring the first queer, Latinx teen-girl superhero—ever.
 
Bill Strickland

An Extraordinary Business and Community Leader

Bill Strickland created an empire by stoking genius in those who believed they had nothing. The Founder and Chairman of Manchester Bidwell—an arts and training center with a $10 million annual budget—Strickland fuels hope, generates jobs, and empowers underprivileged citizens to become experts in any field. With his company tied with Apple for most Harvard Business Review case studies (four), Strickland confidently shows us how to pursue social restoration and profit with a conscience.
 
Susan Pinker

Psychologist and Author of The Village Effect and The Sexual Paradox

Award-winning author and psychologist Susan Pinker examines the endless paradoxes of the human condition, and the way it affects our personal relationships, our workplaces, and our educational institutions. A keen observer of modern life, she applies her data-driven behavioral insights to help us relate to one another, celebrating our differences and diversity.

 

David Kong

Director of MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative

At the MIT Media Lab, David Kong is a passionate, brilliant exponent of biotechnology: the next major scientific innovation to transform life as we know it. But to start the revolution—and for human creativity to flourish—we need STEM to be inclusive: fusing tech with art, granting all people access to advanced science, and re-visioning what labs, classrooms, and companies look like.  
Minette Norman

Former VP of Engineering Practice, Autodesk | Transformative Leadership Consultant

At Autodesk—a world leader in software tech—the most qualified person to lead 3,500 engineers and transform company culture isn’t yet another male engineer. It’s Minette Norman, a Liberal Arts major and living proof that women are transformative leaders. In talks, she demonstrates how radical empathy and diverse teams can demolish silos and unlock entrenched attitudes—especially in the STEM fields.
 
Jessica Kriegel

Author of Unfairly Labeled; Speaker on Managing Different Generations

Stereotypes about how each generation behaves at work—Boomers and Gen X, millennials and Gen Z—are not only wrong, argues Jessica Kriegel, but they’re hurting your organization. In her book Unfairly Labeled and columns for Forbes, she shows us how to build thriving corporate cultures where respect and collaboration flow freely.
 
András Tilcsik

Co-Author of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It

Due to their incredible complexity, our modern systems—from healthcare to travel, finance to media—are primed for failure. And things are only getting worse. In his National Business Book Award-winning Meltdown, András Tilcsik offers a timely remedy. Not only a convincing diagnosis of why complexity creates failure in systems, it’s a practical guidebook to preventing the next disaster—before it strikes.
 
Erin Meyer

INSEAD Professor | Author of The Culture Map and No Rules Rules

In today’s business world, where teams are spread across the planet and most of our communication takes place virtually, how do we work effectively in the face of cross-cultural complexity? Erin Meyer explains how to dramatically increase business success by understanding—and making the best possible use of—cultural drivers. 
 
Ellen Ochoa

The first Hispanic Woman in Space | Dir. of NASA Johnson Space Center (2013-2018)

Ellen Ochoa is the first Hispanic woman ever to go to space. She’s also only the second female Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center—where she led the human space flight enterprise for the nation from 2013 to 2018. As an in-demand speaker, she touches on resonant issues that have defined her historic career: What can we learn about change, innovation, and the culture of teams from her time at the upper reaches of NASA’s leadership?  
John Elder Robison

Author of Look Me in the Eye and Switched On

John Elder Robison grew up with Asperger’s Syndrome, and was undiagnosed until the age of 40. He nevertheless lived an incredible life. A leading voice on autism, he implores audiences to find strengths where others see weaknesses.  
Heather Payne

Founder and CEO of Juno College | Founder of Ladies Learning Code

Heather Payne is the founder of Ladies Learning Code, a national not-for-profit organization that runs popular workshops for women and girls, a traditionally underrepresented demographic in the programming world. Named one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network, she is revolutionizing our approach to technology, education, and entrepreneurship.