Concurrent Session

Bill’s diversity journey began in 1987 when he attended a two-hour presentation on the topic at the suggestion of a friend. It led to a mentoring relationship that fundamentally transformed his life, personally and professionally. Bill pioneered white male only workshops in the mid-90s after repeatedly noticing that white male leaders disengage from diversity efforts. His provocative work seeded creation of White Men as Full Diversity Partners.

For more than 30 years, he has served as a consultant, coach and facilitator to countless companies and organizations on issues of team effectiveness, diversity and leadership development. He is the founder of the ETD Alliance, a small trade association for experiential training and development consulting firms, and was president of the Association for Experiential Education for two terms.

An energetic contributor to global solutions toward poverty, injustice, education and personal empowerment, Bill has been taken part in interventions such as getting relief supplies to the Burmese people devastated by Cyclone Nargis; assisting displaced monks and leaders of the Saffron Revolution in Burma as they seek asylum in the United States; and helping individual and family micro-business enterprises in northern Laos and Thailand.

These and other efforts arise from Bill's love of adventures down remote rivers and untraveled roads. Many of his most gratifying cross-cultural learning experiences have occurred in remote corners of the developing world. These experiences inform and enrich his leadership work and consultation.

Howard Ross is lifelong social justice advocate, and is considered one of the world’s seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing unconscious bias.  Howard has delivered programs in 47 states and over 40 other countries to audiences including Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, and major institutions within healthcare, government, and non-profit sectors. He authored the Washington Post best seller, Everyday Bias:  Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives, ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance. His latest  book, Our Search for Belonging: How the Need for Connection Is Tearing Our Culture Apart, published by Berrett-Koehler in 2018, received the Nautilus Gold Medal for Social Change and Social Justice. His next book, Building Belonging: 9 Pathways to Creating Inclusive and Joyful Organizational Communities, will be published in 2020.

Deb Dagit is a sought-after consultant and speaker on the topics of diversity and inclusion. She started Deb Dagit Diversity LLC in 2013 to deliver the practical, just-in-time services and products she wished were available when she was a Chief Diversity Officer.

As Merck’s CDO for almost 12 years, Deb was responsible for global equal opportunity, employee relations, recruiting and staffing, and diversity and inclusion. Under her leadership, the company was recognized for its exemplary work in diversity and inclusion by a wide range of business publications, government agencies, and professional organizations.  Prior to joining Merck, Deb was the leader of Learning Communications and Diversity at Silicon Graphics and head of Strategic Cultural Initiatives for Sun Microsystems.

She played a key role in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act through her lobbying efforts, and testified before the U.S. Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee in 2011 regarding best practices for improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities. 

Mister Manners, Thomas P. Farley, is an etiquette expert, speaker and author who’s helping America’s professionals master essential manners for success in the workplace—and in life. His workshops for banks, law firms, universities and Fortune 500 companies are engaging and memorable, offering employees strategies for getting along and getting ahead.

Mr. Farley is a regular and popular guest on the Today show, where he speaks on matters of modern-day etiquette—subjects from “avoiding awkward hugs” to “what not to wear at a company beach outing.” His insights appear regularly in other media outlets as well, including the CBS Early Show, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Wired and Money magazines, USA Today, CNN, ABC and on radio stations across the country.

Throughout 2011, he served as an ongoing guest-host for the daily call-in program Living Today on the Martha Stewart Living Radio network. He also helped launch that channel’s “Manners Monday” segment, which focused on matters of contemporary etiquette.

Mr. Farley was the “Social Graces” editor for Town & Country magazine for the better part of a decade and has been a guest lecturer at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies. He is also the editor of the anthology “Modern Manners: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Social Graces.”

Multiple award-winning executive educator and author whose teaching and research interests span the globe, Dr. Mansour Javidan received his MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. He is former Dean of Research at Thunderbird School of Global Management and is currently the Garvin Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Najafi Global Mindset Institute.

Mansour is the Past President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the worldrenowned research project on executive performance and leadership, titled GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness). As the primary editor and writer of the recently published GLOBE book, he is the co-principal investigator of the GLOBE Phase 3 research program. The book was the recent winner of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s (SIOP) award competition for “The M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in The Workplace.”

Follow Mansour on Twitter @MansourJavidan.

Michele Whitehead is Senior Manager of Client Services at Berkshire Associates. In her position, Michele is responsible for overseeing, developing, and implementing training and consulting services related to affirmative action and pay equity analysis.

With over 20 years in the human resource industry, Michele is an expert in HR practices and procedures. This experience allows her to develop and present training sessions to educate clients on the latest affirmative action, applicant management, compensation, and workforce analysis topics and trends. She has a true passion for educating fellow HR professionals, which is why she has been an active speaker throughout the country at conferences and meetings including the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Talent Management and Annual Conferences.

Michele has a Master of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and Management Skills from New York State University at Buffalo. Michele holds both SPHR and SHRM-SCP Certification and is a member of the national Society for Human Resource Management.  

Eric C. Peterson, MSOD is a Senior Consultant with Cook Ross Inc. He is a recognized facilitator and educator in the Diversity & Inclusion space with over 15 years of experience in Unconscious Bias, Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Learning Strategies, and Organization Development. Eric is certified in the use of both the Predictive Index and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and is a graduate of the Facilitation Learning Partners Program of Healing the Heart of Diversity. He has been published in Profiles in Diversity Journal and Echelon Magazine, and has been sourced as a D&I expert by CNN, National Public Radio, USA Today, The Bloomberg Group, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times.

Elizabeth is an attorney, HR professional, and diversity practitioner.  Effective July 16, 2018, she joined the Campbell Soup Company’s D&I team and will work on the  development and execution of key components of a new D&I strategy. Previously, Elizabeth was Partner/Chief Diversity Officer for Andrews Kurth Kenyon in Houston. Before joining the law firm in 2007, Elizabeth was VP Employment Relations/Corporate Diversity Officer for ARAMARK in Philadelphia. Elizabeth is a frequent speaker, training facilitator and author on D&I and employment law. Elizabeth received her J.D. from University of Michigan and her B.A. from American University.

Shilpa Pherwani is an organizational psychologist by training and the Principal and CEO of IBIS Consulting Group, Inc. She has expertise in the areas of cultural competency, diversity and inclusion, organizational development and e-­learning.  As a consultant and trainer, Shilpa provides guidance to organizations to develop and achieve their D&I business goals.  She provides subject matter expertise in change management, organizational development and diversity to help organizations align D&I with business strategy. Shilpa heads the design and development team at IBIS for diversity e-­learning tools. She has led the team for several highly effective programs for clients such as Aetna, Boeing, Campbell Soup, Grainger, ESPN, Nestle, Microsoft, Sun Life Financial, and Xerox. Shilpa’s work with global organizations has included conducting diversity assessments, diversity and cross-­cultural training, leadership development, and implementation of diversity strategic plans. Shilpa received her Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Springfield College with a focus on Organizational Development.