Conference Speakers
Learn more about all of the speakers and presenters for the 2023 Global ERG Network Conference.
Keynote Speakers
Calandra Walker Jarell
Head of Employee Networks,
Global Diversity & Inclusion Awards,
Diversity & Inclusion Executive,
Global Human Resources
Calandra is a Diversity & Inclusion Executive at Bank of America. In this role, she is responsible for the company’s Global Employee Networks which include 355 chapters and over 240,000 memberships. She also leads the Global D&I Awards strategy and Diversity & Inclusion for Global Human Resources.
Kai Kight
Violinist, Composer, Keynote Speaker
As a classical violinist turned innovative composer, Kai Kight uses music as a metaphor to inspire individuals and organizations across the world to compose paths of imagination and fulfillment. Kai is on a mission to spark a global mindset shift in which ingenuity is the norm, not the exception.
Nicole Bergman
Fitness & Wellness Expert
Owner, Training for Warriors – Greensboro
Bio coming soon.
Workshop/Session Speakers
Bobbi Brown-Alexander
Bobbi Brown-Alexander
Bobbi is Director of Employee Resource Groups and Global Communities in Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity at Kyndryl, a spinoff from IBM. Bobbi worked in IT at IBM for approximately 39 years in various roles including mainframe systems operator, analyst, programmer, security, auditor, program manager, complex project manager, Senior people manager, and Worldwide Data Center Facilities and Operations Manager. During the last 10 years at IBM she also volunteered a member, Vice President, and President of the IBM Dallas Black Business Resource Group, co-founded the Center of Excellence for Black Business Resource groups in IBM globally, and co-led a BRG Optimization project. Bobbi has also served as High School Program Director for ChickTech Dallas, and on the Richardson, TX ISD PTA board committee to help create education and punitive policy for racialized occurrences.
She is not just passionate about inclusion, diversity, and equity, but skilled and intentional as well. She has completed 500+hours of e-learning on DEI related topics in the last year and has earned several DEI certifications.
Bobbi has a master’s degree in management and leadership, is PMI Certified, Certified Coach, certified in Kyndry Leadership Behaviors, and serves on the board of directors of Under1Roof, a Dallas, TX non-profit that works to transition the homeless to permanent housing.
Lynn Cowart
Chief Operations Officer, Talent Dimensions
Lynn Cowart
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Lynn Cowart is the COO and Co-owner of Talent Dimensions, an organization firmly established in the People Business through its work in Career Development, Engagement and Retention, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Its mission is to partner with organizations to build environments that allow all individuals to bring their whole selves to the workspace. Lynn has extensive experience working and consulting in senior-level human resources positions for companies such as General Electric, Lockheed Martin and Martin Marietta. She has facilitated executive coaching, change management and strategic staffing initiatives, as well as DEI strategy implementation, career transition programs, retention and engagement strategies, assessment interviewing and training. She has spoken on these subjects at numerous conferences and company functions to all organizational levels.
As a career consultant, Lynn has led coaching programs and training events for an array of professional business clients. In addition, she has managed programs designed to instill culture changes within organizations by modifying behavioral tendencies.
Throughout her career she has conferred with corporate business leaders in a broad range of functions such as management and organizational development, communication strategies, career planning and placement and organizational effectiveness.
Lynn has led teams responsible for design, development and implementation of Corporate University Relations and Leadership Development Programs for Fortune 50 companies, resulting in increased diversity and minority representation. She has led a career development group for women in transition in the Atlanta area.
EDUCATION/CREDENTIALS
Lynn received her MBA from the University of Connecticut. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Communications from SUNY at Buffalo. In addition, she has worked with the University of Pennsylvania on an MS in Organizational Dynamics. Lynn holds a certification in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. She is certified in the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), Lumina Learning, and International Career Consulting (ICC) as well as qualified in Myers Briggs (MBTI).
SPECIALTY AREAS
Lynn’s diverse and broad range of expertise includes competencies in the following areas:
- Retention and engagement management
- Building and leading inclusive environments
- Career development and management
- Strategic staffing and assessment interviewing
- Executive coaching and change management
- Communication strategies
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Lynn is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE), and the Association for Psychological Type (APT). She is deeply involved in small group facilitation and strategy development for non-profit organization initiatives.
Anna Ettin
Bio coming soon.
Dr. Karen Francis
Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, American Institutes for Research (AIR)
Bio coming soon.
Bobby Gordon
Regional Vice President, Talent Dimensions
Bobby Gordon
Bobby is one of the Diversity and Inclusion Regional Vice President at Talent Dimensions. It is a full-service provider of innovative and proven consulting services, training programs and products for leveraging diversity and inclusion, increasing cross-cultural effectiveness and preventing harassing and discriminatory behaviors. Bobby and PRISM serve 3 million plus employees in over 270 organizations in twenty-six countries on six continents.
As a dedicated, seasoned diversity professional who leads with heart and passion, Bobby specializes in assisting organizations and individuals in achieving business goals by leveraging a diverse, energized and engaged workforce. His portfolio of clients include American Family Insurance, TIAA-CREF, Lockheed-Martin, University Medical Center (Texas), Chevron, Clorox, Universal Parks and Resorts, Entergy, Sony-Latin America, the Center for Disease Control, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, The U.S. Air Force, Denny’s Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield NC, Cracker Barrell Old Country Store, GM Financial, American Airlines, Texas Instruments, CalPERS and Michelin North America.
Prior to joining PRISM, Bobby was a cultural diversity trainer with the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) where he developed, revised and conducted training for managers and senior military leaders in communications, organizational effectiveness and conflict resolution.
His DEOMI experience took him to over 30 states and US territories, and also throughout Germany and South Africa. Directly responsible for the needs analysis, instructional design and leadership duties on diversity seminars for requesting civilian and military organizations, Bobby also served as a participating think tank panelist in developing strategies on increasing representation of women and people of color in senior positions in the Army and Air National Guard. He helped to develop and design a human relation-training program for newly assigned DEOMI staff and faculty members.
After September 11th, he was tasked with co-moderating and developing a video to dispel myths and stereotypes about American citizens of Middle Eastern descent or Muslims. The film’s purpose was to ensure that service members and their families who either appeared or were Middle Easterners or Muslims were treated with fairness, dignity and respect. The film is used by the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Homeland Securities.
Bobby received his Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts from Excelsior College and a Master’s of Science in Transformative Leadership from Bethune-Cookman University. He is a graduate of the Army’s Officer Candidate School. He is also a certified Equal Opportunity Advisor graduating from Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. Bobby lives in Daytona Beach and is an avid golfer and Harley Davidson enthusiast.
Tammy L. Hodo, Ph.D.
Owner of All Things Diverse LLC
Tammy Hodo, Ph.D.
Dr. Hodo also is the owner of All Things Diverse LLC, a consulting company assisting organizations with creating inclusive environments. Tammy earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Urban Studies, with a minor in Sociology in which she specializations in Race, Class, Gender and Ethnicity.
She has worked in academia for over fifteen years in a variety of positions, to include faculty and university administrator while following her active duty Army husband around the world until he retired, and they made Jacksonville, FL their home. Her most recent Administrative role was as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for a law school where she was responsible for policy development and overall institutional compliance for students, faculty and staff related to discrimination and harassment, including violations of the non-discrimination policy and the sexual misconduct policy. Dr. Hodo completed a Visiting Assistant Sociology Professor at the University of North Florida (UNF), where she taught courses on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Introduction to Sociology, Urban Sociology and Sociological Theory. She still teaches for UNF on a part-time bases as an adjunct professor as time allows.
SELECT PRESENTATIONS:
- “Addressing Implicit Bias: Working with Diverse Teams,” Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, April 14, 2020.
- “The need for Diversity within the Legal Profession,” Florida Coastal School of Law, February 27, 2020.
- “The History of the Pullman Porters.” CSX Corporation, February 27, 2020.
- “Perseverance and Resiliency When dealing with Oppression.” River City Academy, February 21, 2020.
- “Understanding Ourselves and Other.” Leadership Jacksonville, February 6, 2020.
- “The Bias inside Us.” University of North Florida, January 21, 2020.
- Selected for TEDx Jacksonville, Theme POP, Title: The Social Implications of Race. October 19, 2019, Florida Theater.
- Panel member: Addressing Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace, October 17, 2019. Hosted by the Jacksonville, Human Rights Commission (HRC).
- Featured Speaker: Implicit Bias and its impact on the workplace. Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMT0), August 2019
- Featured Speaker, Topic: Title IX and the MeToo Movement: The continued need to address sexual assault, harassment and sexual violence in our Society. Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA), East Coast Conference, Philadelphia, October 2, 2019.
- Speaker, Hebrew Union College, Board of Governors. “Microaggressions and Implicit Biases: The Damages they Impose on the Climate and Culture of Organizations, February 2019.
- “Does Implicit Bias Influence your Behavior Intervention Team? A Conversation about Microaggressions and the Effects of Implicit Bias on Marginalized Groups in Academia.” Closing Keynote speaker, the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (Nov 2018).
- “Measuring the Impact of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workforce,” National Diversity Council, Jacksonville Chapter July 2018.
ARTICLES PUBLISHED
- “Black Scholars’ Speak about Diversity or the Lack Thereof in Academia.” Florida Coastal Law Review, Vol. 18 (No. 3), Summer 2017. pp. 367-391. Symposium Issue, Compelling Diversity: Minorities and Higher Education
- “Voices from Within: The Academic Experiences of Minority Scholars at a Midwest Research University.” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, e.polis, 2009, 3; pp. 25-59.
BOOKS PUBLISHED
Cook, Philip W, with Hodo, Tammy L. “When Women Stalk, Sexually Abuse Men: The Hidden Side of Rape, Stalking, Harassment and Sexual Assault.” Praeger Publishers, June 2013.
“A Critical Analysis of an Urban Research University: Climate, Culture and Minority Faculty.” BiblioLabsII 2011.
BOOK CHAPTERS FORTHCOMING
Hodo, Tammy L. & Belgrave, Faye (2020). “The Urban Experiences of African American Families.” In African American Families: Research, Theory, and Practice (pp 320-350), Belgrave, Faye, Goings, Trenette C. & Jones, Heather. Cognella Academic Publishing, CA.
Belgrave, Faye & Hodo, Tammy L. (2020). “Theoretical and Methodological Issues of Studying the African American Family.” In African American Families: Research, Theory, and Practice (pp 180-210), Belgrave, Faye, Goings, Trenette C. & Jones, Heather. Cognella Academic Publishing, CA.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:
Rotary Club Jax Downtown
Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce
Women’s Business Owners of North Florida
Secretary, Jacksonville Urban League, Foundation Board member 2018-present
Vice President, Rebuilding Ex-Offenders Successfully Through Opportunities, Rehabilitation & Education (RESTORE) 2017-present
Cile Johnson
Chief Business Officer, Talent Dimensions
Cile Johnson
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Cile Johnson is a business leader with vast experience helping organizations solve their most pressing leadership and talent challenges. Early in her career, she held various positions of increasing responsibility within the telecommunications industry at Sprint and AT&T. It was through those leadership experiences that Cile found her passion in the human capital management space and transitioned to leadership positions at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and then Mind Gym. Over the next 16 years, Cile and her teams supported Fortune 500 companies across all industries to enhance the performance of their most important resource — their talent.
Cile is a co-owner and serves as Chief Business Officer for Talent Dimensions. She oversees the sales and marketing and finance and IT functions. Her team is responsible for understanding the unique talent management and development needs in the marketplace. Through research, consulting and talent development, this team aligns solutions in support of those needs.
EDUCATION/CREDENTIALS
Cile received her MA in Organization Development from Fielding Graduate University. She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Business Administration from North Carolina Wesleyan College. She attended the Young Executives Institute at Kenan Flagler Business School. Cile is certified in CCL’s suite of 360-degree assessments.
SPECIALTY AREAS
- Career development and management
- Strategic staffing and assessment interviewing
- Executive coaching and change management
- Workshop and strategy facilitation
- Retention and engagement management
- Communication strategies
Debbie Smith Rayford
Executive Director, Global ERG Network
Bio coming soon.
Imelda Wicks
Bio coming soon.
