2022 Conference Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Shane Jackson,
President - Jackson Healthcare
Shane Jackson serves as president of Jackson Healthcare and is the primary guiding force for its mission of improving the delivery of patient care and the lives of everyone it touches. Since assuming this role in 2014, he has consistently led the organization of 15 healthcare staffing, search and technology companies to growth of more than double the industry average, crossing the billion-dollar annual revenue mark in 2018. Prior to his current position, he was president of LocumTenens.com, Patient Placement Systems and NextStart Capital.
Shane is an advocate for the power of business leaders as a positive force for people and the community. He is a speaker on the conference circuit and frequently writes on the topic of intentionally nurturing a values-based culture. In 2018, he published Fostering Culture: A Leader’s Guide to Purposely Shaping Culture, his first book chronicling his philosophy on workplace culture.
Over the past four years, Shane has been recognized on Staffing Industry Analysts’ Staffing 100, a list of the top North American leaders shaping the industry and influencing the workforce solutions ecosystem. In 2020, he received the distinguished Jerry Noyce Executive Health Champion Award from HERO, the Health Enhancement Research Organization, for his contributions in advancing employee health and wellbeing – as well as the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Corporate Citizenship Award.
At Jackson Healthcare, Shane also champions the organization’s LoveLifts community impact platform that focuses on improving access to healthcare and the wellbeing of young people. In 2016, he spearheaded the launch of the non-profit venture Connecting Kids With Care, aligning volunteer doctors and nurses to deliver free, tech-enabled healthcare to thousands of global orphans.
Shane serves on the boards of 3DE and King’s Ridge Christian School. He also is chair of the Health and Wellness Policy Committee for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and vice-chair of the leader-led goBeyondProfit business initiative that promotes the belief that giving back is good for business and good for Georgia. He earned an MBA from Emory University and BBA from Harding University.
Cheryl Watson-Harris,
Superintendent - DeKalb County School District
Cheryl Watson-Harris is an exceptional education leader and equity warrior who brings nearly three decades of experience and success to her role as Superintendent of DeKalb County Schools. She has been and continues to be a champion for children, drawing praise for her innovative leadership style that improves both employee engagement and morale throughout the school system and positively impacts student achievement. Throughout her 26-year career as an educator, administrator, and community leader, she has demonstrated outstanding skills and knowledge of teaching and learning, professional development, and policy implementation, as well as a collaborative leadership style that consistently strives for excellence.
Prior to joining DeKalb County Schools, Watson-Harris served as the First Deputy Chancellor. In that position, she served a diverse cohort of 1.1 million students.
A New York City native, Watson-Harris started her teaching career in 1993 in Brooklyn, served as a principal in Boston for 15 years, and was a Network Superintendent for Boston Public Schools from 2013 to 2015 before joining the New York City Department of Education.
Watson-Harris earned her Bachelor of Science in Education from Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, and a Master's in Education from Harvard University. She is currently a doctoral student at New York University with an anticipated completion date of 2021, with a doctorate in educational leadership and innovation. Throughout her career, Watson-Harris has always been driven by her belief that every child deserves a great school and has remained unapologetic in her pursuit to ensure all students are set on the pathway to success.
Kecia M. Thomas, PhD
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, UAB
Kecia M. Thomas is the Dean of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences and professor emerita at the University of Georgia (UGA). Prior to joining UAB, Dr. Thomas was the Senior Associate Dean in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA where she also served as a Professor of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology and African-American Studies for 27 years. This New Jersey native earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from Bucknell University, and her MS and Ph.D. in I/O Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Thomas is an expert in the psychology of workplace diversity who relishes her scientist-practitioner identity. Her scholarship and institutional engagements focus on the issues of strategic diversity recruitment, diversity resistance (especially in STEM workplaces), and understanding the career experiences of marginalized workers like high potential women of color (e.g. Pet to Threat).
She is the author of over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as the first I/O diversity textbook,Diversity Dynamics in the Workplace (Thomson Wadsworth). Thomas has edited six scholarly volumes including, Diversity Resistance in the Workplace vol. 1 & 2 (Taylor-Francis/Routledge) and Diversity Ideologies in Organizations (Routledge). Her research has been funded by federal agencies, for-profit and non-profit institutions, and corporate foundations. She is an elected fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race. In 2009 she became the 3rd Black American and first Black woman elected Fellow of the Society of I/O Psychology. That same year she also received the Janet Chusmir Award for Distinguished Service from the Academy of Management.
Kecia currently serves on the national change team for the NSF-funded Aspire, the national alliance for inclusive and diverse STEM faculty in addition to supporting the important diversity work of the National Academies of Science (NAS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
As EY Americas Director of Inclusiveness Recruiting, Ken develops and implements the recruiting strategy to build and attract diverse and inclusive talent pools for EY Americas member firms. Ken frequently serves as a spokesperson on diversity and recruiting trends.
Prior to his current role, Ken was a Director in the US firm’s Consulting Services practice, supporting various global internal audit clients.
Ken is a member of the Executive Leadership Council and serves on the Board of Trustees of Manhattan College, North Carolina A&T’s Dean’s Advisory Council and Arizona State University’s Accounting Advisory Board. He is a current Corporate Advisory Board Member of the National Association of Black Accountants and Association of Latino Professionals For America, earning ALPFA’s 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award. Ken is also a Corporate Advisory Board Member of Ascend, which is the largest, non-profit Pan-Asian organization for business professionals in North America.
Ken is the past Chair and current member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) National Commission on Diversity & Inclusion. Previously, Ken was a Board Member and International President of Beta Alpha Psi and a board member and Chair of the Audit Committee for the American Accounting Association.
He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Federation for the Schools of Accountancy (FSA). Ken is a recipient of the FSA's "Practitioner Service Award" for his distinguished service to the profession of accounting and accounting education. He was awarded the NABA’s Presidential Award for his extraordinary accomplishments and leadership in the accounting profession and his commitment to and support of NABA. Ken was also the recipient of the Harlem YMCA’s Black Achiever’s in Industry award, the Michigan Society of CPA’s Diversity and Inclusion leadership award and the New Jersey State Society D&I Leadership award.
Ken earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Manhattan College. He is a Certified Internal Auditor and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
William “Bill” Boulding is an accomplished scholar with a passion for helping advance business as a force for good.
Bill has advocated at the top levels of government, industry and academia for ways that enable business to improve society. In 2014, Bill was invited by the White House to be part of an initiative that developed best practices for how business schools can encourage success for women and working families. In 2015, Bill engaged with the New York Federal Reserve in examining the role business schools can play in rebuilding trust in the financial services sector.
Bill’s passionate belief in creating future business leaders who have the ability to bring people who are very different together to work toward a common goal, led to the school’s number-one ranking by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2014. Bill is a sought-after expert by the media on leadership trends and the qualities needed to succeed today, and has been interviewed by CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, among others. Bill shares his insights regularly on LinkedIn , and was named a Top Voice on the platform in 2016. He also writes for Fortune and Harvard Business Review.
Bill serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Values and the board of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC®), which is the organization that administers the GMAT exam. He is chair of the Board of Directors of Duke Corporate Education and serves on Swarthmore College’s Board of Managers.
Bill has engaged in sponsored research, consulting, or executive development with a number of companies such as IBM, AT&T, Bank of America, Sears, Eli Lilly, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Ford Motor Company, Lafarge, U.S. Postal Service, Stride Rite, Wolseley, Hanes, Harnischfeger, Thomson Newspapers, Siemens, and Citibank.
Bill has a research interest in evaluating how managers make decisions and how consumers respond. His recent work focuses on the domain of health care, examining the role of the patient experience, clinical adherence to standards and managerial activity in determining the quality of delivered care. His work has been widely published in a number of journals and Bill has been the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards.
Bill received his BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Managerial Sciences and Applied Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Caryn Beck-Dudley became president and CEO of AACSB in June 2020. She previously served as dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. Prior to that, she served as dean of the College of Business at Florida State University and the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.
In addition to holding other leadership and teaching roles at Utah State, Beck-Dudley has taught at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Before her academic career, she was an attorney in commercial and corporate law. Beck-Dudley served two previous terms on the AACSB Board of Directors, including as the 2018-19 board chair. She has served on numerous AACSB committees and previously chaired the Maintenance of Accreditation Committee.
Beck-Dudley works closely with leaders from education, business, nonprofits, and government to reimagine how higher education can serve future workforce needs and improve society. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, magna cum laude, from Utah State University and a JD from the University of Idaho College of Law.
Wendy Reynolds-Dobbs, Ph.D. is an Industrial Organizational Psychologist and currently is the Vice President and Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Officer for Unisys Corporation. In this role, she is responsible for leading the DEI strategy and programming in addition to leading efforts in Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Social Governance.
Prior to joining Unisys, Dr. Reynolds-Dobbs served as Vice President of Talent Management and DEI at Change Healthcare, a global healthcare IT company. In this role, Wendy was responsible for leading talent management and succession planning, performance management, executive development, early career programs, competency modeling, assessments, exit interview process and DEI strategy.
Before joining Change Healthcare, Wendy was Sr. Director of Talent Management and Organizational Effectiveness at McKesson corporation and held positions at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Newell Rubbermaid and United Parcel Service (UPS). Additionally, Dr. Reynolds-Dobbs has also served as an adjunct faculty member for University of Georgia and Morehouse College.
Wendy holds a B.A in Psychology and a minor in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of Georgia.
Dr. James O. Rodgers has practiced diversity management as an enterprise performance tool for over 35 years. He is recognized by his colleagues as one of the leading strategists and the #1 thought leader in the field of diversity management. He is known as “The Diversity Coach.”
Dr. Rodgers has been a behind-the-scenes advisor to leaders in over 250 major enterprises including The Coca-Cola Company, Georgia Power, BellSouth (now AT&T) and ThyssenKrupp Elevator and, not-for-profits including YMCA of Metro Atlanta and the High Museum of Art. Internationally, he has been a trusted advisor for global brands such as J&J, IBM, BP Amoco, and Chevron Texaco.
Dr. Rodgers is known internationally as a leader in the field. His published writings are read across the globe in places like UK, Australia, India, the Philippines, and South America. He is the author of Managing Differently: Getting 100% from 100% of your people 100% of the Time.
Managing Differently has been called the most practical approach to diversity and management and is frequently used as source material for MBA courses. He is finalizing his new book, Diversity Training That Generates Real Change, that will fill in the gap of understanding about the intent, history, and commercial value of diversity management.
In addition to his current role as executive coach to C-Suite executives, Dr. Rodgers serves as Director of the Executive Academy of ITSMF. His mission is to “build leaders of color for a changing world.” His value to the aspiring leaders is based on his own executive career, his work as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, and his role as board leader for several high-profile non-profits including Habitat for Humanity and the High Museum of Art. In every board position Dr. Rodgers improved the performance of the organizations in measurable ways. Dr. Rodgers can be reached at jora@thediversitycoach.com.
Ken Bouyer
Director of Inclusiveness Recruiting, EY Americas
Bill Boulding, PhD
Dean, Fuqua School of Business
Caryn Beck-Dudley
President / CEO, AACSB
Wendy Reynolds-Dobbs, PhD
Vice President and Chief DEI Officer for Unisys Corporation
