Advancing Inclusion and Belonging in the Workplace

• Explain the value of an inclusive workplace culture
• Articulate the business case for inclusion and belonging
• More readily recognize and identify bias and prejudice in the workplace
• Better facilitate dialog around bias
• Be a better ally and advocate for one’s colleagues with different backgrounds and experiences
• Identify ways to improve one’s workplace culture and increase employee engagement
• Better position one’s organization to attract and retain top talent

Dr. Melissa Crum is an award-winning diversity and equity professional and inclusion coach. She is also an artist, educator, author, researcher, and founder of the Columbus, Ohio-based consulting company Mosaic Education Network. Mosaic infuses the arts, research, storytelling, and critical thinking into professional development, community building, and curriculum development.

Dr. Crum has facilitated training sessions across the U.S., creating a non-judgmental and refreshingly honest look at privileges and privately held beliefs. Her workshops focus on race history and workplace culture development and equip educators, leadership, staff, and board members with the skills to implement inclusive and equitable practices.

Dr. Crum is a Cornell University Certified Diversity and Inclusion Professional and is a certified executive coach through the University of California’s Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. Dr. Crum earned her master’s in African American and African Studies and a Ph.D. in Art Administration, Education, and Policy from Ohio State University. She is an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and The Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory (ICS) qualified trainer and SHRM provider currently in Columbus, Ohio

Kimberly serves as CEO of Women of Color Retail Alliance and as a lecturer of Marketing. An award-winning executive with an impeccable record of building brands, finding the uncut diamonds, and creating product-based stories. Lee-Minor is a customer-focused brand advocate and marketer with expertise in building seamless, cross-functional life cycle product processes, digital to brick and mortar customer experiences, as well as recruitment, engagement, and retention enhancements.

She leveraged her years of leadership experience to create her company, Bumbershoot, a boutique consulting firm that provides cultural and market insights to help business leaders strategically reposition their cultures for collaboration and inclusivity to provide a welcoming and empowering community for career acceleration of women and people of color; creates content and builds networks for support, enrichment and promotion of niche communities.

Her international professional experience spans from Footlocker Global, Inc, to Brand President of London Fog and Joe Boxer to Lbrands, where she led the $2B Home business.   She is currently CEO of Women of Color Retail Alliance (WOCRA), an organization focused on career development, economic empowerment, and closing the gap to gender parity for women in retail leadership.

Kimberly holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and an Executive Certificate in Leadership and Management from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. She is a currently enrolled in Inclusive Leadership program at Stanford University. 

Cynthia W. Turner serves on the leadership team at Fisher as the assistant dean and chief diversity officer and has become a widely sought-after facilitator and guest speaker on the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion.

After joining Fisher in 2013 as a senior lecturer of accounting, she developed the award-winning Project THRIVE program, a diversity initiative designed to increase representation within the undergraduate accounting and management information systems department. In 2018, she was honored with Ohio State’s Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award for her success in doubling the diversity within the undergraduate program in two short years.

Since taking on the position as assistant dean and chief diversity officer at Fisher in 2019, Cynthia’s strategic efforts have helped double external funding for scholarships and DEI initiatives; facilitating the development of a formal partnership with the city of Columbus to support pre-collegiate programming for its economically disadvantaged and first-generation high school students; developing programming to engage Fisher’s diverse alumni, including the Alumni of Color Network Weekend and the Women’s Leadership Symposium; and creating a new DEI course offering at Fisher.

Read more about Cynthia

Andreá N. Williams specializes in African American literature and nineteenth-century U.S. literature. Her first book, Dividing Lines: Class Anxiety and Postbellum Black Fiction (2013), examines the black middle class and class inequality in African American literature between the Civil War and Harlem Renaissance. Her research interests also address black periodicals and print culture, labor and class studies, life writing and auto/biographical studies, and U.S. women writers. She is currently at work on a cultural study of singleness and unmarried African American women in the first half of the twentieth century. She regularly teaches courses such as “All the Single Ladies,” “Labor, Class and U.S. Literature” and “Growing Up Black: African American Coming-of-Age Narratives.” She has won awards for teaching and leadership at Ohio State, as well as national research fellowships and grants from Rutgers University, the National Humanities Center and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Michael Johnson is an executive HR leader with over 24 years of experience in Human Resource Management, Operations, and Consulting.  Michael currently serves as the Director of HR Business Partners for Riverside Methodist Hospital.  Riverside Methodist Hospital is OhioHealth’s flagship hospital and is the largest hospital within Central Ohio servicing over 100,000 patients annually.  As HR Director, Michael and his team is responsible for the organizational culture and all day-to-day HR operations for the hospital by providing HR business partner support to Riverside’s executives and management teams.  Michael’s career has included HR and operational leadership roles for several top Fortune 50 organizations. Michael has worked in many different business sectors including Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing and most recently Healthcare. Each of these experiences helps Michael to consult with executive leadership to curate HR solutions which achieves organizational goals while ensuring Human Capital needs are front and center in all decisions.

Michael’s training background includes trainings in the following disciplines:
•    DEI
•    Labor Relations
•    HR Management 
•    Leadership Development
•    Organizational Development
•    Operations Management 
•    HR Consulting

Michael holds a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and communications from The Ohio State University.  He also holds an Executive Master’s in Business Administration Degree with specialization in Human Resource Management from Ashland University.  In addition to his educational endeavors Michael holds several certifications including Society of Human Resources Management- Certified Professional (SHRM-CP), Professional in Human Resources (PHR), Facilities Management Administrator (FMA), and Charter Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU). Michael is a proud Lifetime member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Michael and his wife Mary Johnson and son Michael Johnson Jr. currently reside in Blacklick, Ohio. 

Heidi Shull is a Senior Lecturer of Management and Human Resources at the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. She also serves as the MHR department Vice Chair and Program Director for the Graduate Business Minor in Health Sciences. Prior to joining Fisher and transitioning her career to teaching, Heidi spent many years providing leadership to the specialty and emergency space of the veterinary industry including with the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University as an Assistant Director and Practice Administrator. While working in veterinary medicine, she also spent several years teaching business courses at a community college. Heidi continues to work lightly in the veterinary field through local consulting. Heidi was a nontraditional student who completed her own education in business while working and raising a family. She earned her MBA to excel in her veterinary career, but it was in this program that she became inspired to explore teaching. 

All cancellations and transfers must be received in writing. Submit your request via email to Jennie McAndrew at mcandrew.28@osu.edu with the name of the program, followed by “cancellation” or “transfer” in the subject line.

• Cancellations must be made at least thirty (30) days prior to the first day of the program in order to be eligible for a full refund.
• Cancellations must be made at least fourteen (14) days prior to the first day of the program in order to be eligible for a 50% refund.
• Any cancellations made less than fourteen (14) days prior to the first day of the program will forfeit the registration fee.
• If you for any reason are unable to attend the program, please consider sending someone in your place. Participants can transfer their registration to someone else within their organization at no charge up to 24 hours before the first day of the program.