Many thanks to the ADR Advisors for helping make the American Diversity Report an exemplary inclusion resource. Scroll down to see their profiles.
ADR Advisor: Deborah P. Ashton, Ph.D., CDM
Dr. Deborah Ashton is a HR and DEI executive with 30+ years of global and Fortune 500 experience. She led DEI at Medtronic, Darden Restaurants, Harley-Davidson, Argonne National Laboratory and Novant Health. She has published in the Harvard Business Review, American Diversity Report, for American Hospital Association, etc. She is an Inclusion Magazine’s 2021 D&I Hall of Fame inductee and one of Savoy Magazine’s 2014 Top Influential Women in Corporate America. She has a Clarke College BA, a Harvard University PhD, and a Harvard Medical School postdoctoral fellowship. She is a licensed psychologist specializing in organizational and clinical psychology.
ADR Advisor: Marc Brenman
Marc Brenman is a writer, consultant, and educator on human rights and leadership through his firm, IDARE LLC. He served as Executive Director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission and as Senior Policy Advisor for Civil Rights at the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. He held positions with the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Dept. of Education. He served on the Diversity Standards Task Force of the Society for Human Resources Management and ASTM and is on the Board of Advisors of The City Project of Los Angeles. Marc is author of policy and research papers, articles, and op-eds. He has taught graduate courses on civil rights history, human rights, public policy development, advocacy, and strategic planning at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington and the University of Utah. He recently taught in the Young African Leadership Initiative, a USAID program in Nairobi, Kenya.
ADR Advisor: Dr. Carlos E. Cortés
Dr. Carlos E. Cortés is the Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. For nearly thirty years he has served on the faculties of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education, the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, and the Federal Executive Institute. Cortés has been Scholar-in-Residence with Univision Communications and received an NAACP Image Award for being the Creative/Cultural Advisor for Nickelodeon’s award-winning children’s television series, “Dora the Explorer,” and its sequels, “Go, Diego, Go!” and “Dora and Friends: Into the City.” He was also a 2018-2019 fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement and in 2019 received the Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus.
ADR Advisor: Dr. Gail A. Dawson
Gail Dawson is Associate Professor of Management at U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She was Sr. Consultant at Price Waterhouse Management Consultants, Scheduling/Car Distribution at General Motors. Her degrees are from: University of South Florida, Drexel University – College of Business and Administration, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Gail has served as co-host of the ADR Town Hall.
ADR Advisor: Ainesh Dey
Ainesh Dey is a student at St Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He served as a social media marketing intern in International MUN and as a content creator for: Times of India, The Print and Youth ki Awaaz. He worked closely with the International Justice Mission, pitching solutions on issues of women trafficking, abuse of human rights and elimination of poverty.
ADR Advisor: David B. Grinberg
David Grinberg is a strategic communications consultant, ghostwriter, and literary PR agent on issues of workforce diversity, equal employment opportunity, race and gender equity, and other social justice causes. A native New Yorker and University of Maryland graduate, David began his career in journalism. He’s a former career spokesman for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where he managed media relations for agency headquarters and 50 field offices nationwide for over a decade. Prior to his EEOC public service, David was a young political appointee for Pres. Bill Clinton in the White House: Office of Presidential Personnel, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
ADR Advisor: Marsha Mills
Marsha Mills is President of the Rhyme N Chatt Interactive Poetry Organization and owner of GoldNook Publishing Company. She is the recipient of several Literary Excellence Awards and a Ruth Holmberg Leadership Award nominee. Marsha is an instructor for ArtsBuild’s Tech Goes Home for the Arts and the host of “Raise Your Voice” youth programming on WTCI Educates YouTube channel. During the day, she’s the Digital Communication Administrator at McKee Foods Corporation, where she has worked for more than 37 years.
ADR Advisor: The Rev. Dr. John Pawlikowski
The Rev. Dr. John Pawlikowski is a Servite Friar priest, Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, and Former Director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program, part of The Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry, at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union (CTU). Pawlikowski was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by several presidents, chaired the council’s Subcommittee on Church Relations, served on its executive committee, the Committee on Conscience, and academic committee. He also served as president of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) and is a member 3 key committees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (Global Ethic, Peace and Justice, and Climate Action Task Force).
ADR Advisor: Sridhar Rangaswamy
ADR ADVISOR Sri began publishing articles when studying at DB Jain College. He was editor during his post-graduate work at Bhavan’s Rajaji College of Communication and Management, and later, for India’s “Gateway” Magazine.Sri authored technical articles while working in Oracle Corporation and taught RDBMS and has written books including, Beginners Guide for Story Telling.He was adjunct faculty at Eastern State Florida College and a Gayatri Mantra coordinator for World Hindu University.
ADR Advisor: Dr. George Simons
Dr. George Simons is the creator of the award-winning diversophy® game series for developing intercultural competence. Living in France, he delivers consultation, coaching, training worldwide. Publications include: EuroDiversity, Men and Women: Partners at Work, Seven Ways to Lighten your Life, Putting Diversity to Work, and of eight Cultural Detective® intercultural guides. He is collaborating in developing acculturation tools for migrants and the communities that receive them and applying gamified neuro-scientific for learning in organizations, cultural groups and individuals.
ADR Advisor: Mauricio Velásquez
Mauricio Velásquez is the President & Founder of Diversity Training Group (DTG). He is a Diversity Trainer and Consultant who has trained in every state but North Dakota and with a recent trip to Cuba. He has trained more than three quarters of a million participants in his nearly 20 year career. Mauricio is an MBA graduate of George Washington U.
ADR Advisor: Dr. Julia Wai-Yin So
Julia Wai-Yin So is Associate Professor of Sociology at UNM-Valencia Campus. In addition to teaching/writing on diversity & inclusiveness, she also provides services on culture coaching, civil mediation, and program evaluation. Before moving to New Mexico, Julia worked for the Dallas College in Texas where she successfully expanded a $30-million privately-funded endowed scholarship program county-wide. She also implemented a recruitment initiative that resulted in a 10% increase in the enrollment of Asian students of the college the first year. Julia’s passion in life is helping others to raise their cultural competency of those that look and speak differently from them.
ADR Advisor: Dr. Nagwan R. Zahry
Nagwan Zahry is assist. professor of communication at U. of TN at Chattanooga (UTC). Originally from Egypt where she was a Sr. Program Manager for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. Midwest Universities Consortium, Nagwan got her PhD from Michigan State U. in media and information. In 2018, she joined UTC where she teaches social media marketing, public relations, media and diversity. Her research focuses on science and health communication and persuasive messaging.