All posts by Editor-in-Chief

Deborah Levine founded the American Diversity Report in 2006. She is a Forbes Magazine top "Trailblazer" and award-winning author of 20 books. Her published articles span decades including: American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, The Bermudian Magazine, The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin.
DL Opinion columns

It’s called war, folks – by Deborah Levine 

 Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

In the days since Russia invaded Ukraine, we’ve tried to avoid World War III. There’s no doubt that the economic strategies are impressive. Putin is right to call out the sanctions as war. The Russian ruble has lost much of its value.  The Russian stock exchange closed for days with one financial analyst toasting its death saying, “Rest in peace dear comrade”. Corporations exited in droves including Ikea, Exxon, Boeing, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Volkswagen, Disney, Nike, Apple, Dell, and Google. Visa and Mastercard suspended their Russian operations.

As devastating as these sanctions have been, Russia continues to demolish cities, take over nuclear facilities, and bomb neighborhoods. And while we’d hoped for a cease fire, plans to bomb Ukrainian military-industrial complex to smithereens were just announced.

Continue reading It’s called war, folks – by Deborah Levine  →

Workplace Strategies Podcasts

JOE SANTANA PODCAST: The New DEI and ERG Frontier

DEI and ERGJoe Santana is Chairman of the CDO PowerCircle and the creator and host of the ERG PowerTalk podcast. The CDO PowerCircle is an association of top diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders within highly respected companies that collectively generate nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars in annual revenue and employ almost one million people. Joe, a former line executive and diversity officer, is a published author and futurist whose mission is to develop DEI leaders at all levels for success in our new, highly disruptive world.

DEI and ERGHis latest book is The New DEI and ERG Frontier: How You and Your Efforts Can Rise and Thrive in the New World of Constant Disruption! In this book, Joe teaches DEI and ERG leaders how to produce workforce, workplace, and marketplace equity and inclusion in the constantly evolving and disruptive age of AI, robots, a non-employee workforce, and multiverses.

Hear Joe discuss…

  • Why DEI leaders seeking to create more inclusive cultures today need to think like a futurist
  • Why creating an equitable and inclusive workplace today demands attention to all aspects of the new 4-dimensional workplace (not just hybrid)
  • Why DEI leaders at all levels need to get involved in shaping and governing artificial intelligence

CLICK for PODCAST

UTC Interns

Diversity and the Media: Student Voices  

What is the future of the media and its attempts to reach a diverse audience? We can better understand the upcoming generation’s issues concerning diversity and the media with this collection of quotes from articles by Communication students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. These issues include race, gender identification, intellectual disabilities, healthcare, cultural differences, stereotyping and discrimination of women, as well as microaggressions.
Note that some of the quotes include links to a full article. 

Continue reading Diversity and the Media: Student Voices   →

Authors A-H, Politics

Political Commentary #2: Ketanji Brown Jackson – by Terry Howard

Well folks, darn, he’s back in the limelight. Ben Carson that is. Can’t say that we missed him. Last we heard was when he left his gig as a failure as Housing and Urban Director under the previous administration. 

Now maybe I missed the memo but for the life of me I cannot recall any grandiose retirement parties on “doc’s” behalf at the White House – or while he threw down on caviar and grilled mushrooms at Mar-a-Lago – before he slipped off to who knows where. What I do recall were high fives, fist bumps, “good riddance” and other sighs of relief.  

Continue reading Political Commentary #2: Ketanji Brown Jackson – by Terry Howard →

DL Opinion columns

Ukraine’s aching pain: Cold War 2.0 – by Deborah Levine 

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
(First of 3 columns on Russia-Ukraine war)

Back in 2019, my opinion column called, Don’t Underestimate Putin’sThreat, was published. I quoted Ukrainian-born comedian Yakov Smirnoff’s joke about how the KGB, Soviet Russia’s secret police, stood for Kiss Goodbye Your Butt. Today’s Russia is “…a world erupting with new money and new power” says British producer Peter Pomerantsev in his book, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible. Not much has changed. Russia still uses the KGB “false flag” strategy, claiming that the current conflict is Ukraine’s fault, pseudo-annexing Russian-leaning parts of Ukraine and sending in its military as “peace keepers”.

Continue reading Ukraine’s aching pain: Cold War 2.0 – by Deborah Levine  →

Gender Podcasts, Workplace Strategies Podcasts

DEEPA PURUSHOTHAMAN Podcast: Women of Color at Work

DeepaThe First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America

DEEPA PURUSHOTHAMAN is the co-founder of nFormation which provides brave, safe, new space for professional women of color. She is also a Women and Public Policy Program Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to this, Deepa spent more than twenty years at Deloitte and was the first Indian American woman to make partner in the company’s history.

Deepa is the author of The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America.  She writes about how the structure of corporate America was not built for Women of Color. Hear her discuss how we can begin to reframe the “fit in” and “lean in” mentalities that have left women feeling burnt out or isolated in the workplace.

CLICK for Deepa’s podcast interview.

DL Opinion columns

Playing the political discourse game – By Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

 Remember those playground rumbles after school? “You’re wrong!” “No! I’m right and everybody knows it.” In case you’re wondering, this back-and-forth wasn’t between a couple of kids arguing over kickball. This was the former President and Vice President arguing over the United States constitution. Will this conversation be quoted by future generations? Who knows? Maybe it’ll sound like Shakespeare given how the Republican National Committee (RNC) is trying to redefine the violence of the Jan. 6 Capital riot.

The RNC condemned the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 and censured Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the almost 400 interviews about the “Stop the Steal rally” that day.  The investigation was called a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in “legitimate political discourse”.

Continue reading Playing the political discourse game – By Deborah Levine →

Levine articles, LGBTQ, Of Women, Women in STEM

Women’s History Month: Gender Equality in STEM – by Deborah Levine

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Women’s History Month has often focused on gender equality in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and the lack thereof. The issues that result in low numbers begin early in life and continue into higher education. By the time students reach college, women are significantly underrepresented in STEM majors. Only around 19% of computer and information science majors are women. And only 38% of women who major in computers end up working work in computer fields.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has advocated for gender equality in the academic world and workplace over multiple decades. It’s recent suggestions for STEM education continue that advocacy and include:   

Continue reading Women’s History Month: Gender Equality in STEM – by Deborah Levine →

Arts & Culture Podcasts, Gender Podcasts

KALLIE MARIE Podcast: Gender in Audio/Music Production

Kallie KALLIE MARIE is a recording engineer and record producer who has worked with a variety of artists and bands. She is also an award winning composer, whose work with MPath Tracks won a Broadcast Production Music Award. She has written music for film, TV, choreographers, and has a strong interest in creating music for video games. She is also a freelance writer for Sonic Scoop, as well as a published author with Routledge Taylor Francis, and her latest title with Rowman & Littlefield.

Hear Kallie discuss:

  • How her research about women in this industry come about?
  • Who did she interview?
  • What can some one not involved in audio/music production take away from reading this book?
  • How can we keep our conversations and efforts for gender equality intersectional?

CLICK to pre-order Kallie’s book,  Conversations with Women in Music Production: The Interviews

CLICK for PODCAST