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.
Workplace Strategies Podcasts

Everett Harper Podcast: DEI Decision Making

DEI Decision Making Everett Harper is an entrepreneur, strategist, and the CEO and Co-Founder of Truss, a technology infrastructure company.  In his new book, “Move to the Edge, Declare it Center,” Harper shares effective methods for decision making in situations where there may be a lack of complete information, ways to sustain teams during uncertain and stressful periods, and effective techniques for managing personal anxiety—a crucial leadership skill.
Hear Everett discuss:

  1. Does being a Black CEO influence how you lead, solve problems and build teams?
  2. Why is diversity, equity and inclusion important for companies?
  3. Advice  to companies that aren’t currently diverse, but want to start addressing the issue?
  4. How to create measurable and sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion processes – and how companies can begin to adopt them to achieve their business goals.
  5. Navigating tragedy and the unknown, and how leaders can apply these life lessons to their organizations.

Everett CLICK to hear podcast

Book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3we0h8I
Book on Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/37I5Z9y
Book for ordering via Independent booksellers on Indiebound: https://bit.ly/3LhP9fs
Author and speaker site: https://everettharper.com
International Podcasts, Transformation Podcasts

Giselle Roeder Podcast: Surviving Tyranny

Giselle Born prior to WWII Giselle Roeder spent her early life in the relatively tranquil setting of a rural village in Pomerania, the most eastern part of Germany ceded to Poland in 1945. The bloody trauma of the fighting between the advancing Russians and the retreating German army in her neighborhood meant that thousands of people, including her family became displaced persons. l

Giselle lived in 3 Germanys: 1) 10 years under Nazi rule, 2) 10 years under Communist restrictions and 3) 10 years in the capitalistic West Germany. Giselle learnt early not to talk about anything she heard at home. After the Russian invasion witness to rapes, gruesome acts of murder; evicted and part of the ‘wall to nowhere’ next to the Russian war machinery on their way to Berlin & Victory. Starving, sleeping under the stars, against all odds she grew up and always found a way to save herself and her family. Escaping East Germany, and in a way, also West Germany , she married an unknown pen friend from Canada.

Be inspired, especially given current events in Ukraine, by her determination to stay alive and her courage to tell the stories that nobody wants to talk about.

CLICK for Podcast PART 1

 

GiselleSee Giselle’s website  for her books::
“Healing with Water” – Kneipp Hydrotherapy at Home
“Sauna” – The Hottest Way to Good Health
“Forget Me Not” – Bouquet of Stories
“Ein Mensch von Gestern” – German Poems
“Flight into the Unknown” – Part 2 of “The Nine Lives of Gila”.

 

 

Holocaust/antisemitism, Levine articles, Religious Diversity

Reflections on the Holocaust — by Deborah Levine

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As my radio theater play, UNTOLD: Stories of a World War II Liberator, is in preparation for broadcast, I am reminded of the 1st time that I agreed to serve on the local Holocaust Remembrance Day Committee was painful, even after almost seventy years since the end of World War II.  I agreed to assist in promoting the event beyond our Jewish community and I agreed to participate in the reading of the names of the victims.  And I resigned myself to being an usher at the event, not my favorite thing.  What I didn’t bargain for was a seat on the stage when I offhandedly shared that I was helping in memory of my father who was a U. S. military intelligence officer during World War II.  Aaron Levine was an army translator of German and French.  And by the way, he was a liberator of a labor camp.

Continue reading Reflections on the Holocaust — by Deborah Levine →

Artists, DL Opinion columns

Culture Wars: Can artists win? – by Deborah Levine

Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press   

Why do we now say Kyiv instead of Kiev? It’s because Kyiv is the Ukrainian pronunciation and Russia’s invasion is a culture war.  Their disputes are old-as-dirt and Ukrainian Nikita Khrushchev tried to enable a Ukrainian revival with the transfer of Crimea from Russia. But, Soviet repression went beyond land and sovereignty.

With the USSR dissolution, Ukraine established a new government with its own national anthem in Ukrainian, not Russian. It’s no accident that Putin’s treaty demands include protection for the Russian language. It may seem trivial, but imagine if England suddenly tried to re-establish British control over America and insisted that we revert to British English. If England were like Putin, you might go to jail if you refused to spell “color” as “colour”, the original, British version. Or what about our patriotic song, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”? That melody was originally an unofficial national anthem of England. We wouldn’t tolerate going back to its original title: “God Save the Queen”. We’d fight a new War of Independence.

Continue reading Culture Wars: Can artists win? – by Deborah Levine →

Being Diverse, Native American

Deb Hunter Podcast – History of the Cherokee Nation

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Cherokee

Deb Hunter was a USA Today best selling author, historian & podcaster.  A former executive director of the World Chamber of Commerce, she was active in Atlanta’s British-American Business Council.

Her journey with the Cherokee Nation began in 2021 when she contacted them for permission to explore their history for a Civil War discussion. That lead to numerous conversations.

The revelation by Secretary Deb Haaland of the Indian Boarding School Initiative is synergistic as the report includes a Cherokee School in Chattanooga TN – the Brainerd Mission – (Deb was originally from Chattanooga).
Note: She worked with a historian from the Cherokee Nation to verify this information.

Continue reading Deb Hunter Podcast – History of the Cherokee Nation →

Books, The Arts

WINDHAM-CAMPBELL PRIZES REVEAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY RECIPIENTS

WINDHAM-CAMPBELL

“I am receiving this award with wide open arms, humbling crumbling with gratitude – calling the names of those on whose shoulders I stand, those that have loved and guided me, those known and unknown who are my champions.”

(l-r: Sharon Bridgforth, Emmanuel Iduma, Margo Jefferson, Wong May, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Tsitsi Dangaremba, Winsome Pinnock and Zaffar Kunial)

Continue reading WINDHAM-CAMPBELL PRIZES REVEAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY RECIPIENTS →

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 →