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.
Levine articles, Social Issues

#MeToo, Three, Four, and Five: A Leadership Challenge – by Deborah Levine

2 Comments

Why have women waited so long to tell their stories of sexual harassment, discrimination, pedophilia, abuse, and discrimination? How do we as individuals and as a nation process this tidal wave of #MeToo information as people come forward? I’ve hesitated to tell my stories of sexual harassment because I’ve never been able to comprehend and digest them. The first time I experienced my feminine vulnerability, I was only four years old. I was playing outside in the garden of our home in Bermuda, when a teen-age neighbor squatted down next to me as I was playing with my favorite marbles in the garden. Smiling at me, he reached under my skirt and stroked my privates through my underpants. Before he walked away, he made me promise not to tell my father, silencing me.

Continue reading #MeToo, Three, Four, and Five: A Leadership Challenge – by Deborah Levine →

Commerce, Levine articles

Global Trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership – by Deborah Levine

While President Trump reconsidered the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?  Many American cities, like Chattanooga, have built their economies on international industries, their vendors, and outdoors sports competitions including Ironman.  Before the halt to our participation in the TPP, there was a well-attended panel discussion on the controversial TPP  at the Small Business Incubator with moderator Jim Frierson, who was Chief of Staff in the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) during the Reagan Administration. The cabinet agency is responsible for developing international trade policy for the President and negotiating with our trading partners. America’s first bilateral free trade agreements — with Israel and Canada — were initiated, negotiated, and implemented during his eight-year tenure. As intense competition from Japanese autos and semiconductors appeared to threaten the US and then receded, the seeds of an ambitious Pacific regional trade compact were planted in exploratory meetings by the USTR himself, Ambassador Bill Brock, a Chattanooga native.

Continue reading Global Trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership – by Deborah Levine →

Around the world, Levine articles

Making a Difference: Goodwill in Africa, Afghanistan, and the Middle East

These stories from Global Goodwill Ambassadors will motivate you to pursue your efforts to change the world for the better. Their words of wisdom will inspire you to be a model for others to follow in your footsteps. Here are interviews with Dr. Nadia Cheaib and Abdul Asill Azizi. Let us celebrate people making a difference in their own way.

Continue reading Making a Difference: Goodwill in Africa, Afghanistan, and the Middle East →

Authors R-Z, Commerce, Of Women

Interview #1: How to Grow as an Entrepreneur – by Fatima Williams

1 Comment

You have an idea, you have something that you want to do, a business that you want to start up. How do you go about doing it?’
Self-Confidence, Motivation, and Inspiration help you develop and grow as an Entrepreneur. It’s about recognizing opportunity, looking around you, and thinking of something that could be done differently. It might be a new product or a new service but it’s about spotting an opportunity in the marketplace. Something out of the box. Out of the ordinary. Often, it’s the most simplest of ideas that really take off.

Inspired by the response to my article, 2018 Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs and How to Overcome Them, I initiated this series called How to grow as an entrepreneur. I am talking to leading and inspiring women entrepreneurs all over the world and welcome men who support Women Entrepreneurship as well. This is about raising awareness. Women need to take the entrepreneur baton in their hands.

Continue reading Interview #1: How to Grow as an Entrepreneur – by Fatima Williams →

Levine articles, Religious Diversity

Calendars & Religious Diversity – by Deborah Levine

1 Comment

Religious Diversity is one of the most challenging, controversial, and complex issues of our time. Few diversity professionals speak on the topic, but it’s my passion and I recently gave a seminar on it at a conference at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Why had these business professionals and administrators chosen this particular session to attend? Some were curious, “I have a general interest in religious diversity, especially learning about other religious traditions.” Others were focused on the application of new information, “I want to understand more about religious diversity so that I can better interact with people from all religious backgrounds.” Our discussion focused not only on the university, but also on business, “I need to increase my understanding and ability to competently work with clients who identify as religious.”

Continue reading Calendars & Religious Diversity – by Deborah Levine →

Interfaith Podcasts

Robyn LeBron – Interfaith Peace Advocate

1 Comment

Interfaith Peace AdvocateRobyn LeBron is a member and contributor to WorldAnglican.com.  She is an interfaith peace advocate and the Manager-Moderator of Interfaith Professionals on LinkedIn where she advances the interfaith movement by connecting interfaith groups to maximize their efforts.  Robyn is the author of two books, Searching for Spiritual Unity…Can There be Common Ground? and The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos.

CLICK to hear Robyn’s podcast

Workplace Strategies Podcasts

Vincent Ivan Phipps: Communication expertise for diverse styles

VIPVincent Ivan Phipps is an expert on Communication expertise for diverse styles as a  Speech Coach, author, and owner of Communication VIP Training and Coaching.

Vincent is the recipient of the highest earned professional speaking recognition awarded by the National Speakers Association called the CSP, Certified Speaking Professional. Communication expertise for diverse styles

Listen to Vincent’s Podcast – Click

Generational, Politics

Faces of the Future: Generation Z – by Deborah Levine

 What does the future of the US look like? The next generation is the focus of an NBC News special which features stories of their lives and expectations. The American Diversity Report is eager to share excerpts from that special on TODAY.COM
 
TO COME OF AGE IN 2017 in America is to enter adulthood in a time of often overwhelming turbulence. The country is deeply divided, technology is reshaping the world at a breakneck pace, and the future seems filled with uncertainty. As each day appears to bring with it another crisis, from unprecedented natural disasters to horrific mass killings to violent and vehement ideological clashes, questions lurk in the background: Who will inherit this world? And what will they do with it?

Continue reading Faces of the Future: Generation Z – by Deborah Levine →

Holocaust/antisemitism, Levine articles, USA Culture

History, Monuments and Culture Clash – by Deborah Levine

2 Comments
Any discussion of monuments and cultural symbols tends to be highly emotional, regardless of which side of the controversy you’re on. Here in Chattanooga, the controversy features the statue of General A.P. Stewart at the county court house. For some, Stewart represents post-Civil War bridge building and the creation of the Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park. For others, his Confederate uniform and the monument’s funding by the Daughters of the Confederacy symbolizes slavery followed by Jim Crow laws.
My experience with historical monuments began thirty years ago when I was hired as the junior of three assistant directors in the American Jewish Committee’s Chicago office. It was August and when a reporter from The Chicago Tribune called, I was the only staff person not on vacation.

Continue reading History, Monuments and Culture Clash – by Deborah Levine →

Authors R-Z, Gender, Of Men, Social Issues

Addressing Social Isolation among Men – by Elwood Watson

Despite his material and enviable career success, Don, like many of his mid-20th-century contemporaries and many men today, more than a half a century later, was hampered by a common theme that is prevalent in the lives of many men — a lack of genuine friendships. The old saying that “the more things change, the more they stay the same” rings true in regards to this particular issue.

Continue reading Addressing Social Isolation among Men – by Elwood Watson →