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.
Interfaith Podcasts, Religious Diversity

Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson: Religious Diversity on Campus

The Reverend Janet M. Cooper Nelson is Chaplain, Director of the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life, and faculty member at Brown University where she leads a multi-faith team of 4 Associate Chaplains and 40 Religious Life Affiliates, responsibilities she assumed in 1990 after appointments at Vassar, Mount Holyoke, and The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College.

She is ordained in United Church of Christ and holds degrees from Wellesley College, Tufts University, and Harvard Divinity School where she was awarded the Billings Prize for Preaching, the Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Distinguished Alumni award, and The Peter J. Gomes Memorial Award.

CLICK to hear the podcast: Religious Diversity on Campus

International Podcasts, Workplace Strategies Podcasts

Eric Kruger: Developing Cross-Cultural Intelligence

Eric KrugerEric Kruger is an international, multi-lingual, business and policy economist, professionally trained executive coach and a specialist in customized cross-cultural management training. He has  worked on international corporate strategy in German, British and French companies and worked in Latin America and East Asia.

Kruger  founded Compass Development Strategies to bring the benefits of coaching and training to employees and professionals at all organizational levels. Since 2009, he’s been the lead international management consultant for Volkswagen Chattanooga.

An economics professor at the U. of Tennessee/ Chattanooga, Kruger holds degrees in international economics from the London School of Economics, University College, London and the Graduate Faculty of the New School U. in New York.

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Generational, Levine articles

Letter Home from WW II Soldier – Courtesy of Deborah Levine

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On special occasions, Veterans & Memorial Day, I reread this letter from a young soldier, my father, Aaron Levine to his dear wife. On the verge of being deployed to Europe during World War II, he wrote this 1944 note. He writes my pregnant mother who came to NYC to see him off, but missed him.  My father didn’t see his son until he was one year old. Aaron Levine passed away at age 84 and worked on community projects even on his death bed. 
 Literary, practical, loving, and compulsively methodical, here is his WW II good-bye letter …

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Levine articles, LGBTQ

Volkswagen and Women Who Rock – by Deborah Levine

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Women who rockOver the years, I’ve attended press conferences, graduations, receptions, and concerts at Volkswagen Chattanooga’s conference center, but I’ve never before seen it decorated entirely in pink. The event was the first ever Volkswagen Women Who Rock Awards Brunch. After having my picture taken in the photo booth wearing a pink Volkswagen hard hat, I meandered through the crowd waiting to hear from the keynote speaker, Julie Baumgardner, CEO and Founder of Chattanooga’s family oriented nonprofit, First Things First.

Women Who rock
Women Who Rock attendees

We watched profiles of the award nominees on the overhead screens as we listened to each of their favorite songs. It was a musical lesson in diversity. True to Volkswagen’s techie mindset, the playlist could be downloaded on Spotify. After much munching and brunching, we were brought to attention by Shireena Avery, the Volkswagen Diversity Sponsor to the featured Employee Resource Groups (ERG). The Women Who Rock program got underway with Megan Herndon, President of Volkswagen’s Women in Motion ERG.

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Levine articles, Social Issues

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Authors R-Z, Commerce, Of Women

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

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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.

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Levine articles, Religious Diversity

Calendars & Religious Diversity – by Deborah Levine

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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.”

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Interfaith Podcasts

Robyn LeBron – Interfaith Peace Advocate

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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