All posts by Dr. Deborah Ashton

ADR Advisor, Dr. Deborah Ashton, President of Planet Perspective, is a HR strategist and 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 is the former Chief of Test Development and Validation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Deborah served on the Advisory Board for the Mill Road Progressive Governance Fund, Mill Road Capital. She has published in the Harvard Business Review, the American Diversity Report, for American Hospital Association, etc. Deborah is an Inclusion Magazine’s 2021 D&I Hall of Fame inductee, one of Savoy Magazine’s 2014 Top Influential Women in Corporate America and recognized as a Health Equity Pioneer by American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity in 2023. She received Clarke University’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award. She has a Clarke College BA, a Harvard University PhD and EdD, and a Harvard Medical School postdoctoral fellowship. She is a licensed psychologist specializing in organizational and clinical psychology.
ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Trends 2025: Chaotic Times

Inclusion and DEI Trends 2025 – by Dr. Deborah Ashton

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1,2,3 Analysis

1) 1 or 2 issues that are personally most vital to me in 2025.

I am personally invested in combatting the attack on DEI that is targeting policies and practices in academia and in the workplace—corporate America and government and the deliberate misrepresentation that DEI and meritocracy are dichotomous. When ENRON failed, the right was not blamed for the good old boy, tap on the shoulder, it’s not what you know but who you know selection process. But DEI is blame for a door that fell off a plane and the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

My second issue is the voices on the far right and the far left drowning out the voices of the centrist and moderate on both the left and the right. Both the extremists talk at each other, not with each other. The far right refers to anything left of center as Marxist; and the far left refers to anything right of center as fascist.

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ADR Advisors, Groundbreakers storytelling

Reflection on Women Groundbreakers Storytelling: Serving Diverse Communities – by Dr. Deborah Ashton

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On March 7, 2024, women groundbreakers, who work locally and globally to serve diverse communities in their respective fields gathered in Chattanooga, Tennessee to share their stories with Deborah Levine, CEO of the American Diversity Report. The women groundbreakers were: 

  • LuLu Copeland – Director: Economic & Workforce Development Administration /Chattanooga State Community College, Exec. Director at TN-China Network, 
  • Dr. Gail Dawson – Associate Prof. of Management and Director of Diversity & Inclusion at the Rollins College of Business /U. of TN/ Chattanooga,
  • Vanessa Jackson – Program Specialist with the City of Chattanooga’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and one of Chattanooga’s first Neighborhood Relations Specialists,
  • Teletha McJunkin – For the past 8 years, she has led and coordinated international, multicultural, multi-lingual teams developing strategies in the areas of human and environmental rights.

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Academic Articles, ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Religious Diversity

DEI, Religion, and Hate Crimes – by Deborah Ashton, Ph.D.

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Introduction

Deborah Levine requested that I join her group on Black and Jewish Dialogue in 2021. Given today’s atmosphere, dialogue is crucial. Levine is the editor-in-chief of the American Diversity Report (ADR). She is a Holocaust documentarian (Courter, 2023; Levine, Untold Stories of a World War II Liberator, 2023), whom I am sure when she launched ADR never anticipated that diversity and DEI would be equated with anti-Semitism. Yet the cry has been aimed at academia and business (Cohen, 2023; Notheis, 2024) I am baffled by the cry to silence and dismantle DEI. 

Through my DEI journey and practice since 1991 in corporate America, DEI has been inclusive and provides respect and dignity to all across religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, physical and mental ability, and other demographics. I will provide some examples later in the article.

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ADR Advisors, Of Women

Two Iconic Women Who Inspire Me – by Dr. Deborah Ashton

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As a Black woman, whose family moved up from the Chicago slums to ‘the projects’, I was navigating the intersectionality of race, gender, and poverty in the USA. A historical iconic woman that inspired me would be Harriet Tubman, born a slave. I admire her because not only did she believe in human dignity and rights, but she also acted on her beliefs and principles. 

Harriet Tubman understood that she and the others who were enslaved were human beings and not chattel. I had the honor to visit the Harriet Tubman House in Auburn, NY. Her modest home gives witness to her tremendous courage. She had seizures and narcolepsy, i.e., traumatic brain injury, from being hit in the head when an overseer threw a heavy metal weight at a slave.  Harriet Tubman could be recognized during Women’s History Month, Disability Pride and Heritage Month and Black History Month. 

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ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Education, Trends 2023

EHLI: Inclusive or Elitism – by Dr. Deborah Ashton

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 Stanford University’s Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI)

Stanford University in December of 2022 issued the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI) to eliminate potentially harmful terms used in the United States within the technology community. Most of the recommendations are trying to avoid trivializing people’s experiences and avoid devaluing others. Other recommendations, from this reader’s experience, are a stretch and assume that we are not able to distinguish the context in which a word or phrase is used. 

The EHLI is a courageous and noble endeavor. I would also argue it is US-centric, Anglophilia, and elitist! And may or may not be transferrable to the larger society.

The following is a sampling of the terms/phrases in the EHLI’s thirteen pages of terms and my reaction to them. 

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Authors A-H, Teams & Leaders

DEI in the Boardroom – by Dr. Deborah Ashton

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Equity Impacts Corporate Decisions

Why have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) expertise in the Boardroom? Look at the controversy swirling around the Georgia’s voting law–the backlash, the boycott, and the backlash to the boycott. Georgia’s most vulnerable citizens lose from both the law and the boycott. I contend that if there had been DEI experts on the boards of the major corporations that traditionally lobbied in Georgia, this may have been averted. Corporations could have predicted how the passage and signing of the bill into law may have impacted their brand. While the bill was being crafted social justice concerns could have been addressed, along with concerns regarding voting integrity. When you are driving you slow down before you come to the hairpin curve rather than trying to correct for it afterward. I have always contended that we should resolve a problem before it begins.

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