From 2012 to 2016, Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden served as the first Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Vice President at the University of Maryland, College Park. Formerly, she served as Associate Provost for International-Multicultural Initiatives at Alliant International University, as Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology, as Director of the student counseling center at The Claremont Colleges, and as an administrator in two Chicago community mental health centers. She is a Licensed Psychologist and the co-author of Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America, a winner of the 2004 American Book Awards. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, she is a thought leader with respect to equity, diversity and inclusion and she has provided consultation and training to educational institutions, professional associations, non-profits, corporations and government. Recent clients include the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Psychological Association, the American Youth Policy Forum, The Phillips Collection and the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children.

A native of Washington, DC, Kumea was one of two Black girls to integrate The Madeira School in Northern Virginia. She earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Princeton University with its first class of women and a Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the University of Maryland. Kumea is currently the Principal at Shorter-Gooden Consulting, based in Washington, DC.

Check out Kumea’s website here.

Karen Harris has been working in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for over 25 years and has a depth of practical experience as a facilitator, trainer, leader, and organizational change agent. She is passionate about facilitating understanding and communication across cultures and bringing people together for personal and social change. Karen’s DEI skills are built on extensive personal and professional experiences overseas and on diverse teams within the United States. She has worked across all sectors, including government, non- profit, business, and academia, and has experienced firsthand how inclusion builds stronger, more motivated teams and unleashes collective creativity and productivity.

Karen is very proud of her role leading the research, development, and implementation of San Diego County’s Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for which she received the coveted Coin of Excellence from Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer. This has been one of the most comprehensive and successful DEI efforts in local government in the United States. Karen currently serves as Program Coordinator for Employee Engagement at the County of San Diego’s Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA), where she creates a culture of belonging and engagement for 7,000+ employees. She previously served as Staff Development Coordinator for HHSA where she led the Agency’s training team for instructor-led, online, and video-based learning.

In 2014, Karen was the County’s internal partner to Ferdman Consulting to conduct focus groups for the leaders of the County’s employee resource groups (ERG), and later to design and facilitate the first two annual ERG leadership summits focused on developing a cadre of diversity and inclusion champions for San Diego County. More recently, she has worked with Ferdman Consulting to conduct racial equity internal listening sessions for the California State Water Resources Control Board, as well as to build organizational DEI capacity at Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. On this project, she partnered on the administration and assessment of a DEI assessment, development of a DEI strategic action plan, and co-facilitation of the work of Central San’s DEI Task Force.

Karen did her undergraduate work at Georgetown University in Washington D.C, where she obtained a degree in history and diplomacy in developing regions from The School of Foreign Service. She earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership from The College of St. Catherine in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she completed a Leadership Action Project on creating a successful intercultural workplace. From 2008 to 2014, Karen was the Lead Principal at The Diversity Edge, a consulting agency offering training and strategic planning services to public, private, and non-profit organizations such as the U.S. Postal Service, Department of Natural Resources, County of San Diego, Girl Scouts of America, BAE Systems, CP Kelco, San Diego State University, and Navy Federal Credit Union. Karen speaks French and was a founding member of the Georgetown University women’s soccer team.

Sophia is passionate about applying her understanding of human behavior in the workplace to help organizations to build a productive workplace where employees can contribute their full potential.  Sophia earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in organizational psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University. She has been lending her talents to Ferdman Consulting since 2017, working on a variety of consulting engagements with a range of corporate and non-profit clients.

Recently, Sophia has expanded her consulting work to Asia (especially Taiwan), where she developed assessments, workshop content, and materials in Mandarin related to organization and team development and workplace stress management. In her work, Sophia adopts a data-driven and research-based approach to provide solutions to empower and create engaging learning experiences with her clients.

Sophia has a range of experience working with several for-profit and non-profit organizations in various areas, including diversity and inclusion, leadership development, employee motivation and wellbeing, organization development, strategic management, change management, team development, and training. In addition to consulting, Sophia has also conducts research on leadership, working conditions, organizational behavior, and work-related attitudes.

Ilene Wasserman, founder and president of ICW Consulting has over 30 years of experience in Organizational Consulting, Strategic Planning, Change Management, Leadership Development and Executive Coaching. As Vice-President of a major consulting firm and founder and President of ICW Consulting, Ilene helps leaders and teams throughout organizations leverage multiple dimensions of domestic and global diversity by enhancing communication and collaboration. Ilene’s approach is appreciative, based on the principles that we transform organizational cultures through engaging the whole system.

Ilene has served a consulting coach with senior executives and board of directors of Fortune 100 companies, socially responsible businesses, health care institutions and institutes of higher education. Consultations have also included designing retreats for leadership teams and developing internal work teams. She has also led large strategic change initiatives. In addition to consulting and coaching Ilene has taught courses in leadership, organizational consulting, leading diversity, organizational communication, emotional intelligence and cultural competence, and group dynamics at the graduate level.

Ilene received her PhD from the Fielding Graduate University in Human and Organizational Development. She also holds Masters degrees both in Counseling Psychology and Social Work from Washington University and a B.S. from Cornell University in Human Development. In addition to her formal education, Ilene is trained in Future Search, Gestalt, and Appreciative Inquiry. has conducted foundational and advanced workshops in Appreciative Inquiry.

Ilene is a Senior Fellow of the Wharton Leadership Institute, a Fellow of both the Taos Institute and serves on the Board of the Lewin Center, serves on the Boards of the CMM Institute and is a Member of NTL. Ilene is active in her community, serving as Chair of the Lower Merion Township Human Relations Commission.

Check out Ilene’s website here.

Led by William H. Berman PhD, Berman Leadership Development, LLC leverages the science of psychology and line management experience to enable executives to enhance their impact and promote their team effectiveness. Through executive coaching, development planning, and assessments of senior leaders, we ensure that executives give their people “Something to believe in, someone to believe in, and someone who believes in them.”

Berman Leadership’s website can be found here.

Maia Ferdman is the founder and principal of Bridges Intergroup Relations Consulting, which supports organizations and communities to build vibrant spaces of belonging – spaces celebrating our complex identities, proactively exploring our differences, and building resilient relationships between groups. Throughout her career Maia has developed numerous interfaith programs, trained government and nonprofit groups in cultural competency, and facilitated conversations across differences about policing, homelessness, Israel-Palestine, and more. She is a skilled facilitator and educator who brings energy, nuance, and heart to all her work. Maia is also the Assistant Director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy, a center dedicated to elevating the role of historical analysis in policy making. She supports the center’s research and programming and produces the bi-weekly podcast Then & Now.  

Dr. Joanie B. Connell is an organizational consultant, author, professor, and leadership coach who helps companies hire, develop, and retain key people.  Her niche is helping nerds—technical people, like scientists and engineers, who have moved into leadership positions—who are new to or struggling with the people management side of their jobs.  However, she consults and teaches in a variety of areas, including leadership assessment and development, employee engagement, coaching and mentoring, team building, generational differences, emotional intelligence, resilience, women leaders, Strengths-based leadership, and virtual teams.

Joanie hosts two podcasts: Reinventing Nerds and Lessons from the Workplace.  She is also the author of Flying without a Helicopter: How to Prepare Young People for Work and Life and has a second book on the way called Consulting to Technical Leaders: Transforming Technical Experts to Managers and Leaders to be published by the American Psychological Association in 2021.  She teaches/has taught organizational psychology courses at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego, California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, and at National University.

She earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in Engineering from Harvard University and she has had several years’ experience working as an electrical engineer.

Check out Joanie’s website here.