Dr. Jarris Louis Taylor, Jr., a member of the Senior Executive Service, is Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for the Strategic Diversity Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Washington, D.C. He is responsible for the policy, guidance, direction and oversight of all plans and programs affecting diversity integration for Air Force military and civilian personnel. Dr. Taylor provides leadership, strategic direction and oversight to all levels of the Air Force to ensure a diverse and inclusive Total Force.

Dr. Taylor, a native of Baltimore, Md., earned his Doctor of Education degree in higher education administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He retired from the Air Force in 2005 and has extensive experience in academia, research, community service and fundraising. Prior to his current position, he was Associate Director, William R. Harvey Leadership Institute and Honors College at Hampton University, Va. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2009.

Deborah Dagit joined Merck & Co. Inc. as the Chief Diversity Officer in June 2001. She has responsibility for global equal opportunity employment compliance, diversity, inclusion, work environment, and university relations strategy.

Under Ms. Dagit's leadership, organizations such as Diversityinc, Working Mother and the Human Rights Campaign have recognized Merck for its exemplary work in diversity and inclusion. Merck has undergone 55 different federal audits for compliance with U.S. Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity requirements for federal contractors since 1980 - each time, receiving a letter of compliance from the government.

Ms. Dagit introduced and leads the company's signature Global Constituency Group (GCG) strategy, which was launched with the creation of 10 global teams representing 32 countries.  These groups are: Men, Women, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native/Indigenous, Differently Able, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Asian, Interfaith and Generational. Each team is made up of 15-20 senior leaders representing the company's best talent across various business units and geographies. 

These teams are charged with recommending both talent development and marketplace- focused best practices to be integrated into the company’s HR and business practices. The teams' work guides the Company's diversity and inclusion strategy globally. In addition to the 10 GCGs, Merck also has eight Employee Resource Groups, a Chairman's annual global diversity awards program, and plays a key role in well known educational outreach and philanthropic initiatives with strategic partners.

Ms. Dagit joined Merck from Silicon Graphics, Inc. where she was a Director of Learning Communications and Diversity since 1993. Prior to Silicon Graphics, Ms. Dagit was Senior Manager, Strategic Cultural Initiatives for Sun Microsystems, Inc. from 1991 to 1993.  Previously, she founded and managed Bridge-to-Jobs, a job placement organization through which she personally placed 400 people with disabilities into full time employment. She played a key role in the passage of the American with Disabilities Act through lobbying efforts in California and Washington, D.C. 

Ms. Dagit earned a bachelor's degree with honors from Oregon State University, and completed her master's coursework in clinical psychology at San Jose State University. She is a past Chair of the Conference Board's Workforce Council on Diversity and served as co-chair of the Board of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network until May 2011. She also currently serves on the Business Advisory Councils for Catalyst and the Tanenbaum Center for Inter-religious understanding, and is on the Board of the U.S. Business Leadership Network and the Families and Work Institute. She is the author of, "The Promise of Diversity: Reflections on the Not-So-Level Playing Field" and "An Employer's Guide to Hiring and Accommodating People with Disabilities."

Among her many awards, Ms. Dagit earned the 2005 Champion of the Year from Out and Equal; the 2004 “Employee of the Year" award from Careers & the DisABLED magazine; the 2000 Exemplary Leader Award from Silicon Graphics; the 1999 Advocate of the Year from the Black Employees Network; the 1997 Award of Professional Excellence from the Northern California HR Council; and the 1996 Tribute to Women in Industry award.

Dennis is the Director of Inclusion on McDonald’s Corporations’ Global Inclusion and Intercultural Management team. His responsibilities include coaching and consulting Home Office and Region leaders on multi-cultural team management; coaching and consulting leadership teams for a more inclusive workplace; coaching and consulting McDonald’s five National Employee Business Network leaders on building more viable and visible networks; and oversight of McDonald’s Global employee online Mentoring program for 10,000+ employees.

Dennis began his McDonald’s career in 1982 in Human Resources, and has been a professional in human resources management and motivation for over 30 years. His expertise and emphasis is on the strategic identification and development of diverse people talent. Dennis uses his ‘discover, design, develop and deliver’ organizational process to define value to a business or organization and has been a featured speaker at seminars and workshops throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.  He has developed several programs, including the template for the first Economic Impact Report used by McDonald’s Corporation that demonstrates the value of a business to its community, and it is still in use today throughout North America.

Additionally, Dennis is nationally recognized for his expertise in honoring and integrating ethnic differences into the workplace for mutual benefit and has produced the diversity awareness seminar “Value Difference Day.”  He is “Life Certified” as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by the Human Resource Certification Institute; and he is a polished facilitator with many different Diversity education programs.  Dennis was recently selected to be a voting member on the SHRM Diversity & Inclusion National Standards taskforce to establish consistent qualifications for Top Diversity Professionals by 2013.

Dennis’ community leadership contributions include work as an Executive Coach to the Board of Trustees of the Ronald McDonald House of Durham, North Carolina; past two-term Chairman of the Board for the Greater Sacramento (CA) Urban League; he served four years on the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce; he was a former Board member of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northern California; and a former Board member and Treasurer of the St. Louis (MO) Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  He also served as an advisor to the Boards of People Reaching Out and the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation; and as a four-year member of the Community Advisory Board of KVIE, TV 6 in Sacramento.

Mr. Boone is responsible for delivering investment services and other products to TD’s U.S. Mass Affluent customers.  He also has executive leadership of TD Bank USA, the nationally chartered bank that provides banking products and services to Customers of TD AMERITRADE
 
Mr. Boone joined TD Bank Financial Group as EVP, Marketing Director, TD Banknorth in 2007 and subsequently became Executive Vice President Corporate Strategy for TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank. In this capacity, he built a team to lead strategic development work in retail banking, mortgages, small business and commercial banking during TD’s integration of Commerce Bancorp.  He also chairs TD’s U.S. Diversity Leadership Team, a team of senior executives championing diversity across TD by driving enterprise-wide diversity initiatives and working with businesses and support groups to embed diversity into their business plans. 

Mr. Boone’s career spans both the retail and financial services industries.  He began his career with Loblaw Companies Ltd., Canada’s largest retailer.  While at Loblaw, he drove Loblaw’s expansion into financial services, leading its successful banking joint venture, President’s Choice (PC) Financial. Mr. Boone also chartered PC Bank, one of the first retailer owned banks in Canada, specifically designed to enter the credit card and loyalty program markets.  Under his leadership, PC Financial and PC Bank grew to offer banking, mortgage, credit card and insurance products, becoming an important profit contributor to Loblaw Companies.

During his 15 years at Loblaw, he also directed its National Wholesale Division that includes its Warehouse Club and Foodservice operations. He revitalized this multi-billion dollar division in this intensively competitive market -- competing with Costco, Sam’s Club & Sysco -- by consolidating stores, driving comparable sales growth through promotional strategies and implementing margin-enhancing strategies.  Previously, he held progressive roles in Finance and Corporate Development. 

David Boone serves on the Board of Advisors for Catalyst Inc. (NY), which is dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and Business.  He also serves on the Board of The Boys & Girls Club of Philadelphia and has served as a Director on the Mastercard Canada Region Board.

Mr. Boone holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ont.), and an Executive MBA from the joint program between Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Chicago, IL), and the Schulich School of Business at York University (Toronto, Ont.).

Jamie Scarano is the Director of Integrated Inclusion and Internal Operations for the Center for Inclusion at UPMC, an $8 billion, 20-hospital global health system and health plan based in Pittsburgh, PA. With a 50,000 employee base, she is responsible for ensuring that inclusion is integrated into the day-to-day business practices and overall strategic initiatives. She has met with key stakeholders to strategize on how inclusion can transition from being a bolt-on approach and rather, built-in to their strategies. Jamie has the opportunity to promote a culture of inclusion through UPMC’s Dignity & Respect Campaign, a workplace and community initiative designed to promote inclusive behaviors. Jamie has presented the concept to employee groups of 10 to 100 through system-wide road shows and focus groups. The center also launched a bi-annual culture survey in 2010 that will help drive year over year improvement in areas such as employee engagement and retention.   

Prior to this role, she was the Director of Human Resources for the UPMC Cancer Centers where she provided both strategic and day-to-day management of overall HR functions to ensure business objectives and goals were met. Jamie was instrumental in creating initiatives such as the 52 for You Calendar that was instituted system-wide and ensured managers were utilizing day to day retention tools in their practices. She has partnered with other leaders in the organization to share her expertise around organizational development opportunities such as DISC and Strengths Finders. Jamie was chosen as a member of the first Leadership Development Intensive (LDI) Program that focuses on continuing education for high-potential leaders of the organization. She spent 12 years in human resources at Apria Healthcare, a billion dollar, nationwide homecare company prior to joining UPMC. 

Jamie holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations from Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Consumer Marketing from Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA. Her community involvement and professional affiliations include serving as a board member for Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Pennsylvania; on advisory boards for PA Women Work, Robert Morris University, and PA Diversity Council - Pittsburgh. She also is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). 

Candi Castleberry-Singleton is the chief inclusion and diversity officer at UPMC, a $10 billion, 20-hospital global health system and health plan. She is responsible for developing UPMC’s inclusion strategy, including its Dignity & Respect Campaign and Cultural Competency Initiative, as well as for overseeing progress toward system-wide goals involving 55,000 employees. In 2008, she launched the UPMC Center for Inclusion.

An experienced strategist, Castleberry-Singleton created The Integrated Inclusion Model, a systems integration model that helps companies transition from compliance-driven processes led by human resources, to integrated activities that shift the responsibility for achieving an inclusive culture to every employee. The model is featured in Crossing the Divide: Intergroup Leadership in a World of Difference (Harvard Business School Press, August 2009). Her inclusion initiatives have been implemented at Motorola, where she was vice president of global inclusion and diversity, and at Sun Microsystems, where she led the Global Inclusion Center of Expertise.

Recently, Castleberry-Singleton was named a 2010 Top Woman of Substance in Healthcare by Heart & Soul Magazine, one of the 25 Influential Black Women by The Network Journal, Top 100 African Americans in Corporate America by Savoy Magazine and a Woman of Humility by Point Park University in Pittsburgh. In 2009, Castleberry-Singleton was named one of the 50 Women of Excellence by The New Pittsburgh Courier and recognized by Diversity MBA Magazine as a Top 50 under 50 Executive Leader.

Professor Lisa Hisae Nishii joined the ILR School as an Assistant Professor in July of 2003. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland and her B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College. She won the Best Dissertation Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) for her work on the attributions that employees make about management's motivations underlying HR practices.

Professor Nishii's research focuses on three main areas: (1) Cross-cultural/international; (2) organizational diversity and inclusion; and (3) employee perceptions of organizational practices, or climate.  Her research on culture focuses on theories about, and measurements of, dimensions of cultural variation. She has worked with colleagues to advance theory and application of individualism and collectivism and cultural tightness-looseness. In her ongoing research, she is examining how the cultural context influences the effectiveness of HR "best practices." Her work on diversity and inclusion focuses primarily on investigating climate for inclusion as well as other moderators of the diversity to performance relationship. She has been working most recently on multi-level research funded by the SHRM Foundation and the Department of Labor that examines the interplay of organizational practices and climate, leader characteristics, group processes, and experiences in shaping the engagement of workers in general, as well as of aging workers and workers with disabilities in particular. In her third stream of research, Nishii focuses on employees' perceptions and experiences of organizational practices. She is particularly interested in the role of employee perceptions, attitudes and behavior in driving unit and organizational performance.

Professor Nishii regularly presents her research at conferences for SIOP and the Academy of Management, and her research has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Review, and Personnel Psychology. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Management. Professor Nishii has also worked as an organizational consultant for several organizations on a variety of topics, with the bulk of this work focusing on diversity and inclusion in organizations.

Anika K. Warren, Ph.D., leads and supports research and consulting projects focused on organizational change and effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, human capital management, career coaching and counseling, and women in leadership at Catalyst Inc. She serves as an active member of the Women of Color/Diverse Women and Inclusion Issue Specialty Team and a former member and current advisor to the Catalyst Diversity and Inclusion Action Council. Prior to joining Catalyst, Dr. Warren was a full-time Adjunct Assistant Professor at Teachers College of Columbia University, where she continued to teach until September 2010. She also consults to professional service firms, bioscience corporations, and telecommunication companies, provides career coaching, and publishes research articles and book chapters on issues related to diversity and inclusion, organizational change and effectiveness, and counseling psychology. She has served as an educator, consultant, and counselor to numerous Fortune 500 and multinational companies, universities, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and community health organizations. Dr. Warren also develops training videos catering to the unique needs of multicultural clients and their individual and organizational challenges.

Prior to graduate school, Dr. Warren worked in finance at Gap Inc. and The Charles Schwab Corporation and was involved in recruitment and career development efforts at both corporations. She received her B.B.A. in Finance from Howard University and earned her M.A. and M.Ed. in Psychological Counseling at Columbia University, focusing on organizational, multicultural, and school psychology. She completed her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Boston College.

Christopher J. Metzler, Ph.D. is Associate Dean of Human Resources for the Masters of Professional Studies at The School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Georgetown University, he was on the faculty at Cornell University's ILR School where he directed the EEO and Diversity Studies program. Prior to entering higher education, he headed the strategic issues and research practice at an international consulting firm and provided advice to multinational corporations and governments on human rights, human capital, equality, corporate social responsibility, discrimination and diversity. He lectures globally on diversity, global employment practices, corporate social responsibility, human rights, human resources and comparative employment systems.

Dr. Metzler is the author of The Construction and Rearticulation of Race in a Post-Racial America (University of Aberdeen Press, 2008) and his forth coming book is Jim Crow on Steroids: And why the election of a black President does not change it (2009). In addition, he has reviewed books in multiple disciplines including: law, human rights, human resources, human relations, political history and others. He is also a reviewer for The Human Relations Journal and Southwest Journal of Cultures.

Dr, Metzler is a frequently sought after cultural critic and commentator and has appeared as an analyst on: The BBC News, Sky News, News Channel 8, BBC Arabic, Channel 7 News The Joe Madison Show, 1290 Radio, ABC News and others. He is frequently quoted in major newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Times.
 
In addition, he blogs regularly on The Daily Voice and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. In addition to a Masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University, he also holds a Ph.D. from University of Aberdeen in Law as well as diplomas and postgraduate certificates in law. He is a member of The University of Oxford in Oxford, England as well as a member of Kellogg College at the University of Oxford.