In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue interviews Jes Osrow, a HR DEI and L&D practitioner who for over twelve years has helped mostly high growth startups who are based in the US and have an international presence. 

“So really devising your team, even if it's just you, as a solo practitioner, bring someone else on temporarily for the project, or those opening conversations if you need to have a compliment. And yeah, that's where not having humility in those pieces and rather, having humility and ego in the work is really important. Because if you can't get your foot in the door, you can't go forward. And that's where you start meeting a lot of closed doors or doors that people say get slammed in your face.”

Episode Highlights: 

● The importance of having a business development team

● The difference between growing a business and delivering expertise

● Nurturing your competency in this space

About Jes Osrow: 

Jes' goal is to create fundamental change in people operations. She is Co-Founder and DEIBA Specialist at The Rise Journey where she works with growing companies to operationalize DEIBA (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility) strategies as part of building foundational and sustainable organisational cultures. Empowering inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplaces for all employees is the forefront of everything she does. 

Jes coined the term DEIBA™ in 2019 after recognizing DEI alone was not enough. She officially trademarked the term in September 2021. She was named to Mogul's Top 100 Leaders in DEIB in 2021 and 2022. Jes is a strong advocate for Invisible Disability awareness and fair compensation for ERG leads.

Resources: 

• Download The Rise Journey's 2022 State of the ERG Report for the latest trends on ERG Lead Compensation and budgeting, structural best practices and more: https://www.therisejourney.com/blog/2022-erg-report

• Take advantage of Rise with OPHR, a self-service resource centre built with the one person Human Resources teams in mind. It offers over 200 HR and DEI resources, many can be accessed for free by signing up for OPHR Essentials. Listeners can use the code $100OFF2023! to receive a discount for OPHR Advanced membership. Learn more: https://www.risewithophr.com/

Follow Jes Osrow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesosrow/

Learn more about The Rise Journey: https://www.therisejourney.com/

Follow The Rise Journey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/therisejourney/

_

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

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In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue speaks with Sara Kedge, a neuro diversity specialist and DEI practitioner who supports neuro diverse entrepreneurs via her online community called How to entrepreneur. Sara also assists people with adversity to help run and grow their businesses. Providing support for them, so they can understand what neurodiversity is, and how they can share some of their practices to make their workplaces more inclusive.

“ They were looking for somebody to manage an online community, which is essentially a space for any neurodivergent person who is running their own business, wants to grow their business, or start a business. So I started managing that group and my entry into that space kind of started from there, going into actually there's a space and a need here. For people like me to be able to be accepted, understood, and actually going into the corporate space, helping neurotypicals understand what the needs are, because newer divergent brains have such amazing value. ”

Episode Highlights: 

● Neurodivergent people and language

● The difference between neurodiversity assessment and other pieces of learning

● Being a neurodivergent person in education and work environments

About Sara Kedge: 

Sara Kedge (she/her) works with corporate leaders to create inclusive, healthy and more productive workplaces that work for everyone.

A renowned DEI Design Thinking Strategist, Coach and Trainer, Sara blends curiosity and playfulness with deep cross-functional knowledge. She prides herself on helping teams move out of stressful dysfunction to create human-focused workplace cultures where critical thinking – and people – are encouraged and valued. 

Sara carries the collective experience of the neurodivergent community into the solutions she co-creates with her clients. As the founder and curator of How 2 Entrepreneuro, an online community supporting neurodivergent entrepreneurs, Sara is constantly learning and hearing from the people she supports, most of whom have suffered burnout within the corporate or public sectors. 

Sara’s clients vary in reach from global to local, across a range of industries including academia and training institutions, public and third sector, technology, bio-medical and international development. 

Sara co-creates bespoke solutions for each new client challenge, drawing on years of change management consultancy and her current role as a lecturer for the Business and Management faculty at Oxford Brookes University. 

Sara’s commitment to delivering a playful, human-centred approach to transition and culture development, makes her an outstanding – and refreshingly unusual – asset to her clients.

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

If you would like to schedule a capability briefing call with our team, email: [email protected] 

If you would like to apply for DEI PRO Coaching, email:

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue interviews Lucy Ferguson, a DEI practitioner and author who has been working for many years as a gender specialist and trainer, providing gender equality training to various organisations and individuals. 

“ All of the people who come on our courses are very skilled in their particular knowledge area. But the main thing that they say is that they lack confidence as a trainer. So I tried to give them that confidence through giving them the theory and the practice and the chance to put it into practice. We create together a very horizontal learning environment where everyone feels safe to make mistakes. So you make the mistakes in this friendly environment, and get very good, solid, constructive feedback about how you can improve. Then you get the chance to practise several times so that you come out feeling much more confident. ”

Episode Highlights: 

● What gender equality training is and why it's important

● What it means to be a good trainer in the virtual environment

● The importance of being accessible and inclusive

About Lucy Ferguson: 

Dr Lucy Ferguson is a specialist in training for gender equality. She has designed and delivered training on gender equality for a wide range of organisations, including: UN Women, World Health Organization, UN World Tourism Organization, OSCE, Indian Ocean Rim Association and Commonwealth Secretariat. She has produced a range of academic publications on this topic, including her book "Gender Training: a transformative tool for gender equality (Palgrave, 2018). She is the author of the UN Women Training Centre working paper series, including topics such as feminist pedagogies and evaluation of gender training.

Recent and upcoming trainings include "How to be a Gender Trainer" and "Applied Theatre for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion", delivered via Cynara. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyferguson/

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue interviews Gill Cooke, a DEI practitioner  who,  at the time of the recording, worked at Three UK and Three Ireland, leading diversity, inclusion and belonging and hybrid and flexible working. In addition to this role, Gill leads a community called STEMConnext which focuses on connecting minorities in STEM, celebrating, championing and supporting each other. Gill now works as an independent EDI consultant and advisor. 

“ Demonstrate what you've added, the value that you've added, how you influence that programme, what was the benefit of that, and just show your understanding of what it is to deliver, diversity inclusion. It's not just about transactional, so processes policies, but it's about transformative as well. So how have you moved hearts and minds, and behaviours and mindset, and values and that sort of type of thing. It's hard to demonstrate that, I'll be honest, you know, on a piece of paper, but again, bring that right up to the forefront of your LinkedIn as well. So that you, anyone who puts in something around diversity, inclusion will put something in a search engine, that then you'll come up. ”

Episode Highlights: 

● How can project management skills lead to success

● The importance of having transparency within the team

● Measuring and tracking measurements and data can contribute to success

About Gill Cooke: 

Gill's dedication to inclusion and putting people first is inspiring, and her passion for creating a space where everyone can become a better human being through education, awareness, and kindness is remarkable. She understands that through true inclusive culture,;diversity, well-being, and equity will follow. Her experience in program management enables her to work effectively with stakeholders and leadership, and she consistently delivers results. Gill is experienced in collaborating with global stakeholders, analysing key metrics and data to deliver improvements in recruitment, policy, people services, learning and development and strategy and best practices across UK and Ireland, reporting, influencing and communicating with senior management and the board.

She is an award-winning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practitioner and thought leader with experience of delivering complex, cross-geography and cross-functional diversity programmes and projects including hybrid & flexible working and Zero Tolerance, Gender health propositions and inclusive policies.

She led Three Ireland in achieving Investors in Diversity Gold within a year and Three UK to achieving Investors in Diversity within 18 months and winner of Diversity Steering Group of the Year 2022 and named top 100 most inclusive places to work by the National Centre of Diversity and Financial Times Top.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmcooke1/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stemconnext

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stemconnext/

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/STEMConnext

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

If you would like to schedule a capability briefing call with our team, email: [email protected] 

If you would like to apply for DEI PRO Coaching, email:

[email protected] 

Stay Connected with Ashanti: 

LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue interviews Gill Cooke, a DEI practitioner  who,  at the time of the recording, worked at Three UK and Three Ireland, leading diversity, inclusion and belonging and hybrid and flexible working. In addition to this role, Gill leads a community called STEMConnext which focuses on connecting minorities in STEM, celebrating, championing and supporting each other. Gill now works as an independent EDI consultant and advisor. 

“ Demonstrate what you've added, the value that you've added, how you influence that programme, what was the benefit of that, and just show your understanding of what it is to deliver, diversity inclusion. It's not just about transactional, so processes policies, but it's about transformative as well. So how have you moved hearts and minds, and behaviours and mindset, and values and that sort of type of thing. It's hard to demonstrate that, I'll be honest, you know, on a piece of paper, but again, bring that right up to the forefront of your LinkedIn as well. So that you, anyone who puts in something around diversity, inclusion will put something in a search engine, that then you'll come up. ”

Episode Highlights: 

● How can project management skills lead to success

● The importance of having transparency within the team

● Measuring and tracking measurements and data can contribute to success

About Gill Cooke: 

Gill's dedication to inclusion and putting people first is inspiring, and her passion for creating a space where everyone can become a better human being through education, awareness, and kindness is remarkable. She understands that through true inclusive culture,;diversity, well-being, and equity will follow. Her experience in program management enables her to work effectively with stakeholders and leadership, and she consistently delivers results. Gill is experienced in collaborating with global stakeholders, analysing key metrics and data to deliver improvements in recruitment, policy, people services, learning and development and strategy and best practices across UK and Ireland, reporting, influencing and communicating with senior management and the board.

She is an award-winning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practitioner and thought leader with experience of delivering complex, cross-geography and cross-functional diversity programmes and projects including hybrid & flexible working and Zero Tolerance, Gender health propositions and inclusive policies.

She led Three Ireland in achieving Investors in Diversity Gold within a year and Three UK to achieving Investors in Diversity within 18 months and winner of Diversity Steering Group of the Year 2022 and named top 100 most inclusive places to work by the National Centre of Diversity and Financial Times Top.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmcooke1/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stemconnext

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stemconnext/

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/STEMConnext

Book an exploratory call to discuss whether the DEI Prof Academy is right for you. You can ask any questions you may have. These spaces are very limited so if you’d like to have a chat with me directly about DEI competence and practice, then book a call here. 

You can find out about the services we offer here: 

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In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue and Emma Taylor-Steeds, the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Innovate UK KTN, discuss how she entered into the world of DEI, and helped to make an impactful cultural change in higher education and research.

“Empathy helps us to understand where colleagues or other people are at, and why they are where they're at. And it's about having the humility to listen and to try to understand and then really use that curiosity to learn, and then more importantly, to do something about it.”

Episode Highlights: 

● What skills have had to be developed in order to succeed as a DEI practitioner

● The importance of empathy and pragmatism in DEI

● The importance of doing research and self-educating

About Emma Taylor-Steeds: 

Emma is the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Innovate UK KTN.  Emma has a breadth of experience delivering Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy and impactful cultural change in higher education and research. Emma's experience has seen her leading and delivering cross organisational strategic programmes, including policy, equality charter marks, and EDI strategy to drive forward EDI work. Emma is a scientist by background, with a PhD in polymer science, an STFC EDI Advisory Board Member, is a mother and outside of work can be found baking and going for countryside walks.  Emma lives her passion for inclusivity and equity creation through the work she does every day.

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmataylorsteeds/

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

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If you would like to apply for DEI PRO Coaching, email:

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue speaks with Dr. Sarah Gould, the founder of Sarah Gould consulting. During their Discussion, they will highlight how Dr. Gould has spent almost 20 years creating a global leadership content for schools and organisations in over 110 countries. The aim of Dr. Sarah Gould’s global leadership content is to focus on elevating the voices of people who typically do not see themselves appear in leadership roles, content and senior executive roles.

“I think that the leaders that tend to be the most impactful are the ones that have a learner mindset themselves. When leaders can display vulnerability in their own performance reviews, and in their own competency and context, they are far more likely to increase the level of trust and validity and reliability of what they're offering their employees”.

Episode Highlights: 

● The importance of asking about learning needs

● Daily practice of reflecting on your strengths

● The importance of thinking about legacy 

About Sarah Gould: 

Dr. Sarah Gould is driven by the belief that her role is to unleash human potential. She has dedicated her life to the study and practice of analysing team and individual performance and using her expertise as an educator and corporate training practitioner to facilitate mental and behavioural breakthroughs that help organisations and individuals attain new levels of performance, success and satisfaction. Sarah is driven by a focus on equity and inclusion through competency-based approaches.

Trained as a global leadership coach and facilitator with FranklinCovey, Dr. Gould has leveraged her mastery of curriculum development, instructional design and facilitation to advise, train and develop teams across a variety of sectors including government, military, K-12 education, small business, start-up, tech and non-profits just to name a few.

Dr. Gould’s experience and track record for producing results extends far beyond the classroom. She has served as a senior operations leader for fast-growing, well-funded startups in the tech industry and has mastered the ability to design training programs that provide new skills and capabilities to developing leaders, empowering them to multiply their impact on their teams and drive tangible results.

Dr. Gould holds over 20 certifications in the fields of coaching, leadership and education and holds a doctorate in Education.

Connect with Sarah Gould: 

Instagram: sarahgouldconsulting

Facebook: Sarah Gould Consulting

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsarahgould/

Email:[email protected]

Email: Sarahgouldconsulting.com

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

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If you would like to apply for DEI PRO Coaching, email:

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue talks to Dr. Roque Diaz, a musician, arts educator, researcher and DEI practitioner who received his PhD in 2021. He specialises within the art sector, that includes arts organisations and performance based organisations from orchestras, opera companies, dance companies and arts education organisations, primarily in the nonprofit sector. In this particular episode Dr. Roque Diaz shares with Ashanti his personal experience of being a DEI practitioner, how he has grown and continues to grow.

“That's the first thing, creating a support system. Because when you're dealing with individuals, these heavy topics, people are not mind readers, the uniqueness about being a practitioner is that we live in this work all the time. We're talking about things they don't. So we have to understand it and give grace, but still hold them accountable if they're committed to doing this work on our journey.”

Episode Highlights: 

● The importance of intercultural competence and embedment

● How cultural capacity building can fit into the work

● What we can learn from corporate and nonprofit sectors

About Roque Diaz: 

Dr. Roque Diaz

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practitioner | Program and Partnership Development | Arts Access Champion | Audience Engagement | Business Development | Connector |

A first-generation neurodivergent Puerto Rican college graduate, Dr. Diaz has shaped his career goals and qualifications by combining leadership, administration, scholarship, teaching, and performance through nonprofit arts organisations, higher education institutions, and K-12 school teaching in multiple countries.

Dr. Diaz started at MacPhail Center for Music as the Director of School Partnerships and currently guides the Center’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies and initiatives as the Senior Director of DEI. 

Dr. Diaz’s journey as a historically excluded and marginalised person in predominantly white spaces underlies his commitment to assuring more inclusive, culturally aware, and relevant experiences through the lens of DEI. As a trumpeter, Dr. Diaz has performed with major international orchestras and continues to perform orchestral, chamber, contemporary, Latin, jazz, and other music.

Interested in my services? 

I am currently accepting clients and will provide a free 30-minute consultation. You can reach out via my website, email, or message me on my LinkedIn profile to schedule a meeting.

www.progressing-forward.com 

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/roquediazphd/ 

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode Ashanti Bentil-Dhue speaks with Sharon Hurley Hall, the part time team lead for diversity, equity and belonging at on this education. However, Sharon does have many different hats, including being a freelance writer and the founder and publisher of Sharon's anti racism newsletter.  

“ In achieving change, it is important for people to feel heard, even if you do not necessarily agree with them. So, within yourself, you really have to live what you want other people to show to you, you have to live that acceptance of these different perspectives ”

Episode Highlights: 

● The possible evolution of Dni specialisations

● How to develop an openness to different perspectives

● What skills are needed to become a DI professional

About Sharon Hurley Hall: 

Sharon Hurley Hall is an anti-racism activist, educator, and in-demand speaker. Firmly committed to doing her part to eliminate racism, she is the Founder and Curator-in-Chief of Sharon’s Anti-Racism Newsletter. Sharon is also a Co-Founder of Mission Equality and the author of I'm Tired of Racism and Exploring Shadeism.

In her newsletter, Sharon writes about existing while Black in majority-white spaces, and amplifies the voices of other anti-racism activists. Sharon is also an in-demand speaker about equality, anti-racism, and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

If you would like to schedule a capability briefing call with our team, email: [email protected] 

If you would like to apply for DEI PRO Coaching, email:

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

In this episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue talks to Solène Anglaret who is currently a Programme Manager for Disabled Innovators at Innovate UK. Solène is originally from France, but has a career spanning across six different countries. Solène discusses her entry point into DEI, what fascinated her by looking at humans' different backgrounds and different ways of thinking. Causing her to also see the many similarities in humans and opportunity for compassion. All of this contributed to Solène writing her storytelling venture called Be Beyond Borders.

“We are encouraging other people, maybe who don't have the responsibilities or D&I goals, to do their own education and learning. And so if we don't do it, it's kind of like you put the oxygen mask on the other person before yourself, it's not going to work, right, you're going to run out of oxygen. So that peace around leadership, I think, is also really important. ”

Episode Highlights: 

● Surprises discovered whilst being in a DEI role

● How we as DEI professionals can innovate inclusively

● What advice Solène would share with aspiring DEI professionals

About Solène Anglaret: 

Born and raised in France, Solène moved abroad for the first time when she was 18. She has since lived in 6 countries and travelled to nearly 60. After starting her career in the environmental sector, Solène then joined the travel industry, before finding her way into the world of diversity and inclusion in innovation. Over the past 10 years, she has gathered experience across a wide range of areas from strategy to project management, transformation, events, communication, leadership, coaching, culture change, diversity, and inclusion. She currently works as a Programme Manager for Disabled Innovators at Innovate UK.

Solène is also an Author, Presenter, and Entrepreneur. Four years ago, she created Be Beyond Borders and published four books: Where to Next? (travel memoir), Where Are You From? (children's story), Where? (poetry) and Pensées d'Ailleurs (poetry) - all around the themes of identity, home, and belonging. She also spoke at TEDx Melbourne and many other events. In 2022, she launched The Inclusion Conversation, a talk show which aims to break down borders and bring the world closer together, one conversation at a time. 

When not working or hustling, you'll find Solène travelling at every opportunity, spending time with her partner and family, walking in nature, and/or eating (too much) chocolate...!

If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: [email protected]

If you would like to schedule a capability briefing call with our team, email: [email protected] 

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[email protected] 

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LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue