Joy Johnson-Carruthers is a Master Trainer, Workforce Development Leader and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advocate with over twenty years of experience developing high-performing teams across the United States and abroad. Joy is a board member with the Middle Tennessee Society for Human Resource Management.  She serves as the director of Diversity & Inclusion and named the 2019 Diversity & Inclusion Professional of the Year. She is the recipient of the 2020 MT-SHRM Leadership Award and the HCA, HealthTrust Supply Chain Impact Award. 

​Joy’s career of service began in the United States Army, and later as a police officer in St. Louis, Missouri. Her law enforcement career ended when a drunk driver rear-ended her patrol car. Joy went on to find her passion in education and workforce training, working as an adjunct professor of Humanities and Cultural Studies for over ten years. Her studies abroad include West Africa and South Korea.

 

In this episode Dr. Gaye Lang and Joy Johnson-Carruthers discuss:

• The first step toward tolerance 
• Differences make us strong 
• The real enemy of equity 
• Putting relationships first 

Key Takeaways: 

• The journey of learning about other cultures starts with learning about your own. Know the history, the struggle, and the experiences of your ancestors so that you can have awareness, respect, and pride in who you are and where you came from. 
• Differences are what makes us strong, differences are what built America. We need to move away from mere compliance, we need to promote education, community, and ultimately, understanding of each one’s differences by cultivating relationships with one another. 
• We’re not up against a race or a group of people based on the color of their skin, what we’re up against is the policies and structures that were created to perpetuate a system of inequity. That’s the enemy that DIET is trying to challenge. 
• We must have difficult conversations and allow people to speak their minds without fear of being hated as an individual. If we want to teach hard truths, we’ve got to start with having a relationship and creating a community. 

 

“When you are on a journey to learn about culture, start with self. Because once you understand who you are, you can have a healthy respect for those in your own culture. Then, you’re more able to have a healthy respect for other cultures.” - Joy Johnson-Carruthers

 

Connect with Joy Johnson-Carruthers:

Website: https://www.jtrainingsolutions.net/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-johnsoncarruthers/ 

Email: [email protected] 

Phone: 615-772-4374 

 

Connect with Dr. Gaye Lang:

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaye-lang-1735761b5/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dr.Gaye.Lang/ 

 

KEY WORDS: 

Diversity, inclusion, equity, tolerance, racism, bias, implicit bias, and explicit bias.  

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla

 

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