Pamela J Bliss

Pamela has 30 years of experience of working in multi-cultural environments, beginning with five years as an ex-patriot teacher in Japan. She moved into the international business arena upon her return to the U.S., leading successful trade missions to the People’s Republic of China and Japan as an International Trade Representative for the Colorado state government.

C. Itoh & Co. (one of Japan’s largest trading companies) recruited her to open their office in Denver and Pamela was their Manager of New Business Development for five years. Among her responsibilities was the administration of the company’s copper purchasing agreement with the Anaconda Copper Co. and development of licensing agreements for medical technology. She later led the international marketing division of a local medical equipment company as it negotiated manufacturing and distribution agreements in the PRC and Europe.

During this period she taught basic international marketing and cross-cultural communication skills at local colleges and universities. She subsequently designed a cross-cultural leadership course which was marketed successfully in Asia by a leadership development firm, ARC International.

She moved into training and development full time when she first partnered with the telephone company, US WEST, building her knowledge of business and cross cultural skills into their diversity program. She has designed several programs for them over the past twelve years, providing facilitation and training facilitators as well. She has strong group leadership skills, a lively delivery style, and proven course development skills. Her goal is to teach communication and leadership in cross-cultural environments.

Effley N. Brooks, III, B.S., MA

Effley Brooks is currently the Director of the Denver Community Leadership Forum, of The Centers in the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado and Health Sciences Center . Mr. Brooks also owns Tiger Bee Consulting, a company that he started in order to expand his opportunities in working toward positive social change. In addition to leadership training, his work at the Centers has focused in the areas of cultural diversity, tolerance, suicide prevention and intervention, self-esteem issues anod violence prevention training for adolescents and adults. He has worked with a number of organizations nationwide, in Colorado , Central America , and in South Africa , including the Spring Institute for International Studies, the Anti-Defamation League, PeaceJam and the Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth.

Mr. Brooks has also worked as a high school teacher. His achievements have been recognized by honors and awards from Denver Mayor Wellington Webb for fighting hate and discrimination and endeavoring to make Denver a Safe City; from the Cherry Creek Diversity Conference for promoting the ideals of peace and understanding to the youth of Colorado; from the Colorado School Counselor Association for “Outstanding Service;” and, from the Contemporary Learning Academy for his volunteer work and commitment to children. In addition, Mr. Brooks has been the keynote speaker at graduations, as well as national and international conferences. He has also appeared as a guest on local television talk shows and the local news. Mr. Brooks holds a BA and MBA. He also serves on the board of directors for the Community Resource Center (CRC), Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA), and the Northeast Denver Housing Center.

Claire L. Brown, Ph.D.

Diversity and Human Resources Consultant

Dr. Brown has 25 years corporate experience including 16 years directing diversity and equal opportunity/affirmative action organizations in Fortune 50 companies. Services included discrimination case investigations and methodologies, EO/diversity policies, strategies, course curriculum, and training. She also spent 5 years as a Fortune 50 corporate Ombudsperson utilizing organizational development skills to implement change management, conflict resolution, mentoring and career development programs. Dr. Brown earned her Ph.D. with a focus on the impact of men and women using aggressive communication in the workplace.

Dr. Brown co-edited a book, Conflict and Diversity, (Hampton Press), authored several articles such as Male/Female Mentoring: Turning Potential Risks into Rewards in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication and in Cultural Diversity at Work, is a guest lecturer and presenter at numerous conferences and universities across the US and in Puerto Rico and organized and coordinated national diversity and equal opportunity conferences and ongoing diversity initiatives for Fortune 50 companies.

Juanita Cox-Burton, MBA

Ms. Cox-Burton is President of the consulting firm, Institute for Diverse Leadership (I.D.L.). She possesses over twenty years of corporate experience. Her expertise includes Management and Executive Education, Marketing, Operations, Diversity, Leadership Succession and Training, Customer Service, and Organizational Development. Her education includes a BBA & MBA from University of Denver.

A frequent speaker on the topic of diversity in the workplace, Ms. Cox-Burton has been sought for comment on these issues by The Wall Street Journal, Human Resources Professional Magazine, AMA’s periodical, H.R. Magazine, Colorado Business Magazine, and The Bureau of National Affairs special edition on promoting women and minorities. Juanita has served on the Board of Directors for The YWCA, The Society for Advancement of Management, and the University of Colorado . She presently serves as a board member of the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce and Denver Work Force Development Board. Ms. Cox-Burton also appeared in a nationwide television show produced by Susan Kinney entitled, “What Do Women Really Want, Anyway?”

Juanita’s consulting firm specializes in assisting corporations in managing diversity, developing leaders, and enhancing employee skills. Juanita has facilitated diversity sessions since 1981. She holds several awards for her community efforts and is a recent recipient of The Mountain Award for her efforts in Business. The African American Leadership Institute of Metropolitan College sponsors the award.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Juanita was Director of Leadership Succession and Accelerated Development programs for her former employer, U S WEST. She developed and directed the nations first successful fast track program for women of color which earned U S WEST the Catalyst Award in New York.

George Crochet, SPHR, MAS

Principal of CCG and the Inclusion Training Academy™

George Crochet, SPHR, launched CCG in August of 1994 with a conscious focus on solving people problems for fast growth businesses. CCG is primarily an organizational development consulting firm and is especially effective in advising fast growth businesses on how to develop its people and the organization strategically. We help businesses plan, design and develop custom solutions to improve how they function, interact, communicate, diversify and grow as an organization. Solutions typically involve preventive measures in organizational planning or in executive team building, and diversity initiatives. CCG offers a full suite of custom designed workshops in our Inclusion Training Academy™.

The Inclusion Training Academy™ has a network of more than 30 seasoned consultants. We’ve established a track record for being responsive, flexible and results driven. We are also known as being genuinely fun to work with.

Mr. Crochet has over 30 years of experience in all areas of Human Resources (HR), including Organizational Development (OD). Since the mid-1970’s, he worked as an HR and OD professional in large industrial corporations, where he helped organizations successfully manage the transition of mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, or rapid growth. His corporate tour of duty covered work in 40 states and 8 international countries. In 1988, George transferred to Boulder, Colorado, with a major international computer company as Director of Human Resources. He liked Colorado so much that he decided to remain for the rest of his career.

George Crochet is known for his commitment to diversity and inclusion and is recognized as a civic and professional leader throughout Colorado. He has more than 30 years experience in developing and implementing effective diversity management training and development programs.

• He co-founded several professional minority organizations
• Served on the Governor’s Minority Business Advisory Council
• Vvolunteer as a diversity consultant to community organizations, and coaches other coaches in youth sports
• Merger manager for Burroughs – Sperry merger
• Developed and implemented business leadership systems - won 2 Pinnacle Awards
• Business manager and producer of national diversity conferences
• Co-founded the Minority Business Leadership Council

Susana Escalante, MA, ABD

Susana Escalante has over 20 years experience in the fields of Human Resources and Diversity. She has worked as Senior HR Manager for the City of Boulder, Hewlett-Packard and StorageTek with a focus on inclusion management.

She is currently Corporate Diversity Manager for Seagate. Seagate is the premier manufacturer of storage solutions, is a worldwide company, and has approximately 40,000 employees worldwide. Susana has extensive experience helping organizations design and implement their inclusion/diversity programs and strategies. She currently works with 7 employee Diversity Action Councils that she helped to create and manage. In addition, she works with 2 executive level Diversity Councils.

She works with the top levels of a company to design a winning strategy for inclusion, respect and equity. She has over 10 years experience working with teams, ensuring high team performance.

She has been a consultant to various municipalities (City of Denver, Denver Water), Federal Government Programs (NIST, US Forest Service), non-profits and corporations (IBM, Lucent, and Hughes).

Susana has received many awards for her work including the Boulder County Multicultural Award (1997) for her work in business, the Adelante Mujer Award (1998) and the Diversity Centurian Award (1999).

Deborah Flick, PhD

Dialogue, Diversity & Inclusion, Sexual Harassment & Beyond, Leadership and Teamwork

Dr.Deborah Flick is an internationally recognized expert in diversity and dialogue and the author of the award-winning book From Debate to Dialogue: Using the Understanding Process to Transform Our Conversations. She has over two decades of experience providing consultation and developing and delivering training programs. Her areas of specialization include:

She has designed and conducted organizational diversity and gender assessments for Fortune 50 Corporations, law firms, and financial institutions. The results of these assessments have been used to make interventions and necessary changes. Additionally, Dr. Flick serves as an expert consultant in sexual harassment and sex-discrimination cases.

Dr. Flick was also a communication and multi-cultural programming consultant to Seeking Common Ground, an international non-profit that conducts intensive residential conflict management and peace-making programs for youth from the Middle East, South Africa, among other conflict-ridden parts of the world.

As part of her work Dr. Flick has made original contributions to the field. She developed the Understanding Process Approach to Intentional Dialogue, Diversity Journey Maps, and the Rationale-Based Approach to Building Inclusive, Respectful Workplaces. Several corporations have licensing agreements with Dr. Flick to incorporate her work into their leadership, diversity and team development initiatives.

During her 14-year tenure on the faculty of the University of Colorado, Boulder, Dr. Flick taught courses on Workplace Diversity and on the legal, social and psychological aspects of sexual harassment. She initiated several innovative programs including the Women Studies Internship Program and the Gender Theatre Dialogue Project.

At the invitation of the Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Program, Dr. Flick wrote a pamphlet entitled Developing and Teaching an Inclusive Curriculum.

In 1977 Dr. Flick founded and directed Denver SafeHouse for Battered Women, which is still a thriving, non-profit organization.

Stacy Dvergsdal, M.A.

Diversity Specialist

Stacy has been consulting with organizations for several years, with particular emphasis on diversity issues for the past five years. She works at Janus Capital Group where she is responsible for diversity management and employee development. Stacy is an affiliate faculty member at Regis University where she teaches in the Masters of Science Management program and focuses on Managing Diversity, Employee Relations and Strategic HR Management. She has also consulted with FMI Corporation where she lead a diversity project involving the education and training of minority and women business-enterprise leaders in the construction industry. She has worked as an instructional designer with Quiznos and as a diversity analyst for the City and County of Denver and the City of Colorado Springs. She was also a diversity consultant for MetroCareRing and a diversity trainer for Raytheon. Finally, she has worked for Bigby Havis & Associates, Xerox, and Johnson & Johnson.

Stacy received her Master of Arts degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado. Her thesis focused on backlash to diversity training. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors, graduating magna cum laude in the area of psychology from Southern Methodist University.

She was a Board Member of the American Society for Training and Development - Rocky Mountain Chapter. She was also the Colorado Human Resource Association chair for the Diversity Professional Development group. Finally, she is an active member of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Other areas of consulting competency are:

• Diversity consulting and training with organizations for more than five years.
• Diversity analyst for organizations.
• Expert trainer in diversity, conflict resolution, performance management, employment law, and ethics.
• Danel presenter for the State of Colorado regarding Diversity and Civil Rights in the 21st Century.

Keith Louis Langeneckert, MS

Mr. Langeneckert is founder and principal of G&L Consultants, a diversity and management-consulting firm. He has over twelve years of professional experience as a computer software engineer, including eight years as a supervisor of research and development, and two years experience as a university teaching assistant in computer science. He has extensive training in the areas of equal opportunity, affirmative action and diversity.

G&L Consultants provides management and diversity consulting to corporate, academic, government and community clients. They design and facilitate diversity workshops on Valuing Diversity, Managing Diversity, Sexual Harassment, Diversity Communications, Sexual Orientation Diversity, Conflict Resolution, and Gender Diversity. They have given interviews and presentations on diversity and management topics at conferences and universities, and on television and radio.

While at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mr. Langeneckert was a Supervisor of Technical Staff responsible for software quality. He spent eight years supervising diverse technical professionals responsible for highly customized communications systems for clients such as the U.S. State Department, the White House and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Other related experience includes: volunteer trainer for the City of Boulder's Valuing Diversity: Education on Homophobia and Heterosexism Project; Advisory Board member of Hewlett-Packard's Gay and Lesbian Employee Network; 1994-1998; Director of the Young Gay Men's Support Group at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Colorado; 1989-1993 and co-founder of LEAGUE (Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay United Employees), an employee support group at AT&T.

Keith Langeneckert holds an MS in Computer Science, a BS in Education and a BA in Mathematics.

Nick Peterson, MA

Specializing in communication and disability issues

In his Take a Second Look programs, Nick combines his 28 years experience in living with Parkinson's with what he's learned as both health-care consumer and professional consultant. What results are one-of-a-kind keynotes and workshops. Nick’s message, delivered with humor and compassion, provides you and your people with information you can't read in books. Many clients have commented that the extra value in Nick’s programs lies not only in that information, but in his ability to let his audiences inside his disability for a short time. They emerge with a new understanding of the experience of disability and are able to apply those insights immediately. Client service goes up for everyone.

Nick walks his talk. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1975, when he was 25 years old. Since then, he has taught at the university level, been in wholesale and retail sales, and nonprofit management. As a speaking professional, he has addressed clients in 27 states and Canada , delivering his message to take a second look at people with disabilities. A spokesperson for Chicago 's United Parkinson's Foundation, he has done over 50 symposia for health-care providers, patients, and families throughout the country. His frequent training sessions for hospital and nursing home management and staffs often elicits comments such as "The response to your program was overwhelming." Nick has helped a wide range of corporate clients and government agencies address disability issues. In all his talks, he leaves his listeners with practical ways to make their business or organization "consumer friendly" by changing perspectives and attitudes. Nick’s bottom-line: your bottom-line when you Take a Second Look.

Nick’s clients include Great West Life, HUD, Pebble Beach Company, U.S. Forest Service, ANA Hotels , and National Association of Housing & Redevelopment Officers.

Consulting on various disability topics including the following:

• Understanding People Who are Different: Overcoming the Fear of Disability
• Take a Second Look: How Your Business Can Thrive Meeting the Needs of People With Disabilities
• The Language of Respect
• Help! Humor to the Rescue