Faculty

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Melinda Wieder, J.D.

RML Director, Seattle

As Director of the Reciprocal Mentoring Lab, Melinda spearheads the coordination of this innovative solution for the advancement and retention of women in leadership. With experience as a practicing attorney, Melinda brings her passion for helping others to the role.

Growing up with Greatheart Consulting Founder and CEO, Chuck Shelton, as a father meant that the topics of diversity and inclusion came up often throughout her upbringing. With a foundation of justice and equality, Melinda aims to continually grow her understanding of others’ experiences while still valuing her own point of view.

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Chuck Shelton

Greatheart Consulting Founder and Faculty Member, Seattle

Since 1981, Chuck has spoken, consulted, coached, trained, researched, and written on leadership development and global diversity and inclusion internationally, through more than 380 presentations and projects. Chuck has honed a unique expertise in engaging and equipping white male leaders and their colleagues to grow their global business through diversity and inclusion (D&I) leadership.

Early in his career, Chuck negotiated, designed, and managed the first research project to benchmark 130 diversity practices in twenty leading firms in the technology industry, commissioned by Microsoft. In his first multicultural management job, he directed a social service agency for refugee resettlement across California, leading a team of thirty from five nations.

Chuck has developed inclusive leaders through global D&I projects on strategy, culture, engagement, talent, learning, and sales at Aetna, Alaska Airlines, Avon, Capgemini, the Johnson Space Center, Key Bank, Liberty Mutual, Turner Construction, and in more than seventy other organizations. He designed and directs the first and ongoing Study on White Men Leading Through Diversity & Inclusion. Chuck is a main contributor to the RML curriculum development process.

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Nancy Mace

Faculty Member, California

Nancy is an extraordinary Facilitator of Learning for individuals and various organizations, with a deep foundation in all aspects of corporate HR, including specialties in Labor Relations, Learning & Development, Organizational Effectiveness, and Inclusion. She brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the RML as both in-house leader/executive and successful consultant working with front-line to executive audiences, as well as developing content and curriculum.

Nancy is a committed to embracing and embodying the practices of cultural humility, curiosity, and self-education/exploration. She has periodically chosen roles that have allowed her to be in service to others, including appointment to Protocol during Olympic Games (where she also served as a translator), summer volunteer in a literacy program in a small village in Cameroon, and serving as the only ally on the senior leadership team at Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. As the sole woman on several executive teams, Nancy understands the challenges, strategies, and rewards of building success in corporations as an ‘other’, while leveraging new data and research in neurobiology and epigenetics to deepen her work in Inclusive Leadership. Nancy is a main contributor to the RML curriculum development process.

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Ancella Livers, PhD

Faculty Member, North Carolina

Ancella Livers, PH.D., Talent-Dimensions' Chief Innovation Officer, is a skilled diversity and leadership development professional. She is the co-author of the book, Leading in Black and White and the HBR classic “Dear White Boss.” She has also written numerous publications on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Additionally, for several years she has written a blog focused on women of color in corporate America. In her TEDx talk, she discusses mutuality which offers a new view of diversity and begins to chart an original way forward.

For 12 years, Dr. Livers worked at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) where she was a Senior Faculty member of the Design and Delivery team. In this role, she worked with global and national clients to help them gain clarity around their leadership needs and to co-create dynamic solutions to meet those needs. She has deep expertise on diversity issues, particularly those focusing on African Americans and women.

Dr. Livers holds a B.S. in Mass Communications from Hampton Institute, a M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Carnegie Mellon University. She has also written and spoken extensively on issues of difference.

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W. Brad Johnson, PhD

Faculty Member, Maryland

Brad is a professor of psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the United States Naval Academy, and a faculty associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. As a Clinical Psychologist and former Lieutenant Commander in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps, Dr. Johnson served as a psychologist at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Medical Clinic at Pearl Harbor where he was the division head for psychology. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and recipient of the Johns Hopkins University Teaching Excellence Award. He has served as chair of the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Committee and as president of the Society for Military Psychology.

Dr. Johnson is the author of several book chapters, 130 journal articles, and 12 books in the areas of mentoring, professional ethics, and counseling. His most recent book, which he co-wrote with David Smith, is Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (2016). This groundbreaking work is the “springboard” of content for the RML and helped cumulate the creation of our program. Brad is a main contributor to the RML curriculum development process.

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David Smith, PhD

Faculty Member, Rhode Island

David is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the United States Naval Academy, having served four years as the chair. As a former Navy pilot, David led diverse organizations of women and men culminating in command of a squadron in combat and flew more than 3,000 hours over 19 years including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a Sociologist trained in military sociology and social psychology, Dr. Smith focuses his research in gender, work, and family issues including dual career families, military families, women in the military, and retention of women.

Dr. Smith is the author of numerous journal articles and contributing author to many book chapters—many on the topic of gender and the workplace. His most recent book is Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (2016). David is a main contributor to the RML curriculum development process.

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Betsy Myers

Faculty Member, Boston

Betsy is currently speaking and leading workshops around the world on the changing nature of leadership. Her book, Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You, continues to be the basis of her work as her experience spans the corporate, political and higher education arena. Ms. Myers contributed to the RML content, design, and curriculum development process.

In May 2011, Betsy was appointed Founding Director of the Center for Women & Business at Bentley University.  The Center was a repository of best practices for corporate America to recruit and retain women leaders. Betsy worked with corporations and shared information about putting these practices into place.

Currently, Betsy serves on the Council of National Advisors of Springboard Enterprises, a national not-for-profit organization that educates, coaches and supports high growth women-led businesses that are seeking venture capital for expansion.