Gary Bailey

Assistant Dean for Community Engagement & Social Justice, College of Social Sciences, Policy & Practice, Simmons University

Dr. Gary Bailey is Assistant Dean for Community Engagement and Social Justice at the College of Social Sciences, Policy and Practice at Simmons University. He is also a Professor of Record in Simmons’s Schools of Social Work and Nursing and Health Sciences. Gary has devoted his career to sharing his deep knowledge, expertise, and leadership in the fields of Social Work, Public Health, Youth Education, and Affordable Housing.

Gary currently serves as President of the NASW-Assurance Services, Inc; he is a past president of the International Federation of Social Workers based in Bern, Switzerland—the first person of color to hold this post. He holds advisory and board roles with the North American and Caribbean Association of Schools of Social Work’s Council on Social Work Education.

At Boston University School of Public Health Maternal and Child Health Center for Excellence, Gary serves as a mentor in the Diversity Scholars Leadership Program. Gary’s advocacy for youth education includes serving as Chair of the Board of Women of the Dream, Inc. and President of the Board for the Fenway High School. He is also vice-chair of the board .the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA). Gary’s commitment to advancing the availability of affordable housing includes leadership roles for For Our CommUnitieS, Inc. (FOCUS, Inc.) and on the board of United South End Settlements.

Gary is a longstanding member of Boston’s historic Union United Methodist Church, where he is the chair of the Church Council and a member of its Leadership Team.

Professional Experience

In May 2009, Gary was selected as a Fulbright Specialist for the United States-Israel Educational Foundation, where he gave a series of workshops and speeches throughout Israel as a part of the Fund’s outreach to African American leaders to visit Israel.

In 2017, Gary was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as a member of the Massachusetts LGBTQ Youth Commission.

In 2009, Gary was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the board of the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority. He was a member of the AIDS Action Committees Advisory Council and the AIDS Action Committees Program Committee.

Gary is a past member of the Commissioner’s Professional Advisory Committee at the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS, now DCF); and he was a member of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Professional Advisory Committee for Child and Adolescent Services.

Audra Bohannon

Founder, Bohannon Advisory

As a thought leader in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for over 35 years, Audra has helped individuals and organizations see the possibilities for a better tomorrow. Appreciating differences comes with challenges. Inclusion and equity provides strategic solutions to that challenge by creating cultures where everyone can do well. Audra has served in very focused roles such as trusted advisor, coach, facilitator, guide and, of course, thought leader. It is her deep dedication to those individuals and organizations who want to be better and do better, that keeps her passionate about this important work. It is her transformative power to engage hearts and minds that confirms her commitment to the “potential of all, not just a few.”

Background and Experience

Audra is a publisher and highly sought-after keynote speaker. Drawing on her life and career experiences to stimulate thoughtful conversation, she is fluent in topics related to the empowerment of people with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and race matters.  Whether engaging an industry audience or a global summit, her message that “all people have potential” touches emotional buttons to connect people and creates a lasting, often life-changing, impact.

Prior to founding Bohannon Advisory, Audra was a senior client partner at Korn Ferry. Audra also served as principal at Global Novations, senior vice president of Novations Group, and as partner and business architect of J. Howard & Associates, one of the leading consulting and training firms that established the diversity and inclusion industry.

Susan MacKenty Brady

CEO, Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Susan is the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair for Women and Leadership at Simmons University and the first Chief Executive Officer of The Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Susan has previously published two books on leadership. Her third, co-authored by Executive Chair of the Board of Deloitte US Janet Foutty and Simmons University President Dr. Lynn Perry Wooten,  Arrive & Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw-Hill), debuted in April 2022 and landed on the best-seller list in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today.

Susan also serves as emeritus board member for Strong Women, Strong Girls and as a Strategic Advisor for the relationship technology company, Our.Love.

Susan resides in the Boston area and is the proud Mom of two awesome daughters and two rambunctious Portuguese Water Dogs.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining Simmons, Susan was Executive Vice President at Linkage, Inc. a global leadership development consulting and training firm. She founded Linkage’s Women in Leadership Institute™ and launched Linkage’s global practice on Advancing Women Leaders and Inclusive Leadership, and led the field research behind the 7 Leadership Hurdles Women Leaders Face in the Workforce™.

Publications

Featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, Susan is the author of Mastering Your Inner Critic and 7 Other High Hurdles to Advancement: How the Best Women Leaders Practice Self-Awareness to Change What Really Matters (McGraw-Hill, 2018), The 30-Second Guide to Coaching Your Inner Critic (Linkage, 2014), and co-author of Arrive & Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw-Hill, 2022).

See Susan’s Insights for more details.

Public Speaking & Consulting

A celebrated speaker, Susan has keynoted or consulted at over 500 organizations around the world. She is host of the popular “Better Understanding” podcast series and a sought-after guest expert on leadership across media platforms, including The Gallup Podcast with Mohammand Younis on The Most Important Leadership Skill? Listening.

Download Susan’s speaker kit to learn more about her work and impact and book her as a keynote speaker at your next event.

Amri B. Johnson

CEO, Inclusion Wins

Amri B. Johnson is an inclusion, organizational effectiveness, and behavioral change expert and consultant. For over 20 years, he has been instrumental in helping organizations and their people create extraordinary business outcomes. He is a social capitalist, epidemiologist, entrepreneur, executive coach, and inclusion strategist.

As CEO of Inclusion Wins, Amri is growing a consulting practice focused on generative inclusion systems design, Cultural Intelligence, Social Capital, and creating shared value between organizations and their stakeholders.

Born in Topeka, Kansas (USA), Amri has worked and lived in the U.S. and Brazil and currently lives in Basel, Switzerland, with his wife Martina and their three kids.

Professional Experience

Before starting Inclusion Wins, Amri was Global Head of Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion at the research division of Novartis, where he took a dialogic approach to foster the opening of minds and to deepen the skillsets with organizational stakeholders at all levels, enabling them to thrive and optimally contribute to one another and their respective organizations.

Research & Publications

Amri is the author of the book, Reconstructing Inclusion: Making Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Accessible, Actionable, and Sustainable. In deconstructing and rebuilding inclusion’s most fundamental concepts, Amri illustrates an “Inclusion System” that outlines the conditions critical to inclusion becoming normative —accessible, actionable, sustainable, and positively contributing to the organizational mission.

His book can be purchased through this link: https://benbellabooks.com/shop/reconstructing-inclusion/

Devendra Malladi (Dev)

Global Business Executive, General Manager, Servant Leader, DEI Champion

Dev has been instrumental in transforming multi-billion-dollar businesses at Cisco and SAP over the last two decades by helping grow teams and leaders. Dev is a global IT executive who has managed small startups to multi-billion-dollar businesses by building diverse high-performance teams and driving strategy, transformation, and growth. Dev believes in a collaborative, people- first approach to leadership and is passionate about bringing out the best in diverse teams to deliver sustainable outcomes. Dev was a sponsor for several employee resource groups and, more recently, an Executive Sponsor for PRIDE initiatives at Cisco.

Dev is passionate about building an inclusive future for all through proximity and sponsorship. He is an active advisor on both business strategy and DEI and has also been a speaker at the 2019 international edition of the Simmons Leadership Conference.

Samantha Tan

Consultant & Executive Coach

Samantha Tan is a consultant and executive coach in leadership, culture, and group dynamics. She is passionate about women’s leadership and enjoys working across generations and cultures. She helps leaders tap into emerging voices to inform and shape their organizations into the future. She uses the integration of body, emotions, and language to support effective decision-making and sustainable change.

In addition to her coaching practice, Samantha designs and facilitates local, national, and international retreats and off-sites.

Samantha’s work has been published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and she is a chapter contributor to The World Cafe: Shaping the Future Through Conversations That Matter (Berrett-Koehler) where she wrote about creating a culture of learning and care in her birth country, Singapore. Her first career was in strategy and policy development with the Singapore government where she worked on national reform projects in the manpower, arts, and education sectors.

Samantha has a BA in Philosophy from Bristol University in the United Kingdom, a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was a Research Fellow in Leadership at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a graduate of the Newfield Network Certified Coach Training Program.

Samantha lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her family. She loves painting, gardening and yoga.

Elisa van Dam

Vice President, Allyship & Inclusion, Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Elisa van Dam brings a wealth of experience in gender equity and inclusion to her role as head of the Allyship and Inclusion practice area. Elisa works with organizations and individual leaders to increase their understanding and practice of inclusive leadership behaviors. In collaboration with other Institute Fellows, she creates and delivers research-based content and programming, based on our proprietary framework that demystifies the Work of the Inclusive Leader™. She is also responsible for developing and delivering engaging learning experiences for women leaders, including leading the development of the Arrive and Thrive Certificate Program for Women, launching in May 2023.

She recently published The Inclusive Leader’s Playbook: The Work of the Inclusive Leader with co-author Susan MacKenty Brady.

Elisa also maintains a private coaching practice, working with women on how to successfully navigate maternity leave.

Elisa lives in the Boston area with her choreographer husband, their young adult son, and a willful rescue cat.