The purpose of this panel is to start a discussion. Our panelists will help reveal individual unconscious bias and provide some tools to better understand your thinking patterns and help eliminate discriminatory behaviors.
PANELIST: Annette Morris - ACM Consulting LLC provides Diversity and Inclusion strategies in the areas of Workforce, Culture, Community and Marketplace. Annette is a retired accomplished senior manager with over 40 years in corporate America with a proven leadership record in strategic planning, project management and customer relationship management. Her mission is to position D&I initiatives to address recruitment, development and retention of talent in response to an increasingly more diverse workforce.
Annette holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration from Lindenwood University and certification in D&I with Cornell University. Her professional affiliations included the, St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative Alumni, Diversity Awareness Partnership Corporate Roundtable, Leadership St. Louis #39, Corporate Executive Advisory Board and past Board member with Cultural Leadership St. Louis and Thomas Dunn Learning Center.
PANELIST: Leslie Ekpe is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at TCU in higher educational leadership. Ekpe is an alumna of Alabama A&M University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Management and the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she obtained her Master of Arts in Communication Management. She also holds an MBA from Sam Houston State University. Ekpe is a former Professional Communications teacher for Uplift Education Public Charter School Network. Her research seeks to promote access for marginalized students in education, with specific focuses on Black women in leadership, college access policies, student activism in the digital age, racial politics in education, and fairness within intercollegiate athletics.
FACILITATOR: Erica Cunningham, One World Everybody Eats
Erica began cooking at the age of twelve for her family of seven in St. Louis. She currently has over thirty years of cooking experience. Erica gained a wealth of global food knowledge while living overseas for five years while serving in the U.S. Navy. After military service and IT contract work, she studied culinary arts and food service management in San Francisco. In culinary school she was diagnosed with a life-altering autoimmune illness that forced her to alter her food-focused path. She discovered an academic lens in which she could continue to study food and went on to earn a degree in Sustainability with a focus on food security.
Erica is currently under contract for her debut memoir that illuminates trauma and mental health at the intersection of race, class, and gender is due out in the Fall of 2020 on New Society Publishers.