Featured Speakers
Linda Fisher Thornton
Sunday, April 19 | 5:00-6:15 p.m. 
Linda Fisher Thornton is an innovative leadership development consultant and author of 7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership, which introduces a practical 7-lens model for seeing ethical complexity and 14 guiding principles for learning ethical leadership. A former bank senior vice president and now CEO of Leading in Context, LLC, Fisher Thornton has been in the leadership development field for over 25 years and is redefining “leadership” at a higher level with ethical values built in.
She is on Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers list and has worked with leaders across industries, including Global Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, government entities, healthcare and education. She also teaches leadership and applied ethics as an adjunct associate professor for the University of Richmond School of Professional and Continuing Studies.
Sponsored by: 
Dr. Kand McQueen
Monday, April 20 | 8:45-10:30 a.m.
Dr. Kand McQueen studies issues of the transgender experience, intersexuality and the inadequacies of our current two-and-only-two sex/gender way of thinking. As a nationally-known keynote speaker and advocate for transgender awareness, Dr. McQueen will make the case for a greater acceptance of all human beings.
Dr. McQueen received a Ph.D. in educational psychology — inquiry methodology from Indiana University and developed the Attitudes Toward the Atypically Gendered Inventory (ATAG-I), an instrument designed to gauge such attitudes. After spending more than 12 years as a university professor, Dr. McQueen now works as a full-time public speaker.
Sponsored by: 
Phyllis Braxton-Frierson
Tuesday, April 21 | 8:45-10:15 a.m.
Phyllis Braxton-Frierson, CEO and founder of PINK Consulting, LLC, and The PINK Brand, has worked in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for more than 20 years in educational institutions, healthcare, community organizations and other nonprofits. In her presentation, she will share how we can build a common foundation of understanding around DEI in our campus communities.
Diversity and inclusion programs have gone too long without applying a developmental approach. Using the Intercultural Developmental Continuum as the approach and the Intercultural Development Inventory as an assessment tool, institutions can learn how to attract, recruit, support and retain their traditionally marginalized students, families and educators. Attendees will walk away from this presentation with a higher level of understanding about the Intercultural Development Continuum; a clear description of what stage their institution may be in; and a developmentally appropriately prescription for the key skills needed to engage, support and challenge the status quo in order to promote institutional change.
Sponsored by: 