Emcee

Priya Mann

News Anchor/Reporter, Local 4 Detroit

Keynote Speaker

Travis Spencer

Head of Supplier Diversity & Inclusion, Ford Motor Company

Travis is responsible for driving diversity and inclusion among Ford’s strategic partners and supply chain. He accomplishes this by connecting minority, women, veteran, disabled, LGBTQ and small business enterprises to Ford and its Tier 1 suppliers. Travis believes that economic empowerment for diverse suppliers and their corresponding communities is the epitome for what it means to drive human progress… Thus ultimately delivering Ford’s vision of Creating a Better Tomorrow. Travis brings a strong professional business acumen in Corporate Purchasing & Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Program Management, and Negotiation along with an academic focus in Accounting, Finance, and Business Ethics.

Moderator

Sandy Harvey, MBA, CDP

President and CEO, Exodus Consulting Group, LLC

Sandy Harvey is the founder and President of Exodus Consulting Group, LLC, which specializes in providing strategic organizational, operational, and human resources consulting services. She has provided strategic development, coaching, diversity, and leadership training for Fortune 500 organizations throughout the US and Canada. Her reach extends across many industries in for-profit and non-profits organization of all sizes, including financial services, nonprofits, higher education, marketing, automotive dealership, to name a few. As a sought-out speaker, executive/leadership coach and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion strategist, who is passionate about bringing innovation and sustainable solutions to individuals and organizations, Sandy has over 25 years of organizational development experience specializing in designing and delivering leadership, diversity, and other strategic training, implementing people enhancement and performance management, and defining strategic human resources and operational initiatives. She has expertly delivered diversity and leadership training and provided strategic plans for employers, of all sizes, across the country, including a week-long leadership academy for a multinational client. With experience in human resources, human behavior, and operations, she has created and redesigned human resources and training departments and is skilled in assessing, acquiring, and implementing HRIS and Learning Management Systems to support organizations. With over 20 years of financial services experience, within both banks and credit unions of all sizes, her expert knowledge of helping teams navigate through mergers & acquisitions has proven to be invaluable in defining and implementing strategic processes. This knowledge extends beyond working with employees and includes her work with board development. She takes goals and initiatives and make them realities by analyzing systems, people, and processes to provide efficient and sustainable solutions. As Sandy has navigated her career, she has served in senior leadership and executive roles in various industries. In the early 2000s, Sandy was a diversity training consultant for Coca-Cola and provided training for employees in Michigan and northern Ohio. In addition, as a Master Facilitator, she provided leadership training for Raytheon Professional Services and provided additional services for Raytheon's clients. She is certified by Myers & Briggs, American Management Association (AMA) in Situational Leadership, AchieveGlobal, Franklin Covey, Development Dimensions, Intl, and J. Howard & Associates. A native Texan, Sandy has a BA in Business and MBA in Organizational Management from Texas Wesleyan University, and a MA in Evangelism & Church Planting from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Sandy began serving as a board member for the Michigan Diversity Council in 2011 and chaired the council's annual Women in Leadership Symposium. Since leaving the Board in 2018, she currently serves as a Senior Consultant and Faculty Member for the National Diversity Council (NDC) and completed a week-long training in June 2019 to become an NDC Certified Diversity Professional. Sandy serves on the Board of Directors for Leadership Oakland and is a Human Resources Committee Member for HAVEN. In May 2016, Sandy was recognized by Corp! Magazine as a Most Valuable Professional, as a Most Valuable Entrepreneur in 2018, and a Diversity Business Leader in 2019. In 2020, she received the HRUnite! Inspire Award. She was celebrated by Inforum Michigan as one of the regions most accomplished and admired women. Sandy is an ordained minister and a pastor at Serenity Christian Church in Hazel Park, where she provides leadership development training, and Marketing & Media expertise. She is President of Serenity Community Outreach and is a New & Transformational Church Coach and has coached Pastors throughout the country since 2016. She is a Board Member for Leadership Oakland and an HR Committee member for HAVEN. Sandy resides in a Detroit suburb with her husband, John Harvey, senior pastor, and founder of Serenity Christian Church.

Panelists

Cheryl Thompson

CEO and Founder, Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion and Advancement

Cheryl Thompson is the founder of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement. CADIA supports Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Automotive Industry by providing professional development for individuals, along with resources, programs, and tools that drive organizational evolution.

A veteran of the automotive industry, Cheryl has over 30 years of experience at Ford Motor Company and American Axle and Manufacturing in positions ranging from skilled trades to operations, engineering, and global leadership.

She is trained in diversity and inclusion, career and leadership coaching, and is Six Sigma trained and certified as a Black Belt. Cheryl has been recognized as a 2019 Influential Women in Manufacturing Honoree, a 2019 Corp Magazine Salute to Diversity award winner, Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit Platinum Award, and is the recipient of two Diversity and Inclusion Awards from Ford Motor Company.

A sought-after voice and speaker in the automotive, manufacturing and aerospace, and defense industries, Cheryl has performed keynote addresses, workshops, and breakout sessions for a number of companies and events, including TEDx Windsor, Women in Manufacturing (WiM), the American Automotive Summit, and Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

Gary Abernathy

Vice President, DE&I Practice Leader, Marsh McLennan Agency

With over twenty years in the employee development, consulting, and training industry, Gary has a proven track record of partnering with leaders, looking to understand their business and human capital goals to develop prescriptive solutions. As a member of MMA’s national Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion team, he is charged with setting the direction of MMA’s DE&I initiatives including talent recruitment, awareness, and training. Additionally, as the leader of the Michigan practice, he assists local organizations maximize their DE&I investment. As the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practice lead, he strategically collaborates with clients to help them establish or grow their DE&I plans.

Tiffany E. Curry

Vice President of Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement , SEEL

Tiffany E. Curry is the Vice President of Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement at SEEL, a leader in energy program management.  In her role, she serves as principal advisor to the executive leadership team on diversity initiatives and leads the organization’s talent acquisition partners, focusing on driving accountability and maintaining a high-performance workforce. She also oversees all corporate community outreach efforts for SEEL. Curry’s prior work includes various human resource and labor management roles in transportation and logistics. Curry earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. She is also an alumnus of the esteemed Executive Leadership Council’s Institute for Leadership Development and Research, where young leaders are hand-selected to strengthen the pipeline for developing African American executives. She is involved in numerous philanthropic and social justice activities, including her role as a Board of Trustee member with the Coleman A. Young Foundation, an organization supporting the development of Detroit youth through scholarship funding and mentor programs. Curry's belief in supporting causes that impact positive change strongly lends itself to what she loves most about HR – assisting in the development and growth of others, both personally and professionally. In her leisure time, Curry enjoys traveling and event planning.