In this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, we’re chatting with Dr. Ayanna Cummings, Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Compass Group National Accounts and Author. Dr. Ayanna Cummings is passionate about eradicating the malignant diseases of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, and other ills which plague our social and organizational environs.

Dr. Ayanna Cummings is passionate about eradicating the malignant diseases of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, and other ills which plague our social and organizational environs. She has over 21 years of experience as a diversity consultant, specialist, researcher, and trainer. In her current role as Director of Diversity + Inclusion with Compass Group National Accounts, Ayanna serves as a change agent for cultural transformation. Ayanna is also currently a postdoctoral scholar at Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Psychology. Her scientific research seeks to examine the plight of, issues affecting, and identification of solutions relevant to African-Americans and other diverse and marginalized groups. Her research findings give her unique expertise in diversity, equity, & inclusion training and consulting strategies and cultural change methods. As a volunteer leader, she serves as Chair of the HR for Change committee with SHRM-Atlanta, Chair of Economic Empowerment with Urban League of Greater Atlanta Young Professionals, and as VP of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion with the NBMBAA Seattle Chapter & Head of that chapter’s Leaders of Tomorrow program. Prior to being offered the role of Director of Diversity + Inclusion for Compass Group, Dr. Cummings worked with R. Thomas Consulting of Atlantaand Blackbird Leadership of New York City, as well as her own company Tapestry Consulting, LLC and served as Diversity Specialist with Terry University Systems (http://mytus.org). In these capacities she has served as lead and point of contact diversity specialist on a City of Atlanta proposal which would address diversity, equity, and inclusion cultural strategies in a municipality of more than 8,000 employees. She has held contracts with a digital ad agency in Atlanta, GA, a Diversification management company in Decatur, GA, and a diversity consulting company to law firms in New York City. She wrote, produced, directed, and narrated her own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training video and accompanying workbook, “Lifting the Veil of Hatred,” available for purchase online at http://tapestrydiversity.com. Dr. Cummings holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center in Manhattan as well as the MBA in Marketing from Clark Atlanta University. She also holds the SPHR Certification. Dr. Cummings is a Presidential Scholar and alumnus of her beloved alma mater, Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, where she was inducted into the Forty.