WORKING IDEAL - Key Persons
Ahmmad Brown, Ph.D., is a diversity, equity, inclusion and justice scholar-practitioner with a background in social sector consulting and higher education administration. As president and co-founder of EBDI Consulting, Ahmmad has worked with client-partners across sectors and industries. His approach to DEIJ integrates theoretical and methodological best practices from the academic literature, as well as narrative development and storytelling techniques. In addition to his consulting work, Ahmmad is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy where he leads the Leading Equity and Inclusion in Organizations (LEIO) certificate program in the Masters of Science in Learning and Organizational Change (MSLOC) program. Ahmmad also serves on Merit America's board of directors. Ahmmad received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University, where his work empirically examined the experiences of Black students in predominantly-white institutions. He also holds an M.B.A. and M.A in Education from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology and Japanese from Swarthmore College.
Andrew Tarsy leads the strategic Advisory Program at Conscious Customers. He is an experienced executive and former civil rights attorney whose work included roles with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Anti-Defamation League. Andy is also principal and founder of Emblem Strategic LLC and is a graduate of Cornell University and the George Washington Law School
Anurima Bhargava, Esq., is the Founder and President of Anthem of Us, a strategic advisory firm promoting dignity and justice in the building of our workplaces, schools and communities. From 2010-2016, she served as the Chief of the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she led federal enforcement of civil rights laws in schools and institutions of higher education nationwide. She worked closely across federal agencies and with the White House and Office of Violence Against Women to issue guidance and provide a comprehensive platform to combat sexual assault and harassment. She served on the White House Task Force to Prevent Campus Sexual Assault and the White House Council on Women and Girls. Prior to joining the DOJ in 2010, Ms. Bhargava was counsel and Director of the Education Practice at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. https://www.anthemofus.com
Cherrie Bucknor has expertise in sociological and economic analyses of the causes and consequences of racial and gender disparities in the labor market. At Working IDEAL, Cherrie is a member of our Equity Analytics team, conducting statistical and descriptive analyses of compensation, promotion, retention, and availability/utilization for our client partners as well as assisting in racial and gender equity assessments. She also leads our work on market analysis. In addition to her work at Working IDEAL, Cherrie is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Harvard University where her dissertation research examines the importance of extended family wealth for various life outcomes. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Read Cherrie's full bio here.
Cyrus Mehri, Esq., has developed innovative and effective diversity and inclusion tools across various industries - stemming from groundbreaking employment cases that benefit employers and workers. He has worked with major companies and leading organizations to develop board diversity and accountability strategies. Cyrus is the originator of the "Rooney Rule" diverse candidate slate requirements that have become best practices.
Working IDEAL Co-founder Cyrus Mehri, Esq. co-leads our work in DEI strategy, policy development, leadership engagement, and developing key metrics. He has developed innovative and effective diversity and inclusion tools across various industries - including the Rooney Rule, a recognized best practice to build diverse leadership. As founding partner of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, Cyrus has identified barriers to equity and implemented reforms at major organizations and companies across industries. He led work with Pam to promote new diversity, equity and inclusion disclosure requirements at large publicly traded companies. He seeks to strategically advance America's workplaces, from Corporate America to the world of professional sports, to governments and nonprofits. Read Cyrus' full bio here.
Ellen Eardley, Esq., co-leads the civil rights practice at the law firm of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC. She represents people who have experienced race and gender discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace or at school. She also advises clients on Title IX and sexual assault matters. Ellen offers consulting services that help organizations build fair employment practices, ensure equal educational opportunity, and promote diverse, inclusive, and equitable communities. Previously, Ellen served as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Civil Rights and Title IX at the University of Missouri, where she founded the first institutional equity office in the wake of several high-profile incidents of sexual assault on campus and student protests of systemic racial injustice. Ellen began her legal career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the National Women's Law Center.
Greg McCaffrey has nearly 30 years of global professional services/products business experience at the partner and national business unit president levels with venture capital backed/start-up and large market makers (annual revenues >$35B) across all industries. He has a strong history of assembling and leading high-performance professional advisory teams supporting public sector and commercial clients in 50 different countries in the area of transformation/process improvement. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, the Air Force Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the Air War College, he is a former United States Air Force (USAF) officer and senior contracting officer.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Principal at Conscious Customers
Izzy Jacques is Co-founder and Principal at Conscious Customers. Izzy led the diversity, equity and inclusion program for the top performing division of Wework, including design and execution of the company's first voluntary supplier diversity program. Prior to her role in DEI, Izzy worked directly with member businesses providing strategic solutions to some of their most critical operational needs. She previously worked in Asset Management as a Relationship Manager and in the International business expansion sector. In addition to her work at Conscious Customers, Izzy was involved with the Kendall Square Association as a peer facilitator for their Inclusion Drives Innovation program. Izzy holds a Bachelor's in Managerial Economics and Business Management from Bentley University, a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University and a certificate in Supplier Diversity Leadership from the University of Central Florida.
Job Titles:
- Counsel at Mehri & Skalet
Jeremi Duru, Esq., Of Counsel at Mehri & Skalet, is a Professor of Law at American University, and is among the nation's foremost sports law authorities. He is widely published and is co-author of one of the field's premier casebooks, Sports Law and Regulation: Cases and Materials (5th edition) (Wolters Kluwer). Professor Duru has a particular interest in sport's impact on society, with a principle focus on racial and gender dynamics, and he has counseled sports industry professionals in matters involving the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. In addition, Professor Duru has represented collegiate student-athletes in challenging academic fraud at their institutions.
Working IDEAL CEO and co-founder Pamela Coukos, JD, PhD is a nationally recognized expert on equity analytics, applying research and experience to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces and business processes. She uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies to understand and identify barriers and to develop metrics to assess progress. She has assessed racial and gender equity at scores of large and small companies, local governments and education, labor and nonprofit organizations. Some of her recent notable projects include leading our interdisciplinary team in their work on the BlackRock racial equity audit, and developing and deploying our unique methodology for pay equity assessment and compensation program design for a number of leading national civil rights nonprofit organizations. She is a former civil rights attorney and served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Labor. Read Pam's full bio here.
Job Titles:
- CEO of Redwood Enterprise
Rene Redwood, CEO of Redwood Enterprise, has spent over 30 years working with public and private employers and nonprofits on transformation in the workplace. She has a special focus on building and restoring trust with internal and external customers, including training, assessment and monitoring and strategic guidance on racial justice, gender equity and unconscious bias (for example as a member of the court-appointed Coca-Cola Task Force, Director of the Presidential Glass Ceiling Commission, and as current chair of the Equality Task Force of the U.S. National Security Agency).
Richard Ugelow is a former Deputy Section Chief of the Employment Litigation Section, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He has substantial experience in ensuring equal employment and promoting diversity in state and local government public safety agencies and was hired as a consultant by the EEOC to work on its report on diversity in policing. From 2002-2017, he held a full-time faculty appointment at the American University Washington College of Law, where he taught experiential legal education and courses in employment discrimination. Until 2019, he served as the faculty honor code prosecutor, where he also had Clery Act compliance experience. https://www.wcl.american.edu/community/faculty/?q=Ugelow. Currently, he is a Complaint Examiner for the District of Columbia's Office of Police Complaints and is chair of the Personnel Appeals Board at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. He served in the U.S. Army, Judge Advocate General Corps for four years.
Sarah Crawford has a proven track record of breaking down barriers to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. As an attorney with more than twenty-five years of experience as a litigator, advocate, and consultant, she provides solutions to drive sustainable change. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, universities, non-profits, government agencies, unions, and other organizations across the nation to implement best practices. As a principal advisor with Working IDEAL, she provides advice and coaching for organizations of all sizes. As the founder of Crawford Strategies LLC, Sarah assists clients with a wide-range of services, including research, advocacy, training, and compliance consulting. Prior to joining Working IDEAL, Sarah previously worked for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor, and served in senior roles with leading civil rights organizations. She received her legal and undergraduate degrees from William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Read Sarah's full bio here.